A common denominator of the GTA Trendwatch is the awakening of appreciation for the city itself, a concept that once seemed all but improbable, especially if you’ve spent too many years trudging around these parts. It wasn’t long ago that anyone demonstrating unbridled enthusiasm for living here would have been considered naive, bereft of the self-esteem required to leap beyond these streets – which might’ve only have become defined as home by accident of birth, or someone else’s arbitrary immigration idea, or a default escape from being stuck in a smaller town. But the symbols of Toronto rut through previous decades must’ve reflected someone’s ideal, no? The transition of an area like Yorkville from 1960s counterculture haven to 1970s-style bland overindulgence was certainly the embodiment of baby boomer ambition – when a similar thing occurred on Queen Street West, it was chalked up to progress, supplying locals with a more sanitized environment where they could blather about how they’d rather move to NYC. And those satisfied with their acquired stability around these parts would learn to love the big box stores in any given suburb. There might’ve the occasional bout of rage against an overzealous developer, and plenty of lamenting of how it used to be, but no widespread proactive conversation about how things might be created better. Now, real estate trends of the last few years have fueled interest in procuring a downtown-esque address – and many parts of town once deemed detrimental to status climbing now find themselves being properly woven into the city fabric, awaiting exploration by residents with no plans of straying elsewhere. But these things can be cyclical, too. So, what’s it going to take for all of this pro-Toronto sentiment to stick?
GTA Trendwatch #10: Not hating Toronto
January 6, 2006 · 5 Comments
Categories: trendwatch05
5 responses so far ↓
Jason Paris // January 7, 2006 at 2:41 am
Reminds me of the opening montage of a hugely successful 1980s primetime soap.
Lena // January 7, 2006 at 1:05 pm
I think the Toronto love is here to stay, and that it is much better than the 80s/90s visions of “world-class” (whatever that means) which pitted the T-dot against NYC. Comparing it to Chicago is much better, though wanting a good Toronto in & of itself seems to be the new vibe. Toronto has to fall in love with itself, to know itself, before anyone else will rhapsodize over it.
matt // January 8, 2006 at 4:07 am
I never understood those who ‘hated’ Toronto - because this is the right word describing common feelings that appeared in recent years. I have to mention here, that I know Toronto only from beginning of 90, so any reference to previous period of time is not clear to me.
Comparing it to any other city - as someone wrote NYC - has not much sense, but not because NYC is better, but because any city is different with its highs and lows. If to keep up to this comparision - NYC is for me surely ‘much’ worse for a normal person (though not for those ludicrous posers loving glamour and glitter with nothing behind it).
Toronto is a ’small’ miracle - with its safe (even with last year’s ‘records’) and clean streets, its vibrant and colourful neighbourhoods, its walkable city centre and everpresent green. This city is created for humans not cars and its public transport is really fantastic.
It offers so much every day of so called cultural events - from theatre, to film festivals, expositions, art fairs to street festivals that in summer happen every day, if not few times a day. Such richness is NOT known to Newyorkers or dwellers of any other city.
As far as I know the development is pondered and well delineated by some priorities (if this policy is still in place - I think about high-rise nod strategy and preserving local highet of buildings). I remember I was surprised how nice the downtown (buildings) was I first saw it - colourful and of different, interesting shapes. Definitely NOT a concrete coanions (such as you can find in NYC). And those interesting, if not magic places and sculptures you can find in many places (e.g. TD Centre’s courtyard with Fafard’s cows).
I was amazed to discover (because no one talked or wrote about it) how beautiful old Victorian homes were - and how interestingly differed one from another (unlike in London which has whole streets of same row buildins). And those homes are everywhere. Walking on streets of Yorkville, Cabagetown, the Annex and many others is a neverending expedition to unknown and surprisingly interesting. And add to this architecture fall colours or winter snow and you’ll get a recipe for a fantastic wonderland…
As far as I can see it/read about it, in recent years the ‘new’ development got quite interesting path. It is true also that in the past you stupidly lost many heritage buildings - and it is still not valued and protected properly. It is that you ‘whine’ that Europe is so interesting and ‘historic’, forgetting that we, Europeans, do not bulldoze every ‘old’ building on any occassion.
Toronto is undervalued by Torontonians and unknown to outside world (also thanks to this selfe degradating approach which culminete in naming it as a ‘hogtown’).
And do not forget that Toronto is so near to many interesting places, and that you can get there easily taking a ‘ride’. Unlike in other cities where you have to set for a few day’s ‘voyage’ and travel some thousands of kilometers.
Tourists hardly visit Toronto and it is NOT a well known destination. Maybe better for Torontonians, who has it for themselves, if not to count money lost due to little touristic traffic.
But to live there is really a privilege, believe me…
Glen // January 9, 2006 at 11:16 am
The reaction to the SARS outbreak by the rest of Canada was complete apathy. 44 people died, many more hospitalized, billions lost in tourism and no one cared. It was absolute apathy. In fact the Prime Minister at the time came to Toronto not because of SARS but because the Chinese community were suffering economically. You Torontoians were portrayed as racists for not going to Chinese restaurants. So Chretien had to photo op for the press eating a chicken ball to make everything right. SARS? What SARS? In fact it was the Chinese community themselves who didn’t want to eat at these restaurant for fear of getting the disease..
The hatred for Toronto is pathological. I just don’t understand it.
alanTdot // January 10, 2006 at 10:24 am
I think that this city is a victim of being stuck between Canadian self deprecation and the American Dream.
There are other Urban areas in North America that suffer the self hate fate - NY satellite cities Boston and Philadelphia come to mind - and we won’t even get into the ’streets paved with gold’ syndrome that leads thousands of immigrants to our borders every day.
But Toronto is a city that has just become aware of itself and that makes this a thrilling time to live here.
The baby boomer omnipresent specter is still covering as much as it can but they are coming up to some undeniable facts - they getting old, they can’t stay up after 10:00 no more, and they don’t look so good anymore (Gravity beats marketing everytime).
So into the spotlight come the Generation Branded X. And we like it here. And we now are working our way into the upper levels of the media/pop culture machine and we are letting it be known that …… we like it here.
(Although I was recently eating on Queen West west and had to suffer overhearing a conversation that went like this ‘blah blah blah, like New York, blah, namedrop namedrop namedrop, in New York, blah blah self-indulgent crap blah blah reminds me of New York”. So there will always be those that find it necessary to do the Slave to New York 1985 thing over and over).
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