I don’t know about the rest of the tumblr muslims out there, but all these reports and reblogs of the despicable acts of hatred done towards our community has really taken its toll on ending off this holy month on a high note.

Which is why I think its so important that stories like THIS get more attention:

I first met brother Himy (@HiMYSYeD, himysyed.tumblr.com) at a masjid two weeks ago, I was a little hesitant to approach him because of his pseudo-celebrity status in my eyes. Getting the idea from a few folks down in the states, Brother Himy has been on the quest of biking to 30 Masajid within the Greater Toronto Area for the month of Ramadan – you can follow his progress at 30masjids.com.

HiMY SYeD

Going for him: SYeD ran in 2010 and has remained a constant fixture at events and gatherings around the city.

By Whitney French, Writing in a Tree
As promised, here’s a recap of my first article I wrote for the Annex Gleaner. I had the pleasure to interview Himy Syed, founder of the Toronto City of Labyrinths Project. This initiative is to create enough labyrinths in the city so that every Torontoian is within walking distance of one. Syed also ran for mayor in 2010, the former Executive Director of Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association, is the Founding Editor of Torontopedia.ca, a city wiki emphasizing neighbourhoods AND a remarkble …

By Chris Boutet (@ChrisBoutet), The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 9:10AM EST
Last updated Monday, Nov. 14, 2011 10:53AM EST
View the story “Hundreds fill Toronto streets for #ghostride in memory of fallen cyclist Jenna Morrison” on Storify]

City Hall  | By Matthew Kupfer | July 29, 2011
Daily Cable | The Toronto Standard
For almost 20 hours, from 11:30 am Thursday to about 6:40 Friday, Toronto city hall was a democratic hotbed. Almost 340 people registered to speak before the Executive Committee of city council, at the invitation of Mayor Rob Ford. They were there to talk about the KPMG Core Service Review.
“This is one of the proudest days I’ve ever had at city hall,” the mayor said, acknowledging that not everyone agrees, …

By Meg Campbell, Torontoist

Rob Ford’s CP24 interview with Stephen LeDrew last Friday raised many an eyebrow amongst City Hall watchers. Edward Keenan did some lightning-fast fact-checking for the Grid, and over the weekend Ford For Toronto writer (and Torontoist guest contributor) Matt Elliott put together his own debunking analysis of the interview. Elliott recommends people see the full interview before watching his edited version (above).
Margaret Atwood apparently has an Oprah-like influence over her legion of followers. When she tweeted about the petition to protect Toronto’s libraries, hosted on the …

Just this week the mayor stated that 70% of the phone calls he’s received have been in favour of removing the bike lanes. But as HiMY SYeD tweeted today, when he called to register his pro-bike lane view a staffer for the mayor informed him they weren’t keeping track of who called or their position on the matter. Where’s the mayor’s information coming from then?

By Derek Flack, blogTO
Founded in 2007, Jane’s Walk, the annual celebration of urban theorist and advocate Jane Jacobs, has grown into an international event that takes place in 68 cities across the world and involves over 400 guided walking tours. As the city where it all started, Toronto thankfully leads the way with over a 100 walks scheduled for the weekend of May 7 and 8th. Needless to say, there’s a lot to choose from. With that in mind, I’ve put together some of …

By Caitlin Orr — Rye Here, Rye Now
Normally, someone walking through St. James Town encounters a bouquet of scents from diverse residents’ cooking. Two months ago, the acrid smell of smoke overwhelmed all else within blocks of the neighbourhood, in every direction. A six-alarm blaze spread to at least two apartments in 200 Wellesley on September 24, a high-rise managed by Toronto Community Housing.
Authorities have still not determined the cause of the fire, but it was very difficult to put out because of a lot of “combustible debris” in the …

Joe Pantalone 51.6%  | George Smitherman 22.6%  | Himy Syed 12.9%
Toronto Mayor Round 6

By John Ford, Vote By Choice
OTTAWA – People participating in a Ranked Choice Voting experiment have cast ballots parallel to the 2010 Ontario municipal elections.
While in the experiment the Ottawa Mayoral contest was won on the first ballot, the Toronto Mayor was elected after six ballots needed to break the fifty percent plus one threshold.
Joe Pantalone was able to achieve 51.6% with distributed votes from dropped candidates Rob Ford, Sarah Thomson, and Abdullah-Baquie Ghazi.
George Smitherman reached 22.6% …

