urbanboom
Active Member
lol, family and my job pays best here in Toronto
Fair enough. I just hope I'm not the only person that's in Toronto for more than that.
lol, family and my job pays best here in Toronto
drone, you spent 38 years in two cities you don't like? Why?
What if we measure a city by something like how living there helps us to take control and responsibility for the creation of our own reality? I like the anecdotal accounts people are giving because they hit closer to the mark than talking about nightlife, or subway systems etc. How do people get control and take responsiblity for the creation of their own reality? I submit that Toronto is an excellent place to accomplish this very thing and that a place that has mastered the "surface shell" aspects may still be a limiting or undesirable place to live.
... They are the 2 most interesting cities this side of the States.
Are there other options? We can't just say "hey we're going to oslo" or something.
I think the experience of my parents was shared by many and the primary reason why Toronto established itself at the time as the city of the future in Canada. Perhaps Montreal was boldly positioning itself internally and internationally as the pre-eminent city for a Canada that was becoming increasingly less representative of more and more Canadian people.
Talk about the old saying, "damning with faint praise."
The best thing Toronto has compared to every city in Canada except Montreal is good public transit. There are many cities in the US that I've never been to, but from what I understand, most of them do not have a vibrant inner core, because of the lack of transit, and their vicious social policies.
I live in toronto but work in Montreal Monday through Thursday, so I've had some opportunity to compare the two cities. A few things stand out:
1. Without federal equalization payments and industrial subsidies (think Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney and the drug companies), Montreal would be dead. Conversely, without the burden of supporting Quebec and the other welfare provinces, Toronto would be quite well funded.
2. Montreal beats Toronto hands down for transit (not saying much, I know), restaurants, and design of the public realm. Every week I return to Toronto I'm blown away by how ugly and dysfunctional most of our public space is in comparison. Did anybody consciously decide our sidewalks, streets and hydro poles had to look this way? Did we ever have a debate on putting little lifeless trees in those raised 70's style concrete planters?