Featured Stories
Andrew Seale
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
At Komodo OpenLab, it's not just the innovations but the innovators that make the company unique. In partnership with Toronto colleges, software developer Eric Wan helped create a revolutionary product that is allowing people with disabilities--including himself--to control mobile devices through wheelchairs.
Michael O'Shaughnessy
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
From old to new, St. Clair West is a neighbourhood in transition. While the right-of-way streetcar plan continues to divide the area, businesses are growing and the streets are becoming more beautiful. The common thread? The community itself.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Yonge Street is taking a break, but we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming on May 29. In the meantime, we've rounded up some of our favourite local stories to encourage you to get outdoors and explore the city.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Distillery District is one of the city's historical gems and just one of many areas gearing up for Doors Open Toronto. We explore what makes its history so rich while gliding around the neighbourhood on Segways.
Michael O'Shaughnessy
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Nestled behind a shopping plaza in Scarborough, Pond Biofuels has been working on turning pollution into clean energy since 2007. If they're successful, this innovative alternative to fossil fuel could change manufacturing.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
It's legal in many parts of Canada and the U.S., but Toronto's decades-old ban on backyard chickens continues to ruffle the feathers of urban egg farmers. Is the ban forcing these farmers to literally take urban poultry underground?
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Win passes to mesh, Canada's premier digital conference featuring interactive workshops, keynote presentations and panel discussions by some of Canada's top tech, marketing and journalism thinkers. We've got two up for grabs!
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
The Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Foundation's legacy grants have helped 24 communities revitalize run down basketball courts, hockey rinks and soccer pitches--giving youth a safe neighbourhood place to increase self-esteem, develop team building skills, get active and have fun.
Igor Bonifacic
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Canada realizes a key to being competitive in the startup world is to attract talented immigrants. Mejuri is one Toronto startup that represents a growing number of new Canadians that are launching companies and impacting the city and beyond.
Chris Riddell
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
The digital age has made high quality artwork just a click away. Yonge Street tracks down three Toronto companies -- Art Bomb, Wondereur, and Art From Concentrate -- that are using technology to change the way people market, discover and buy art.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Yonge Street visits D.A. Morrison Middle School at Danforth and Woodbine to learn how two teachers are making education accessible (and possible) for at-risk youth through an innovative Hip Hop literacy program, one of several programs throughout the city.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Beverly Johnson's quest to launch a made-to-measure bra-making business has made Hamilton an international destination for aspiring lingerie designers. More than 85 designers have flocked to Southern Ontario to participate in the only teaching program of its kind.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
For years the secret to Luz Stella Torres's figure was the corset she wore under her clothes. When the secret got out, it turned into a business opportunity. Her son Abraham Catano has since grown the door-to-door corset sales business into two GTA retail locations with plans to expand to Dubai.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Take the Lakeshore west far enough and eventually you'll reach Oakville's waterfront strip, one of the best in the GTA. Described as a mix between Yorkville and Niagara-on-the-Lake, its unique mix of cafes, shops and people make it a great example of an urban strip that caters to everyone.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The St. Lawrence Market is more than an iconic part of Toronto's history. It's a place where generations of families work together and people from all over the world come to visit its ample supply of local offerings. We scope it out for some BBQ fixings.
Chris Riddell
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Toronto's most holy burger joint is set to be the newest addition to what could be considered Toronto's burger corner, Queen and Spadina. Despite competition, this burger empire continues to grow. Its secret: traditional burgers, fresh ingredients, and a devout following.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
From the food incubator at Toronto Underground Market to its soon-to-open standalone Kensington Market shop, Seven Lives knows the business of reincarnation. The fish taco shop represents the latest in a growing number of Toronto eateries taking fate into their own hands by launching their businesses in unconventional ways.
Tiffy Thompson
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Colin Bruce Anthes has jammed a lot into his mere 26 years on the planet. Despite significant setbacks, the golf junior master, actor and theatre company director always maintained his vision: to tell stories that matter to audiences.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Major retailers today are more innovative than they've been since the advent of the shopping mall, but where do independent boutiques fit in? Forget expensive ecommerce sites: Toronto's Shopcaster is helping boutiques expand their business and reach new markets with a simple, attractive platform.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
ideaBOOST is not your traditional accelerator program. The first cohort of digital entertainment companies recently presented pitches to a packed house at the Steam Whistle Brewery. They covered everything from interactive programs to educational ramen noodle dance parties.
Andrew Seale
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Inspired by SARS, Infonaut looks to revolutionize the way hospitals control hygiene by implementing cutting-edge surveillance technology designed to mitigate disease outbreaks.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Entrepreneur Adil Dhalla has put together a ukulele orchestra to make the TTC morning commute happier. Project Ukulele Gangsterism will feature spontaneous public transit demonstrations culminating in a music video for an Emersonian-inspired track called "Have An Awesome Day."
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Graeme Dymond has turned his love of lego into a career. After winning a highly competitive national contest to become the master builder at the new Legoland Discovery Centre in Vaughan Mills, he talks about the new development and his new job as a professional kid.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
What is Toronto's great idea? According to author Edward Keenan, it's diversity. The former innovation and jobs editor at Yonge Street sat down with Bert Archer to discuss his new book Some Great Idea, YSM's influence, and why Toronto's "messiness" makes it strong.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Guillaume Côté's portrayal of the troubled ballet legend Nijinsky contributed to a 10-minute standing ovation at this weekend's premiere. Yonge Street chats with the principal dancer about the dark role and how innovation is changing perspectives on ballet.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Joshna Maharaj says hospital food doesn't have to taste bad. She advocates using local ingredients to enhance not only the nutritional value and patient experience, but also to support local agriculture and sustain Ontario's economy.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
From girls-only coding camps to innovation workshops, we round-up a list of march break programs designed to feed a youthful thirst for knowledge while teaching key skills for today's in demand careers.
Tiffy Thompson
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sage Paul's wearable art transcends the line between what's synthetic and real, combining aboriginal regalia with cutting-edge fashion that challenges the mainstream.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Toronto just got its own version of Click That Hood, an online game that challenges users to identify city neighbourhoods in rapid succession. Name 20 or try all 140. Wait, there's how many? We chat with the local developer who put Toronto on the map.
Andrew Seale
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
A new locally-created web portal offers recipes custom designed to help make the lives of people living with this debilitating disease more manageable -- and also more delicious.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Public policy enthusiast Vasiliki (Vass) Bednar just wrapped up a prestigious fellowship with Action Canada. In this interview, she tells Yonge Street about the "invisible" issue of Young Carers: young people who provide significant care to sick or disabled family members.
Chris Riddell
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Condos are turning into canvases as property developers look to local and international artists to create original art and public installations in an effort to attract new condo buyers. As a result, properties are becoming art galleries, attracting known artists and creative-minded residents alike.
Tiffy Thompson
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Tazeen Qayyum’s evocative painting ranges from sly political commentary to the personal stories of the unheard. The Oakville contemporary miniature artist makes a big statement with the tiniest of brushes, pursuing an art she learned in her native Pakistan.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Award-winning editor Patricia Bebia-Mawa is known for telling Africa's stories locally and around the world. Here in Toronto, she hopes to honour more African-Canadians by launching a new publication and expanding her company's prestigious Planet Africa Awards.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
It's not too late for a Valentine's Day skate. With more than 100 skating rinks in Toronto and the GTA, we narrow down our top five outdoor picks for winter romance under the stars. Hot cocoa anyone?
