All this month, we're making playlists about the spirit of select Toronto neighbourhoods. Our first playlist staggers through the streets of Parkdale.

Living in Parkdale: adorning myself in Public Butter finds, idling for coffee at the Mascot (RIP), and happily munching Roti Lady dishes on my front porch. Then, after a heavy rainstorm, my basement flooded with literal human waste and my landlord took off with my deposit, never to be heard from again. I thought it best to introduce this playlist, with its themes of thrift-store fashion, late nights, broke nights, and improvised dwelling, in the form of romantic 60's folk album liner-notes.

Are We Friends? Could we be? I've seen you, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, traipsing from the Queen library past the LCBO to vanish under the GO bridge. Down On the Street, you weave from Sh*thole to coffee shop humming an Unconscious Melody.

I know too well your pantomime of Insufficient Funds at the Skyline, and the full time job you make of dodging the Party Police. You imagine taking the Jameson exit to a new life - until then, you sleep little, wake late, the mirror insisting you're Getting Older. Worst, you seem to be Losing Your Taste for the Night Life. But. One More Night can't hurt us, can it?

Which 10 tracks would you use to celebrate Parkdale? Make your own Spotify playlist and tweet us the link, or leave it in the comments below.

Writing and playlist by Colin Gillespie, image by Aldrin Taroy