What can other cities learn from Toronto?

[Tewder]

A view from the Twin Cities:

http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/06/6-things-twin-cities-can-learn-toronto

It's interesting that the writer of the article views Toronto as a 'peer' city of Minneapolis, citing Denver and Seattle as others. It leads me to suspect that the writer has never been here. Toronto is peer to Chicago, not Minneapolis, and this is enormously obvious.

It's also interesting how disparaging of the built form the article is, it's a theme i've seen over and over again among Americans visiting or writing about Toronto. It's like we encapsulate the very worst of what they dislike about modern big-city architecture/design, viewing it as largely soul-less, cheap and utilitarian, lacking the character and romance of early twentieth century design when most US cities were in their heyday (icons of modern starchitecture notwithstanding). Little wonder that our main streets and inner neighbourhoods fare better as unlike our downtown core they do signal some distinct Toronto personality.

 

[Johnny Au]

One important thing other cities can learn from Toronto is not to vote for mayors with shady histories, unless they want worldwide attention for a bad reason.

I have a friend who currently lives in Toronto, but got a teaching position in Minneapolis (and is moving there) and she told me that Minneapolis is a much better city to live in, given how expensive everything is in Toronto, as well as how surprisingly progressive Minneapolis is with regards to public transit.

 

[Tewder]

Minneapolis is great but it is more on the scale of Ottawa or Winnipeg than Toronto, and little to no street life. Very progressive though, pretty arty and *cold*!