Starting at 7am on Friday morning, members of the Habitat Campus Coalition, a group of Toronto-area university and college students working with Habitat for Humanity, began 'living' in small outdoor wooden cabins underneath the ROM's Crystal for 24 hours. Their mission: raising awareness of overcrowding and sub-standard housing.

Since the crux of the second annual Home-A-Thon, the Habitat Campus Coalition's largest event of the year, was that it would last all night, I decided to wait until 10:30 pm (fifteen and a half hours into the event) before visiting the site. The temperature was mercifully mild even at that late hour, and I was impressed by the stamina of the participants, many of whom were dancing (ostensibly to keep warm, though the weather suggested it was mostly for fun) as a DJ played Kanye West and Cyndi Lauper.

At a press conference this morning, Mayor David Miller unveiled his $8.7 billion 2009 budget, which is set to go before city council at its meeting on March 31 and April 1. The most controversial aspect of the budget is a 4% residential property tax increase. The city's take from property taxes will only increase by 2.5%, since business property tax rates are being increased by only 2%, as part of the Mayor's broader plan to keep business tax rates down.

The Sri Lankan government's current offensive against Tamil fighters has taken a horrific humanitarian toll. Toronto's Tamil community, along with a diverse group of allies, has organized multiple demonstrations over the past week and a half. Last night I went to the Sri Lankan consulate to witness their latest effort, a candlelight vigil and call for peace.

In today's Toronto Star, John Spears takes a look at Invest Toronto and Build Toronto, sister agencies designed to increase investment and development in the city. One of the most interesting ideas comes from Greg Clark, a "London-based economic development guru who advises cities around the globe."

Clark argues that Toronto needs a core identity, one that everyone can easily understand. Among his examples are Miami ("Everyone can tell you that Miami is on the road to becoming the business hub and the capital city of the pan-American economy") and Hong Kong ("Any taxi driver will tell you Hong Kong is going to be the first city in the world where the Chinese language and system and the English language and system are going to be used by everybody, all the time. It will be completely bilingual in Chinese and English.")

So what is our core identity?

In the immediate wake of Hamas's agreement to a ceasefire, some 1000 supporters of Israel's operation in Gaza took to Yonge and Dundas square on Sunday afternoon to make their voices heard. There have been numerous rallies sparked by the recent fighting in Gaza, both in support of and against the Israeli operation. Not having had the chance to witness those in person, I headed down to Yonge and Dundas to take in the sights, and speak to some of the rally-goers.