Side Street starts where official city guides end. We care about the places people teach one another to use: the bench that catches sun in November, the bakery shift where friends swap local news, the practice room that exists because somebody kept asking for it.

We do not treat youth culture as a trend report. It is work, negotiation, style, friendship and the hard business of making room. Our contributors write in their own pace, which means a dispatch can sit beside a photo essay or a sharp note from a transit rider.

This week, our notebook begins at a neighbourhood court after a short rain. The game is not the whole story. The people waiting, watching and making plans for later are the story too.