King of Kensington
Senior Member
What are some beliefs past and present commonly held by Torontonians about the city that aren't for the most part aren't true.
Here are a few I can think of:
1. Chinatown is actually Vietnamese (Census data for the area shows that there are about 10 times as many Chinese than Vietnamese in the area, whether one looks at birthplace, language or ethnic origin.)
2. York University opened partly because of anti-Semitism at U of T (I've heard this several times and incidentally always from non-Jewish Torontonians. How can this be? The heyday of Jewish quotas was a generation before York opened and it wasn't an issue by the 1960s.)
3. Toronto never followed the US model of inner city decline (Although it never declined to the extent that many northeastern and midwestern US cities did, from the 1880's to 1960's Toronto pretty much did follow the Burgress concentric rings model where those that could afford it moved further from the city center.)
4. The UN declared Toronto to be the most multicultural city in the world (It's been commonly reported by politicians, journalists and others, but there's no evidence the UN ever made such a declaration.)
Here are a few I can think of:
1. Chinatown is actually Vietnamese (Census data for the area shows that there are about 10 times as many Chinese than Vietnamese in the area, whether one looks at birthplace, language or ethnic origin.)
2. York University opened partly because of anti-Semitism at U of T (I've heard this several times and incidentally always from non-Jewish Torontonians. How can this be? The heyday of Jewish quotas was a generation before York opened and it wasn't an issue by the 1960s.)
3. Toronto never followed the US model of inner city decline (Although it never declined to the extent that many northeastern and midwestern US cities did, from the 1880's to 1960's Toronto pretty much did follow the Burgress concentric rings model where those that could afford it moved further from the city center.)
4. The UN declared Toronto to be the most multicultural city in the world (It's been commonly reported by politicians, journalists and others, but there's no evidence the UN ever made such a declaration.)
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