Where this gets lost in translation is that the city is made up of a vast array of interests many of which are in ascendancy many of which are in decline.
This is exactly how I feel. To make a general claim that Toronto is ascending or descending involves a ridiculous number of factors, many of which are interrelated, and many of which are dependent on happenings in the country as a whole, or even in the entire world. Any one person's personal viewpoint more or less depends on their own personal priorities and interests.
To make things even more complicated, many things can be simultaneously seen as positive or negative depending on the viewpoint. For example:
- High real estate prices can be seen as a negative because they make it harder for individuals to own the homes they want. On the other hand, the prices are high because demand is high. People want to live in Toronto because it is a good place to live. The places with the lowest real estate prices are usually depressed: if home prices are low it's because nobody wants to live there.
- Traffic congestion is seen as a negative because it makes it hard to get around. On the other hand, there is evidence that this congestion is bringing us to a tipping point that is leading to important discussions about public transit, tolls, bike lanes, pedestrianization, and other things that even 5 or 10 years ago were not on the mainstream radar. Even with all the complaining about the TTC ridership is at record highs, because many are realizing that the inconvenience of transit is less than that of driving. If we can leverage this to implement the right changes to our funding and infrastructure we could end up much better off in another decade or so.
I think we are in a period of transition, and when there is change there is always fear and resistance. In the meantime, Toronto is holding its own pretty well through some tough times. We can get bogged down in debates about individual tax rates or decimal points in jobless numbers but that doesn't change the overall vibrancy and relevance of Toronto as a whole. If Toronto was truly in any sort of decline we would not see the massive amounts of development that Northern Lights listed in the original post.