On Friday November 13, TTC riders will be striking against planned fare increases. Nicole Winchester, the strike's organizer urges riders across Toronto to find a better way to get to work, home or school, showing the Toronto Transit Commission what affect the increase will have on ridership."If a ten-cent increase makes the system lose an average of 2 million rides," says Winchester,  "what will twenty-five cents and a full seventeen dollars to a Metropass do to the system. Other options must be considered." For many riders, the ...

The City of Toronto is launching a design competition to replace the North Building of historic St. Lawrence Market and they're calling all architects to join them. The redevelopment of the St. Lawrence Complex will replace the existing single-storey North Market with a four-storey multi-purpose building that is more energy efficient, environmentally sustainable, and sensitive to the history and heritage of the building and its surrounding area. The site of the original City Hall, the St. Lawrence Complex  is made up of St. Lawrence Hall, the South and ...

As cities all over the world try to catch-up with Copenhagen's bike culture, the two-wheeled lifestyle is becoming ever more chic. Toronto is flaunting its cycle chic with 416cyclestyle, a blog based on the popular copenhagencyclechic, showcasing images by velotographers Xander N' Dante of trendy, hipsters as they pedal around the city. The global phenomenon of cycle chic, coined in Copenhagen of course, has helped change the way we look at cycling as a form of everyday transportation. One need no longer choose function over fashion, as individuality reigns. This applies not only to clothing, but also to how cyclists are accessorizing their bikes, from silk flowers to milk crates. Even retailers are seeing the opportunities in bike fashion, such as Top Shops Bike Club, which kicked off the opening of Top Shop NYC this summer, a week long event with cycle-friendly styling tips and free bike rentals.

It was another fruitful day at the Creative Places and Spaces: Collaborative City Conference, today in the light-filled MaRS building. Beginning with Welcoming & Opening Remarks by Ilse Treurnicht, CEO MaRS, Joseph L. Rotman, Chair, Canada Council for the Arts and Simon Brault, Vice-Chair, Canada Council for the Arts, we heard about the difference between invention and innovation Brault asked, "How do you make it real, how do you come to the point where those ideas are transforming the society, reshaping the cities in which we live?" He answered himself by saying that it "means a lot of collaboration, a lot of involvement, you need time, you need to be persuasive." He added, with relation to challenges of coming from a family of many children, similar to Ken Robinson and Charles Landry, "if you don't collaborate, you die, you don't go anywhere." The first Video Spotlight of the day was by Luigi Ferrara, director at the School of Design at George Brown College, entitled The Transformation of Montreal. He explained that the transformation in Montreal was possible because of a collaboration between arts groups and all levels of government. His key ideas were that "when you're not rich you have to make sure things will last," and that "artists don't ask where they come from, but what they want to do together." Robin Cardozo, CEO of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, said that "opposing collaboration these days is like opposing motherhood and apple pie," but spoke about key ideas to keep in mind. "It only works when it makes sense. Forced collaborations, marriage of convenience, shotgun weddings, almost never work." He asked delegates to look beyond their own backyard for collaboration partners, as the outcomes are usually the most interesting.

The Creative Places and Spaces: Collaborative City Conference started with a bang...or rather an om! As delegates filled the round tables in the beautiful Carlu Concert Hall, the stage was filled with lithe, lean bodies, contorting themselves into planks, trees and warriors. Along with rhythmic music and singing, the yoga enthusiasts were soon surrounded by break dancers, tap dancers and an acrobat hanging upside down from a rope. No, we are not at a Cirque du Soleil rehearsal, but rather one of the world's leading dialogues on creativity. This year's conference has the theme of the Collaborative City and promises to be a thought-provoking and inspiring few days. As Matt Galloway, host of CBC Radio One 99.1 FM's "Here and Now" and the MC for the morning session stated, we are going to "hear a lot about how ideas and collaboration can inspire change. Leadership is going to play a large part in that dialogue." On that note, he introduced Mayor David Miller, to give the first welcoming remarks of the day. Miller spoke about the need to collaborate not only within our own city, but also between cities, with the example of Toronto's twinning with Frankfurt and their current project to collaborate in the film and television industry. Miller also touched on the idea of asking the experts to help write and develop reports and strategies, rather then asking for their opinions after the fact, which he says they did with Toronto's Agenda for Prosperity, noting it was unanimously passed by Council, a rare thing for the City of Toronto. Tim Jones, CEO of Artscape, the organizers, said, quite pertinently, "we have a lot to learn from one another...there are tools and there are methodologies, but most important, we need to raise our game as a city."

Last night, in the darkness under the Gardiner Expressway, Toronto's first permanent multimedia art commission was unveiled. WATERTABLE, the 500 m2 light and sound installation, by Toronto artists Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak, gives us an idea of when the shores of Lake Ontario used to reach this far inland. The piece, which shimmers with long strings of LED lights, includes audio of lapping water and waves, recorded on the far side of the Toronto Islands. Artist Lisa Steele says, "we think of WATERTABLE as a piece ...

U of T Magazine is conducting a poll on your favourite U of T building, so this is your chance to cast your vote. So far, in the Toronto Campus, Hart House has been the big winner.  In Scarborough, there is a tie between the Arts and Administration Building and the Student Centre, similar to Mississauga, with a tie between the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre and the Oscar Peterson Hall. How do your votes compare? Photo by Sam Javanrouh

WHAT: 5th Annual Human River WHEN: Sunday, October 25 @ 1pm WHERE: Meet at 12:30pm at the Pavilion at Christie Pits Human River is an ongoing Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) community campaign, celebrating Toronto's largest buried river, Garrison Creek. As Garrison Creek rushes under homes, cafes, roads and parks, we find signs of this lost river in tilting houses, dips in streets, buried bridges and a string of green valleys. Since 2005, Human River has hosted a range of eclectic ...

At lunchtime today, the Metrolinx Board of Directors unanimously gave the thumbs up to the GO Transit Electrification Study Community Advisory Committee's recommendations for the scope of work in a study of electrification of the entire GO rail system. It is expected that a request for proposals will be issued this month, with the study to be completed by December 2010. When asked about what was expected to be found in this study, that hadn't been uncovered in the past, Gary McNeil, Managing Director of ...

Berlin artist Jan Vormann is transforming World War II damaged buildings around Europe with his version of a quick patch job.  The project, called 'dispatchwork', uses colourful lego pieces to fill in holes left by bomb and shrapnel damage and plain neglect.  Similar to the idea of the Sarajevo Roses, the small interventions remind us of a history, which in some cities, is not that distant.  Cities that have been 'patched' include Berlin, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Belgrade and St. Petersburg....