A Brine Against Nature
Winter road salt finds its way into Toronto’s waterways all year long, harming wildlife, decreasing biodiversity, and damaging infrastructure.
The Drive to Reduce Car Pollution Hits Gridlock
Pollution from major roads causes premature death and illness, disproportionately affecting the low-income people who live next to them. Solutions are available, but the political will is not.
Carving Out a Brand New Island
With Villier’s Island, the city aims to combat climate change, create a new mouth to the Don River, and add needed housing. But constructing a climate positive neighbourhood from scratch is no small task.
As Toronto Temperatures Rise, Inequalities Widen
Climate change causes heat waves, but the city’s politics, policies, and design determine who suffers most.
For TTC Bus Riders, the Wait is Endless
Buses are the unglamorous workhorses of the TTC. By neglecting them to build flashy rail projects a decade from now, is the TTC failing the people that need transit most today?
What is the PATH?
Below ground, the hair stylists, dry cleaners, baristas and sushi chefs are ready. But are the office workers coming back?
The Greatest Mall in the World
Malvern mall has seen me through every stage of my life, from renting videos as a preschooler to wandering the empty halls during COVID. As we emerge from the pandemic, how do we keep these suburban hubs of culture and community alive?
How Noise Shaped a City
Toronto’s anti-noise movement began in the 1930s. Ever since, noise policing has been inextricably linked with issues of race, class, and power.
Are Noisy Hospitals Making Us Sick?
The constant beeping, talking, and overhead paging aren’t just an annoyance—they can lead to delirium, longer recovery times, and even sleeping pill addiction.
The City Below the Sound
As someone who’s half-deaf, I’ve always moved between two Torontos—the surface city and the muted, shadowy one beneath it.
FAITH/VOID Was a Thriving DIY Venue. Then Came the Noise Complaint
Fights around Toronto’s unofficial music venues reveal a stark reality—there is noise this city values, and noise it doesn’t.
Cruising Through COVID
I never thought I’d own a car. Now I’m stockpiling groceries and driving through the zoo, locked safe inside my vehicle like the Pope.
My Own Private Island
The ferry is empty. Beavers and mallards rustle through the bush. Without visitors, life on the Toronto Island is quiet and peaceful. It all feels terribly wrong.
Where the Spadina Expressway Didn’t Stop
Defeating the Spadina Expressway is a celebrated story of urban resistance. Less told is the story of the neighbourhood that has lived with a freeway running through its heart for the last fifty years.
The Swimmer
Our intrepid beach correspondent swims his way across the city over one week to answer the question: what is Toronto beach culture?
Children’s Village Forever
Ontario Place designer Eric McMillan invented the ball pit, built the epicentre of kid-life for a generation of Torontonians and, for a brief moment, promised to revolutionize the way we play.
The Games We Play
Active leisure is more important than ever, so why are we making it so hard to just go out and play?
Battle at Rowntree Mills
When the parking lot gates were shut ten years ago, Rowntree Mills Park became an urban wilderness. The fight to reopen it has divided a community and raises the question: how public is a public park?
A Park for All, or a Park for Some?
How a small group of parks and rec staff called "parks ambassadors" became unlikely mediators in the growing battles over the city’s public space.
Bubble Tea, Dollar Stores, and Dialysis?
When Target closed in Canada, it left a crater in many suburban malls. In Thorncliffe Park, a group of health care providers stepped in.