Wikipedia:Toronto

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

That is surprising. Note that local calling areas are in reference to a particular exchange, not to a whole area -- Oak Ridges is a local call both to 416 and to Newmarket; parts of Mississauga are a local call both to 416 and points west of Mississauga; but Oak Ridges and those parts of Mississauga are not a local call between them.

You beat me to the punch. You can't do a linear map.
I just started working in Aurora and I can call Toronto and Newmarket locally. But not Vaughan, Markham or Richmond Hill.
Someone explained to me that Bell gave residents a choice as to whether they wanted the rest of York Region or Toronto as a local call and they made their choice. That might be apocryphal.

As for the Wiki entry, it's dumb to have it apply to the old city of Toronto and we're at least 25 years past when Scarborough, North York etc were "outer surburbs." Anyone who goes to Wikipedia would certianly want info on TO as currently constituted. A sub-entry on the old city should be another entry.

And thanks for those maps. I basically knew the differences but it's great to see them.

 

[Disparishun]

CDL.TO -- good point; I missed those 519 exchanges (the two Caledon ones). And, echoing TJ, thanks again for those maps.

Someone explained to me that Bell gave residents a choice as to whether they wanted the rest of York Region or Toronto as a local call and they made their choice. That might be apocryphal.

Sounds right. The CRTC has a long-standing mechanism by which -- and I'm a bit fuzzy on the details -- where a fixed-line phone company wants to expand a local calling area, either of its own motion or because a local government has passed a motion asking the phone company to do so (the phone company is then obliged by the CRTC to look into doing it), and doing so will increase residential retail prices by more than $1 per subscriber, a simple majority of subscribers have to agree to the expanded calling area and price hike in a plebiscite.

 

[adma]

For the record, the census metropolitan area for New York extends into Pennsylvania. And that for Washington extends into West Virginia. So, if you think Orangeville is bad...

 

[egotrippin]

Yeah, I was comparing census metropolitan areas by area between Canada and the US, and theirs are massive in comparison. I believe Chicago's spreads across three states. For comparison:

Chicago metro: 28,163 sq km
Toronto metro: 7,125 sq km

To continue with the fun facts (I suppose this relates to the thread because I'm using Wikipedia) at 31,561 sq km, the Golden Horseshoe would be more comparable to American census metropolitan areas. I wonder if one day, in the "crazy future", the entire Golden Horseshoe will start to emerge as one interconnected mega-city. I often entertain myself thinking of the what-ifs and possibilities of the future here.

 

[adma]

Well, in a sense, we already have the makings of a consolidated Golden Horseshoe metro area, from Oshawa to Niagara. (Oshawa is as separate from Toronto as Kenosha is from Chicago, in case you're interested.)

Maybe not Dicky Eff-el-ay's Tor-Buff-Chester, but...

 

[MisterF]

The Greater Golden Horseshoe is already treated as one planning region by the province. I consists of Toronto and 8 other CMAs: Hamilton, Brantford, St. Catharines-Niagara, Guelph, Kitchener, Peterborough, Oshawa, and Barrie. Plus a bunch of rural areas in between. Statscan might have criteria for consolidated CMAs but I'm not sure.

 

[4grand]

Not that I don't appreciate the conversation happening in this thread, but to get back on point, does anyone feel like updating Toronto's page on Wikipedia with new pictures?

 

[SimonP]

I'm a long time contributor to Wikipedia, and a frequent UT reader, and I'd love to see more overlap between the two. There is a large and active base of Toronto Wikipedians, but experts in buildings and architecture are much in need. One article I've been trying to assemble over the last few months is the Architecture of Toronto page. It's getting better, but it's still missing much of what a detailed overview of the architecture of the city and its history should have.

Photos, which UT has in abundance, are also very much needed. There are many pages with poor or out of date pictures. One that always strikes me is the dull grey image we have for Scotia Plaza. A building like that deserves better.

 

[Skeezix]

I echo Simon's call. On the photos side, I did post a request some time ago in the City Photos forum asking UT'ers if they would be interested in uploading some of their photos to Wikipedia and its related projects, but didn't get much response. Wikipedia enjoy a lot of traffic (the eighth most visited site on the web), and with hundreds of articles related to Toronto, it is most likely one of the most important sources of information about Toronto available today. It would be great if we could improve the quality of the Toronto-related images that available for use in Wikipedia articles. There are some fantastic images here on UT that deserve a wider circulation than on this forum.

It's easy to upload images to the Toronto category over at Wikimedia Commons (the Commons is the main media repository for Wikipedia, allowing images and other media to be shared among Wikipedia, its multilingual variants and related projects -- once an image is in the Commons, it can be used on any of the Wikipedia sites). Details on contributing your own images are to be found here. The Commons only accepts images that are freely licensed or in the public domain.

The upload page is here.

Thanks.

 

[egotrippin]

I wouldn't mind contributing some photos. I've never actually edited pages and uploaded photos to Wikipedia, however I could post links to my images that I don't mind sharing. I have a lot of specific building shots, so feel free to request some. For instance, here's a shot for the Scotia Plaza page.



(Click for big)

 

[junctionist]

I know there's a lot of people here who are knowledgeable in the city's architecture, and the Architecture of Toronto page could use some work. It needs more detail on older landmarks and better descriptions of contemporary landmarks and major buildings.

It's problematic that there is no mention of Union Station, the Royal York hotel, any churches/cathedrals, the Gooderham building, or College Park in the article. There's a large section called "Rise of the suburbs" yet no mention of Don Mills.

I've added some details myself, but the amount of work needed to make it truly informative and interesting is a indeed large amount.

 

[christof53]

I think that the wikipedia page for Toronto should have the main picture in the style of other global cities like New York or London. I would make one myself but I lack the skills needed in Photoshop, although I'll give it a shot.

Here are some examples of what I mean

New York

Chicago

London

We could also discuss what to include in the multi-picture set. I'd nominate
-The CN Tower (obviously)
-The Princess Gates
-Dundas Square
-City Hall
-Skyline

 

[junctionist]

-The Princess Gates

It's actually "Princes' Gates".

 

[christof53]

It's actually "Princes' Gates".

haha sorry. I am quite embarrassed now.

 

[junctionist]

It's probably the most frequently misspelled Toronto landmark.