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TO is now 2nd most expensive city in North America

Sorry if my personal anecdotes are droll. Droll means comical, amusing, whimsical. You have not made a single droll comment in your history on UrbanToronto. Your opinions, as many have stated, are negative and boring and unsubstantiated.

I am not fooled by statistics because I have seen first hand how they are used to bludgeon and silence - even when they are wrong. Here's the trouble with personal experiences. I am not young, I wager that I've travelled more than you, and I've only once in 17 years been called "fag" in Toronto. Therefore, Toronto is safer than say, Vancouver, where it happened to me several times in just two years.

It's no wonder newcomers are living 8 to an apartment because they can't afford the rent. I know two newcomers who moved to Toronto this summer, they are living 1 and 2 to an apartment. That is my personal experience. They are the only two people I can think of who have moved here. Therefore, no one is living eight to an apartment, as you claim.

Have we had enough with the personal experiences? Do you need more?

Back on topic:

The fact that Toronto is on a list of most expensive cities has everything to do with the Canadian dollar's rise, and says nothing particularly interesting about the city apart from a comparison of price. You and no-one else has made the claim that our inclusion on a financial list means that we "compare" with Moscow, to which you take such apparent umbrage. Does Moscow really compare with London? Does Oslo? Is that what the list is saying? Or have you in fact hijacked the post with your "Toronto sucks" mantra

By the way, hon, if Toronto is so terrible and you've been called a fag here and it offends your very delicate sensitivities for it to be compared with Moscow, could I suggest something? Go to Moscow's pride parade. Moscow – 27 May 2007: Arrests and violent attacks marred today's Moscow Gay Pride events. Around 20 lesbian and gay campaigners were arrested. Many were abused, threatened and assaulted. I'd be very interested to hear of your own personal experiences there, and how Toronto and Moscow ought not be compared in any way.

Now, that's droll.
 
Whoaccio said:
Another thing I can't figure out is that where Toronto does have success, very few people seem to recognize it. I mean, we should be getting big credit among the typical liberal-democratic yuppies that do most of the USA's traveling.
Click to expand...

This is only sort of true. I've encoutered quite a few people who have spoken warmly of Toronto and credit it for the usual positive things that Canada is associated with, but when most foreigners open their mouths and say anything about Toronto it usually is just a stream of platitudes.

Things happen in Toronto, as per my last post, but Canadians, and Torontonians, in general, have an unfailing ability to lack decent presentation skills. Toronto is the metropolitan equivalent of a brilliant scientist who gives a presentation to a global conference with coffee stains on his untucked shirt and dried out mucus on his eyelids. This is manifested on a surface level through aesthetic things such as clumsy overhead street wiring, or a serious plan to run 50 year-old diesel rail cars as a premium airport express train. It's also predicated by our lame tourism ads which at least mark a departure from years of hawking moose and mounties.

Sometimes we need a foreigner to come in and shake things up a bit; to basically take Toronto's inherent attractiveness and sell it to the world. Lou Turpen, for example, turned Pearson Airport around from three antiquated terminals with the ambiance of a Bargain Harold's to probably the only airport terminal on the North American continent that could rub shoulders with the "best in class" Asian facilities. Richard Florida was lured here and, after years of extolling places like Austin and Portland for their creativity, began reacting like he had discovered his own private Shangri-La. He paid Toronto a pretty handsome tribute in "Who's your City".

What Toronto can come up with can be quite incredible, we just need to learn how to sell ourselves.
 
Dispute regarding whether or not Toronto actually IS the 2nd most expensive city to live in NA, it is fair to say it is more expensive relative to many other centres on the continent. That being said, I don't mind paying a little more to live in this city for the benefits, like exciting neighbourhoods and streets, the culture, and the urbanity. One can easily argue that it's just as, if not more expensive, now to live in boomtowns like Calgary and Edmonton. But do you get the same benefits? No.

We pay more here because this is an attractive place to live, just as why Vancouver is so expensive. The cost of living increase or decrease in many of the places in that list is a result of the economy, whether it be increasing because of a boom or decreasing because of the collapse.
 
I think people should keep in mind that there was some specific criteria for this ranking:

"The survey looked at how expensive it is for companies to relocate employees, said Danielle Bushen, who is the principal at Mercer in Toronto."

While it may be more expensive for companies to locate people, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the 2nd most expensive city on the continent, overall.
 
^ "Along with London, Toronto is the fastest growing G7 financial center."

I didn't realize. That's actually pretty impressive.
 
theman23 said:
Somewhat related, Forbes has listed the GTA as one the worlds 10 "most economically powerful cities"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/23/news/23Forbes-Cities.php
Click to expand...

Surely a socialist nutjob conspiracy, most likely has something to do with our tree huggin silly council. I was in Moscow a few years ago and, let me tell you, it beats Toronto HANDS DOWN in every category. Cleaner, safer, cheaper and not dominated by communists. Toronto has to stop thinking of itself as the center of the universe, and toronto-socialist dominated Forbes magazine won't be able to keep the TRUTH down forever.

:)
 
I don't know this whoaccio well enough to tell if his nutbar post is meant as sarcasm. Hon, go, fly like a bird to your beloved Moscow. Fly, fly, on away.
 
^ Well, judging by the smiley face at the end of the post, I would say that sarcasm is implied.
 
The sarcasm levels in this thread are dangerously high. However, I can't help but keep coming back for more.
 
What can I say? I love sarcasm.

Ok ok., forget any cities I mentioned previously. Cultural significance is such a subjective quality it was a bad idea for me to try to rank it in the first place. Can we just agree that different cities are global for different reasons, Toronto's being it's financial and educational elements? That was all I was trying to say.
 
PukeGreen said:
Exactly... has Toronto really "jumped" so far up the list, or have many of the US cities ahead of it simply gone down the tubes over the past year? I find it puzzling that the relative strength of the Canadian economy compared to the US one is being portrayed here as a negative thing.



"If I had the money I be in Vancouver" is an odd thing to say in a thread that is proclaiming that Toronto is now more expensive to live in than Vancouver. Go! I'm sure they'd love to have you ;)
Click to expand...


I will one day when I can buy a $600,000 condo in a decent area of BC larger than a one bedroom apartment.I send you post card while you choke on the smog and a city going no where fast.That why condos are selling so well in Toronto,its still considered "under priced" for a place in the heart of a major city,when I was in Vancouver last year a 700sq feet condo in a average area with average upgrades is selling for $400,000++.
 
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