Toronto 145 Wellington West | 213.05m | 61s | H&R REIT | PARTISANS

Yes, you can probably tell that i'm fed up with the way things have been going (or havent been going in this city) and it's because Toronto has been going backwards for the past X years. Even though this is the case I know we're capable of much greater things, which is why I pine on the city for being laggards with just about everything these days.

Why would I be happy with mediocrity when we can do so much better?

A booming economy and cultural sectors. One of the fastest growing tech scenes on the continent. Lowest office vacancy rates in history. Beautiful new and upgraded parks across the city. A game-changing surface rapid transit corridor that is now being studied all over the world. A massive crosstown rapid transit project within a couple years of completion. Taste of the [insert cultural cuisine/neighbourhood here]. Pride. Caribana. TIFF. Hot Docs. Ravines. Rouge Park. The Bluffs. The Zoo. The aquarium. The Brickworks. The Islands. The Martin Goodman Trail. Kensington Market. AGO. ROM. The Ex. One of the top universities in the world. Projects under construction or in-planning by RSH+P; Frank Gehry; Foster+Partners; DSRNY; COBE; 3XN; Wilkinson Eyre; BIG, etc. A new *river being built*, most of which will turn into a massive park designed by a world-leading landscape architect.

If you're not seeing the positivity and excitement in there, you're either not looking or you want to live in a very different city than most urban dwellers do.

Are there problems? Yes, obviously. Is that the case in literally every other city in the world? Yes, obviously.

Even if one can't bring oneself all the way to optimism, this is still undoubtedly one hell of an interesting time to be in Toronto, and I for one am damn glad I moved from NYC to be here.
 
A booming economy and cultural sectors. One of the fastest growing tech scenes on the continent. Lowest office vacancy rates in history. Beautiful new and upgraded parks across the city. A game-changing surface rapid transit corridor that is now being studied all over the world. A massive crosstown rapid transit project within a couple years of completion. Taste of the [insert cultural cuisine/neighbourhood here]. Pride. Caribana. TIFF. Hot Docs. Ravines. Rouge Park. The Bluffs. The Zoo. The aquarium. The Brickworks. The Islands. The Martin Goodman Trail. Kensington Market. AGO. ROM. The Ex. One of the top universities in the world. Projects under construction or in-planning by RSH+P; Frank Gehry; Foster+Partners; DSRNY; COBE; 3XN; Wilkinson Eyre; BIG, etc. A new *river being built*, most of which will turn into a massive park designed by a world-leading landscape architect.

If you're not seeing the positivity and excitement in there, you're either not looking or you want to live in a very different city than most urban dwellers do.

Are there problems? Yes, obviously. Is that the case in literally every other city in the world? Yes, obviously.

Even if one can't bring oneself all the way to optimism, this is still undoubtedly one hell of an interesting time to be in Toronto, and I for one am damn glad I moved from NYC to be here.
I've gotta admit, that was well said indeed ?
 
And that is the last thing I need to read tonight before shutting my eyes for a while. What a nice way to nod off…

4zzzzzz
 
Which surface rapid transit system is being studied all over the world? King?

I think our positive spin is a bit hyperbolic especially on transit, but I agree that Toronto is an incredibly great city to live in, esp. given the other city options viewed holistically.
 
Docs are now available:

 
202214

not sure if this was posted before.

picture from the architectural plans.
 
Evidently mediocrity rules. If it didn’t why is Toronto becoming increasingly prominent, particularly in the Western world? Low standards, sucky leadership, complacency, no direction, cheap out mediocrity...success! Go figure
A booming economy and cultural sectors. One of the fastest growing tech scenes on the continent. Lowest office vacancy rates in history. Beautiful new and upgraded parks across the city. A game-changing surface rapid transit corridor that is now being studied all over the world. A massive crosstown rapid transit project within a couple years of completion. Taste of the [insert cultural cuisine/neighbourhood here]. Pride. Caribana. TIFF. Hot Docs. Ravines. Rouge Park. The Bluffs. The Zoo. The aquarium. The Brickworks. The Islands. The Martin Goodman Trail. Kensington Market. AGO. ROM. The Ex. One of the top universities in the world. Projects under construction or in-planning by RSH+P; Frank Gehry; Foster+Partners; DSRNY; COBE; 3XN; Wilkinson Eyre; BIG, etc. A new *river being built*, most of which will turn into a massive park designed by a world-leading landscape architect.

If you're not seeing the positivity and excitement in there, you're either not looking or you want to live in a very different city than most urban dwellers do.

Are there problems? Yes, obviously. Is that the case in literally every other city in the world? Yes, obviously.

Even if one can't bring oneself all the way to optimism, this is still undoubtedly one hell of an interesting time to be in Toronto, and I for one am damn glad I moved from NYC to be here.
I don't mean to be a debbie downer (especially since I can think of a couple more awesome things to add to that brilliant list), but how many of these things listed are in place in spite of the lack of vision and leadership shown by civic leaders?

I'm more of the camp that we have a golden goose residing here in this very beautiful city, and we (referring to our civic leaders) are squandering the opportunity. Circumstances can change one day, and how prepared are we for when that day happens? For example on the transit front, the projects that we are finally getting completed after decades of non-progress feel like an exercise of catch-up, and future projects are embroiled in tri-level politics, meanwhile we lack the civic courage to up-zone the residential lands surrounding the new transit for development despite our housing crisis.
 
The sheer amount of development is impressive ... Dubai level ... but, I'm convinced it has been to the average Ryerson living inToronto. I find the average condo living space to be overpriced and unsatisfactory in comparison to what has gotten Toronto to this global stage. I'm not sure what lowest office vacancy means. Maybe jobs. I still hear of large layoffs on Bay Street not from lack of work but because there are always people willing to work for less midst record profits. This is repeated in the tech boom. First I'd like to say I see it as speculative as the boom in the early 2000s. A recession may cut deeper than it should. Back to topic. The tech employment boom in Toronto, Vancouver, is a result of the cheapest labour by far in North America and in two very expensive markets. It is what it is. It's nothing to showcase unless the point is to show how screwed over working Canadians are in our major markets with low wages, high real estate costs, high taxation and reduced benefits.

I agree. The transit projects are playing catchup and the most important expansion, the DRL, is left the equation. Once again, suburban expansion takes precedence over urban Toronto. All about real estate. Not about livability.
 

Back
Top