denfromoakvillemilton
Senior Member
Member Bio
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2008
- Messages
- 7,452
- Reaction score
- 1,515
- Location
- Downtown Toronto, Ontario
That's what you provided.Funny. This is the best retort you could come up with?
Of course. If you include an area with only 5 million people in it. The economy of the Golden Horseshoe is slightly larger than Chicagoland, even though Chicagoland has about 500-750k more people.
The GDP for the entire GTA is around 240 billion. That's the same as Detroit which is only 4 million. Even Philly, which Toronto actually miles better than has almost 400 billion and that's without a decent airport and much of the jobs in the burbs, unlike here.
Too bad I *did* have to go there, and almost daily, too. I lived in Hyde Park. That isn't some dangerous slum, its where the U of C is located, and yet there would be a few murders there daily. I had a friend who lived right next to Montrose Park, which is one of the best in Chicago, and she eventually had to move north out of the city to Evanston (suburbs) due to the increasing crime rate, especially with the government allowing more and more Section 8 housing into these once "nice" areas. Incidentally, this same behaviour permanently damaged Boston and many other rust belt cities with the forced school quotas and bussing laws.
Boston is not rust belt, and in fact Boston lacks the crime problems of many cities let alone american ones. That's unfortunate you lived on the south side. At least you explained that the section 8 is a problem. I can't judge your experience since it is yours but I get why you would not like Chicago after that.
So you go on a mini rant about how the dangerous areas of Chicago aren't a big deal, and go on to say that you wouldn't live there? Great. As for transit systems, I'd gladly take the TTC over the pile of dump knowns as the CTA.
By the way, in saying all this, I am not trying to put down Chicago. In fact, it's my third favourite city in North America after Toronto, and Vancouver. Chicago is an amazing city, but compared to Toronto? I'm sorry, it just comes up short.
No I wouldn't live there, and I probably wouldn't live at Jane and Sheppard or Flemingdon Park or Hwy 27 or Markham and Lawrence or Crescent Town. There are parts of Toronto most people don't go either. The TTC is the worst and most underfunded of all the global cities on the continent. I just think Toronto and Chicago are much close then many make it out to be.
This article is such a joke. People are calling Toronto's reaction to this population thing "provincial"? Did you guys read this? It reeks of denial, ignorance, and outright lies. It almost seems to me like he knows Toronto is better, but just doesn't want the readers thinking it. Talk about inferiority complex...
It is because it's satire. Montrealers often say the same. It seems Toronto (other than Tewder) can't take a joke and is too uptight?
I think articles like that do strike a nerve, if only because in Canada, Torontonians are used to getting dumped on. When an American does (and frankly who have been better champions of our city than Americans), it tends to cut. The other thing is, and maybe because of our own self-absorption, Torontonians don't do a lot of dumping on other cities at all. I remember visiting an inn in New England, met some Montrealers when someone mentioned where I was from their reaction was "Oh Toronto is so boring!", my initial reaction wasn't to maybe hold the mirror up to them and let them know that their delusions about the excitement of their own city were for the most part exactly that, delusions but instead a shrug and then a "you're rude". Perhaps it's the decency thing that Torontonians are bred with but it didn't cross my mind to say, well ya know, Montreal isn't all that and frankly as far as excitement goes, it's a few notches down comparably. Another was a visit to the city last year where I was informed that Toronto was just a suburb of the U.S.A. It mad me think, was there ever a time when visitors here are given the same treatment. Do we say thinks like "oh you're from ....you're so quaint and provincial". Nope. We can't be bothered. But other Canadians can be bothered and we're used to that. So it rubs when Americans do it, if only because we tend to come to these knife fights like gentlemen and expect to fight knives with fists.
I think Chicago is a glorious looking city. It just doesn't do it for me at all. Culturally it has a lot going for it and it has a real mythology to it. But and I get the sense that this a pretty common feeling there, it's not New York City. L.A. isn't either but L.A. is a continent away and is so different than NYC that it doesn't suffer from second city complex. It's almost 2nd Alpha, really.
That's interesting. A lot of Chicago folks are always comparing to NYC, is borders on ridiculous. My question is as a Torontotonian why can't I be allowed to think both cities are even. Whenever I do the comparison in my mind both cities come out about even.