to move up and down
As you may notice in the above picture, snapped today in High Park by Aaron Lynett, that it is snowing here in Toronto, no doubt about it. About time, it beats the cold November rain.
In Pictures: Michelle DuBarry, Toronto’s oldest drag queen
Michelle DuBarry, the oldest of Toronto’s legendary drag queens, celebrated her 80th birthday — or “Double 40,” as she says — last week. Toronto’s gay community marked the milestone with a gala and a tribute show at George’s Play on Church Street. DuBarry, born as Russell Alldread, still makes her rounds of the Village and shares stories from when she was with The Great Imposters, a traveling drag queen troupe. (Photo: Kara Dillon for National Post)
Better know your Margarets: A visual guide for the Ford brothers
Earlier this year, Doug Ford admitted he wouldn’t know Margaret Atwood if she were standing beside him on a street corner. Earlier this week, his brother said the TV character Marg Delahunty didn’t identify herself during an ambush at his home for an episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Clearly, the Fords are having difficulty recognizing famous Margarets. With that in mind, Emily Innes provides a cheat sheet on five others they might want to keep an eye on.
Toronto’s first Tweed Run looking good
They were called “scorchers,” and they were the terror of the countryside and the cynosure of all eyes. When the bicycle first appeared on the scene in the late 19th century, cycling aficionados — women as well as men — were seen as daring, stylish, sexy adventurers whose athletic joie de vivre has no contemporary equal. It was, among other things, the defining movement that freed women from corsets and long skirts. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the bicycle, the subsequent history of women’s fashion as we know it — from flappers to miniskirts to meat dresses — might never have happened.
Tweed was their lycra. It was the same sturdy material, woven in the Hebrides and cut in Savile Row, that served as the fabric of choice for the great adventurers of the time — not merely the moor hikers and grouse shooters, but also the Everest climbers and African explorers of the day.
It was, therefore, perhaps in the spirit of recalling past glories that British cyclist Ted Young-Ing organized the world’s first “Tweed Run,” in London, England, in January 2009.
The event its organizers call “a metropolitan bicycle ride with a bit of style” has since grown into a worldwide movement of fashion-conscious ladies and gents mounting their wheels for a leisurely spin to show off their sartorial savvy and raise money for a charity. Tweed Runs or Rides have been attended by hundreds of vintage-clad cyclists in such cities as Boston (naturally), San Francisco, Sydney, Paris, Philadelphia, Florence, Chicago, Sydney and Tokyo. (Photo: Courtesy Bikes Without Borders)
The party winds down for Toronto’s Entertainment District
In its heyday, the Entertainment District packed some 90 clubs and bars into an area about one third the size of High Park. Now, about 30 remain in the quadrant bound by Simcoe, Spadina, Queen and Wellington. The systematic taming of the Entertainment District continues, as residential towers rise, strollers come out and different amenities move in. Fez Batik is now a city shelter; a daycare operates out of what used to be Inside; and Aspen Ridge Homes is building two towers and OCAD gallery space on the lot where Money used to draw crowds. The number of people living in the area has swelled, from just 600 in the 1990s, to about 10,000 now. (Photo: Robillard for National Post)
Doug Ford, the Idea Man
Love him or loathe him, Mayor Rob Ford’s older brother has become an idea machine, someone who isn’t afraid to toss out unorthodox concepts in the hopes that they create jobs and boost Toronto’s profile.
He has championed scoring the city an NFL team, and at one point suggested dropping a stadium on the Port Lands. He has raised the possibility of tunnelling three levels under the Gardiner Expressway — one level for trains, one for a toll road and another road that is free — and developing above it.
In a sit-down interview with the National Post this week, he prefaced an unheard-of scheme with “now, this is way out there.”
“If we have the privilege of getting a football team, we need a stadium,” the Etobicoke city councillor began, while sitting in City Hall’s cafeteria. Forget about putting it in the Port Lands. Why not take the infill from tunneling a transit line under Eglinton Avenue and “pull a Dubai,” he says, building a lollipop-shape land mass from the mainland into Lake Ontario, precise location undetermined, on which a new football stadium could sit.
He sketches it out on a reporter’s notepad, marking lines around the circular island stadium to illustrate lakeside bars. “So you have tailgating on the boats, and a massive dock all the way around. And a big parking lot here,” he says, drawing a rectangle on the mainland.
“Anyone who scanned Toronto and saw this magnificent stadium in the middle of the lake — well, not really in the middle but a quarter-mile out — they would look out and say, that’s Toronto,” he says. “It would be a big dream… but what a sight.” (Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post)
Inspired by French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ‘street photography,’ Harry Joy’s photos from the 1950s & ’60s reveal a long-lost side to Toronto’s famed Kensington Market.
Harry Joy: Memorable Moments, which includes archival photos of Toronto, Montreal’s Expo 67 and more, is on at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre in Toronto until Sept. 8.
The Week That Wasn’t: Hurry up and wait
Toronto has longest commutes in country: StatsCan
The average worker in Toronto requires 33 minutes to get to work each day, with Montreal — at 31 minutes — and Vancouver, at 30 minutes, following
Matt Gurney: Transit, what a waste of time
People aren’t staying off mass transit because they’re stubborn or hate the Earth. Even in Toronto’s nightmarish traffic, the Better Way is still worse.
Photos: Jack Layton lies in repose at Toronto City Hall
Vigil guards from the City of Toronto Police Forces stand near the coffin of Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) party, inside City Hall in Toronto, Aug. 25, 2011. (Mike Cassese/Reuters)
Live coverage: Speakers honour Layton at Toronto City Hall
It was a sombre homecoming filled with tears and light applause as Jack Layton arrived home to Toronto for the last time Thursday night.
An estimated crowd of 300 lined up for hours behind metal barricades outside Toronto City Hall to catch a glimpse of Layton’s casket arriving back in his hometown of more than 40 years.
The crowd — which was full of grandparents, children, and families — watched as uniformed pallbearers with the Toronto Police Service carried the flag-draped casket into the front doors of City Hall, where Layton worked as a popular councillor for many years before being elected as an MP.
Laneway tours will change the way you see Toronto
“There are more than 250 kilometres of laneways in Toronto,” announces Graeme Parry, our amicable guide for the next hour. He should know. As a mapmaker, he’s charted many of them himself. The fit New Brunswick native sidesteps a puddle to stand in front of a massive graffiti painting. The crowd looks up at the striking portrait of a forlorn-looking man with a crooked neck clutching a guitar.
“This is known colloquially as Graffiti Alley,” says Parry, who is a virtual fountain of knowledge on the hidden roadways that snake around much of old Toronto. It’s not surprising he’s so knowledgeable — he’s been giving these tours for free every other summer Sunday for the past nine years.
“I used to bike around laneways, and started noticing the graffiti and wondering if there was more,” Parry says as we stroll past wall after wall of blindingly bright spray-painted artwork. “I started exploring, and was impressed by the variety I was seeing — homes, art, gardens. What really struck me was how peaceful and intimate these hidden spaces are.” (Photo: Brent Lewin for National Post)
