city building : Featured Stories

Yonge Street's next Yonge Talks panel asks whether affordable housing is a right. Moderator Peter MacLeod of MASS LBP will host Neil Hetherington, CEO for Habitat for Humanity Toronto, and Noorez Lalani, vice president of MOD Developments Inc, in a passionate discussion aimed at finding solutions. The Yonge Street Speakers Series is sponsored by Toronto Community Foundation.

Founded two years ago, the Toronto chapter of a global venture fund has been investing in projects that will improve the quality of life in developing countries. Now they're working on bringing that model back to TO.

Veteran planner and author Ken Greenberg suggests we're better at sharing each other's food than sharing each other's space. But we'll learn.

One of Toronto's mostly intensely industrialized neighbourhoods, Mount Dennis was hit hard by the 2005 closure of the Kodak plant. But a strong identity, truly diverse population--and perhaps a new transit hub--might point the way toward a bright future.

Yonge Street photographer Voula Monoholias joined Mayor Rob Ford's crew in Amesbury Park for Toronto's annual Community Clean-Up Day. People weren't afraid to get their hands dirty.

Our Yonge Street panel on Toronto's emerging leadership explored strategies for nurturing and attracting talent in our city. Attendees learned that asking for help isn't the same as asking for permission... and other secrets to success.

Passion and organizing skills are keys to getting policies changed or projects revised. But the efforts of Code Blue and the Clean Train Coalition also demonstrate that timing and connections make a major difference.

Underutilized mainstream schools are finding new life serving the GTA's diverse French-speaking communities. Is it a case of build it and they will... speak French?

At Yonge Street's best-attended event yet, our experts encouraged more thoughtfulness in the design of our city.

As part of the revitalization of Regent Park, the Centre for Social Innovation is creating a new hub to help emerging entrepreneurs, community-builders and place-makers realize their dreams. Unlike CSI's first two locations, the new space will not be "community agnostic."

Join Yonge Street on Thursday, Feb. 16, for a discussion on how smart design and planning can help us get the best out of Toronto's increasing density. Our fourth public event will focus on how the city's built form can accommodate a growing population. Architects Shirley Blumberg and Charles Rosenberg and city planner Gregg Lintern will lead the discussion. Toronto Star columnist Royson James will moderate. The Yonge Street Speaker Series is sponsored by the Toronto Community Foundation and Waterfront Toronto.

If Torontonians could only depoliticize the debate over transportation, we all might get further faster. Panelists at Yonge Street's Feet & Wheels event had more than a few ideas about how to improve the city's streets for everybody—and so did attendees.

With the Expo City development, Vaughan mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua is seeking to define his city with a dense new downtown core. Can globally inspired design create vibrant urbanity in sleepy suburbia?

The growth of car-sharing services like Autoshare and Zipcar suggests it's ownership of vehicles, not access to them, that's the biggest contributor to Toronto's gridlock.

At Yonge Street's second public event—this one on leadership and belonging—attendees looked to the past to find the future.