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Gaming platforms such as the App Store and Steam have made it easier than ever for developers to release independent games onto the market. Yet financing these games is a different story. A new generation of small Toronto game development companies are raising money on their own.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
This is the first installment of a new series spotlighting young Torontonians and their world changing ideas. This week we interview Katherine Hague, the 22-year-old co-founder of ShopLocket. Find out how this preschool dropout's vision for a simple, shareable online marketplace is shaking up the e-commerce world.
Claire Nelson
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Claire Nelson, publisher of our sister publication ModelD, joined us for our Speaker Series panel discussion in Toronto earlier this month. She wrote about her experience in the city and advancing the conversation on the power of play. Check out what she had to say in ModelD.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Roncesvalles has seen many changes in recent years, but the charming west-end locale remains alive and bustling. From doggie boutiques to hip new eateries, its diversity makes it a model for how Toronto neighbourhoods can integrate various communities.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
At the Yonge Street Speaker Series talk on the power of play, panelists explored ways to strengthen communities through play and games. As it turns out, our city's current efforts harken back to the social movement that created playgrounds, according to a social historian who attended the event.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
At tomorrow's Yonge Talks panel, Rosalyn Morrison will discuss how Toronto's Playing For Keeps initiative is building communities and creating neighbourhood leaders through play and games. Here, she answers some of our early questions.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Wheels are turning: Celebrating this week's theme on the power of play, Yonge Street follows-up with Charlie's FreeWheels to discover how the not-for-profit continues to help neighbourhood kids develop leadership and community-building skills through bike building initiatives. Now, the teenagers are ready to debut their first curated photography exhibit at UrbanSpace Gallery.
Jaime Woo
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Toronto's National Film Board has become a leader in digital documentaries, a new trend which adds trailblazing interactive elements and lets viewers customize content. Next, producers of the award-winning
Highrise project are planning to create content for mobile devices.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Sheena Lyonnais brings her passion for startups, technology and entrepreneurs -- as well as her diverse, well-traveled writing experience -- to her role as Managing Editor of Yonge Street.
Sheena Lyonnais
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Tune into
Just Rights Radio on CIUT 89.5 FM this Saturday at 8 a.m. to hear
Yonge Street's Sheena Lyonnais talk about the significance of positive news in the media. She will discuss the differences between positive, breaking and fluff news -- as well as what
Yonge Street brings to the Toronto media landscape.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
With a history going back to the early 1900s, PATH has made life easier for downtown workers. But with more residential buildings tapping in, could it be turning into a real neighbhourhood?
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
At our January 17 Yonge Talks panel, Ajooni Sethi will share some of the secret ingredients that made a giant hopscotch course click with Detroit residents.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Paul Gallant announces his departure as Yonge Street's managing editor… and announces his successor.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Yonge Street is taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays. We'll be back on January 9 with more stories about growth and innovation in the GTA.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
When Gabrielle Scrimshaw decided to create a networking group for her Aboriginal peers, she started working the "Moccasin Telegraph." She found her organization grew almost as fast as Canada's Aboriginal population is growing.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Yonge Street's next Yonge Talks panel explores the power of play to create community. Special guest Claire Nelson, publisher of our Detroit sister publication Model D and the creative director for Urban Innovation Exchange, will join Rosalyn Morrison of the Toronto Community Foundation in leading the discussion. Ajooni Sethi, one of the team members behind Hopscotch Detroit, will also participate. The Yonge Street Speakers Series is supported by Toronto Community Foundation.
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Has grandmother gotten out of bed at her usual time? Is she finding it harder and harder to reach the light switch? Good Robot's Internet-based household robotics could make life easier for seniors—and their caregivers.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
When it comes drawing customers inside, coffee goes well with movies, flowers, clothes and other uncaffeinated items.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
An Oakville-based footwear company creates jobs in Ethiopia, but not because its president, Tal Dehtiar, believes in corporate social responsibility.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
The abundance of private development projects in the core has captured our imagination. But it’s the public spaces—where the big buildings aren't—that create the urban fabric that makes a city great. Yonge Street's Development Editor Bert Archer picks his five favourite public spaces.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Brampton's McVean start-up project teaches newbie keeners, including new Canadians, about running sustainable farms. They learn from the experts... and from each other.
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
A free, one-stop-shopping website aims to take the drudge work out of matching employers with new Canadian workers. And it might just be useful in reaching out to international customers, too.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The Junction has always been one of Toronto's most distinctive areas. But the recent influx of entrepreneurs has given its retro main street a much more fashionable vibe.
Mary Albino
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Rna Diagnostics's new tool aims to cut the amount of unnecessary chemotherapy needed to treat cancer patients, limiting side effects—and saving money too. The research was only the first part of getting their ideas to market.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Our Yonge Talks panel exploring the Toronto Community Foundation's new Vital Signs report led attendees to ideas about what could make our city a better place to live.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Just like the CN Tower and Maple Leaf Gardens, our current fleet of streetcars define the city. Will the sleek new ones become as iconic?
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
The Toronto Community Foundation's annual survey takes the city's pulse in areas ranging from health and the environment to culture and transportation. They're complex, intersecting issues. But following the money is as good a way as any to determine our civic health.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Yonge Street is taking a one-week break for Thanksgiving.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Many newcomers are attracted to Canada by the promise of a green environment. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is making sure the brightest and best of them can do their part.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A wine company whose profits go to charities has come up with an ingenious way to engage consumers in giving. Could the model work elsewhere?
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The vice president and managing director of New York's Municipal Art Society returns to her old stomping ground for our October 11 Yonge Talks panel on the Toronto Community Foundation's new Vital Signs report. We talked to her about the city's growth spurt and how she thinks Toronto can build on its success.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Our new chief planner has joined the city's building boom mid-party. But Jennifer Keesmaat's Toronto-loving pro-pedestrian approach might be what we need to liven things up.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Each year the Toronto Community Foundation releases its
Vital Signs report, which provides a snapshot of the health of the city across 11 issue areas, ranging from safety and housing to health, wellness and the gap between rich and poor. The report flags both the progress Toronto has made on these issues and the challenges the city continues to face. At our free October 11 Yonge Talks event, sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation, president and CEO Rahul Bhardwaj will present key
Vital Signs findings and discuss them with special out-of-town guest Mary Rowe of the Municipal Art Society of New York.
Yonge Street Team
Monday, September 03, 2012
Thanks for reading our publication and showing interest in the people and companies driving change in our community. To help us better understand you and improve our coverage of the issues you care about, could you please take 60 seconds and answer a few questions? We greatly appreciate your interest and continued support.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
In a project to help local producers meet the demands of Ontario's increasingly diverse population, scientists are building better beans (and okra, peppers and other veggies, too)
Kenneth Hale
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
After Yonge Street's two panels this summer on affordable housing, we asked attendee Kenneth Hale of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants-Ontario to write about the Charter challenge the group is making on behalf of people who are struggling to obtain adequate housing. Here's his argument.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
While the sun is still shining, the Ex is still serving up thrills and the beaches are still lively, we're taking a couple of weeks off for summer holidays. We're back with fresh, new Yonge Street news and features on September 12. Have a great Labour Day!
