First, the good news. After years (some might say decades) of delay, Toronto is finally getting its Air Rail Link (ARL). It may not be everyone's preferred route or technology but at long last the city will be joining the one-hundred-plus urban centres around the globe that already have dedicated rapid transit connections from their airports to their downtown core.

Now, the bad news. At the December 19th press conference, fares were ominously described as "well under the typical $50 price of a cab or airport limo downtown." Uh-oh. Given that Toronto is already tolerating one of North America's most expensive public transit systems, this was not a promising statement.

On Monday night the legendary Buck 65 helped kick off the Drake Underground's five-day concert series What's in the Box with a set of joyful songs meant to cure the crowd's seasonal sloth.

The session, which started at 11pm, brought us back to Buck's hip hop roots with a set list filled with up-tempo beats from start to finish (meant for non-wimps: his words, not mine). With the wicked and weird dance moves one has come to expect from his performances, Buck compelled the crowd to dance out of their turkey comas.

Leaving the Great Hall on Wednesday night, my ears were still ringing from the intensity with which Fucked Up rocked the historic venue. Playing an uninterrupted (with the exception of a two minute break to duct tape the drum kit back together) live performance featuring all the material from their latest album release, David Comes To Life. The energy and enthusiasm in the room was palpable, leading me to wonder at one point whether the Great Hall might actually be named for the calibre of shows it hosts — well, at least for one night, anyway.

Toronto is a unique city, and so is its public transit system. Few other places in North America offer quite the same mix of subway, streetcar and bus transit, all tied together by a single fare. But there are parallels and similarities out there if you look closely enough. Boston and Philadelphia offer perhaps the closest match of a smallish subway network mixed with legacy streetcar lines, and San Francisco closely mirrors the political tensions of the TTC, Metrolinx and GO with its Muni, BART and Caltrain mash-up.

Heather Gold is a self-professed web veteran. She regularly communicates on Twitter and Facebook, and competes to be mayor of check in points on FourSquare. That experience came in handy recently when she used her social media savvy to draw attention to an incident involving her and her partner Mariko Tamaki last Saturday. The couple allege they were victims of discrimination due to their sexual orientation on December 4th. According to Tamaki and Gold, they were kicked out of a toy store called the Toy Terminal in Queen's Quay Terminal for a same sex public display of affection, which the owner of the store allegedly deemed "inappropriate for families."

The best shoe stores in Toronto have a way of halving your take home-income. I usually prove quite responsible when it comes to discretional spending, but all of that strategic financial planning goes out the window when I pass a pair of sale-marked peep-toes staring at me through through a glass pane.

The best shoe stores in Toronto offer a mix of casual, chic, and contemporary styles, selecting and presenting unique designs that (hopefully) don't leave you with too many blisters at the end of the night. Most of the shoe stores on this list have reigned over the Toronto footwear fight for years, but there are a couple of new(ish) arrivals that haven't entered quietly. Must be all those chunky heels.

From irresistible Louboutin's to eco-friendly El Naturalista's, here are the best shoe stores in Toronto.