Toronto TeaHouse 501 Yonge Condominiums | 170.98m | 52s | Lanterra | a—A

Urban Shocker said:
Why would we want to be Paris? Our delightful, small-scaled residential housing stock from the mid-19th century reflects our origins as a British colonial city and is nothing like Haussmann's city of large and terribly grand rows. Are we to bulldoze our heritage as if we're some ghastly Chinese city that wants to forget its past and be like everywhere else?
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so you think keeping 1-2 storey houses will distinguish Toronto from other cities/suburbs in North America?
the most abused word on this forum is undoubtedly "heritage". Any crappy old narrow wooden house is considered heritage for some reason.

you can despise Paris all you want (although I don't think you really mean it), doesn't change its real status. I don't think anyone in this world would put Toronto in front of Paris when it comes to stuff like beauty, history, elegance and architecture. Toronto should be stacked with places like Pittsburgh, Columbus, Philadelphia etc.

Beijing may have bulldozed 90% of its history and heritage, yet even with the mistake and what is left, the forbidden city and its cultural offerings will always possess more history and heritage than Toronto will ever have. It is just a different league. Nobody thinks about North America when history is considered. When the rest of the world was experiencing tens of dynasties along with all the rich civilization, Canada was still a no man's land.

The better way for Toronto is to become a modern new city. Trust me, history and culture is not Canada's strength. While Quebec city was celebrating its seemingly impressive 400th anniversary in 2008, many European and Asian cities are well past their 2000th.
 
Yep, Canada isn't is old as Europe and China, our heritage is worthless. Let's tear everything down and start over, that's great city building! Seriously, are you completely daft?

I think we all just need to ignore this verbal diarrhea, arguing any further is just a waste of energy.
 
kkgg7 said:
off the top of my head, move them further to east of DVP? Or West of Dufferin?
it is subsidized housing, don't tell me they get to be picky about locations. Prime central locations are for business and mid-high income folks.

loitering itself should not be forbidden. the sad thing is it is usually associated with higher crime rate, believe it or not. When that happens, it means the area needs some clean-up.
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What does moving them there solve?

Toronto has a really low crime rate. Downtown is very safe. There are lots of eyes on the street. People use the internet to find drugs or prostitution. Loitering is not an issue nor is it really considering an issue, unless you were born in 1915 and it is the 1960s.
 
egotrippin said:
Yep, Canada isn't is old as Europe and China, our heritage is worthless. Let's tear everything down and start over, that's great city building! Seriously, are you completely daft?
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He's not daft, he's just one of the mass-manufactured, culturally bankrupt drones, desperate to have their surroundings validate their self-invented klassiness and endless attention deprivation.
The most dilapidated Victorian in Toronto has more culture, class and style than kkgg will ever have. He desperately needs of-the-moment, popular-trend surroundings to continue his self-delusions of greatness and klassiness. Everything is disposable to him, because that's what he exists on, disposable mass-produced culture. Something old, is well old, and wont convince others he's the kind of world-klassy person he wants to pretend to be.

Like all of the "bigger is better" crowd, they are here one day squawking incessantly, then gone and completely forgotten the next. This city is truly world-class for our ability to rapidly identify and mock such losers.

heidi-montag-1-300.jpg
 
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kkgg7 said:
Beijing may have bulldozed 90% of its history and heritage, yet even with the mistake and what is left, the forbidden city and its cultural offerings will always possess more history and heritage than Toronto will ever have. It is just a different league. Nobody thinks about North America when history is considered. When the rest of the world was experiencing tens of dynasties along with all the rich civilization, Canada was still a no man's land.
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Perhaps the Forbidden City will be the next to go? After all, if they're laying waste to so much of their heritage why should 5,000 years of civilisation get in the way of an entirely clean sweep?
 
poor people are real people. I just prefer they don't linger on the downtown streets all the time doing nothing. If they have to do this, do it somewhere less visible to normal people.
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I know I shouldn't be provoked by this chauvinism, but I find the need to point out in no uncertain terms how odious and appalling I find this poster's vision of human society. The moral and ethical stance invoked is indifferent to misery of others and fascist in its prescriptions. I would suggest this would be a good time for the poster to read some Václav Havel
 
I'm stunned that a page of this thread today actually debates the value of our 19th & 20th century stock. You people, and you know who you are, should be ashamed. Take some time and learn a bit of our heritage, our history and the roots of our fine town. Thank goodness there are solid plans nearing the completion stage to designate many of these areas as heritage districts and an active movement with engaged, dedicated community groups to get non-designated properties protected from like-minded twits.
 
And, once again...remember, folks: kkgg7 is the guy who uttered re the Yonge & Gould fire: "Doesn't matter. Whoever set the fire should be awarded some sort of prize." Which shows you the kind of sociopathy we're dealing with here.

Interesting w/the "North Korea" comments, though; considering how I've speculated about how if skyscraper/urban forums existed 40 years ago, perhaps some of the kkgg7-esque "scary regulars/hangers-on" might have been university-student children-of/annointed-successors-to dictators or despots. Ultimately, such tinpot fascism in utero reflects something in the background, or leads to, uh, "something in particular"...
 
Isn't he just maybe trolling? He surely can't believe that we should just fire bomb the entire east side of the downtown? And did he mention Queen? I love queen, both east and west, and the band. Maybe we should erase all cultural history that isn't "modern" as well. I understand the desire to see towers of glass and steel across the downtown, but weaved in to the current fabric would create a more pleasant and much more interesting place to reside and work.
 
kkgg7:

you say that Toronto should be categorized with cities like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, etc. Well, Philadelphia is actually a cool city with significant history (in the NA context) and so if Toronto is categorized with it, that's fine, it's not a bad thing at all. Your attitude toward working class people is really bad - are you joking to purposely entice certain types of responses from others or do you actually feel that way (i.e. they should be moved away)? If you're serious, then you're way too classist, which is bad and represents a very developing country type perspective. That's shallow. What if you or someone you love fell into a working class situation; how would you feel then (although you should not be so indifferent toward working class people regardless of whether you know someone in that status)? How do you feel about other visible minorities? How do you feel about disabled people? How about gays/lesbians? I'm curious...

And why should cities like Quebec City or whichever other place not celebrate their history (regardless of how many years that may be - 100, 200, 400, etc.)? Just because there are other civilizations that are older doesn't mean cities and people shouldn't care about what their past reflects. You're not taking into account any context in any topic of discussion. I still wonder if you're joking or not...

How do you feel about students who are moderate in their academic standing and when once in a while, if they ace an exam or do really well on a paper, they celebrate and are really ecstatic? Do you tell them, "oh well who cares if you got 90%, that's nothing, it's not a big deal at all...I know others who get 90%+ all the time!"?
 
City Lover,

Madame/Sir, excellent post. I very much respect the fact that you can reason with the attitudes/opinions of kkggg, but I can't, I just get angry. My bad, trying to learn and work on it. Plus, I very much support the right of that poster to have, hold and voice those opinions. Bring it.

Mods, I respectfully apologize for the digression, but I think the discussion yet again becometh deeply interesting, esp. because it has profound relations to our manifest subject, Toronto's urban, built form (not sure I can prove this hypothesis, but I feel it). Hence, I (perhaps counterintuitively?) feel that the thread is oddly quite on topic.
 
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