Jaime Woo
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The transformation of Malvern has meant more than just reclaiming it from gang violence. Bringing people together around food and green spaces has been an integral ingredient.
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Just because it's a breakneck pace doesn't mean it doesn't work. ACCES's speed mentoring program offers new Canadians the chance to make a lot of contacts very quickly.
Kelli Korducki
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Ontario's Pan/Parapan American Games won't just be showcasing athletic and organizational prowess. They'll be putting the breadth and dynamism of the GTA's population on the world stage.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
With so much new construction in the last few years, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Our Development Editor Bert Archer picks five projects worth a closer look (including one you can't look at yet).
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
In our second session on affordable housing, passionate thought leaders brainstormed how to improve the quantity—and quality—of affordable housing in Toronto.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
When TO newcomer Darcy Higgins looked around the city, he saw a burgeoning food culture that needed a unified voice around issues of accessibility, sustainability and security. Food Forward, the group he founded, is providing a table to gather at.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Delegates from Philadelphia here to learn from Toronto's brightest and best see a side of the city that its inhabitants might not.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
After years of producing film and television, the CaribbeanTales founder realized the biggest obstacle to reaching a global audience was in the distribution.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
And Philly gets a taste of Hogtown. When a delegation from Philadelphia arrives next week to meet with city leaders and see the sites, they'll be learning how Toronto manages diversity and social innovation. And how the right attitude can produce growth and progress.
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Supporting LGBT employees doesn't just make for a more comfortable work environment. Members of the Pride at Work group argue that it also boosts the bottom line.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
At our June 21 event on affordable housing, panelists and attendees connected the dots between market forces, transit, and government and charitable contributions. There were no silver bullets, but lots of great ideas taking us into round #2.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
During our June 21 event, we heard from our panel of experts on Toronto's housing situation. In the next step, participants will get their say as we try to move forward on affordable housing solutions. You're invited to join the discussion. The Yonge Street Speakers Series is sponsored by Toronto Community Foundation.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Yonge Street is taking a break for our favourite summer holiday. We're back July 11.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
In an age when kids are getting less and less exposure to nature, a discussion between environmental guru David Suzuki and author Richard Louv reveals that the GTA is making some headway in greening our urban lives.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tired of the gloom and doom message of mainstream environmentalism, Transition Toronto focusses on what's possible locally.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The Depanneur might look like a mere Dundas West hipster hangout. But behind the scenes, its unusual business model defies what it means to be a restaurant.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The moderator of Yonge Street's June 21 panel on affordable housing thinks we've lost our mojo—and that we can get it back.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Fitting more people into Toronto doesn't have to mean building up. The city's alleyways are full of real estate opportunities, if only the city could figure out the best way of servicing them.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
A proposed pilot project would see the city offer parking spots equipped with electric vehicle charging capability. The initiative will help the city figure out if EV charging could become a new revenue stream or whether the job should be left to other players.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
With GTA on the forefront of increasing awareness of the danger some buildings can be to birds, it makes sense that industry leader Feather Friendly Technologies sprang up in Etobicoke.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Toronto's farmers' markets reflect the character of their 'hoods just as much they reflect what local producers have on offer.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Yonge Street's next Yonge Talks panel asks whether affordable housing is a right. Moderator Peter MacLeod of MASS LBP will host Neil Hetherington, CEO for Habitat for Humanity Toronto, and Noorez Lalani, vice president of MOD Developments Inc, in a passionate discussion aimed at finding solutions. The Yonge Street Speakers Series is sponsored by Toronto Community Foundation.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
We're pleased to announce that Hamutal Dotan has joined the Yonge Street team.
Tanja-Tiziana
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
With this year's focus on music, Canadian Stage's annual Festival of Ideas and Creation offered a glimpse of how sound, words and performances can pack a punch when combined with artistry. Yonge Street's managing photographer Tanja-Tiziana Burdi caught some of the magic on and off stage.
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Founded two years ago, the Toronto chapter of a global venture fund has been investing in projects that will improve the quality of life in developing countries. Now they're working on bringing that model back to TO.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Edward Keenan is leaving Yonge Street. We'll announce his replacement in our May 30 issue.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Increased coyote sightings on the Toronto Islands remind us that we're never far from nature. And it's never far from us.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Veteran planner and author Ken Greenberg suggests we're better at sharing each other's food than sharing each other's space. But we'll learn.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
In her new book The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young reveals how she employed cutting-edge research about neuroplasticity to create 'cognitive calisthenics' to help challenged people build better brains.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
One of Toronto's mostly intensely industrialized neighbourhoods, Mount Dennis was hit hard by the 2005 closure of the Kodak plant. But a strong identity, truly diverse population--and perhaps a new transit hub--might point the way toward a bright future.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Yonge Street is pleased to announce the addition of its newest team member. And she's a Beach resident, to boot.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Diana Pliura met Milos Popovic during the TiEQuest startup competition two years ago. Now the duo has taken the top prize with a technology that offers hope for paralysis patients.
Voula Monoholias
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Yonge Street photographer Voula Monoholias joined Mayor Rob Ford's crew in Amesbury Park for Toronto's annual Community Clean-Up Day. People weren't afraid to get their hands dirty.
Jaclyn Law
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
A new program aims to give young filmmakers a crash course in the world of documentary film. Hot Docs' Brett Hendrie explains how it helps build a stronger doc community.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Author Bob Willard meant to do some recycling when he revisited his book on sustainable business practices. But the world had changed too much. And not just the technology.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
He used to be in the seafood business in Mumbai, but now Akber Batada brightens Toronto's streets with his over-the-top cab offerings.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Green Living Business Forum is a reminder that both urban habits and urban ingenuity affect the natural environment right across Canada—and the world.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Some say art and fashion are frills in tough economic times. But this young Indonesian immigrant found they were crucial to her survival in a new city. Now Marsya Maharani spreads that support to others through innovative curatorial and retail projects.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
For the semi-finalists in the TiEQuest business venture competition, the coaching and networking opportunities turn out to be as valuable as the prize money. That doesn't mean they don't give it their all.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Our new news section covers innovations that are focused on community, rather than private, profit. It's over there, to the right... and down a little.
Scott Dagostino
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The nerd-driven video-game industry has traditionally overlooked female talent. But women game creators in Toronto are working together to pull down the gender barrier. And they might be creating a world with better games, too.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Our Yonge Street panel on Toronto's emerging leadership explored strategies for nurturing and attracting talent in our city. Attendees learned that asking for help isn't the same as asking for permission... and other secrets to success.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
A love of West Coast hacker culture prompted Eric Boyd to fashion a line of wearable technology that lets people know what your body is up to. Could it bridge the gap between stylistas and geeks?
Krishna Rau
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Passion and organizing skills are keys to getting policies changed or projects revised. But the efforts of Code Blue and the Clean Train Coalition also demonstrate that timing and connections make a major difference.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
This Rotman MBA thought she was on her way to a career in management consulting. But Sonia Sakamoto-Jog's passion for film dropped her in a more glamorous and more complex milieu.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
With projects aimed at breaking down the barriers between creators and users, artists and designers, Jeremy Vandermeij pinpoints the human connections at the core of great design.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Join Yonge Street on Thursday, March 22, for a panel discussion featuring some of the city's best and brightest new visionaries. Our free public event will focus on what young people bring to the table and how the city can attract, keep and nurture young talent. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Underutilized mainstream schools are finding new life serving the GTA's diverse French-speaking communities. Is it a case of build it and they will... speak French?
