photo by STEVE PAYNE best reason for hope on city council David Miller, Ward 13 (Parkdale-High Park) Mel Lastman says Miller will never be mayor because he says stupid things. Gee, we thought that was Mel's job. This councillor's supposed stupidity has made him the leader of the unofficial opposition at City Hall on all the issues that matter, most notably the push for a judicial inquiry into the MFP computer leasing scandal. His plan to contest the mayoralty in next year's municipal election is sparking high-level interest on both the left and the right.

That's if we could drag him away from his happening Cash Brothers musical career. The activist who tried to break the nasty habit of big tobacco's sponsorship of cultural events is also a passionate peacenik. That was him campaigning to remove the sword from the cross at St. Paul's Anglican Church at Jarvis and Bloor. All the right values - and a great partier besides. The perfect alt pol.most improved councillorBas Balkissoon, Ward 41 (Scarborough-Rouge River)Balkissoon ran with the Lastman crowd during the first term of megacity council but saw the light after the 2000 civic vote. It was he who got the first hint that something was wrong in the city's information and technology department. And it was his dogged digging as chair of council's audit committee that forced his colleagues to confront growing concerns that a culture of corruption was growing at City Hall.

In rain, wind or snow, these women in black head to the Israeli consulate just before the Sabbath. To avoid confrontation and maintain their characteristic solemnity, they congregate across the street, next to the ROM fence, standing in a row with their banner, and there's no chanting.5 to 6 pm, at 180 Bloor West

He's the one-time chair of former Metro council, ex-Sun publishing exec, booster both of the fiscally disastrous Skydome and the ill-fated Olympic bid. And now Toronto Blue Jays CEO. But his favourite sport is pulling the strings of local politicians, particularly one Mel Lastman. From his buds at Queen's Park, he landed a shockingly juicy health tax rebate for big pro sports teams. Now he's pulling for the Union Station development and a McDonald's drive-through - just about everything we hate.

Overlooking the Don Valley and skirting Chinatown East, the city's oldest joint, a dungeon-like structure built in 1873, is composed of its original section, now closed, and a new wing. Every year more than 10,000 people pass through its forbidding doors to await trial or sentencing. While there are 561 beds, OPSEU workers at the jail complain of chronic overcrowding, saying the place is like a pressure cooker about to explode. The government keeps promising to shut the clink down. Not a moment too soon. If you're called upon to give a buddy or loved one support, visiting hours are between 1:30 and 4:30 pm daily.55 Gerrard East

The southerly extension of Lower Portland Street honours Leckie, a revered former board of ed chair and city councillor who died in 1998. The bearded teddy bear of a man inspired projects including the Healthy City Program, the Food Policy Council, the Bring Back the Don Task Force, the White Ribbon Campaign and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. His last project involved Kyoto and global climate change. Leckie's spirit can be felt wherever communities pull together to foster democracy and safeguard the earth.

The author of The Arena Of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality And The Meaning Of Sex and the recently published Body Fascism: Salvation In The Technology Of Physical Fitness is the first openly gay professor at U of T to be awarded tenure on the basis of his queer research and possibly the only gay professor in physical education in the world. Would you believe he's also got cross-appointments to the department of public health sciences and the Centre for the Study of Religion?

Poet, novelist and teacher, Brand sets the standard for how to probe and weave problematic issues in ways that make sense of them all. Poetry to die for, essays on identity that go way beyond ideology (No Language Is Neutral) and sexy fiction, too (In Another Place Not Here), most of it Caibbean-tinged in a way that's specific to T.O. Vancouver women know all about the charismatic Brand. She's been poached by Simon Fraser University to act as the Ruth Wynn Woodward Professor in Women's Studies. But she'll be back.

Until the Varsity Restaurant went tits up and Shoppers Drug Mart started closing at midnight, the corner of Bloor and Spadina - with an all-day Dominion, Super Save Market and Kinko's - was a shoo-in for this award. But it's been eclipsed by the corner of Yonge and Carlton. Chow down at the Golden Griddle or Fran's at any time of the day or night, stock up at the Hasty Market or get your fix at the Shoppers Drug Mart just blocks away at Bay and Gerrard. Bonus - the TTC runs 24/7 on both Yonge and College.

