| What you loved and loathed last month
Upward Mobility
Condo-dwelling readers appreciated our October package on the intimate stories of the vertical city.
“Great piece in @torontolife highlighting some amazing aspects of GTA condos—and their residents, staff, kids, romances, amenities, dogs and sports teams.”
—@JoshMilgrom, Twitter
They seemed particularly taken with the true tales of elevator romances, even sharing some of their own condo meet-cutes.
“I met my husband at the garbage chute in our condo! Still going strong a decade later.”
—Laura Harte, Facebook
“Love these stories! And that guy who left the coffee and croissant by the door, I need a guy like that, lol!! Where are they, lol!??!”
—Diane Bagnarol, Facebook
The memoir by Mohamedali Bandali, who has run his little condo tuck shop for 41 years, really resonated—he has apparently touched a lot of lives.
“I’ve known Bandali for several years. Always wears the same energetic smile. What a great example he is setting: that a person should never retire from helping others. We call it sewa, and it is considered a life-long commitment.”
—Malik Ali, Facebook
“I used to work there back in high school! He really did supply everything for everyone. So cool that there’s an article about him.”
—Kathy Zaj, Facebook
“When my mother-in-law lived in the building, our boys loved visiting to get movies and snacks. He worked hard for the building’s residents—so happy to hear he’s still there!”
—Lyn Brown, Facebook
Bike to Work
Our feature on the gig economy and what it’s like to be a bike courier for the delivery apps got avid attention from both food couriers and consumers.
“Before you order your next meal on an app, give this article a read. A fascinating insight into the life of a food courier.”
—@theyutimes, Twitter
“As someone who works part time doing food delivery by bike, I have to say the author of this piece did a bloody great job with it. A lot of what he said was very accurate and totally resonated with me. Like I legit want to subscribe to Toronto Life because their longform articles are routinely great, and this was a good example of it.”
—Right_All_The_Time, Reddit
Girl, Interrupted
Michelle Shephard’s piece on Sharmini Anandavel—the Toronto teen who disappeared 20 years ago—was published to coincide with her CBC podcast on the cold case. Readers and listeners followed the story closely.
“I was 11 when this happened. It was the first news story I ever followed. It changed the course of my childhood and how I viewed the world.”
—@tiialiia, Twitter
“Certain people are imprisoned indefinitely with far less evidence.