Bert Archer
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
At Yonge Street's best-attended event yet, our experts encouraged more thoughtfulness in the design of our city.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Can you judge food by its label? With consumers in hot pursuit of food that's 'sustainable,' a Toronto not-for-profit organization has tried to quantify the idea with a nation-wide certification system.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Once a mechanic in the US Air Force, Dorsey James moved to Canada looking for a less polarized home. Only in a moment of serendipity did he discover his talent for woodcarving.
Scott Dagostino
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
As part of the revitalization of Regent Park, the Centre for Social Innovation is creating a new hub to help emerging entrepreneurs, community-builders and place-makers realize their dreams. Unlike CSI's first two locations, the new space will not be "community agnostic."
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Join Yonge Street on Thursday, Feb. 16, for a discussion on how smart design and planning can help us get the best out of Toronto's increasing density. Our fourth public event will focus on how the city's built form can accommodate a growing population. Architects Shirley Blumberg and Charles Rosenberg and city planner Gregg Lintern will lead the discussion. Toronto Star columnist Royson James will moderate. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
If Torontonians could only depoliticize the debate over transportation, we all might get further faster. Panelists at Yonge Street's Feet & Wheels event had more than a few ideas about how to improve the city's streets for everybody—and so did attendees.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
A documentary on peak oil was a wake-up call for two veteran filmmakers, leading them to unexpected careers in the local food movement.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Oakville's Faisal Anwar not only wants his art to make people think and feel; he wants it to help them connect with their neighbours in Toronto and around the world.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
In our last issue of 2011, we celebrate the great advice we got over the year from the many city leaders and innovators we had the pleasure of covering. We hope their wise words inspire you until Yonge Street returns from our break. See you January 11!
Bert Archer
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
With the Expo City development, Vaughan mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua is seeking to define his city with a dense new downtown core. Can globally inspired design create vibrant urbanity in sleepy suburbia?
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Join Yonge Street on Thursday, Jan. 19, for a discussion on Toronto's transportation options. Our third public event will focus on how our streets can get everybody where they want to go, safely and harmoniously. Transportation advocate Nancy Smith Lea, National Post columnist Chris Selley and architect Chris Hardwicke lead the discussion. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Iran's Cultural Revolution and a grandfather's death led Hamid Tizhoosh to create a revolutionary tool that could help oncologists cloud-source knowledge about cancer tumours. So much for his idea of a 'take it easy' life in Canada.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
As a young girl in Kerala, Sharada Eswar loved hearing her grandmother recount Indian epics. Now, the Brampton resident is bringing those ancient stories—and more contemporary tales—to life.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
For a Chinese-born economist, the difficulties new immigrants have entering the labour market are more than just theoretical. Maggie Chen's learned the obstacles firsthand. She's also learned about the resources available to help her.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
A new competition has Toronto companies going head-to-head not on the bottom line, but to cut down on carbon emissions. Since its launch in June, Race to Reduce has signed on more than 70 of the city's largest companies, representing 45-million square feet of office space. Competition chair Bob Gallant says it starts with building trust between landlords and tenants.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
The growth of car-sharing services like Autoshare and Zipcar suggests it's ownership of vehicles, not access to them, that's the biggest contributor to Toronto's gridlock.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
With Muskrat Magazine, Rebeka Tabobondung and David Shilling bring ancient Aboriginal knowledge into the networked urban age, blurring the boundaries between 'on reserve' and 'off reserve.'
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
At Yonge Street's second public event—this one on leadership and belonging—attendees looked to the past to find the future.
Todd Irvine
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
With politicians trying to find every dollar of savings, high-tech research methods can help our urban forest survive and thrive. Ryerson University's Andrew Millward's tools of choice: maps.
Michelle Bruch
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
In one of an occasional series of articles looking at how other North American cities wrestle with their challenges, Minneapolis-based writer Michelle Bruch examines how public input helps the bottom line as much as it helps build places where people want to be.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Join us on Thu., Oct. 27 for the second in our Speakers Series line-up. This time, we're focusing on building community leadership and a sense of belonging in our city. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Scott Dagostino
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
A project of four community leaders who started out as strangers, StreetSport isn't just about reclaiming the joy of competition for GTA residents who might never make it to the big leagues. Like its role model, Nuit Blanche, it's also about putting people at the centre of our public spaces.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
As industry players gather in Toronto this week to talk about the national rollout of electric vehicles, the trickiest part of the equation is getting consumers to change their ideas about what's makes for a good ride. Mike Elwood, chair of Electric Mobility Canada, tells us about the road ahead.
Yonge Street Staff
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Join us on Thu., Oct. 27 for the second in our Speakers Series line-up. This time, we're focusing on building community leadership and a sense of belonging in our city. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Yonge Street Staff
Friday, September 23, 2011
Please help us out. Take 30 seconds to fill out Yonge Street's new readers' survey. It's quick and easy.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
For residents of writer Sarah B. Hood's Craven Road neighbourhood, small properties are no obstacle to vegetable gardening, especially for those who welcome a 'salad wall.'
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Con mucho gusto! Yonge Street's new managing editor introduces himself with a story about how a trip south taught him a lesson about his own city.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
As a theatre-obsessed suburban teen, Trevor Copp took the GO Train to Toronto every week to see avant-garde plays. With his Burlington-based theatre company, he's bringing his experimental and controversial ideas back to the 'burbs.
Yonge Street Staff
Thursday, September 08, 2011
The inaugural event in the Yonge Street Speakers Series, taking place on Sep. 22, will examine how Toronto's public spaces shape our lives in ways both dramatic and subtle. The series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.
Shawn Micallef
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The Riverdale Hub is a social innovation co-working space with a difference: its mission is to empower minority communities. Along the way, a renovation and a bold new presence on Gerrard Street in Toronto's Little India neighbourhood may help speed area's revitalization efforts and test a new funding model for non-profits at the same time.
Shawn Micallef
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Changes ahoy: a farewell message from Yonge Street's founding editor, Shawn Micallef, and introduction to the new name at the top of the masthead.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
This Juno-nominated hip-hop artist has toured with Sean Paul, opened for Raekwon and released albums on three continents. But as he gears up for fall singles releases, Besque's still happy to hail from Mississauga and work in Toronto communities.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
A plan to remove an invasive carp species from the Humber River will allow native wildlife to flourish and salmon to return. One day anglers may be able to even catch a salmon as far north as Highway 9.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
As a classical Indian dancer, Iman Grewal has performed with some of the
industry's major talents including Bare Naked Ladies, Apache Indian and
Roach Killa. Two years ago, she decided to pass on the torch and her
company Kama Entertainment is now ushering in the next wave of South
Asian talent.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
In 2001, after her four-year-old daughter was shot in the leg by corrupt Colombian officials, Liliana Angarita fled the country with her family. Now in Toronto she's devoting her life to human rights with her husband Mario Guilombo. Her efforts landed her in Canadian Immigrant Magazine's top 25 immigrants of 2011 list.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Brampton may not seem like a centre for hip hop talent, but in one cul-de-sac Jade Jager Clark has established a dance empire with international reach. She doesn't seem to care that she's only twenty-two years old.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Lara Bazant's ethical jewelry business is the perfect combination of intricate design, fair trade materials and chemical-free processes. With a varied background and extensive travel, she also chose Toronto to set up her growing business.
