Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690146)

Hi Folks.
I'm starting to get the impression the downtown core of Toronto is very very small.

The best and main parts of the Toronto are King, Queen and Bloor. And they are not all that great
Yes there are other places outside of the core (Mississauga/brampton/the beaches) but there is not much going on outside of the downtown core. It gets familiar very quickly and loses the feel of a large metropolitan city.

but the the main hub of the city is those 3 streets.

Anyone else feel that way of Toronto?
Thanks

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11690153)

I agree though that it's a small city and, overall, not very interesting.

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690160)

hmm.... Yes St lawrence market/lieslievile up to liberty village and thats pretty much it.
Its not the fact that its not interesting it just feels like "the same faces" zone way to quickly. It not a negative on the city at all but it just feels the total opposite of Europe/UK

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690146)

Hi Folks.
I'm starting to get the impression the downtown core of Toronto is very very small.

The best and main parts of the Toronto are King, Queen and Bloor. And they are not all that great
Yes there are other places outside of the core (Mississauga/brampton/the beaches) but there is not much going on outside of the downtown core. It gets familiar very quickly and loses the feel of a large metropolitan city.

but the the main hub of the city is those 3 streets.

Anyone else feel that way of Toronto?
Thanks

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 11690223)

Kind of a crap post really.

I'd encourage you to get a life and explore a little more and also not to visit many more places in Canada, USA of the UK to prevent your Goldfish syndrome.

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690146)

Hi Folks.
I'm starting to get the impression the downtown core of Toronto is very very small.

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690146)

Hi Folks.
I'm starting to get the impression the downtown core of Toronto is very very small.

The best and main parts of the Toronto are King, Queen and Bloor. And they are not all that great

Yes there are other places outside of the core (Mississauga/brampton/the beaches) but there is not much going on outside of the downtown core. It gets familiar very quickly and loses the feel of a large metropolitan city.

but the the main hub of the city is those 3 streets.

Anyone else feel that way of Toronto?
Thanks

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690403)

well thanks James your too kind . your right I'll concentrate on getting a life.

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11690403)

well thanks James your too kind . your right I'll concentrate on getting a life.

Originally Posted by Cyan (Post 11690418)

Reminds me of Reykjavik...only joking of course.

What I noticed when I was job hunting for IT positions in 2000, was the limited number of openings relative to London, UK. My first impression was that Toronto's economy size was on par with somewhere like Birmingham.

Originally Posted by Oink (Post 11690606)

But with much rubbishier Indian restaurants. :thumbdown:

Originally Posted by Alex2201 (Post 11690804)

I agree that it is a layout issue. Most European cities have a historic center that is still the focus of the city and they have grown around it. This is simply not the case in new world countries. Toronto is a good example of a more planned approach to building a city.

I actually really like Toronto and part of its appeal is that it is more of a patchwork.

As Bristol says it could be worse.....

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11690812)

In the sense that it demonstrates that town planners are about as much use as weather forecasters, I suppose it might be. If Toronto was planned, and I find the idea far fetched, how come the planners didn't think of the idea of making it easy to move around the city and/or in and out of the city? Why didn't they think of the idea of having separate systems for sewage and ground waste water so there'd be no need to set turds bobbing in the lake?
Roads, extensive subways and sewers existed in European cities while Torontonians were chasing the natives off the land and setting up their piggeries.

Furthermore, if it was planned, why is it so ugly? Why aren't the AGO and the Harbourfront III Condos, for example, concealed underground?

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 11690578)

*you are* not your..... Perhaps you could concentrate on spelling and punctuation instead of a life? ;)

Originally Posted by Alex2201 (Post 11690804)

I agree that it is a layout issue. Most European cities have a historic center that is still the focus of the city and they have grown around it. This is simply not the case in new world countries. Toronto is a good example of a more planned approach to building a city.

I actually really like Toronto and part of its appeal is that it is more of a patchwork.

As Bristol says it could be worse.....

Originally Posted by Alex2201 (Post 11690876)

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

I perhaps should have clarified what I really meant by planned. I just meant in terms of the layout or footprint of the city. I mean that as and when it has expanded they just extend whichever street or avenue and build grid like blocks as oppose to the more ad hoc way that European cities seem to have developed. Toronto is a victim of short sighted investment in public infrastructure and expanding at such a rapid rate that it is virtually impossible to keep up with....a victim of its own success if you will.

Originally Posted by Pizzawheel (Post 11690903)

Haha, I was going to point that out but held back.





See, I think the critical thing about Toronto is it is not planned or even grown organically, it's grown through a fluke of history and the actions of others. It's the City equivalent of Budweiser or Canadian Club (both of which achieved popularity thanks to prohibition).

Toronto was a medium sized industrial/ commercial city bumbling along quite happily. Birmingham without the curry if you like. Then Quebec decides that politically & economically speaking French is the most important thing in the world, and suddenly Montreal- Canada's only world class city 40 years ago- is on the rack. As well as the language laws the employment laws start coming in and talk of separation is in the air. What happens? Everyone ups sticks and shifts to Toronto.

