WHAT: Landscape Infrastructure as Renewal -- a Toronto Society of Architects discussion WHEN: Wed Apr 8th @ 6:30pm WHERE: Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto, in the club's Great Hall Join the Toronto Society of Architects tonight as they discuss Landscape Infrastructure as Renewal -- Ecologically, Socially and Economically. Over the past five years, the emerging discipline of Landscape Infrastructure has been mapping the role that natural and man-made infrastructures have had on society. Its research has uncovered the growing "differed maintenance" and "planned obsolescence" of many of the man-made, civil engineering works from the turn ...

Each Monday, we bring you some of the popular posts from our sister blog, Spacing Montréal. We'll keep an eye open for topics and discussions that are pertinent to current public space issues in Toronto. • A website has launched to aid Montreal transit users who want to personalize and beautify the city's new Opus smart cards. Alannah Heffez writes of the initiative: "Perhaps DIY transit cards capture the creative spirit of Montreal better than a design competition ever could." • Jacob Larsen took a minute to reflect and ask a tough question after three people were ...

CITY COUNCIL • Council set to vote on rules to curb packaging waste [ Globe & Mail ] • Bottler and activists in water fight [ Toronto Sun ] • Mayor not sorry for memo [ Toronto Sun ] • City digests street meat plan [ Toronto Sun ] • Council in Operation Slowdown [ Toronto Sun ] • Critics accuse Miller of creating de facto party system [ National Post ] • In praise of a messy city hall [ National Post ] FEDERAL COALITION lead stories... • One prime minister too many [ Globe & Mail ] • Liberals and ...

• Councillors face hefty agenda today [ Toronto Star ] • Times are tough, but let's not neglect the arts [ Toronto Star ] • Nestlé advertisement misleading, groups allege [ Globe & Mail ] • Old boys' club gets the heave-ho [ Globe & Mail ] • Sure you want to work here? [ National Post ]

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who entered this contest, and congratulations to our winner -- Jeff Garkowski. The answers to the questions have been added to the bottom of this post. Think you know Toronto's streets? Try your hand at our Street Stories "What street am I?" contest -- you could win a one-year Spacing subscription (or subscription extension, if you're already a subscriber). To enter, email your answers to the five questions below to toddharrison@spacing.ca, and write "Street Stories contest" in the subject line. We'll randomly select a winner from all correct entries submitted on ...

Free celebrations during the final weekend of the Luminato festival will be based in two locations: Harbourfront Centre and the Distillery District. There's even a boat and dedicated TTC express bus linking the two venues. Here's a rundown of some featured happenings. - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHAT: OLG Music Stage at the Distillery WHEN: June 13-15 WHERE: The Distillery District, 55 Mill Street Trinity Square plays host to live music all weekend. Make sure you're there Saturday afternoon to catch two of Toronto's best and most intense dance-party bands: Afrobeat outfit Ultra Magnus at 1pm, and funk group Elastocitizens at 3:30pm. Other performers include soul singer Divine Brown (Friday, 9pm), eclectic classical crossover stars Quartetto Gelato (Saturday, 9pm), Havana -- by way of Victoria, B.C. -- songwriter Alex Cuba and his Alex Cuba All-Stars (Sunday, 5pm), and electric violin wizard Dr. Draw (Saturday and Sunday, noon). - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHAT: Luminat'eau: Carnival H2O WHEN: June 13-15 WHERE: Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West The Harbourfront Centre lineup for Luminato's final weekend is astoundingly diverse -- in keeping with the organization's commitment to celebrating the entire world of arts. These are just a handpicked few of dozens of performances, workshops, tours and exhibitions. On Friday, catch music Indo-Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia, the qawwali vocal music of the Sufi mystics, and The Luminat'OH! Cabaret, hosted by actor David Gale. Saturday brings reggae and dancehall heavy Junior Reid, sound creations using water in its various forms by States of H2Orchestra, the Talisker Players and guests (including acclaimed mezzo-soprano Kristina Szabo) with music inspired by Bengali mystic Rabindranath Tagore, legendary Toronto saxophone nutcases the Shuffle Demons, and not one, but two bubble-related events courtesy of Newmindspace. The States of H2Orchestra reappears on Sunday, along with Ojibwe dancer Matthew Pheasant, samba group Batacuda Carioca, and New Orleans street music stars the Hot 8 Brass Band. In addition, there are all kinds of water-themed events and displays throughout the weekend -- from Stories of the Water with Dr. Rita Cox and giant, aquatically related outdoor sand sculptures to the Luminato festival's grand finale, a multidisciplinary celebration entitled Lake Spirit. - - - - - - - - - - - - - WHAT: Virtual Wishing Well WHEN: June 13 (6pm-11pm), June 14 (11am-11pm) and June 15 (11am-6pm) WHERE: The Distillery District, 55 Mill Street Virtual Wishing Well is an audio and visual installation in two parts.

