Seven ways to make Toronto a world-class city again

[animatronic]

One thing that really bothers me with our awesome city is our public transit. I mean... if you go to Hong Kong, Singapore, etc... their public transportation is so much better in every way from buying fares to cleanliness, technology, to sheer convenience. I mean... like Holy Christ, the TTC and GO together are like archaic trains from the 1970s. HK's metro was more convenient, better in everyway since the 90s.

We can't be a world class city without world class public transportation.

It's a different generation of transit. MKR didn't open until 1979, while a lot of our infrastructure is from the 50s. Older systems are even worse. Go to London and Paris and most of their trains are small and cramped. New York's subway stations are pretty run down, because many are a century old. Newer systems like MKR are going to be nicer when built and easier to maintain.

 

[Gabinator]

It's a different generation of transit. MKR didn't open until 1979, while a lot of our infrastructure is from the 50s. Older systems are even worse. Go to London and Paris and most of their trains are small and cramped. New York's subway stations are pretty run down, because many are a century old. Newer systems like MKR are going to be nicer when built and easier to maintain.

Dude, even if that's the case. We always miss out, we always waste our $. You know their public transit's always improving, and expanding with ease. You know they got those cards that you can just charge for your fares and even use it for groceries, they had that since the early 2000s or something. I heard that tech was offered to Toronto first, but Toronto rejected it, and now it's like widely used for the last 20 years in Asia, super efficient. It's no excuse man.

 

[44 North]

Question: Is there a website like UrbanToronto for Vancouver? Or do they all just huddle on SkyScraperCity?

It would be interesting to lurk and see the kind of things they say about their own city. Observe at what things they grumble at and whether if over there they make comparisons of 'falling short' of Toronto.

It's definitely fun lurking and seeing what other residents say about their own cities. Try the forums of city's online newspapers. It's great. If you mentally blank out the names of places, projects, and politicians that posters are talking about - you'd think they'd be referring to Toronto. Hating where one lives and thinking they know what's best is a pastime the world over.

I'm at NPS right now, enjoying wikkid sunset music. Austra. Live and direct. A Tribe Called Red later.
Toronto is so frikkin boring, I could cry. Wah.

Sounds good. I had a great Toronto appreciation at the Chromeo show at NPS. You could easily spot the tourists, and see the smiles and appreciation on their faces - which is something I always take pride in. It was fantastic.

As for hating on TO, particularly from Vancouverites. One thing to keep in mind is that they're often referring to all the GTA. So when they say they hate Toronto and its flat, sprawling, blandness - it seems they're usually talking about TO north of the 401, east of Vic Park, and west of the Humber. And not just there, but the expansive enormousness of Markham, Sauga, Vaughan, Pickering...all of it. And I commiserate on that as well, unfortunately. They'll usually begrudgingly say they like the older parts of TO. But I'd have to agree that much of the GTA is irreparable and worthy of being hated on.

 

[Gabinator]

It's definitely fun lurking and seeing what other residents say about their own cities. Try the forums of city's online newspapers. It's great. If you mentally blank out the names of places, projects, and politicians that posters are talking about - you'd think they'd be referring to Toronto. Hating where one lives and thinking they know what's best is a pastime the world over.



Sounds good. I had a great Toronto appreciation at the Chromeo show at NPS. You could easily spot the tourists, and see the smiles and appreciation on their faces - which is something I always take pride in. It was fantastic.

As for hating on TO, particularly from Vancouverites. One thing to keep in mind is that they're often referring to all the GTA. So when they say they hate Toronto and its flat, sprawling, blandness - it seems they're usually talking about TO north of the 401, east of Vic Park, and west of the Humber. And not just there, but the expansive enormousness of Markham, Sauga, Vaughan, Pickering...all of it. And I commiserate on that as well, unfortunately. They'll usually begrudgingly say they like the older parts of TO. But I'd have to agree that much of the GTA is irreparable and worthy of being hated on.

Dude, not coo man. Markham is pretty sick, its a pretty well developed sub-urban, with like those big Asian malls, and awesome East Asian food, bars, recreational places, etc.

 

[diminutive]

Re. Vancouver (or the West Coast generally),

Parts of that place are hugely smug. I went to school out there. Literally the only place in the world where people have "eww-ed" when I said I was from Toronto. Not Alberta, not Quebec, not Manitoba, not anywhere else in Ontario. It's insane.

