The last few weeks I've been working in Toronto, subletting a loft in a converted toy factory in the new neighborhood of Liberty Village. A few minute walk from a streetcar stop, I'm also around the corner from the Academy of Spherical Arts (which is on Snooker Street), the new incarnation of Mildred Pierce restaurant, a Balzac's coffee shop, 24-hour grocery store, LCBO, and more. I don't even move my car except to come back to Waterloo.
Sure, there are some weird things. The traffic's crazy. It's congested and definitely dirtier than Waterloo. Toronto businessmen all seem to wear the same style of slip-on flat-toed shoe and the same shade pink shirt.
But great heavens, what a wonderful city! It's everything a city should be, with vibrant neighborhoods, a huge cultural scene, live-work mixed together, beauty, walkability. Added to all that, it's safe and it's friendly. I have been lucky to live and work in London, New York, Boston, Ottawa, Sofia and Dar-es-Salaam, and to spend time in a number of other great cities, but really, nothing beats Toronto.
14 comments:
I'd agree with you on everything you said about what's great about Toronto... I just like Vancouver better... lol... I like big cities, so these two qualify for Canada... Montreal is my favorite Eastern City, however...
Comparing Vancouver and Montreal with Toronto seems downright perverse. Toronto is simply in a different league. People who don’t see this must be stuck in the past. And the results are unfortunate. Consider the following controversy, as announced by the Globe & Mail February 10:
"An announcement by the Conservative government in last week's budget that it was giving a one-time $25-million endowment to launch the [Canada Prizes for the Arts and Creativity] has left many questioning whether this is a misuse of precious federal cultural dollars. The brainchild of philanthropists David Pecaut and Tony Gagliano, architects of Toronto's Luminato Festival, the prizes are to be awarded annually in Toronto to emerging international artists....
"The Bloc Québécois has also been leading a charge against Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore for his decision to fund the prizes, first in an article last week in Le Devoir and then in the House of Commons the following day, criticizing the awards as a Toronto-centric endeavour with little benefit for the rest of Canada, particularly Quebec.".
Isn’t it time to recognize that Toronto is the centre of the [Canadian] universe, our only world-class city? It is the financial centre of the country. It is far and away our largest [home to approximately 5.5 million Canadians] and wealthiest metropolitan area, the location of most of its cultural resources, the best opera, music and dance, offers on balance the best restaurants, offers the most serendipitous street life, and has on its doorstep the best vineyards and vintners. All of this can be admitted without disparaging the virtues of the hinterlands and many smaller places in Canada. Toronto is also by a wide margin the most ethnically diverse and therefore cosmopolitan city in the country, perhaps in the world. 140 languages and dialects are spoken in Toronto, 1/2 of the residents were born outside Canada, for 47% of us our mother tongue is neither English nor French, we have 200 distinct ethnic origins, 30% of us speak a language other than English or French at home. Finally, in Richard Florida’s sense, Toronto is Canada’s most creative city.
In France, an unusually large proportion of the country’s resources is devoted to developing Paris. This reflects the French version of the once popular slogan south of our border, that “what’s good for General Motors is good for America". Arguably the same principle applies here: What's good for Toronto is good for Canada. It should be easy to persuade French-Canadian Montrealers of this; they are after all at bottom French and should see that what works in France will work here as well. Perhaps Vancouverites, being so far away from the centre of action, will be harder to persuade; ditto Calgarians, whose ties to Texas, which as a Lone Star state is not the centre of anything, may prove too strong. But in the end they should come around, particularly after having had a chance to bathe in the reflected glory emanating from a well-funded and therefore resurgent Toronto.
There is an immediate practical implication of our adopting the French approach of favouring their major city, which would have Toronto playing Paris to Montreal's Lyon. This may be put it in the form of a proposal, or even demand: In allocating resources from the recently approved stimulus package, we must ensure that in excess of 1/8th of the total resources are showered on the Toronto metropolitan area, where in excess of 1/8th of Canadians live. This means that of the $40 billion or so that has been approved, around $4 billion should go to Toronto. If of course we are to take seriously the French idea, that what's good for your major city is good for the whole country, that amount should perhaps go up to around $6-7 billion.
But I don't like donuts
I like going to the bathroom
I don't want to go the hospital!
I don't wan to go...