If you don't want to suck up to your successful brother to get his company's Leafs tickets, there's an easier, cheap way to see great hockey in Toronto. Sure, you can grovel for the company seats and sit in an arena that has the atmosphere of a morgue, or you can shell out $12.50 to see some of the city's most exciting hockey up close. Junior league games by the St. Mikes Majors are explosive both on and off the ice, with players desperate to impress and fans in the stands howling for blood. There are no superstars, just the hockey itself taking the spotlight. Unless the spotlight blows out. This funky old arena is known for occasional game-time blackouts.1515 Bathurst, tickets: 416-651-8228, 416-872-5000

The ROM is a great de-stresser, particularly if you visit in short snatches so all those ancient Chinese vases don't put you entirely to sleep. As you leave, sit for a few minutes in the gold mosaic rotunda, gaze at the spectacular dome and marvel at the days when public institutions were designed to elevate, not demoralize the human spirit.100 Queen's Park, 416-586-5549

This bland grey box at the foot of Yonge on the edge of the lake creates an urban dead zone. Built in the early 70s, the Star's soulless skyscraper would look bad in 905 Land, but in the middle of downtown its suburban-sprawl feel sucks the life out of a potentially booming lakeside neighbourhood. Its massive parking lot creates a windy wasteland on the north side, while the building's lack of any street face - no retail - raises an unseen wall between the building and the city. Pointless, meandering steps push the building further back from the hood, and don't even think about some residential on any of the high-rise's floors. This flop of a structure is all the more appalling since the Star's old home, built in 1929 at 80 King West, was a treaure What about Atkinson principles for architecture? No wonder these guys don't care about more airplanes at the Island Airport. It's not where they live.1 Yonge

Puff up before you enter. Inside, take a lungful of the steamy tropical air and sit among palms, eucalyptus trees and cacti. Then gaze through the glass walls and watch winter's white rage on the outside. The elegant structure stays open 10 am to 5 pm every day.Carlton and Jarvis

Forget grim-faced Marxists gulping vodka in smoky taverns - today's iconoclasts sip fair-trade coffee at places like the Moonbean. Here, you're likely to come upon everything from NDP strategy sessions to activism advice. Maybe it's the proximity to the original union haunt, the Labour Lyceum, or maybe it's the spirit of anarchist icon Emma Goldman still roaming the old Kensington neighbourhood.30 St. Andrew, 416-595-0327

Here the chairs are arranged in a circle or semi-circle, part of the Quaker tradition promoting equality and leaderlessness, and the large glass windows look out on a peaceful garden, a soothing sight in the middle of a political debate. Three centuries of pacifist Quakerism linger, giving this venue its spiritual tranquility.60 Lowther, 416-921-0368

You have to find it first, though. This old-school coffee shop littered with the day's newspapers is tucked away beside the UC quadrangle under Gothic arches. Sipping a latte, you can tune in to drama students polishing their monologues, philosophy majors sparring over Kant or the snores of night owls catching a few Zs on the couch.15 King's College Circle

York's campus/gulag was reportedly designed to discourage student uprisings by providing no real meeting places, only thoroughfares and wastelands (and soul-destroying architecture). Luckily, students always find a way. And between the underground tunnels and window slots more suited to medieval marksmen than sun-starved students, the bright, friendly Environmental Studies Lounge is comparable to a tropical beach. Marvel at the yummy vegan fare, the hodgepodge of couches and ever-changing student artwork. And see if you can skip as many classes here as we did.Third floor, Lumbers Building

Biking north, the escarpment that runs from the Don Valley to Caledonia just south of St. Clair is one killer hill. Here's a west-side secret, a scenic route that follows part of the Garrison Creek bed. From Davenport, take Oakwood north one block to Regal, make a left and an immediate right onto Springmount, a cool S-curved street lined with houses high on the ravine, some with as many as 39 steps (we counted) from the curb to their front doors. At Rosemount - note commemorative plaque - turn left, and then right a block later onto Glenholme. And there's St. Clair West!

Beds fully made up and all ready for you to relax on with the starving babe. Just try not to leak all over. Oh yeah, and by the time you walk to the Gap, it'll be time for a diaper change. Lucky you. The bathrooms there are honkin' huge and tr�s baby-friendly.Bloor and Yonge; Queen and Bay

Wild swans are really escapees from dull lives as ornamental birds on landscaped ponds. Once their owners tried to keep them there by clipping their wings, but the flight feathers grew back and the graceful creatures sprang themselves. Naturalists don't like them because they eat aquatic plants right down to the roots and out-compete native birds. Watch them nesting in their weedy spots along the shore, winter or summer.The foot of Leslie Street

A more-than-100-year-old tradition among Toronto Island residents, this version of pond hockey gets harder to play as global warming makes for a less reliable ice sheet. When solid ice does form in the many lagoons, the games are a glorious picture of cooperation. Locals of all ages shovel huge areas to create a massive rink. Faced with unreliable lake ice for the last 10 years, residents have built their own rink in Ward's Island Park. Scrounging fire hose and using water from the city's hydrant, they create an Olympic-size rink, using discarded boardwalk planks for its boards. They recently affixed halogen lamps to some nearby fenceposts to extend the games through twilight. Hey Tories - how easy do you think it's going to be to move these downtowners off their land? Look for the islanders to win this one in overtime.

Here you can stand in the comforting shade of 200-year-old black oaks that some call Toronto's living fossils. Locals make a huge effort to nurture these rare giants. Just because that tree down the street from you has a wide girth doesn't mean that, like these oaks, it was here before Toronto. Only an expert who knows how to drill a small sample and count the rings knows for sure.Between Grenadier Pond and West Road