Mr. BT
New Member
I feel that the two best ways to be heavily touristed are to either become a globally important city or to become a city that has a unique and compelling identity or culture.
Right now Toronto doesn't quite fit into either category which I think is why some of the posters on the board are having a hard time making a case for it.
Toronto is not an elite alpha city at this point in time and likely can't be for a while. If you think about these alpha cities such as New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. you would be hard pressed to find any that have a population of less than 10 million. I would argue that this is not a coincidence and that population density and critical mass are definitely important. This is at least partly due to the fact that if you are a city of say 10 million people, it is hard to be ignored. So again, in order for us to get into this category we will likely need to get bigger.
Similarly, it is also hard for Toronto to compete with some of the smaller cities with great cultural identity such as Montreal or New Orleans as Toronto is a younger city and has a population that is on average much newer to the city, which makes it hard to form an identity.
I believe that demographics and momentum are on our side however, so hopefully we will develop both a strong culture and decent scale in the coming decades.
Also, I think there are many people who would suggest that the peameal bacon sandwich is the city's Toronto-centric food. There are multiple places in the St. Lawrence market that offer them and they are always packed (I highly recommend going to Carousel and getting one with mayo, hot mustard and cheese if you have never tried one).
Right now Toronto doesn't quite fit into either category which I think is why some of the posters on the board are having a hard time making a case for it.
Toronto is not an elite alpha city at this point in time and likely can't be for a while. If you think about these alpha cities such as New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc. you would be hard pressed to find any that have a population of less than 10 million. I would argue that this is not a coincidence and that population density and critical mass are definitely important. This is at least partly due to the fact that if you are a city of say 10 million people, it is hard to be ignored. So again, in order for us to get into this category we will likely need to get bigger.
Similarly, it is also hard for Toronto to compete with some of the smaller cities with great cultural identity such as Montreal or New Orleans as Toronto is a younger city and has a population that is on average much newer to the city, which makes it hard to form an identity.
I believe that demographics and momentum are on our side however, so hopefully we will develop both a strong culture and decent scale in the coming decades.
Also, I think there are many people who would suggest that the peameal bacon sandwich is the city's Toronto-centric food. There are multiple places in the St. Lawrence market that offer them and they are always packed (I highly recommend going to Carousel and getting one with mayo, hot mustard and cheese if you have never tried one).
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