We'll never know whether Toronto actually noticed this; they may have raised a glass of Labatt Blue in the general direction of the East and said "cheers". But they certainly didn't sit down and think "Oh look, we're now the commercial capital of Canada, we need A Plan.

Hence the sporadic random growth. The city centre is small. Mississauga. Business throwing up house in spec offices that sprout like weeds alongside all of the expressways. No public transport policy- the TTC would be prefect if Montreal hadn't pressed the self destruct button, or if someone had realised the knock-on effect for TO.

Basically everyone is getting by without a master plan or any concept of one.

Originally Posted by Oakvillian (Post 11690934)

Fantastic! Not only is there more than a grain of truth in all that, but it means that Torontonians, and indeed GTA-ians in general, can legitimately blame all (well, most of) the city's ills on those pesky Quebecers. Hurrah!

;):p

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11690812)

In the sense that it demonstrates that town planners are about as much use as weather forecasters, I suppose it might be. If Toronto was planned, and I find the idea far fetched, how come the planners didn't think of the idea of making it easy to move around the city and/or in and out of the city? Why didn't they think of the idea of having separate systems for sewage and ground waste water so there'd be no need to set turds bobbing in the lake?
Roads, extensive subways and sewers existed in European cities while Torontonians were chasing the natives off the land and setting up their piggeries.

Furthermore, if it was planned, why is it so ugly? Why aren't the AGO and the Harbourfront III Condos, for example, concealed underground?

Originally Posted by Pizzawheel (Post 11690903)

We'll never know whether Toronto actually noticed this; they may have raised a glass of Labatt Blue in the general direction of the East and said "cheers". But they certainly didn't sit down and think "Oh look, we're now the commercial capital of Canada, we need A Plan.

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 11691029)

I have a brother who was in Town Planning for a while up near Leamington Spa.

He managed to get several traffic lights adjusted during a 3 year tenure.

It's not that he didn't try to do more but with politics and people being so short sighted and people only seeing to the end of their own noses you end up limited in what you are actually able to run with.

Then there is getting the changes through lengthy approval processes and changing administrations. Often by the time they occur the situation they were to resolve has moved on.

In Toronto the inability to make decisions and then run with the ball when they do is what kills the place.

In the last election for City Hall I had nearly 30 possible candidates to vote for. How could I ever understand their policies who what their mandate was when there was so many.

Then once the individual is in City Hall they have no parties so voting is inconsistent and runs all over the place.

The Gardiner is a prime example of a failure to organise effectively and make a clear decision. I'll be amazed if they ever end up doing this "Hybrid" conversion.

The same with Smart Track.

It's a miracle they got a train from the airport to Union although that was driven by external pressure.

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 11691029)

The Gardiner is a prime example of a failure to organise effectively and make a clear decision. I'll be amazed if they ever end up doing this "Hybrid" conversion.

Originally Posted by dbd33 (Post 11691049)

They did manage to demolish one end of it and replace it with a wide fast road cutting the neighbourhood off from the lake. A road known locally at the time as the Jack Layton Parkway. Nothing is better for that having been done so I think we should all hope nothing is done with the rest of it.

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 11690578)

*you are* not your..... Perhaps you could concentrate on spelling and punctuation instead of a life? ;)

Originally Posted by Tirytory (Post 11690578)

*you are* not your..... Perhaps you could concentrate on spelling and punctuation instead of a life? ;)

Originally Posted by BritCanadaNewbie (Post 11691527)

seems to be you spending time trolling comments and nitpicking folks comments on here . How sad..

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 11691311)

Is that the Lakeshore around Logan through Leslie???

I've always wondered how those big communist looking blocks ended up either side of it.

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 11690223)

Kind of a crap post really.

Queen street has nightlife running down it from the Beach pretty much through to Ossington.

The Danforth/Bloor a similar distance of bars,restaurants and cafes.

Add Kensington Market, St Lawrence Market/Esplanade. King West. Cabbage Town. Bloor West Village. Yonge & Eglinton. Yonge & St. Clair (large parts of the Yonge Line come to think of it) The whole of Spadina and Little Italy and in Downtown Toronto you have more to do for drinking/eating than most cities in the Western world.

I'd encourage you to get a life and explore a little more and also not to visit many more places in Canada, USA of the UK to prevent your Goldfish syndrome.

I can only really think that London or New York have that much more to offer. Chicago, Manchester etc are comparable.

Originally Posted by celtic uk canadian (Post 11692292)

I think, Toronto might feel a bit small to the newcomer.

And yes, Toronto is actually small, when one only considers Toronto which only has 2,6 M inhabitants, excluding Mississauga, Markham, Vaughn, Richmond Hill or Brampton.

The GTA is actually quite bigger.

What also might contribute to the "small feeling" is that the most interesting museums of Ontario are actually in Ottawa, not in Toronto.
( Canadian Air and Space Museum, Canadian War Museum, Canadian Museum of Civilization etc...)

That factor is more down to the nature of things, that Ottawa is the federal capital, not Toronto.