New York City...

[urbanboom]

As a tourist: NY
as a place to live: TO

Remember there's a difference in seeing a city as a tourist (seeing the sites, new fresh and exciting!) and living (paying rent, employment, atmosphere).

Honestly, NY is a great city. I like my visits. But I would never live there.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Perhaps ... but it isn't routine for our subway stations to smell like urine.

If you're going to take a shot at the state of NYC's public realm, you should be aware that our's - which features main streets with rotting poles and exposed wires that would embarass a planner in Hanoi, 'temporary' ashphalt paving and D-grade two-storey commercial architecture - is not immune from the same kind of criticism.

 

[lordmandeep]

oh yes, the Subway provides a lot of service but is not clean at all.

 

[nfitz]

If you're going to take a shot at the state of NYC's public realm, you should be aware that our's - which features main streets with rotting poles and exposed wires that would embarass a planner in Hanoi, 'temporary' ashphalt paving and D-grade two-storey commercial architecture - is not immune from the same kind of criticism.

Hanoi? I've spent and lived enough time in Asian (and I'm not thinking Japan, China, or Korea here) cities to know that the state of disrepair in our city has nothing on what would be found in somewhere like Hanoi! Just grabbing a couple if images quickly shows the state of infrastructure (pavement, wiring, garbage, etc.) there is far worse than ours:

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

If I could, I'd love to live and work in NYC for a few years. There are other great cities but to my urban mind NYC is #2, after Toronto of course.

 

[ganjavih]

As a tourist: NY
as a place to live: TO

Remember there's a difference in seeing a city as a tourist (seeing the sites, new fresh and exciting!) and living (paying rent, employment, atmosphere).

That's true. For example, I loved visiting Montreal when I lived in Toronto. But now that I live in Montreal, I realise that I preferred life in TO.

I've seen a fair number of large cities. While TO may not be the prettiest or most glamorous, it's among the most efficient, comfortable, and liveable that I've seen.

 

[unimaginative2]

New York is pretty bright and vibrant and amazing. And then you see Tokyo...

 

[Chinese Jamaican Bloke]

NY has more crime than Toronto

 

[JasonParis]

And my sister who's visited both London and New York said she felt London was "busier" and seemed to have more people.

Being in the small Tube trains can give one that feeling. NYC is actually the bigger city/region, but highly comparable.

NY has more crime than Toronto

Yes, but is in the Top 20 safest cities in the US.

 

[nfitz]

NY has more crime than Toronto

If you compare http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm and http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080717/t080717b-eng.htm the New York murder rate is twice as high as Toronto, but it's comparable to Winnipeg and Saskatoon; the robbery rate is 1.5 times higher than Toronto, but far less than Winnipeg, Regina, and Saskatoon. The vehicle theft rate is almost 1/10 of what it was 20 years ago and is half of what it currently is in Toronto ... and 1/15 of what it currently is in Winnipeg.

If your worried about crime, it's Winnipeg you want to avoid, not New York!

 

[lordmandeep]

lol you cannot go to the best part of a third world city and then think it all looks like that.


You can go to the dirtiest, congested cities in India, and they have an area called "model town" where you tree lined streets full of nice shops and nice houses.

 

[GenerationW]

Giuliani really transformed New York as far as crime is concerned.

 

[wonderboy416]

New York is pretty bright and vibrant and amazing. And then you see Tokyo...

NYC is the king of westernized cities for sure... butfor me it can't hold a candle to large asian cities in terms of getting that big city vibe. Most have a much higher population density, a superior transit network (well Tokyo/Hong Kong/Seoul etc..), no curfew on bars (which adds a lot of street life, all night, every night of the week) and huge all-night markets. Not too mention street food and vendors lining every major street (although Tokyo is a bit more reserved in that regard) and truly amazing crime statistics (in a good way). These aren't knocks against NYC, it just fails to get my heart racing like the constant huge crush of people on the streets in asia now that I've been around to multiple big cities here.

After visiting places like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Boston, Philly and even Chicago I wouldn't call Toronto the city that sleeps early. It doesn't suffer the same massive migration to the suburbs after business hours like most major American cities.

 

[unimaginative2]

Toronto's also got suburbs that go to sleep very, very late. Go to Midland and Finch or Leslie and 7 on a weekday at 2am. It's packed.

As someone who enjoys the later evenings, I find Toronto to be pretty middle of the pack. It's much better than almost any city in North America (especially Los Angeles)--even New York's a little overrated. It's still pretty quiet late at night compared to a place like Berlin. There, the clubs don't even open until 1. I routinely couldn't get a seat on the subway at 4am--something I never experienced at 8:30am.

 

[Cooool]

Being in the small Tube trains can give one that feeling. NYC is actually the bigger city/region, but highly comparable.


Yes, but is in the Top 20 safest cities in the US.

NYC is bigger in population but my tour guide says London was 3x the size.

But if I'm not mistaken, it's unclear what's considered "greater London" and just London.

Anyone been to LA? It's the next North American city on my list. Looks really glamorous but I hear nothing but nasty things about it.