Stories about Feature
How it Feels to Be “Revitalized”
A revitalization project promises to transform this public housing community into a mixed-income neighbourhood. But meeting the needs of existing residents while appealing to affluent newcomers is a difficult balance.
The Picture Man
Thirty years ago, Rodrigo Moreno photographed neighbourhood kids for a school project. He's come back ever since, tracing the changing lives of people in a corner of the city few find worthy of documenting.
Why a Health Centre Started Teaching Algebra
Pathways to Education's unconventional approach to community health starts with helping kids finish high school.
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 Toronto Basketball Powerhouse Nobody’s Ever Heard Of
The kids don’t get free sneakers. The team has to haggle for gym time. The coaches are unpaid. So what makes Toronto Basketball Academy so good?
Elderly, Confused, and Under Arrest
As more and more seniors with dementia become entangled with the law, how can the justice system adapt?
Not Criminally Responsible
Were last summer’s high-profile disappearances from CAMH signs of a broken program—or a complex system working as it should?
Why Are Most People in Prison Unconvicted?
Even as the rate of convicted offenders drops, the number of people in detention awaiting trial keeps growing. The uncertain, boring, brutal reality of life on remand.
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.
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.
Why Aren’t the Doctors Where the Sick People Are?
It’s time to talk about Toronto’s health care deserts.
Providing Care, Barely Getting By
Personal support workers are the backbone of the health care system. Why are they quitting to work in factories and at Tim Horton’s?
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.
Collision Course
In inner suburbs like Mount Dennis, the convenience of commuters zooming through often takes precedence over the wellbeing of locals.
Hunger in a City of Plenty
In virtually every culture, people connect over food. To be deprived of food is to be alienated from social life.
The Roma of Flemingdon Park
Jen Quinlan was just trying to get Roma kids to the dentist. She ended up picking a fight with one of Canada’s richest real estate companies.
Young, Pregnant, No Fixed Address
Lack of affordable housing can have devastating and long-lasting health effects for teenage parents and their children.
Policing the Opioid Crisis
As drug overdoses soar in Toronto, some experts question what role, if any, police should play in a public health crisis.
Aging in the Vertical City
In many Toronto highrises, nearly half the residents are seniors. The way we age in this city is changing — can services keep up?