That said, I think the smugness has more to do with the 'idea' of Toronto than Toronto itself. Vancouver's internalized the Toronto-as-New-York idea more than Toronto, IMO. We're all about business and Bay St and corporations and there's 'no heart' or whatever. Since some Vancouverites like to think they're all about nature and the outdoors and that kind of granola-y stuff, Toronto's clearly bad.

It seems like most Vancouverites I've met who've actually travelled to Toronto and seen it extends beyond Bay street are a lot more positive towards Toronto.

That and Toronto's a bigger city which, incredibly, has a lower cost of living, not-clearly-worse commute times and higher wages. So you get all sorts of mental gymnastics from some guy who just mortgaged himself to the hilt to buy a cubicle on top of a generic California roll dispensary. "Vancouver has the best weather in Canada!," which is like the climatological equivalent of 'best food in a strip club.' There's also something that usually comes up about the Leafs (from Canucks fans, who have literally never won.)

 

[diminutive]

What does it mean to 'claim the title of craft beer'? What do you mean by that? Toronto has tons of craft breweries, a huge beer festival, tons of microbreweries... so what do you want done? Diminutive is saying it's been 'killed by the Beer Store'. Well, I'm not going to lie, the Beer Store oligopoly is hilariously bad, but:

Did you go to the sold out Beer Festival? http://beerfestival.ca/

Left Field was serving pints at the Roundhouse (home of one Steam Whistle Brewery) last weekend, according to their Twitter: http://www.craftbeerfest.ca/

Amsterdam's Lakeside taphouse has a GREAT deck and late night store selling their suds.

And, C'est What? exists. So, the world is a better place.

Why do we need an industrial policy to support beer? Just go buy a case.

When I brought up the craft-beer thing I meant it as an example of a general municipal conservatism. I could have just as easily used the food cart debacle. Or the Parkdale bar ban. Or the CabbageTown stasi complaining about splashpads. Or the inevitable Leslieville-area complains about a new bar license.

And, sure, despite these things Toronto still has some very good craft breweries, some very good bars, some very good restaurants and so forth. But you have to also ask what the marginal impact is of all this conservatism. Left Field Brewery went through a bureaucratic hell march to open because 'manufacturers' are required to have 5 parking spots. "In order to get past that requirement, we went through a costly process to engage architects, engineers and city officials," recalls co-owner Mandie Murphy." For every Left Field that manages to sneak through, there are clearly some entrepeneuring would be urbanists who are dissuaded.

Portland has over 80 craft breweries in a city of 600,000. The existence of a few bright spots doesn't change the fact we're a bit of a black hole for craft brew. I mean, we're so far away from the title of "Craft Brew capital of the world" that it's kind of insane to even discuss it.

 

[allabootmatt]

It's always good to look at what others think - and sometimes it can be rather unflattering:

http://landlopers.com/2013/07/22/visit-toronto

AoD

Jeez. The guy doesn't like London? That's just bizarre. Who doesn't like London? It's the city with the most to offer tourists of anyplace in the world, all tied together by phenomenal infrastructure and public spaces polished to a sheen that barely even exists elsewhere in Europe, let alone North America. Sorry, but that I just can't understand.

Re Toronto, hey, I love it. It's vibrant, hip, international, and has great restaurants. What more ya need?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

When I brought up the craft-beer thing I meant it as an example of a general municipal conservatism. I could have just as easily used the food cart debacle. Or the Parkdale bar ban. Or the CabbageTown stasi complaining about splashpads. Or the inevitable Leslieville-area complains about a new bar license..

Notice how all these examples municipal conservatism are driven by the fear of negative consequences, however minute and remote they might be.

Jeez. The guy doesn't like London? That's just bizarre. Who doesn't like London? It's the city with the most to offer tourists of anyplace in the world, all tied together by phenomenal infrastructure and public spaces polished to a sheen that barely even exists elsewhere in Europe, let alone North America. Sorry, but that I just can't understand.

Re Toronto, hey, I love it. It's vibrant, hip, international, and has great restaurants. What more ya need?

What's odd is that Melbourne is held up as one of the best, when it's a fairly similar type of city as Toronto.

AoD

 

[44 North]

Dude, not coo man. Markham is pretty sick, its a pretty well developed sub-urban, with like those big Asian malls, and awesome East Asian food, bars, recreational places, etc.

