Toronto/Chicago comparisons

[freshcutgrass]

There's a rainbow in Toronto
Where the Maritimers are told
They always get a pot full
But they never get a pot of gold

But they're at it and to it and to it and at it
You gotta tune your attitude in
If ya don't get at it when ya get to it
You won't get to it to get at it again
You won't get to it to get at it again

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

There's a rainbow in Toronto
Where the Maritimers are told
They always get a pot full
But they never get a pot of gold

But they're at it and to it and to it and at it
You gotta tune your attitude in
If ya don't get at it when ya get to it
You won't get to it to get at it again
You won't get to it to get at it again

...plenty of lawyer’n jobs in Toronto...

 

[freshcutgrass]

"that's a balcony!!"

ha ha

I like how Jayne Eastwood does both the spoof and the original.

SCTV may have originated in Chicago, but it was Toronto that made something of it.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Toronto feels like a frontier town to me, no pedigree and little sense of identity beyond an awesome embrace of diversity... whereas other large cities like Chicago, NYC, San Fran, Montreal, Boston etc. have an aura about them, an identifiable character and mythology that radiates out from them and draws you in with curiosity, warts and all.

I think the term you are searching for is....zeitgeist.

And the point I am making is, that I think you are dead wrong to suggest Toronto does not have it. It's why SCTV makes spoofs on films like Goin Down the Road, and Stomp'n Tom lyrics, which in turn are based on a Toronto zeitgeist.

Peter and Joey are drawn to Toronto for the same reason Joe Buck is drawn to NYC.

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

I think the term you are searching for is....zeitgeist.

And the point I am making is, that I think you are dead wrong to suggest Toronto does not have it. It's why SCTV makes spoofs on films like Goin Down the Road, and Stomp'n Tom lyrics, which in turn are based on a Toronto zeitgeist.

Peter and Joey are drawn to Toronto for the same reason Joe Buck is drawn to NYC.

Toronto is nice and safe. Let's not make it something it's not. Peter and Joey would rather live in NYC as well.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Part of the reason for that is Toronto only became the largest city because Montreal was not anymore.

Toronto is a rich peoples city.

Nice to know I'm rich

 

[denfromoakvillemilton]

Nice to know I'm rich

Look at the house prices man. Who is breaking into this red hot market.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Peter and Joey would rather live in NYC as well.

 

[diminutive]

I agree with much of the above, but disagree that Chicago's "luck" stems from being older. Chicago, for whatever combination of factors, did enter into a new spirit of architecture and design on a radical level that no other North American city (with the possible exceptions of Boston and LA) ever did. New York is far older than either Chicago or Toronto and is an architectural and planning disaster pretty much from from stem to stern; Mexico City, far older than New York, is an appalling, slum-choked nightmare.

Credit given to Chicago where credit due.

Yes, certainly.

When I meant 'luck' I was thinking of some of Chicago's infrastructure. Chicago having ~200 miles of rapid transit is a result of becoming a major city well before suburbanization, greater tolerance for elevated viaducts and lower labor costs. Ditto for things like Chicago's multi-level roads. Obviously the engineers of the day deserve credit, but to have expected these kinds of projects to go ahead in modern Toronto is hard to imagine.

 

[toronto_the_good]

Toronto feels like a frontier town to me, no pedigree and little sense of identity beyond an awesome embrace of diversity... whereas other large cities like Chicago, NYC, San Fran, Montreal, Boston etc. have an aura about them, an identifiable character and mythology that radiates out from them and draws you in with curiosity, warts and all.

Toronto is an immensely pleasant and liveable place in many ways (save transit), yet for all our shiny new condos and booming economy Toronto remains the gangly wallflower at the party that can't get arrested for trying.

Very interesting point of view, I agree with most everything you wrote. As far as liveability, I prefer Toronto, it is a great place to live and once you learn its little hidden gems, it's amazing. However, aesthetically, it does lack somewhat. I couldn't argue with Anthony Bourdain and his critique of Toronto on the Layover, “It’s not a good-looking city. It’s not a good-looking town. You’ve got all the worst architectural fads of the 20th century. That’s crypto-fascist Bauhaus. Mussolini would have been perfectly at home in that one; looks like every public school in America; every third tier city library; soviet chic; butt-ugly; glass box; roach motel; steel box exterior." Even Lawrence Richards, a member of the faculty of architecture at the University of Toronto, has said "Toronto is a new, brash, rag-tag place—a big mix of periods and styles." It is what makes Toronto unique, but it is also what makes it somewhat tacky looking.

 

[junctionist]

Toronto feels like a frontier town to me, no pedigree and little sense of identity beyond an awesome embrace of diversity... whereas other large cities like Chicago, NYC, San Fran, Montreal, Boston etc. have an aura about them, an identifiable character and mythology that radiates out from them and draws you in with curiosity, warts and all.

Toronto is an immensely pleasant and liveable place in many ways (save transit), yet for all our shiny new condos and booming economy Toronto remains the gangly wallflower at the party that can't get arrested for trying.

I've noticed that and find it strange. All those cities had great booms when people decided they clearly wanted something great out of it. Chicago embraced the Beaux Arts, for instance. Montreal has so many architecturally spectacular churches from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. NYC has great bones through planning: wide streets and great planning achievements like Central Park. But in Toronto, no one really seems sure what kind of greatness in the physical form of the city they want--in the buildings and public spaces that make up the city.

 

[adma]

I couldn't argue with Anthony Bourdain and his critique of Toronto on the Layover, “It’s not a good-looking city. It’s not a good-looking town. You’ve got all the worst architectural fads of the 20th century. That’s crypto-fascist Bauhaus. Mussolini would have been perfectly at home in that one; looks like every public school in America; every third tier city library; soviet chic; butt-ugly; glass box; roach motel; steel box exterior."

Bauhaus, Mussolini and "soviet chic"--boy, Anthony Bourdain's perspective on c20 architecture is like this

As opposed to Larry Richards' "big mix", which I suspect he means as praise.

And actually, Toronto's current "tacky looking" aesthetic problem isn't the presence of such so-called "architectural fads"; it's the blithe and gross disfiguration thereof through godawful EIFS reclads and the like.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, this (and I'm not sure whether Bourdain would dismiss it as one of those "worst architectural fads") is currently in the early stages of demolition

 

[Johnny Au]

Both Toronto and Chicago have Brutalist buildings as well.

 

[GenerationW]

Look at the house prices man. Who is breaking into this red hot market.

People from New York?

 

[RC8]

Toronto's architecture is terrific. As good as any.

The problem is its state of repair. Due to a number of reasons little of the money Toronto's economy makes is redirected to the preservation of its buildings and public realm.