By Matthew Blackett
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Hometown touchstones
RACE = MORALITY. This was the line that began my eight-year relationship with a Toronto phone booth. I was 18 and had ducked into a booth in the downtown...
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Dupont in Wonderland
The design of Dupont subway station transforms what otherwise would be an ordinary public space — the world has its share of staid, gloomy subway...
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Personal rapid transit
The Gardiner Expressway was originally seen as Toronto's first step towards a modern North American city. Nowadays, the elevated highway is considered...
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One car’s gain is the city’s loss
"Muriel Avenue is a very graphic example of the detrimental effects front yard parking has on a neighbourhood," says Ron McKay, who's lived...
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Street smarts
The sky is grey, filled with a fine mist of rain, but my students seem energized. They are huddled in groups behind Roy Thompson Hall gazing up at Bernie...
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The gutter report
When walking around a big city people generally look straight ahead or perhaps slightly upward to appreciate the built form. But one of Toronto's...
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Underneath the layers
Bloor and Bathurst might be our greatest big city corner — not because of skyscrapers or starchitecture but because of Honest Ed's turning it...
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Losing our connections
Allan Crawford has dreams of building a lodge at the mouth of the Humber River. The Parks, Forestry and Recreation employee, who runs the Inner City...
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Dense about density
It's been a year since Christina Zeidler stood before an audience in the Ballroom at the Gladstone Hotel to share her fears of what could become of...
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More strut in our walk
Everyone is a pedestrian. Almost everyone in the city walks somewhere on most days, even if just briefly, and the official definition of...