Yeah, for sure. All the municipalities in the GTA are good, and great places to raise families. But owning a car usually a must, and many of those who grow up there rely on being driven around by parents until they can a) be gifted a car when they're of age (+ allowances for insurance, fuel, maintenance, etc), or b) be allowed to use transit (which many times isn't that useful, and helps fortify the case for option a). Not that Vancouver or most suburban metro areas are any different, which takes me to the next point.

IMO a major part of Vancouverites' superiority stems from their geography, which allows for natural breaks in sprawl in the form of mammoth and lush hills, forests, and rivers. Here in the GTA our largest/longest "greenspaces" are seemingly highway and hydro corridors. We do have creeks and small rivers, not to mention Rouge Park. But our relatively flat and unconstrained geography and late-in-the-game attempts at curbing sprawl have left us with few of the large bisecting greenspaces that you'd find in metro Vancouver. If you look at past plans for GTA growth from the 60s and 70s you'd see that greenspaces and natural buffers were key in creating the borders between individual cities. Sadly, that hasn't really happened. You can drive on some GTA highways/major arterials for tens of kms without seeing a major natural area or even being aware that you've passed through multiple municipalities.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Jeez. The guy doesn't like London? That's just bizarre. Who doesn't like London? It's the city with the most to offer tourists of anyplace in the world, all tied together by phenomenal infrastructure and public spaces polished to a sheen that barely even exists elsewhere in Europe, let alone North America. Sorry, but that I just can't understand.

Re Toronto, hey, I love it. It's vibrant, hip, international, and has great restaurants. What more ya need?

FWIW, my jaded 15-year old wasn't a fan of London. She was like, "Meh. It's OK, but I much prefer Paris and Florence, and it's not as exciting as Istanbul." OK, then...

One thing that's interesting about London -- the natural history museum is pretty terrible (particularly when compared to the British or V&A). I'd say the ROM does a much better job on that front. Lots and lots of fantastic in London, of course -- and the Tower of London poppy display was one of the most amazing 'big art' displays I've ever seen.

 

[SunriseChampion]

I've never been (which I think is sad), but London just seems like the capital of the world to me. I suppose it sort of was at one point just that...in a sunset never sets imperial kind of way.

 

[Johnny Au]

Let'a not forget about how we should not emulate Atlanta (and yet, Atlanta managed to beat Toronto for the rights to host the 1996 Summer Olympics).

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Jeez. The guy doesn't like London? That's just bizarre. Who doesn't like London? It's the city with the most to offer tourists of anyplace in the world, all tied together by phenomenal infrastructure and public spaces polished to a sheen that barely even exists elsewhere in Europe, let alone North America. Sorry, but that I just can't understand.

Re Toronto, hey, I love it. It's vibrant, hip, international, and has great restaurants. What more ya need?

Toronto and Lodon both have a similar vibe. I'm not surprised that someone who doesn't like London wouldn't like Toronto (and vice versa).

 

[OttoSchloss]

What fascinates me (aside from anyone not liking London) are the people that lined up to respond to this nobody's article. Canadians will take any opportunity to shit on Toronto but rarely would Torontonians barely stretch a finger muscle to log their hatred or toss a few insults at some other Canadian city.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Let'a not forget about how we should not emulate Atlanta (and yet, Atlanta managed to beat Toronto for the rights to host the 1996 Summer Olympics).

I recall seeing a documentary on how they choreographed everything to perfection during the assessment site visit, Just as an example off the top of my head - one of the components of the visit involves their subway - and the organizers were able to make sure a train get to the station the moment the officials entered the platform area. Of course n the end they couldn't even to make sure the bus drivers know where to go during the games (among the myriad of other glitches).

What fascinates me (aside from anyone not liking London) are the people that lined up to respond to this nobody's article. Canadians will take any opportunity to shit on Toronto but rarely would Torontonians barely stretch a finger muscle to log their hatred or toss a few insults at some other Canadian city.

For the record I think the blog is by an American (which of course tend to have a certain take on the world). As to the hatred thing - as a Torontonian I don't see any need for it, especially considering they really aren't our competitors (they may think otherwise, however). They could very well consider that "arrogance" - I consider it a statement of fact. It's like I don't know, Milwaukee trying to believe it is the better of New York City.

AoD