allabootmatt
Senior Member
I have held off posting on this thread for awhile to see how it plays out...anyway, my $0.02:
As some have mentioned Toronto definitely does not have a reality problem--just a marketing problem. Let me explain what I mean, in the North American context, based on now almost 5 years of living in the US. If you take New York out of the equation (and you should, since it is and will remain in its own, very small international league with London) there is not a single city on the continent--not one--with as much going for it as TO. Let's run through the usual suspects:
Chicago: undeniably spectacular downtown and some big-hitting sights, but where's the depth? Leave the downtown and very thin coastal areas and it peters out so fast.
San Francisco: Fantastic city, though pretty small--big sights, spectacular beauty and, unlike Chicago, a fair bit of depth. Probably TO's closest competitor. But very conservative, oddly enough--about architecture for example.
Boston: Beautiful and civilised, but VERY small and provincial. A four-block stretch of Queen West (or these days, East) has more interesting, edgy stuff going on than all of Beantown.
Washington--my current home: Fun for a weekend if you really, really like museums, but as far as a vibrant urban centre goes it's a joke.
Other American cities are clearly one rung below (Phila, Seattle etc) so I won't go through them. Also not going to count LA, since it's such a strange place as to be in its own category--I can't imagine TO is competing with it for tourist dollars.
Here's the crux of it: Toronto is always telling itself that the things we traditionally conceive as selling points--multiculturalism, incredible vibrancy across an unbelievable breadth and depth of neighborhoods--aren't unique or special enough to warrant underpinning a marketing campaign. But they are! Those things are either mostly missing or not on anywhere near the same scale in all but the very top US cities. Try living in Washington--ostensibly a top-deck American city--and you will see exactly what I mean. When I go home to Toronto I practically need a Valium to calm down from all the stimulation of such a varied, huge, exciting place.
When you combine those traditional strengths with a rapidly improving portfolio of big sights, some wacky architecture, and great festivals you have what should be a perfect storm.
Without exception, every non-New York American visitor I bring to or show around Toronto is absolutely blown away by it--by the vibrancy, by the incredible extent of interesting, mostly indie-ish culture, by the quirky neighborhoods, and increasingly by the architecture. By the end of the visit I am fielding questions about Canadian immigration law. This has happened to me half-a-dozen times, and not with people from nowheresville either--these are Angelenos, Bostonians etc.
You also get in Toronto something very much lacking in more established urban centres, which is the vibe--unmistakable if you visit only infrequently from elsewhere--of a city on the rapid rise, growing up and getting more interesting all the time. And without exception, those American visitors had almost no knowledge of the city prior to visiting. The profile's not bad or good, necessarily--just totally neutral.
This leads me to conclude that the issue is 100% marketing--Toronto is going from strength to strength as far as becoming a more interesting, appealing place goes, so that's not the issue. We just have to find a way to tell the world about it, and to somehow translate that energy into a marketing slogan.
It's not easy, but one day someone will figure it out. In the meantime, TO should just keep doing what it's doing--getting more and more daring about architecture, renewing and expanding cultural institutions (and building new ones), throwing fantastic festivals, adding even more people to an incredibly large and vibrant urban core, etc. etc. etc.--and it will all work out. It's too good a secret to stay hidden for long.
In the last year or so I have gotten the impression that Toronto has reached a sort of critical mass, across an impressively wide range of the urban spectrum--from luxury hotels and condos and high culture to the indie stuff that has been its traditional strength--as to be unstoppable. It's going to be a wild ride, and I would be amazed if more international visitors didn't join along the way.
As some have mentioned Toronto definitely does not have a reality problem--just a marketing problem. Let me explain what I mean, in the North American context, based on now almost 5 years of living in the US. If you take New York out of the equation (and you should, since it is and will remain in its own, very small international league with London) there is not a single city on the continent--not one--with as much going for it as TO. Let's run through the usual suspects:
Chicago: undeniably spectacular downtown and some big-hitting sights, but where's the depth? Leave the downtown and very thin coastal areas and it peters out so fast.
San Francisco: Fantastic city, though pretty small--big sights, spectacular beauty and, unlike Chicago, a fair bit of depth. Probably TO's closest competitor. But very conservative, oddly enough--about architecture for example.
Boston: Beautiful and civilised, but VERY small and provincial. A four-block stretch of Queen West (or these days, East) has more interesting, edgy stuff going on than all of Beantown.
Washington--my current home: Fun for a weekend if you really, really like museums, but as far as a vibrant urban centre goes it's a joke.
Other American cities are clearly one rung below (Phila, Seattle etc) so I won't go through them. Also not going to count LA, since it's such a strange place as to be in its own category--I can't imagine TO is competing with it for tourist dollars.
Here's the crux of it: Toronto is always telling itself that the things we traditionally conceive as selling points--multiculturalism, incredible vibrancy across an unbelievable breadth and depth of neighborhoods--aren't unique or special enough to warrant underpinning a marketing campaign. But they are! Those things are either mostly missing or not on anywhere near the same scale in all but the very top US cities. Try living in Washington--ostensibly a top-deck American city--and you will see exactly what I mean. When I go home to Toronto I practically need a Valium to calm down from all the stimulation of such a varied, huge, exciting place.
When you combine those traditional strengths with a rapidly improving portfolio of big sights, some wacky architecture, and great festivals you have what should be a perfect storm.
Without exception, every non-New York American visitor I bring to or show around Toronto is absolutely blown away by it--by the vibrancy, by the incredible extent of interesting, mostly indie-ish culture, by the quirky neighborhoods, and increasingly by the architecture. By the end of the visit I am fielding questions about Canadian immigration law. This has happened to me half-a-dozen times, and not with people from nowheresville either--these are Angelenos, Bostonians etc.
You also get in Toronto something very much lacking in more established urban centres, which is the vibe--unmistakable if you visit only infrequently from elsewhere--of a city on the rapid rise, growing up and getting more interesting all the time. And without exception, those American visitors had almost no knowledge of the city prior to visiting. The profile's not bad or good, necessarily--just totally neutral.
This leads me to conclude that the issue is 100% marketing--Toronto is going from strength to strength as far as becoming a more interesting, appealing place goes, so that's not the issue. We just have to find a way to tell the world about it, and to somehow translate that energy into a marketing slogan.
It's not easy, but one day someone will figure it out. In the meantime, TO should just keep doing what it's doing--getting more and more daring about architecture, renewing and expanding cultural institutions (and building new ones), throwing fantastic festivals, adding even more people to an incredibly large and vibrant urban core, etc. etc. etc.--and it will all work out. It's too good a secret to stay hidden for long.
In the last year or so I have gotten the impression that Toronto has reached a sort of critical mass, across an impressively wide range of the urban spectrum--from luxury hotels and condos and high culture to the indie stuff that has been its traditional strength--as to be unstoppable. It's going to be a wild ride, and I would be amazed if more international visitors didn't join along the way.
