By Katherine Dunn | Toronto Star
A surprise gift has put a Toronto man back on the road, after a bike thief frustrated his plans to pedal to 30 mosques in 30 days during Ramadan.
“This could have been a Metropass ending,” said Himy Syed, whose beloved bike was stolen while he napped inside a downtown mosque last week. “It isn’t going to be.”
On Sunday, Canadian Tire, who heard about his project “30 Masjids” in the Toronto Star, gave him a new set of wheels.
Landon French, Vice President of Community Relations at …

By Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif | Toronto Star
Being on a peaceful religious journey won’t spare you from Toronto’s bike thieves.
Himy Syed walked into the 52 Division police station with his severed bicycle lock, dejected.
His curious journey — pedaling his metallic orange Norco to 30 different mosques during Ramadan — was slowed down by a bike thief with bolt cutters.
“That’s all I got,” he told the police officer, holding up the Kryptonite lock.
Around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, Syed biked to Masjid Toronto, the downtown mosque at Chestnut and Dundas Sts., …

By Noor Javed | Toronto Star

Already, over the course of the month in which Muslims abstain from drinking and eating from sunrise to sunset, he has made his way to 10 of the city’s mosques, or masjids in Arabic, and has been blogging about his experience so far at 30masjids.ca.

And even though he arrives to his destination hungry, his posts (other than a few pictures) are rarely about the food.

“I didn’t want to just say, hey, this is what I ate,” said Syed, who ran for mayor in 2010. “I am meeting the individuals who built the masjids. This is living history and oral traditions that nobody has been documenting,” he said.

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
Here’s an item from the weekend that shouldn’t be missed: the Toronto Star/Angus Reid survey on Rob Ford’s approval rating, subways, and who Torontonians trust on these issues. But before we dive in to the numbers, why does a poll like this matter three years before an election? Because the Mayor and his brother Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etoicoke North) think they’ve got re-election in the bag. From Marcus Gee’s Saturday column in the Globe and Mail:
Councillor Ford said …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
The Toronto Star has an important point in its latest article over the chaos that is Toronto’s transit planning, since yesterday’s TTC meeting torpedoed Karen Stintz’ (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) attempt to get some answers from staff. From the Star:
The vote prompted some city councillors to suggest it’s more important than ever to put the mayor’s transit plans before city council even if it means calling a special council meeting.
“It’s clear that a majority of council doesn’t think this administration and its few …

Posted by John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto
One of the items that was supposed to be on the agenda at the City of Toronto Executive Committee meeting today was the potential sale of 740 units, most of which are single-family homes, from Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s stock, the plan being to use the money to spruce up the remaining apartments in TCHC’s inventory.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the committee. Ford unexpectedly, and almost at the last minute—the city clerk sent out a …

By John Michael McGrath, OpenFile Toronto

People shouldn’t make too much of Rob Ford losing the occasional vote in a committee or even at council. That said, there’s a number of recent stories that suggest the mayor’s office might not have iron-clad control over the budget process already, and that the real fight hasn’t even started (the height of battle will come in January when the budget goes to city council).
First we’ve got news from the Toronto Public Library Board meeting last night, where …

By Alyshah Hasham, Toronto Star
Ninety-three candles flickered in the night at Little Norway Park, as Norwegians and Torontonians held a vigil for the victims of the massacres in Oslo and Utoya island on Sunday.
At 9:30 p.m., the small group held a moment of silence.
Kari Dehli came to the park on Queens Quay to be with others from Norway, “rather than sitting at home, looking at the internet for the news … just to be with other people. It’s also what’s going on in Norway, people …

Mayor Rob Ford: “I never supported #Jarvis Bike Lanes…only rumour I want ‘em removed..not a priority” #bikeTO #TOcouncil

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 …

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, …

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 …

Editorial in Share, Canada’s Largest Ethnic Newspaper
Former Ontario Conservative Party leader, John Tory, has put an end to speculation over his plans for October’s mayoralty race. He is not running.
Tory, who is already very active in civic life as Co-chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance and has his own radio talk show, has made it clear that he will not run for mayor of Toronto a second time. This should end the public’s (and mainstream media’s) infatuation with the idea.
In response, a Toronto Star editorial stated, apparently without any intention …

From Toronto Star, Page B8, Monday April, 30 2007.
Joyous self-absorption. A dead giveaway that a city has come of age.
Two baby websites show Toronto is ready to spend time poring over its own stuff rather than nymag and Parisist postings.
One-week-old tomorrow, ourfaves.com lets Torontophiles list, rate and cross-index their favourite people, places and things in the city. (Full disclosure: the startup was incubated in Torstar Digital). If the new online community thinks someone has the best urban wisdom, the community can make that person a star.
BlogTO spilled the news about Torontopedia, the city’s …

By Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star
Himy Syed is brimming over with passion and stories about Toronto.
He’s already shared four of them — and may add even more — to the Toronto Story initiative, which is collecting tales of the past and present and hopes for the future as part of a month-long festival celebrating the city.
There are his one-time encounters with Honest Ed Mirvish in his Harbord Village neighbourhood or putting a book of condolences at Dooney’s Cafe on Bloor St. W. for neighbours to sign as a tribute to late …

By Naomi Carniol and Betsy Powell, Toronto Star
While police detectives picked up dozens of bullet fragments and cartridge cases, shoppers returned to Yonge St. yesterday.
Less than 24 hours earlier, the stretch of Yonge Between Gould and Gerrard Sts. was a scene of chaos as a shootout claimed the life of a 15-year-old girl and left six other people wounded.
Four of the victims were male, including a 41-year-old off-duty police officer, and three were female.
At a police briefing yesterday, Det. Sgt. Savas Kyriacou of the homicide squad said the shooting started …