H
Hydrogen
Guest
^From war and plunder to hospitality. What a career shift.
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Toronto as seen by New York Real Estate
- Thread starter whatmeworry
- Start date
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Dorn?
Ha....best gratuitous Star Trek reference I've seen in a while!
TonyV
Senior Member
It's so true that it's easier to get around New York than Toronto. The pre-Harris suburban politicians of yesteryear squandered opportunities in Toronto to get some heavy capacity rapid transit built, and then Mikey put the nails in the coffin. If anything can make or break a city, it's an abundance of high capacity mass transit combined with key surface routes.
As for the cookie-cutter aspect, I firmly believe we are moving out of that era. But hey, at least some foreign journal is writing about us again.
As for the cookie-cutter aspect, I firmly believe we are moving out of that era. But hey, at least some foreign journal is writing about us again.
TO City of Light
Active Member
As one who has just moved back to Toronto from NYC after living there for 22 years, I would agree with the general sentiments in the article. On the matter of how many Canadians live in New York, or LA, I think the correct answer is "no one knows". While census data may count some groups, I'm not sure Canadian is a category. And, while the Canadian census seems to be relatively thorough - at least my apartment was always surveyed even when I was not living there, the US exercise is about as meaningless as voting Democrat in Florida. In my 22 years in NYC I was not surveyed even a single time. The Canadian consulates/embassies have registers but I know of no one who ever signs in there, even in risky places which New York is not.
But anecdotally, the number of people I met over the years who were Canadians working there, who were studying there, who had been born in Canada but had became US citizens, who had spent a few years in Canada when growing up, who had emigrated to Canada and then subsequently moved to the US, etc. was enormous. Add to this those who had spent school years in Canada, has worked for a number of years in Canada, etc. and the number becomes even larger. Then add in all those people in New Jersey and the commuter belt of NYC who work/shop/spend time in New York and I am sure you get a prety respectable number, certainly more than LA.
The thing with most Canadians is that they can "pass" for Americans. In fact, like all those south of the Rio Grande, we are Americans - but that's a discussion in semantics. A social security number is not difficult to get and no one seems that anxious to look too closely at people working in the service industry anyway - and this includes what seems like the million young people who have a day job while they pursue artistic/acting careers. It was rare to be in a downtown restaurant or lounge where there wasn't at least one Canadian working.
As TonyV says, it is interesting that a US journal is writing about Toronto as a place and not as an origin for comedy writers and comedians, hockey players and indie bands or as a location for New York movies.
But anecdotally, the number of people I met over the years who were Canadians working there, who were studying there, who had been born in Canada but had became US citizens, who had spent a few years in Canada when growing up, who had emigrated to Canada and then subsequently moved to the US, etc. was enormous. Add to this those who had spent school years in Canada, has worked for a number of years in Canada, etc. and the number becomes even larger. Then add in all those people in New Jersey and the commuter belt of NYC who work/shop/spend time in New York and I am sure you get a prety respectable number, certainly more than LA.
The thing with most Canadians is that they can "pass" for Americans. In fact, like all those south of the Rio Grande, we are Americans - but that's a discussion in semantics. A social security number is not difficult to get and no one seems that anxious to look too closely at people working in the service industry anyway - and this includes what seems like the million young people who have a day job while they pursue artistic/acting careers. It was rare to be in a downtown restaurant or lounge where there wasn't at least one Canadian working.
As TonyV says, it is interesting that a US journal is writing about Toronto as a place and not as an origin for comedy writers and comedians, hockey players and indie bands or as a location for New York movies.
Tewder
Senior Member
I don't really have an issue with the article. There were a lot of positive things said, and the negative things said are pretty much in line with what a lot of us complain about around here anyway: crumbling infrastructure, messy urbanism, inadequate mass transit, ineffectual urban planning, banality of design and all those timid and wasted opportunites that have been the subject of many a long thread on UT. Wouldn't many of our wish lists include improvements to the very kind of things mentioned in the article anyway? What's more, the article is not mean spirited and openly describes a lot of the positive changes that are in fact happening already. Hopefully other changes wont be far behind, given that the dialogue on these issues is finally taking centre stage.