Dear Readers,

This is a quick note to thank you for reading Yonge Street for the last year and a half, and bid you a farewell for now as I step down as managing editor of the magazine. For the next academic year, I'll be a Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto's Massey College. Taking over will be a name familiar to regular readers: Paul Gallant. Apart from writing many feature stories for Yonge Street, he's written for lots of other Toronto publications and has been the editor of both Fab and Xtra magazines in the past, so you're in good hands.

Since launching our first issue in January of 2010, we've covered an incredible amount of growth in and around the Toronto area. I've liked a bunch of things about doing this. One was counteracting the narrative we're often given that Toronto is broken city. The aggregate of the stories we've done here prove otherwise. So many companies, so many entrepreneurs, so many non-profits trying out solutions to solve some of our real problems -- it's changed the way I look at Toronto, shining this light on these heretofore under-reported areas. Toronto feels so busy, and as I pass through it I wonder where all the stuff we've covered actually fits in the city: there just doesn't seem to be room. Another thing I've liked is that Toronto doesn't stop at Steeles or any of the other borders for us. What happens in Brampton is good for the Annex, and good things in Parkdale can mean good things for Etobicoke. We're in this together, despite that other narrative that suggests we're a divided city and region: downtown vs. suburb and 416 vs. 905. Finally, we had so many stories that touch on Toronto's rich diversity, but happy they went beyond being the usual feel-good phrases we tell ourselves: our multi-ethnic multi-everything population actually means good business (in a variety of sectors, not just cultural, but that's going strong too), and is turning this region into a global hub on a number of fronts.

I hope you'll continue to read Yonge Street as more stories like this get covered by Paul and the rest of Yonge Street's editorial department: continued thanks to Ed Keenan for his Innovation and Job News stories; Bert Archer for tracking all the development in the region; and Katia Snukal for pulling out interesting news stories in her In The News section. Finally, big thanks to Tanja-Tiziana for all the great photos and those super mastheads that you've seen every week.

Cheers,

Shawn Micallef

Keep in touch and follow Shawn on Twitter, if you want.