Sarah B. Hood
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Virginia Opossum, or Didelphis virginiana, has moved into the GTA and is turning up in backyards, ravines and parks. This new character on the scene, our first marsupial, seems to be fitting into the local flora and fauna just fine.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Jameson Avenue's 1960s apartment buildings, packed with New Canadians, are home to many stories on migration. But only one of its residents has won a $20,000 provincial prize for telling these tales. Meet Ryad Assani-Razaki, a Benin-born, Parkdale-based scribe on the rise.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Sketch creates art-making opportunities for young people who are
street-involved and homeless, giving them new career choices. Unexpectedly, there's also a green thumb element to their brand of creativity. Take a peek at our video and watch what's going on.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
As plug-in vehicles become more popular, industry players in Ontario are discovering that information about electricity use is as valuable as electricity itself and are working to ensure a seamless introduction of the vehicles onto our streets.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
When people think of affordable housing, they don't always think of accessible housing, even though experts say the disabled make up huge swaths of low-income people. In Ontario, the numbers are jolting. Almost two million Ontarians are disabled. People like Danielle Svec are negotiating the slowly-improving system.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The PAYE employment program strives to find enough jobs for youth eager to get to work. The challenge now is to find a wide range of companies of varying sizes willing to participate in the program.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Eddy Robinson sees business as empowerment. An Anishnaabe native, he heads up a cultural business in Toronto, one he's currently revamping with the help of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. To him, it's all about Aboriginal cultural and economic revitalization.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Toronto's Mini Maker Faire is on the bleeding edge of technological (and mechanical) innovation, a great blend of geekery, DIY work ethic, and future thinking. It's here that our relationship with technology is being tested, and the next great invention may be making its debut.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Toronto's architectural design firms beat their competition by ensuring they have no competitors and by tapping into the diverse and talented pool of designers and artists that live here. You might even be surprised where some of our firms have been working.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
By bringing together many of the city's strengths under one roof, Toronto's Fire & Emergency Training Institute (FESTI) has become a melting pot for fire fighters around the world.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Launched in January 2010, the Ontario Social Assistance Review Committee is taking a penetrating look at the province's support structures, and the implications for Toronto are big, says former United Way CEO, Frances Lankin.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Erica Lemieux wants to bring trust back to the food system. Under the auspices of her start-up urban farming company, she aims to show that pedal-powered, small-plot farming is healthy, economically viable and good for Toronto's biodiversity.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
In May of each year canoeists take to the Don River and paddle 10km through Toronto's urban wilderness from Don Mills to the Keating Channel. Yonge Street's videographer Darren Alexander floated along for the ride, and so can you.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Poverty and marginalization are persistent forces in the lives of Toronto's new immigrants. Carol Wilding and the Toronto Board of Trade put forward a series of strong recommendations in the 2010 local election. Where's the progress? And what still needs to be done?
Shawn Micallef
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Toronto's Imperial Oil Building on St. Clair is being converted into The Imperial Plaza, a residential condo project that is preserving much of the mid-century design and art elements of this iconic building. Read about what's coming and see Yonge Street photographer Tanja-Tiziana's slideshow of some of the details that are being preserved, and the last vestiges of its office days.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Launched in 2009, Ontario's Green Energy Act has seen its share of brown-outs. A World Trade Organization dispute, an inadequate infrastructure, and a vocal anti-wind lobby have all caused problems. But, even still, new green jobs are coming on stream in the GTA and elsewhere in Ontario.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Home building and renovations don't have to have a big human and ecological footprint. Kay Valley channels her creativity and passion for human rights and the environment into The Zero Point, her design centre and building supply store on Queen Street East.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
A GTA-based battery manufacturer gets revved up to supply the new wave of electric cars about to hit the streets. With over 150 patents to their name, Electrovaya is poised to take a profitable role in not just e-car battery production, but lead the way with a zero emission, non-solvent and non-toxic manufacturing process.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
For the first three years of its existence, the Black Daddies Club was a pilot project that aimed to build community and family in Malvern. Now, the group is moving into a new phase, with new programming, new research models, and a new neighbourhood at Jane and Finch.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The 501 streetcar line is Toronto's longest and, for many, the "Long Branch" terminating loop listed on westbound cars is a long way off, but Yonge Street's Bert Archer and Tanja-Tiziana found an up-and-coming neighbourhood changing, and poised for more change and development. Take a tour with them in words and pictures.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
With its new Toronto education center, Better Place aims to convince drivers that recharging an electric vehicle is as easy as topping up your cell phone credit. It's an early step in making EVs an everyday part of Toronto and Ontario transportation options.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
What do you think of as ugly? Michael McClelland and Toronto's E.R.A. Architects are challenging our assumptions about life in high-rise buildings. Their research on tower housing questions our underlying cliches, and their conclusions and ideas are now spreading across Canada and the United States.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
For too long, Mississauga has occupied the GTA's imagination as Toronto's second fiddle. But with a massive downtown revitalization afoot, much of which is centered around a world-class public square, the second city may be taking centre stage.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Toronto's hip-hop scene has scored big this year with stars like Drake and K'naan. But beyond the hype, the youth organization Manifesto are building the next generation of talent and exporting their ideas outside of Toronto and Canada.
Jaclyn Law
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
As our population ages and the rights of disabled people are getting more attention, OCAD University has started a new Master program in inclusive design to create a brain trust of people skilled in accessible technologies from many sectors.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
University of Toronto's Citizen Lab has opened its arms to the private sector, working with companies around the world on human rights issues. The lab is also tapping into the University's diverse student population to help it do its global work.
Katia Snukal
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
In a U of T urban studies class "service learning" get students to think about volunteering and relationship building as part of their careers. Unlike traditional internships, it's not time consuming but helps students understand how Toronto works from the ground up.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
French Toronto is, on average, wealthy, smart and talented but flies under our radar. Though it has no distinct neighbourhood to call its own, the community builds itself around cultural institutions and cuts across a number of different nationalities.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
The development industry hates it. The government doesn't want it. But inclusionary zoning is an idea that's not going away. Academics, activists, and opposition politicians like Adam Vaughan still tout it as an important piece of Toronto's affordable housing solution.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Baycrest's "Philosopher in Residence" and author of My Operation, Sholom Glouberman, has been working to improve communication between doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. Now with the creation of the Patients' Association of Canada the folks receiving care have a voice in how the system should change.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
The University of Toronto and Hart House are about to turn their gym into a power plant, but instead of coal or nuclear fuel, it'll be the muscle and sweat of people using the stationary bikes that will be putting electricity back into the grid. Fit bodies lead to green energy.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Not your average laundromat, the Eco Laundry Room on Toronto's Danforth Avenue is an innovative example of how to "green" an established business model. It's also a nice place to hang out as an informal community centre.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
A town not known for its pro-pedestrian planning is redeveloping a historical site according to the principles of new urbanism. Oakville will be limiting car-related uses in Palermo Village, all the while trying to promote public transit and neighbourhood employment.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Yonge Street's Bert Archer recently sat down with Ontario's new Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, to talk about urbanism, sustainable transportation and technological and social innovation in and around Toronto.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
ECOexecutives,
a new program at the Toronto Zoo, is getting executives out
of their boardrooms and into the company of polar bears, arctic wolves,
caribou and other creatures that will reignite their passion for animals and environmental issues.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Stop food bank at the Wychwood Barns does much more than just give out free food. It's a community centre that thinks food and food security should be integrated into Toronto life, and they have fun doing it.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada awards small loans to a new generation of people who think you can make money and do good at the same time, like Jam Johnson, founder of Toronto's Neighbourhood Basketball Association.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Whether it's what to wear to work or the intricate details of consulting, volunteers with the Mentoring Partnership Program have something to say about it. Veena Balram is one of 3,800 mentors that have been part of 5,300 GTA matches over the past six years.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Two Toronto teachers search for a Canadian-made and non-toxic toy and find a solution by opening their own store. The 100-mile Child quickly went from a web-based home business to a retail space in the Carrot Common on The Danforth.