By Greg Burrell, The General Ledger
Back near the beginning of the election campaign in Toronto, I wrote a post blasting the leading candidates for their lack of progressive ideas and unwillingness to fight for the people of Toronto (Toronto’s progressive political void, 17 June 2010). I commented that the race for mayor of Toronto had been disappointing for all progressives, especially because of media skewing the issues that matter, and the long campaign certainly has been nothing but disappointing. Adam Giambrone’s campaign self-destructed long before we were able to hear his …

By CitySlikr in All Fired Up In The Big Smoke
My Endorsement For Mayor: HiMY SYeD.
He calls himself The Peoples’ Mayor. It is not empty campaign rhetoric. As Mr. SYeD correctly points out, this race has been all about things. Tax cuts, subways and gravy trains. Where are the people?
Semantics, you say? A little, perhaps. But our front running candidates have all been talking about what they are going to do for people, to people. HiMY SYeD talks about what he’ll do with people. Civic engagement sits at …

By John Michael McGrath, Toronto Life
One of the much talked-about aspects of Calgary’s recent election has been how Naheed Nenshi successfully transformed social media, Twitter especially, into a campaign tool. Compare that innovation with how Toronto’s candidates have been using social media, and our mayoral hopefuls do not come out looking great. Yes, all of the major candidates—and most of the minor ones—have been using Twitter and Facebook. But no, it hasn’t mattered a lot. If Web smarts had been a major force in this campaign, we’d all be asking ourselves if prolific …

CP24′s “Your Vote – Toronto’s Race for Mayor”
Final Televised CP24 Mayoral Debate
Aired Tuesday October 19, 2010, 8 p.m.

Your Vote – Part 3
4 minute 10 second mark:
GEORGE SMITHERMAN: My first question is to Councillor Pantalone. Three weeks ago you said you would vote for me if you were not on the ballot. Since that time, a report card from ArtsVote gave me an A+, a higher mark than you receive. The Toronto Environmental Alliance gave us both A+. So I was a bit surprised to hear you encourage people …

Report by Michael Pihach, InTorontoMagTv
Mayoral debate at The 519
Two of Toronto’s top three mayoral candidates took questions from the public at the 519 Church St. Community Centre on October 18.
Issues discussed included funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, support for local business, safe injection sites and bed bugs.
IN Toronto was there.
Candidate Rob Ford was not.

By Andrea Houston, Xtra
Rob Ford may not have been at the mayoral debate at The 519 Church Street Community Centre Monday night, but that didn’t stop the two other candidates or audience members from calling him a coward for not showing up.
Even before the debate got rolling, moderator Mathieu Chantelois called Ford’s absence “disappointing.”
“He’s scared!” someone yelled from the middle of the audience, a standing-room-only crowd numbering around 300, which was largely divided between those wearing green Joe Pantalone shirts or purple George Smitherman …

YIMBY 2010
Himy Syed – Peoples’ Mayor
4th Annual YIMBY (Yes, In My Backyard)
Saturday, Oct 16, 2010 11am-4 pm
Gladstone Gallery
This October, the Gladstone Hotel with the help of Ryerson University is presented the 4th Annual YIMBY Festival. The YIMBY (Yes, In My Backyard) Festival provides a social space for your community groups and citizen’s organizations to gather and exchange ideas and strategies. YIMBY provides an opportunity for neighbours to meet neighbours, citizens to meet politicians and politicians to meet community groups, in the spirit of people coming together to say YES to …

BY Chris Bilton October 06, 2010 11:10 EYE WEEKLY
“Fringe” candidate may be the F-word of the mayoral race. In a municipal election where anyone with $200 can get their name on the ballot, and where voters will have twoscore names to choose from, it’s inevitable that some of the mayoral candidates are going to be operating under the radar. There’s probably a good reason that we don’t hear much about some of the candidates, but there are more than a few occasions where good ideas, …

By Darcy Higgins, Sustainability is Step One
Please see this note from Hollie Pollard who I’m helping to organize a fundraiser Thursday evening for the displaced from the 200 Wellesley Fire. Thank you.
From: http://commoncentsmom.com/2010/09/29/an-invite-wellesley-fire-fundraiser/
Himy Syed (yes that one, the one who is one of the darkhorse canidates for mayor of Toronto), I and a few other great volunteers are organizing a fundraiser for the residents of 200 Wellesley. We invite you to come and hear the stories of residents of 200 Wellesley this Thursday Septemeber 30th at 519 Church Street at …

