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Toronto, Capital of North America?

Thanos said:
As opposed to any other city? Have you not been following US politics the past decade. How do you think the US or Europe got into the financial mess they are in. The whole "i have the right to do whatever i want because i can" exists everywhere.

Please clarify. As someone who grew up there i see very little difference in the mentality of the two.
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I think we are on different pages. It seems you regard "Capital" in terms of a cities position in strictly economic terms. Berlin is the poorest city in Germany, but it's arguably the cultural capital. Cities like Montreal or US cities like Portland OR, Austin TX, Seattle WA, Boston MA all have very strong cultural identities and offer high quality of life. In these cities you will find over-consumption of energy is not considered a bragging right.
 
CN Tower said:
Wasteful according to whom?



Keep going man. I'll pass you some more rope with which to hang yourself.

Your herculean leap from energy hog to destroyer of heritage, arts slayer, grocery warlord and Rob Ford devotee just wreaks of self-righteous ignorance. Please continue. You erode your credibility further with every post. Yes- I consume a lot of energy in my household. I can hear the eco-police cars rounding my corner right about now. I better flee the scene! Oh wait...I can't use my car! Maybe I can outrun them on my son's emission-free scooter!

I assume that as a neubilder you intend to preserve and reuse every last scrap of material from every structure that you demolish for your 'neu bild'. Is that right? Or are you just a hypocrite?
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You sound like a facetious troll, like James Garner. This conversation is over
 
neubilder said:
I think we are on different pages. It seems you regard "Capital" in terms of a cities position in strictly economic terms. Berlin is the poorest city in Germany, but it's arguably the cultural capital. Cities like Montreal or US cities like Portland OR, Austin TX, Seattle WA, Boston MA all have very strong cultural identities and offer high quality of life. In these cities you will find over-consumption of energy is not considered a bragging right.
Click to expand...

Personally I find the Old City of Toronto is up there with Montreal, Portland, etc. Let's face it, if Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke's votes did not factor in Toronto would have the most progressive left-leaning government of the whole American continent (including S. America).

What we have to wrestle with is that the urban-suburban divide is too great.

Bike lanes, for example, are supported by most downtown councillors in their wards, but they usually can't get done because those who drive through those wards coming from the suburbs don't want them there.

As for the whole 'wasteful according to whom' - wasteful according to the experts that have done all the necessary calculations to know that if we all used such large amounts of resources your grandchildren would be ****ed. I'm an environmental scientist, so I'm very familiar with the data that's coming in, and I'm very optimistic.

Watch this for some background info. You can watch it with your kids, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMWzjrRiBg
 
RC8 said:
Personally I find the Old City of Toronto is up there with Montreal, Portland, etc.
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I agree, except that so much of the old city is being torn down and replaced with banal square footage despite efforts to curtail this.
 
RC8 said:
Personally I find the Old City of Toronto is up there with Montreal, Portland, etc. Let's face it, if Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke's votes did not factor in Toronto would have the most progressive left-leaning government of the whole American continent (including S. America).

What we have to wrestle with is that the urban-suburban divide is too great.

Bike lanes, for example, are supported by most downtown councillors in their wards, but they usually can't get done because those who drive through those wards coming from the suburbs don't want them there.

As for the whole 'wasteful according to whom' - wasteful according to the experts that have done all the necessary calculations to know that if we all used such large amounts of resources your grandchildren would be ****ed. I'm an environmental scientist, so I'm very familiar with the data that's coming in, and I'm very optimistic.

Watch this for some background info. You can watch it with your kids, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMWzjrRiBg
Click to expand...

Leave the parenting to me and I'll leave the eco-terrorism to you? Sound good?

I teach them to not waste a drop of water or a dime of electricity. According to my personal definition of needs. Not yours. Not David Suzuki's. Not Stephen Harper's. Mine and my spouses.
 
neubilder said:
I agree, except that so much of the old city is being torn down and replaced with banal square footage despite efforts to curtail this.
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Ultimately it might be for the best. I often wonder, but I believe that urban citizens tend to be more in touch with their environment and are more responsive to social issues. Even if density is just being increased for the sake of it, it might contribute to a city more aware of itself in the long term.
 
RC8 said:
Ultimately it might be for the best. I often wonder, but I believe that urban citizens tend to be more in touch with their environment and are more responsive to social issues. Even if density is just being increased for the sake of it, it might contribute to a city more aware of itself in the long term.
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I agree with urban intensification through infill, high-density midrise, even well placed highrise where it makes sense. But demolishing quality heritage is not necessary or desirable to achieve this density. Without the richness that the historic architecture adds to the fabric of the city, Toronto would be a bland corporate nothingness.
 
neubilder said:
I think we are on different pages. It seems you regard "Capital" in terms of a cities position in strictly economic terms. Berlin is the poorest city in Germany, but it's arguably the cultural capital. Cities like Montreal or US cities like Portland OR, Austin TX, Seattle WA, Boston MA all have very strong cultural identities and offer high quality of life. In these cities you will find over-consumption of energy is not considered a bragging right.
Click to expand...

Oh no, trust me, we're on the same page. And if you think that mentality doesn't run rampant in Montreal you are sadly mistaken.
 
CN Tower said:
What do you call this?

Heritage Preservation Services
http://www.toronto.ca/heritage-preservation/index.htm
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Heritage Toronto is an agency that has had most of it's powers stripped of it by the Harris Gov't. Presently it stands by with its hands tied as developers, via lobby groups and the OMB, pillage unabated.

I strongly recommend that you watch the video posted by RC8. You more than anyone could benefit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOMWzjrRiBg

I have one question for you. Are you role playing as part of some sort of social experiment, or do you actually believe the bile that you spew?

Now I'm through with you.
 
Last edited:
Ontario's in a decline? Hey, I know I'm chiming in five years late on this, but those five years have been pretty interesting ones with regard to who can stay the distance. Oil might be filling, and then emptying, and then filling, and then emptying again the sails of Alberta and to some extent Saskatchewan, but neither our national nor our particular provincial economy hangs on just one thing, with that one thing being something several jurisdictions in the past two or three years have said they don't want running the cars in 20 years.

Recently, because of the Sesquicentennial, Ontario dusted off and updated A Place to Stand and a Place to Grow, and I showed off the new version to friends of mine in greater Detroit. One of them, who was a little cynical, went looked, and realized there's something to be said for that. The province has doubled in population since the original was released.

When my dad was born up north, just before Pearl Harbor, there weren't even three million people yet in all of Ontario. By the time of the Centennial, just before I was born (in a different province), Ontario's population had soared to over seven million. Now it's essentially double that again. There are almost as many people in the GTA alone today as there were in all of the province of Ontario when I was born.

Man, if this is what decline looks like, bring it on.
 
"The alpha city for North America." Is this the new version of "world class?" If anyone thinks this is a remotely serious possibility I'd strongly suggest getting out of the country more to see just how much influence or presence Toronto has outside 416. I mean, this hyperbolic self-regard is ludicrous.
 
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