Parkdale : Featured Stories

Letter from Yonge Street's new Managing Editor. 

Toronto is getting its manufacturing groove back. We take a look at the contemporary companies making manufacturing, and locally made goods and products, a priority. 

A two-year pilot program introduces local winemakers to Toronto markets, one sip at a time. Yonge Street talks to several wineries to learn more about how the city's various farmers' markets are supporting VQA wines. 

It's no secret that councillors are divided on the issue of nightlife. Efforts are in place to regulate the number of clubs and bars in Parkdale, but embracing nightlife and considering the formation of a working group may be a better option, say club owners. 

Ryan Dyment, co-founder of the Tool Library and soon-to-be-unveiled Toronto Timebank, opens up about the Zeitgeist movement, leaving the rat race, and his vision for a resource-based economy. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Design Hope Toronto is raising funds for Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre's new supportive housing complex, Edmond Place, with a grassroots art auction.