Interview in Dandyhorse Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 // Fall 2010

SWEET (BIKE) DREAMS
Himy Syed, mayoral candidate

What role does the bicycle play in your life?
Bike, foot, transit, taxi. In that order, is how I prioritize how I choose to move about this city. The bicycle for me is what shoes are to most people. It’s my feet. When duties demand I be in and around the downtown core, being on a bike is much faster and more convenient than depending on the ever-increasing iffyness of our subway or streetcars. A quick …

From Dandyhorse Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 // Fall 2010
Rob Ford
“Working for the People”
Age 41, High school football coach, City Councillor for Ward 2 North Etobicoke, helps run the family business Deco Labels and Tags.
robfordformayor.ca
OLD QUOTE: “I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” — 2007
NEW QUOTE: “I will guarantee to trim the fat…at City Hall.”
BIKE LANES: No
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: A 2007 city council video (now a …

By Mike Adler, InsideToronto
There was one question everyone came to ask – the one about money.
And yes, the leading candidates to be Toronto’s mayor – save one – seemed to promise the arts community will get a lot more.
That one candidate, for those familiar with the city’s mayoral race, was no surprise.
“I would love to be able to promise it, but we’re $3 billion in debt,” Rob Ford told 400 artists, art patrons and arts workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The Etobicoke councillor voted this year to support a …

Cycling advocates aim to grow awareness amongst candidates of cyclists’ concerns with current conditions.
By Yvonne Bambrick, Toronto Cyclists Union
Toronto, September 27, 2010 – In an effort to share the daily experience of thousands of cycle commuters, the Toronto Cyclists Union led 8 of the Mayoral Candidates on a 30 minute rush-hour commute by bicycle this morning. Candidates were invited to share their experience & plans with the media at a 9:15am press conference following the ride.
Yvonne Bambrick, the Toronto Cyclists Union’s Director of Communications led today’s 20 person ride …

By Caitlin Orr – Rye Here, Rye Now
Normally, someone walking through St. James Town encounters a bouquet of scents from diverse residents’ cooking. Yesterday, the acrid smell of smoke overwhelmed all else within blocks of the neighbourhood in every direction. The source was a six-alarm blaze that spread to at least three apartments in 200 Wellesley, a high-rise managed by Toronto Community Housing. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the fire, but it was very difficult to put out because of a lot of combustible debris in the …

From rtlechow’s posterous

By Steve Kupferman, Torontoist
Today was Toronto’s tenth annual iteration of World Car Free Day. This year, for the first time, the event was held in Queen’s Park North, where roads were blockaded to car traffic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Few people turned out for the event, making it less a celebration of pedestrians and cyclists than a massive, desolate mid-day auto traffic obstruction.

Dan McDermott, director of Sierra Club Canada’s Ontario chapter, which orchestrated the event in partnership with the City, told …

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Do you vote for millionaires?
Give your head a shake!

In a bid to get a full list of the debates, his volunteer e-mailed 3-1-1. The city’s advice? Contact Rob Ford. Mr. Syed is livid that, in his view, 3-1-1 is stumping for a mayoral contender.

Yesterday was a decisive day in the 2010 campaign for mayor of Toronto because September 13th will be seen as the moment we finally achieved critical mass for crazy. In taking the battle for the Spadina Expressway underground, Rocco Rossi firmly confirmed his divisive status, going for broke with a full frontal assault on the downtown core in an effort to endear himself to those dwelling both physically and psychologically in Ford Country. We wish Mr. Rossi well in whatever future endeavours he pursues after …

By Mike Adler, InsideToronto
Underdogs and also-rans take heart: more change than usual is coming to city council, a gathering of non-incumbent candidates heard Monday, Sept. 13.
It’s normally “near impossible” to defeat a city councillor, and some can be with us for decades, but on Oct. 25 nine of 44 council seats have no incumbent running, said Himy Syed, a mayoral candidate who called council challengers to a Bloor Street church to help shorten their odds of winning.
In the front row was Daniel Murton, running to unseat Pam McConnell in Ward …