Paul Carlucci
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Each year there are approximately 2,000 overseas adoptions in Canada, many of which create interracial families. Likewise, scores of domestic adoptions produce similar homes. There can be unique challenges for parents who raise children from a different background. Susan Crawford has solutions.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
A chic Adelaide Street salon cuts its electricity bill by half, eliminated chemicals and reuses hair clippings, all without sacrificing any fabulousness and encourages other salons to do the same through the burgeoning sustainable salon movement.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Toronto and Canada have become hotbeds of tech industry activity -- often micro-agencies with 5-15 employees -- but until now we haven't had a good idea what this rapidly growing sector looks like. Mesh Prize winner Justin Kozuch's 49 Pixels is leading an extensive survey that will tell us just what we've got going on here.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Everything old is new again at Klaus on King Street East; from the business model to the designs, which blend international names with Toronto-made classics manufactured by Nienkamper, the family name that has become synonymous with timeless quality. They'll be part of the Interior Design Show opening on Thursday.
Leah Sandals
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Along the new TTC St. Clair streetcar line, a public art project with 24 new works is providing both wayfinding tools for riders and moments of wonder for the neighbourhood residents along the way.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Yonge Street Video visits the Roncesvalles Community Acupuncture Clinc as they've recently switched to a new community model that gives access to their treatments to more people.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Peter Milczyn, Toronto's new Development and Planning Committee chair, says: it's alright for kids to grow up in high rises; the city can be more dense; we can have great architecture and great public spaces; and our development fee structure can be changed to encourage all of this.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Even bakeries can be innovative. A new partnership between Ozery and Compass Canada brings nutritious options to children ahead of the Ontario government's mandate for 80% fresh, whole food in schools -- and it all started as a Ryerson school project.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The new CEO of central Toronto's health integration network, Camille Orridge, began her career as a maid at Toronto General Hospital. Now she wants you to rethink your visit to the emergency room, and how to avoid it altogether.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
As the big auto companies get ready to roll out their new electric vehicles, governments and other agencies in Toronto and Ontario are working to make it easy for drivers to go green with expanded e-car infrastructure projects and policies.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Rang Home Decor and Nucreation on Gerrard Street are two thriving family-owned businesses whose stories are told in the former Mayor of Toronto's new book that explores the city he led for seven years.
Shawn Micallef
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Yonge Street will be taking a break between December 20th & January 4th but will return with a new issue on January 5th. See you then!
Bert Archer
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Is there much to learn from Toronto's experience with immigration? Lots, says the Cities of Migration project as it aims to share not just Toronto's ideas on successful immigration inclusion, but those of other cities around the world.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Even as it's entered the digital age, the Toronto Public Library has kept real live people at the heart of its enterprises so the world's biggest public library system continues to be a busy and crucial part of everyday Toronto life.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Diaspora Dialogues is creating a Toronto (& Canadian) literary scene that reflects one of the world's most diverse cities, helping its writers tell new stories that allow us understand ourselves better. At the same time, the program is feeding new kinds of work into the ever-growing body of Canadian Literature.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Toronto nonprofit developers Options for Homes fill a niche between market-based condominiums and traditional affordable housing by creating projects that are in the price range for people who might not otherwise be able to own their own home. In this Yonge Street Video we visit their new Village by High Park project in The Junction.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Toronto developers like Streetcar and BSaR are building residential buildings across the city that fill in the gaps. They aren't super-tall towers, and they aren't single family homes -- but they are the buildings that will tie this city together.
Corey Mintz
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Makom wants to restore Kensington Market's robust Jewish culture with their participatory congregation. They hold services in members homes, artist studios and, guided by Jane Jacobs' adage that "new ideas need old buildings," in the historic Kiever synagogue.
Michelle Kasprzak
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Toronto-based director Katerina Cizek breaks new ground in the documentary format with Out My Window, a multi-media National Film Board project about the highrises we call home here in Toronto and around the world. Already the city-building project is nominated for an award at the Sheffield Doc Fest, and will be presented in installation form at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam this month.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Residential Fruit Pickers Not Far From the Tree want to harvest more than just Toronto's wasted fruit bounty with their first fundraiser tonight, part of their plan to turn their sustainability work into a sustainable organization.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
The Canadian Film Centre Media Lab has been exploring the cutting edge of interactive storytelling through its multi-disciplinary program called the Telus Interactive Art and Design Program. With a recent move to MaRS, they are starting to incubate companies and find ways to make money through art and expression.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
The BizStart entrepreneur training program helps young creative types root their ideas in a business-minded reality as they start their first companies and venture into the world of self-employment.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
As Cleantech Practice Lead Advisor at MaRS and a renewable energy venture capitalist, Tom Rand knows how to spot a bankable sustainable energy idea. Yonge Street sat down with him to discuss how Toronto is fairing in the world of clean and green and which local company is going to be the next RIM.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Light The Night project aims to increase safety and reduce electricity consumption by creating an unusual alliance between Toronto Police, hydro employees and a number of Toronto neighbourhoods.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Part of our series on neighbourhood strips and informal community centres, take a tour of the diverse and busy Peanut Plaza with Yonge Street's Bert Archer and Tanja Tiziana in both words and pictures.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
A personal tragedy led Torontonian Halim Amini to start his own mental health and help industry, complete with radio and TV shows, and a non-profit counseling centre serving the growing Afghan community in Toronto and around the world.
Darren Alexander
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Adding to Toronto's mix of ethnic neighbourhoods is Little Tibet, a relatively new addition to the Parkdale street scene. In this video, the Valunbisitsang family keeps both Tibetan food and music alive.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Green is the new bling: while building Regent Park's first multi-use residential building, part of a massive renewal and rebuild of the neighbourhood, The Daniels Corporation overturned conventional assumptions about what would sell in Toronto's condo market.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Beneath our gleaming glass towers and spiraling condos lies the remnants of another history, one thousands of years old, but often overlooked. With the Canadian Native Centre's "Great Indian Bus Tours" and the Indigenous Knowledge Network run out of St. Michael's Hospital, this is changing.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
When it comes to advocating for more and safer cycling in Toronto, Janet Attard prefers the soft sell of her bicycle art. Apart from making her a living, her art has helped change the perception of bikes in the city.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
If election season's got you down, Toronto-based Samara is trying to make things brighter by changing the public's cynicism towards Canadian politics, one initiative at a time.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper has found a way to turn complicated environmental issues into something simple,heartfelt and even fun. In turn, they have influenced groups outside of Toronto and become an environmental force.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The MarketLink program, organized by the Canadian consulate in San Diego, has been enormously successful in partnering Canadian entrepreneurs with large technology companies in Southern California. This year, Sony met with three Canadian start-ups working on cleantech and smart-grid technologies in San Diego.
