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Toronto’s Messy Urbanism from the perspective of an Angeleno

Thanks for that!

A nice reminder that, as tough as we are on our fair city, there is plenty going for it. Sometimes we just need the keen point of view from an outsider to tell us about our many assets.
 
Bikes in Toronto are like cars in LA: they are everywhere! I could not believe that in front of almost every sleek sexy skyscraper in downtown Toronto are bike racks, which are packed full of bikes. In LA it’s the parking lots that are packed full, whereas a bike rack is a rare find, let alone one that’s actually used. In Toronto bicyclists ride in all parts of the city, on streets with bike lanes and without. Motorists tend to respect the space cyclists require, whereas in LA drivers almost run cyclists off the road.
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The minus sign of bikes being everywhere is that bikes are stolen everywhere!

Whenever I biked to my apartment, I left my bike at the end of a laneway within sight of the street and sidewalk. I never locked it up and it was never stolen during the three months I lived there. This was downtown L.A. in one of the poorest Latino neighborhoods in the city (Pico-Union).

Today someone broke into my shed in downtown Toronto and stole my bike. This was not the same bike in L.A. because that one was stolen in broad daylight in September the week after I got back to Toronto!

People just don't steal bikes in L.A. because there aren't enough bikes around to make a living out of it. You'd make a more guaranteed stream of income working at El Pollo Loco.

I'm just venting, please excuse me. When I come to my senses tomorrow I will probably realize that you have to make trade-offs to have a vibrant city. If everyone who biked in Toronto drove like in L.A., our city would be much less livable.
 
I noticed a El Pollo Loco at Broadway across from the Bradbury Building (I found Broadway to be a fascinating street), and wondered to myself why someone would name their chain of restaurants "The Crazy Chicken".

I found LA to be a very interesting, and more progressive city than I expected, but apart from Broadway and around Union Station, downtown's dead - the most likely areas I found were the old PE suburbs like Westwood, Pasadena and Santa Monica.Wilshire was interesting, but I bet a street like Yonge or Queen would be much more interesting on the whole to an American outsider than almost any street in US cities.
 
vicente said:
The minus sign of bikes being everywhere is that bikes are stolen everywhere!
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I had two bikes stolen while living in Montreal, and two stolen while living in Ottawa. Plenty of cycling in those cities, too.

With all the cars, maybe nobody saw the value of a bike in L.A..
 
It's funny Toronto's cycling is mentioned here. I had a friend in from New York a few weeks back, and when i asked her her impressions of Toronto so far she said "i can't believe how many people are on bikes here. I love it!".

I never would have thought the amount of cyclists would have been the first thing mentioned. I guess i need to get out of town more often, eh?
 
SeanTrans said:
... but I bet a street like Yonge or Queen would be much more interesting on the whole to an American outsider than almost any street in US cities.
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I couldn't agree more.

Thanks for the article, i've never really considered Toronto's 'messy urbanism' in this light. That said, I do think the downtown core could use a basic spiffing up, and I find it hard to believe that healthy trees, gardens and well maintained, attractive streets and roads would destroy Toronto's spirit. I guess it's all a matter of degree and context. What's right for Bloor/Yorkville is probabaly not right for Queen West, and cracked pavement and the replacing of wooden poles doesn't necessarily have to imply the twee gentrification so feared.
 
Dilla said:
It's funny Toronto's cycling is mentioned here. I had a friend in from New York a few weeks back, and when i asked her her impressions of Toronto so far she said "i can't believe how many people are on bikes here. I love it!".

I never would have thought the amount of cyclists would have been the first thing mentioned. I guess i need to get out of town more often, eh?
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Funny, I had the same reaction from a friend from Sydney who was also surprised by the number of bikers, bladers and skaters. I was, in turn, puzzled by the lack of them in Sydney and Melbourne, especially considering their all year warm climate.
 
Interesting article. However it was pretty obvious that he didn't set foot in the Scarborough, Etobicoke parts of Toronto. The small blocks, bicycles and walkability aspects don't quite apply there.

Ah poor boroughs. Not quite city, not quite suburb. The overlooked and neglected middle child of the GTA.
 
Hubotnik said:
Interesting article. However it was pretty obvious that he didn't set foot in the Scarborough, Etobicoke parts of Toronto. The small blocks, bicycles and walkability aspects don't quite apply there.

Ah poor boroughs. Not quite city, not quite suburb. The overlooked and neglected middle child of the GTA.
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People still do a lot of cycling in suburban Toronto, and urbanism gets even messier there, with strip malls now becoming lively with all sorts of independent stores. It's not the same, but it's still better than most of the 905. A lot of intensification means they will become much more urban in the future, and Transit City will only cement that with lines such as the Jane LRT. It may actually be possible to build larger condos for families in these areas.
 
Hubotnik said:
Interesting article. However it was pretty obvious that he didn't set foot in the Scarborough, Etobicoke parts of Toronto. The small blocks, bicycles and walkability aspects don't quite apply there.

Ah poor boroughs. Not quite city, not quite suburb. The overlooked and neglected middle child of the GTA.
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Most people who wonder at thet beauty of Paris or Prague never set foot in their suburbs either.
 
Always nice to get an outside perspective but let's consider the source for a second: The converted preaching to the converted in a publication of the converted.
 
junctionist said:
People still do a lot of cycling in suburban Toronto, and urbanism gets even messier there, with strip malls now becoming lively with all sorts of independent stores. It's not the same, but it's still better than most of the 905. A lot of intensification means they will become much more urban in the future, and Transit City will only cement that with lines such as the Jane LRT. It may actually be possible to build larger condos for families in these areas.
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Thank you junctionist. I'm always amazed at how uninformed Torontonians can be about their own city. Before writing off all of Etobicoke and Scarbrough, go have a look. You'll be amazed what you'd find.
 
Thank you junctionist. I'm always amazed at how uninformed Torontonians can be about their own city. Before writing off all of Etobicoke and Scarbrough, go have a look. You'll be amazed what you'd find.
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I think I didn't really get my idea across very well. I wasn't trying to write off Scarborough and Etobicoke. I simply meant that the analysis in the article didn't take into account Toronto as a whole. To me Scarborough and Etobicoke are Toronto,their urban form is very different from what was stated in the article. I think the analysis in the article only looked at a small fraction of what the city really is. I just felt that we tend to overlook the boroughs when we talk about Toronto because they fall into a weird urban greyzone. Once suburbs, now in transition towards being more urban as junctionist acurately pointed out.

My bad. I'll try to express myself more clearly next time.
 
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