09: Summer 2007
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Toronto’s other underground scene
The thought of sewers and storm drains tends to bring to mind dark, damp places that provide necessary functions we're grateful for, but would rather...
By Matthew Blackett -
Following Sackville’s ghosts
Sackville Street begins at a chain-link dead end, and it’s downhill from there. All of Cabbagetown’s northern edge is pressed up against St...
By Matthew Blackett -
Staged: Music and theatre at water’s edge
Spending a summer evening at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre watching a cultural festival doesn't at first seem to have much to do with going to the...
By Matthew Blackett -
Fountaineering: making a public splash
While broadly admired, those moist, kinetic sculptures we know as fountains are, to most, part of a static urban interaction that begins and ends at the...
By Matthew Blackett -
The challenges faced by ravines
Our ravines define Toronto and make it unique. They're our equivalent to the canals of Venice, the hills of San Francisco, and the grand avenues of...
By Matthew Blackett -
Shipwrecked in Lake Ontario
Michael Redhill's novel Consolation uses the contents of a shipwreck in Lake Ontario as one of its main sources of suspense. There is something...
By Matthew Blackett -
Wychwood’s Taddle tales
Just north of Davenport Road, between Bathurst and Christie Streets, sits Wychwood Park, one of Toronto's first gated communities. It is still a...
By Matthew Blackett -
Vital signs: Wayfinding signs become art
During the spring, a series of official-looking signs that warned of homeless conditions nearby mysteriously appeared on poles downtown. They looked...
By Matthew Blackett -
Raising the stink
They may not be very noticable, but the green, 12-foot pipes that rise from the ground and often dot the edge of parks throughout Toronto are linked to...
By Matthew Blackett -
The safety dance
From my home, the closest marked pedestrian crossing on Queen Street West is the traffic lights at Queen and Augusta Avenue. But it takes ages for the...
By Matthew Blackett