Naheed Mustafa
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) embarks on a bold new plan for quicker mental health recovery by bringing patients and community together in a redesign of their main Toronto site on Queen West that aims to break down barriers. It's the first of its kind in Canada too.
Nadja Sayej
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Double Double Land in Kensington Market blurs the lines between art gallery, event venue, community hub and soon enough, international artist residency. How one second-floor studio apartment changed the face of the Toronto art scene, one Pay-What-You-Can event at a time.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
What would it take to change hiring practices around the world and bring the most disadvantaged, at risk populations back into
the workforce? Ten years ago, Bill Young, then a highly successful CEO,
started to wonder that question. The result is Social Capital Partners,
which in its short life has already greatly changed the world of work.
Sarah Elton
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Piali Roy
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Toronto's Steam Whistle Brewing has an unusual hiring policy: choose the best person for the job, with or without Canadian experience. In doing so, they say they've made their company and brand stronger.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Roots of Empathy, a little school program that began in Toronto with a mission to "change the world one child at a time," has grown into an internationally successful program backed by no less than the Dalai Lama.
Jaclyn Law
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Group buying sites are popping up in Toronto faster than you can say "half-price sushi rolls." Here's how deal-hunting became a team sport.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
If Facebook can make you feel good about your relationships, why can't Rypple make you feel good about your workplace? This Toronto company is applying social media to the office.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
With researchers from 37 countries, the Xerox Research Centre of Canada's "diversity of thought" strategy, adopted in 2004, has resulted in a 17 per cent year-over-year increase in the number of its patent ideas.
Marc Glassman
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The founder of multicultural Toronto-based and internationally successful film distribution company Mongrel Media is a practical idealist whose newest feature, Score, will open the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
Anna Olejarczyk
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Interest in cultivating organic vegetables is growing around the GTA and is both a choice for entrepreneurs looking for a new career and a way to teach youth new skills. Yonge Street talks to one of those new farmers as well as Justin Di Ciano, who runs the "Farm-in-the-Village" program.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Wexford used to be a village and though now found in the middle of Scarborough, it still is, but it might not look like you expect it to. Part of our series on neighbourhood strips, take a tour of a Wexford stripmall with Yonge Street's Bert Archer and Tanja Tiziana in words and pictures.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
After years of serving western style food to please their customers, a Markham chef wows the city with his traditional "la main" noodles, and passes on the thousand-year tradition. Pacific Mall, an informal incubator for new immigrant businesses, is a perfect location.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Imagine Guitar Hero for your brain: Toronto companies Wero Creative and Spongelab Interactive are creating computer games that are both fun and get kids learning too.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Toronto is tapping into its skilled immigrant talent by, in part, training human resources professionals to recognize and hire from this neglected pool of smart and ready-to-work people.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Artez Interactive is the behind-the-scenes company that helps fundraising campaigns take part in the social media revolution.
Sarah Elton
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Cycling isn't just for recreation as more and more Torontonians are pedaling around the city. Manual Cappel makes bikes and cargo trailers that help make that easy.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
A Different Booklist is one independent bookstore that's flourishing by being a community centre for Toronto's Caribbean diaspora.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Rob Fraser is a driven nursing student who has taken on the challenge of introducing late-adopter nurses to new social media technologies that help them talk to each other and advance their profession.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Forget about selling candy bars and bake-sales -- new company FundTunes was co-founded by Toronto entrepreneur Eduardo Alvarez, a Queen Street entrepreneur and gym-owner, who wanted a more healthy way to raise quick cash for charities.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Interest in Toronto's urban forest is booming, and so are the businesses involved in taking care of it as new programs and companies sprout up all around the GTA.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Church Street
sure was in the news this past week. Let's revisit
Yonge Street's investigation of Church that ran a year ago by Bert Archer and Tanja-Tiziana. For decades the street has been the centre of the region's gay and lesbian communities, but as the rest of the city becomes more gay and gay-friendly, what does that mean for the Church Street Strip?
Rose Bianchini
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Yonge Street Video goes to Parkdale and chats with Greenest City. They're not just encouraging neighbourhood green thumbs to turn this most urban neighbourhood into a working city farm, they're also growing a new generation of Toronto leaders.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Beyond 3:30, an after school program introducing preteens to architecture and art, turns schools into community hubs and hopes to get a whole new generation of kids thinking about architecture as a career, especially young women.
Naheed Mustafa
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
In a time of shrinking ad sales, Markham-based Cognovision has developed an innovative way to count how many people are looking at digital ads in public spaces, all while maintaining privacy.
Joeseph Wilson
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
It's Net Change Week at MaRS and tech-biz thinker Don Tapscott is asking us to rethink how, well, just about everything operates. It's a new way of doing things, and Toronto's social innovators like Michelle Hamilton-Page at Toronto Public Health are helping lead the way.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Toronto's Bloor West Village Business Improvement Area recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. A world's first in 1970, BIAs have since spread across the city, country and around the world. The Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas' John Kiru explains how the idea started and spread.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Head Gear Animation are known for their ground-breaking work that mix up a variety of different animation techniques. Their latest venture is the first 3D commercial in Canada and its production required pioneering a new stereoscopic technique.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Eduardo Castro's work with youth, mental health and addiction is all about building long-term relationships and his recent appointment to the Toronto Board of Health is his latest achievement in his civic-minded career.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
As Toronto's self-employed laptop-lugging workforce grows, new coworking spaces like Camaraderie in St. Lawrence Market give independent workers a place to be around colleagues and cure their cabin fever.
Julia Belluz
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Toronto's Ethical Ocean, a new e-commerce startup, is trying to change the way we consume by offering ethical choices. With lofty goals and considerable business ambition, they might just do it, one purchase at a time.
Rachel Hahn
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Toronto is quickly becoming known as a city with a soft spot for meat. The local butcher shop is becoming more popular by the day, offering organic and local options to savvy clientele who are mindful of where their next meal comes from.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Kealan Sullivan spends a lot of time at the local dry cleaners. You could say it's the boardroom of her 69 Vintage Collective empire, where between giant loads of new-old clothes, she's leading Toronto's vintage scene in new directions.
Jules Lewis
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Zoe Hayes and Caitlin Carlisle wanted to get kids rolling, so they started Charlie's Freewheels, a volunteer-based community program that teaches bike mechanics and career development to Regent Park youth.
Dylan Reid
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Nancy Smith-Lea became a cyclist almost by accident. But now she's helping change the way we think about our streets (and the role of engineers) in the 416 and 905 so cars, bikes, transit and pedestrians can finally all get along.
Jaclyn Law
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
After years of dodging security guards and watching their sport go into hibernation each winter, Toronto's parkour community has found a place to crash - literally - at The Monkey Vault, athlete-entrepreneur Dan Iaboni's new gym-playground hybrid.
