Featured Stories

Yonge Street Media is closed as of June 1, 2016. 

“A city is what we make it,” says Jennifer Keesmaat. From a single tree to a sidewalk café or a multi-block development, she says, “I don’t actually believe anything just happens; there’s always intent. You can always trace it back to a person who had an idea. The outcomes we see in the city are the result of significant, concerted, tenacious effort.”

In this special series of interviews, YongeStreet sits down for a chat to get to know some of the most prominent city builders whose work, vision and passion for the city help shape Toronto’s present and future. From his office, a generous light-filled corner space, William Fleissig commands an enviable view over Lake Ontario, the islands and the towers of the ever-expanding residential and business district south of Union Station. Fittingly, because as the new President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto, this is his domain. 

In this special series of interviews, YongeStreet sits down for a chat to get to know some of the most prominent city builders whose work, vision and passion for the city help shape Toronto's present and future. Anthony Sargent of Luminato thinks it’s time Toronto stopped being so shy about its accomplishments and say yes to being bold.

In this special series of interviews, YongeStreet sits down for a chat to get to know some of the most prominent city builders whose work, vision and passion for the city help shape Toronto’s present and future. First up, the ROM's new Director and CEO, Joshua Basseches.

This week, we've rounded up some of the podcasts made in Toronto and threw a couple of our favourites produced elsewhere, for good measure, so you are bound to find something new and interesting.

Diverse, innovative and liveable, Toronto attracts entrepreneurs who chose to start and grow their businesses here. The City of Toronto consistently ranks as one of the best city in the world, in which to live and work. However, embracing entrepreneurship can be a tough challenge for the City Hall, given the bureaucracy which stifles innovation and stalls important projects.

Among the competing big ideas on Aboriginal advancement, economic transformation, or optimism for the future of Canada, one stands out and wins Deloitte’s Beyond 150 graduate student challenge. This is the last edition of the four-part series produced in partnership with Deloitte. The winner — laura j. turnbull — received a special invitation from Deloitte to join the upcoming Deloitte National Leadership Conference.

In this year, which marks the centennial of her birth, a project has sprung up in a very Jane Jacobs-like way (evolving naturally out of an open community meeting in an old building) to honour her ongoing influence on Toronto and the world. Called Jane100, it is a year-long celebration of her life and legacy made up of contributions by many people and organizations.

No matter how you get around in the city, Toronto’s roads are working against you. We’re all beset by congestion, unsafe driving conditions and needlessly high injury and fatality rates. In fact, traffic fatalities are currently at their highest level in five years. As our city continues to grow, we must make our transportation options more accommodating, and safer for everyone.

"Skateboarding is a tactile exploration of the urban environment. Youth can participate in the 'adult' conversation about important places by explaining what and why they do the things they do," says Ariel Stagni, Walk Leader, Skateboarding in the Financial District: A Wheeled Perspective.