It's illegal to possess brightly coloured balloons in Toronto
Illegal to own brightly coloured balloons
All of the children in Toronto must wear suits
Even the girls
Three piece suits
The buildings in Toronto have no windows
I don't want to go...
Hi Bruce... That song "I Don't Want to Go to Toronto" by Radio Free Vestibule (I love the Vestibule!) (you can hear the song here) is a great take on the way many in Canada talk about Toronto.. a sort of hysterical, paranoid mess of misinformation. It's amazing how much dislike there is of our biggest city.
...Of course, the Vestibule are also from Montreal, which was Canada's biggest city until Toronto eclipsed it about 30 years ago, so there may be some real resentment in there too...
Hi Ferd -
I think you raise some great points that aren't discussed enough. To be diplomatic, we don't have to call Toronto Canada's only world-class city, but we could recognize that it's arguably the greatest city in the world, or at least on par with a handful of others.
Your stimulus suggestion makes sense to me. Over 1/8ths of Canadians live in Toronto, so over 1/8th of the stimulus package should be spent there, but that's just a benchmark, and probably should be doubled.
I think it annoys Torontonians to no ends that Vancouver consistently ranks in the top 5 best cities in the world (quite often #1) publications like the Economist of the UK. You think Toronto is the centre of the universe and don't understand why everyone else doesn't agree with you.
Get over yourselves.
Hi Reid -
Your assumption that Vancouver's successes annoy anyone in Toronto is akin to saying that kids in Toronto have to wear three-piece suits. It's silly, ignorant and paranoid.
I think what Toronto needs is an "I [heart] Toronto campaign... Bumper stickers, t-shirts, the works. I think that Toronto mayors have been negligent in not doing this sooner. It worked for NY.
Toronto is truly a world class city, and one of 3 I would prefer to live in, in Canada. I chose Vancouver for the weather, mountains, ocean, laid-back lifestyle, but I love spending time in Toronto and Montreal. Montreal has the "old world charm". Toronto has the corporate "mega-city" appeal - and a good concentration of arts, and Vancouver has the setting and West Coast lifestyle (and DON'T call us a "Western" city - we are "West Coast" - hate being equated to Calgary/Dallas North)...
I have too many family and friends to live on the west coast, but if things had gone differently I'd love to live in Vancouver. Besides everything else you mention, there's the lush plant life and the Japanese influence on gardening... heaven!
Bruce [and Yappa and Vestibule themselves] may not know that some of us in Toronto have embraced 'I don't wanna...' as our civic anthem, often sung in Mandarin or Russian. I had never heard the English version until I clicked on Yappa's link. Thanks for that Yappa. Please note, Reid, that Ferd didn't say Toronto is Canada's BEST city and I hope he doesn't think so. That would be a foolish claim. Like calling New York the best American city. It's big, it's diverse, in a category of its own; it's got everything. But that includes a whole lot that is nasty as well. I have to say though that I wouldn't live anywhere else (for long). Vancouver and Montreal have a lot going for them. They are easy to like. But Toronto is in a whole other category. If it were a candidate for 'BEST' city, along with Vancouver and Montreal, then there would be no need to throw stimulus money at it, or at least anything more than a token amount. But Toronto has reached a critical mass, to the point where, as they say, 'as Toronto goes so goes Canada'. What happens to Vancouver and Montreal, by contrast, is less critical for our national well-being.
Lol... Yup, you should see my new garden and pond. I have pears, plums, cherries, apples, grapes, and a nice pond (all self-made)... I really love the gardening aspect here. We are still eating our spinach, green beans and herbs from the garden... And I love the Japanese garden themes. I actually buy most of my stuff from a Japanese nursery.
"some of us in Toronto have embraced 'I don't wanna...' as our civic anthem, often sung in Mandarin or Russian."
Oh my god. Links?
Bruce...help me. What would a link look like here? A Skype of the songfest? Trust me. We speak Russian and Mandarin up here, and sing in pubs. And tell lies to one another.
I'm with Bruce... I want to hear the Vestibules sung in Chinese!
By the way, small thing, but to avoid misinterpretations, in my last comment I meant to say that I have too many friends and family IN THE EAST to be able to move west... in case anyone thinks I think Vancouverites don't have friends or family... ;-)
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