Julia Belluz
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Jo Altilia founded Literature for Life in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood and is fostering both a love of reading and a sense of leadership and capability in young mothers.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
In the first of our series looking at some of Toronto's evolving neighbourhood strips, Yonge Street's Bert Archer and Tanja-Tiziana Burdi explore the changing face of Bathurst Street. Along the way they found good buildings and a linear community of entrepreneurs that keeps the strip together.
Julia Belluz
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
When Azmi Haq arrived in Toronto from Pakistan he found people here a little too polite, so to get people chatting about the city and country, frankly and openly, he started Salon Camden in his home. Here, he shares his thoughts on conversation and the immigrant experience in Toronto.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Ajax-based Scientists in School brings the fun into science education and hopes to breed a new generation of innovators from an early age.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The De Miguels come from a family of Argentinean winemakers who grew up helping out on their family's Woodbridge winery. They decided to bring that experience to the city, opening a new D.I.Y. urban winery that teaches Torontonians how to make premium booze.
Ivy Knight
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
She's chased pigs through manure and cooked at the Four Seasons. Now celebrity chef Lynn Crawford has returned to Toronto from New York to open her new neighbourhood place, Ruby Watchco, on Queen East.
Rose Bianchini
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Toronto's motto is "Diversity Our Strength" -- TRIEC's Immigrant Success Awards shines a light on where that strength is flexing its muscles -- and profiting from doing so -- all over the GTA.
Tasleem Thawar
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The medium is part of the message for Why Not Theatre, an innovative and growing Toronto-based theatre company that uses both technology and the city's global, diverse connections to produce contemporary work.
Heidi McKenzie
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Heather Dubbeldam left the safety of one of Canada's premier architecture firms to follow her own path and start an independent and expanding green design company.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
A new array of solar panels on the roof of U of T's Athletic Centre marks the beginning of a new era for sustainable development on campus where the University has started to engage its undergraduates in designing and implementing their own projects through the Sustainability Office.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
What happens when a retailer sets up shop in an up-and-coming neighbourhood only to find the area is not quite ready for prime time? For Liloo's co-owners Sapna Alim and Amanda Steele the answer was simple: rely on a whole lot of neighbourliness.
Edward Keenan
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Downtown Toronto's Salvation Army Gateway shelter has turned a liability -- its dirty laundry -- into a revenue source and in the process given homeless men steady employment and work experience.
Anna Olejarczyk
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Angela Wong-Liao has made networking easy by creating the Power Networking Group, a keep-it-simple platform that allows business people from the 905 and 416 area to meet once a month and connect, all without the usual fees.
Naheed Mustafa
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Muslim businesses spread out over the 416 and 905 are generating millions of dollars in a parallel "halal" economy that's seeing increasing cross-over into the mainstream.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A University of Toronto grad-student project turned market-ready product shows that you don't have to give up your privacy for increased security.
Rose Bianchini
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Ignite Toronto captures the best of geek culture in a series of five-minute speed presentations on a wide range on topics and innovations.
Bert Archer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Brian Curtner, a partner with the architecture firm Quadrangle, is one of the leaders of Toronto's adaptive reuse movement. Here he discusses why we should reuse our old buildings instead of tearing them down, and some of the challenges and rewards of doing so.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
When a young couple sent their child to daycare with his own nutritious and tasty lunches, they didn't know that a few years later they'd be feeding thousands and changing the attitudes of kids, parents and teachers toward the food they eat daily.
Julia Belluz
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
A Q&A with two Torontonians who are making this city a hub of interfaith and inter-cultural activity through the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Diversity.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Kenneth Montague has won Now magazine's
best dentist award several times. He's also an art collector and curator who decided to take on the Canadian art establishment and put Toronto's black artists and art about black identity on the world map.
Alexandra Shimo
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Frustrated by the problems and oversight in the bicycle market, an Annex bike store manager designed a bicycle specifically for Toronto's geography and climate, realized he'd found a niche need, and started manufacturing and selling the two-wheeler across North America.
Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A mile of pipe zig-zags under College Street in order to transfer heat from the Earth into the rooms of "the greenest hotel in North America." For general contractor Anthony Aarts, an innovative project like this is the build of a lifetime.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Morgan Solar is a family business that plans to revolutionize the solar energy industry. Is 2010 the year they make good on that promise?
Anna Olejarczyk
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The women behind A Couple of Chicks noticed a need for simplified online marketing strategies and created a company that not only targets the tourism industry, but hosts educational seminars to help businesses find the right audience.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How activist Philip Wong discovered that a strong brand is critical to building a strong charity when the venerable Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal relaunched as Community One.
Ivor Tossell
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Part workshop, part tree house, and part revolutionary lair, the Toronto Hacklab is a home for geeks that mixes the urge to create with the ideals of a venerable movement. Also, there's a laser in the bathroom that plays the theme from Super Mario Brothers.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
A Q&A and photo tour of the Fair Trade Jewellery Company where faith, integrity and a family legacy are the forces behind this local ethical business.
Rea McNamara
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Lola & Gigi is changing the way we think about fashion and weight while serving a style-savvy niche market.
Julia Belluz
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
How young, Toronto-bred entrepreneurs got creative and mastered social media to win a global audience and influence buyers with messages of positivity and peace.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Furniture-maker Lubo Brezina is busy turning other people's junk into functional art and furniture on Dundas West.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Artscape Triangle Lofts turned a messy situation into an opportunity for artists as well as Queen Street West's arty reputation.
Tasleem Thawar
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Why do Torontonians live and work abroad, and why is it so difficult to get them to come back? Toronto Homecoming is answering these questions, and putting plans in motion to make it easier for them to come home.
Heidi McKenzie
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Design Hope Toronto is raising funds for Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre's new supportive housing complex, Edmond Place, with a grassroots art auction.
Sarah Barmak
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Fresh live eels, sushi, and BBQ duck are among the temptations of the Olympic-sized T & T Supermarket that, along with other Asian markets in the GTA, are challenging our stereotypes of the suburbs.
Piali Roy
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Vive Nano, a start-up born in a University of Toronto chemistry lab, is part of a new and confident class of innovation-based firms in the city. But is it possible to save the world with nanotechnology and stay local at the same time?
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Two forward thinking entrepreneurs and their small team at CommunityLend may change the rules of banking with the launch of Canada's first peer-to-peer lending model. Borrowers put their loans up for auction, it's all done online and there is no need to dress up for that formal bank loan interview.
Carla Lucchetta
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Aura Collective, a new Toronto company, offers a way for artists to increase sales of their work and charities to bring in more cash. The online fine arts and crafts store performs the unique function
of promoting and selling the work of Canadian artists and
simultaneously supporting Canadian charities.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Web-based billing company Freshbooks recovers from a false start with pluck, focus and global aspirations. The online brower-based application helps people manage their client lists and invoices and has 1.25 million users.
Shawn Micallef
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Welcome to Yonge Street! Today we launch the first issue of our magazine and we're very excited to be a new part of Toronto's media landscape.
Paul Gallant
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Toronto's posse of community animators inject strategy and know-how into the ambitions of eco-activists. The City of Toronto's new $10-million, five-year Live Green Community Animators Program hopes to facilitate information and resource sharing.