This year's Luminato festival kicks off tomorrow and continues until June 15. Here's a look at some of the best free, outdoor events happening as part of the festival's opening weekend celebration. WHAT: Nikki Yanofsky w/ The Count Basie Orchestra, plus a swing dance lesson WHEN: Friday, June 6 at 9pm (dance lesson at 8pm) WHERE: Yonge-Dundas Square For Luminato's first six nights, Yonge-Dundas Square is devoted to dancing. Bands performing a wide variety of dance music styles will be preceded by mass dance lessons. A comment on the tired adage that Toronto audiences tend to stand stock-still, perhaps? Friday is swing night, with a lesson at 8pm and a two-hour set featuring 14-year-old jazz singer Nikki Yanofsky, backed by the Count Basie Orchestra, beginning at 9pm. This will be the first of three performances by Nikki in Toronto this month; she's also playing a ticketed Luminato show at Massey Hall, and she's taking part in the Toronto Jazz Festival later in June. The Montréal-born phenom sports and the kind of big voice and broad appeal that Yonge-Dundas Square was built to showcase. She's sure to go down like gangbusters. WHAT: Slow Dancing video projections WHEN: Friday, June 6 'til Sunday, June 15 at dusk WHERE: Hoskin Avenue and Tower Road If you're looking for the polar opposite of swing dancing, though, head to U of T's St. George Campus for "Slow Dancing" -- massive projections of human movement captured on film in extreme slow motion. This exhibition happens every night of the festival at dusk. WHAT: Queen Street Celebration WHEN: Saturday, June 7, beginning at noon WHERE: OCAD, 100 McCaul Street One part homecoming and one part history lesson, the Queen Street Celebration is the can't-miss centrepiece of Luminato's opening weekend.

For many Torontonians, Neville Park means "Yes, I'm going all the way -- unless I short-turn at Connaught or Kingston Road." Thanks to its long-standing status as the eastern terminus of the 501 streetcar (and, by extension, its place on the rollsign of streetcars heading for the Beach end of the city's longest route), Neville Park Boulevard is a name that's likely familiar to ten times more Torontonians than have actually walked the street itself. Frances Jane Neville was the daughter of former Toronto mayor George Monro. After Monro died, his heirs leased some of the substantial family estate in the city's east end to the Toronto Railway Company, for the purposes of opening an amusement park. Munro Park (the misspelling stuck -- it's now a street name in the area) operated along the waterfront near the foot of what's now Neville Park Boulevard for a decade around the turn of the 20th century. It closed in 1906, the same year as nearby Victoria Park -- which was located where the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant sits today.

From the Toronto Star: Toronto Transit Commission drivers and operators will not report for work starting at 4 a.m. on Monday unless a deal is reached by Sunday afternoon, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 president Bob Kinnear said this morning. If there's no contract agreement by 4 p.m. Sunday, he said, the union will begin notifying its 8,900 members that they are on strike. UPDATE: Following the strike deadline announcement, the City has released its contingency plan. In this plan, the city is reminding motorists of their responsibility to pull to the right for emergency vehicles (already the law) ...

Each Monday, Spacing will bring you some of the popular posts from our sister blog, Spacing Montréal. We'll keep an eye open for topics and discussions that are pertinent to current public space issues in Toronto. • At least it's hockey playoff season for some Canadian cities: Honking for the Habs features a video and checklist of how Montréalers are celebrating and supporting their team's run for the Stanley Cup. • Christopher DeWolf continues his series of posts framing Montréal through the lens of the Pacific rim with Imperial pedigree: colonial street names -- a comparison between ...