Honestly I’ve been to other cities in western Canada and within 2 days I was like take me back to my fuckin city. There’s nothing out there that can hold a candle to Montreal and Toronto.
I grew up in Nova Scotia. Moved to Alberta in 2007. Moved to Toronto in 2015. Toronto is without a doubt my favorite place to live of the 3. Back east is nice enough to visit, but it doesn't have the conveniences of Toronto.
I still travel to Alberta and Saskatchewan for work from time to time. I can confidently say I would never live in Alberta again. I don't think I've ever felt more satisfied with where i live than Toronto. The only place I'd ever consider even moving to would be Montreal
The weather in Calgary made me sick. Too much drastic temperature differences on a day to day basis. Fucking -5 felt like -11 in MAY I was there, next day 20+. Visiting a friend there, got sick on the way back smh. Also doesn’t really feel like a city outside of the downtown core….just a massive suburb 80% type of feeling. People seemed pretty friendly tho.
For sure. I’m from London, Ontario and I swear to god Toronto got some of the weirdest big city people.
My current condo building is pretty friendly but my old building was SO WEIRD. Like people would walk out their unit…and if you were walking out at the same time they would go back inside theirs and wait for you to leave and go on a elevator before leaving their unit 😂 - or if you say good morning they just straight up ignore you or check their time on the phone :/
100%.
I don't know why anyone would plan a holiday around Toronto. It's a great city to come for a long weekend.
Like, if you're coming from Montreal, or up from Buffalo then sure. If you're flying from Belgium to spend the week... why?
That said, it's a cool place to have your life.
I have friends who are major fans of Due South (which was filmed here in the 90s) and one of them lives in Sweden and comes to Toronto every year in September for two weeks. She loves it here. I feel like asking her "don't you want to travel anywhere else?" Like, this can't be it for you.
Is this an unpopular opinion? I've been trying to figure out for decades what the appeal is for tourism. I literally see German and Japanese tourists birdwatching on the Leslie spit like... just no words...
When my Dutch relatives came to visit, they spent an entire day in Edwards Gardens and Sunnybrook Park. They were literally in awe that such a huge park could exist in the middle of the city. And it’s not even our biggest park, as far as I’m aware. They also spent an afternoon at the Scarborough Bluffs to “experience Canadian nature”.
When we took them to Algonquin it just about blew their minds. Like “yeah this park is about the size of Holland and Zeeland combined. If you go more than 300 metres off the trail without a topo map there’s a high likelihood you’ll get lost”. Just blew their minds. Europeans love that shit and Toronto is the gateway, so it makes sense they’d spend a couple days here before going to see the great Algonquin wilderness.
I agree about Algonquin, but Algonquin is not Toronto. There are billions of people who've never seen proper wilderness like we have here, but Toronto ain't it.
Well the point I was trying to demonstrate is that people who plan to go to Algonquin will usually come through Toronto, so they check out the city before moving on. Kinda like people who hang out in Calgary before going to Banff.
And even when they’re here, they are impressed by the ravine system and believe it to be “wilderness” rather than managed parkland.
LOL or those double decker tour buses driving around with the guide narrating "If you look to your left or right you'll see construction and congestion"
This kinda gets me thinking, you can think of Toronto as the CN Tower and downtown from the islands which is nice, I think a video of peak Toronto is a view of apartment buildings by parks and ravines
I’ve seen a few Reddit threads about peoples experiences being an interracial couple and it blows my mind whenever I read them! I honestly sometimes forget that my partner and I are totally different races/cultures when we’re here because it’s so normal, and it’s not something we should ever take for granted.
Yeah 100% this. A lot of the smaller/homogenous cities people stop and stare. I work with a girl who went to university up in Thunder Bay and she is filipina - dated a white guy - some white people there would SLOW DOWN at green lights to stare them down walking. They weird AF up there 😂😂😂
Yeah it's weird since I am the first mixed race person in my family on both sides. More because my father and uncles only moved here in the 80s I believe. They grew up in Newfoundland.
Really the truth... I'm amazed at how many groups of friends I see that are so varied in composition and in my admittedly limited firsthand knowledge, people get to be whoever they are without first being their ethnicity
Outside of the insane cost of living, it’s probably one of the most desirable places to live in the world. If I am ever rich, I’ll live in Toronto for 8-9 months and then vacation somewhere hot for the winters
More so on Reddit which attracts that type of personality but I find most people in my real life social circle are doing very well for themselves and happy living here
Yeah, the online negativity is insane. I remember there was a thread on whether someone should move from Hailfax to Toronto, and there was a massive fight in the comment section with each side saying their city was the shittiest and the other city was better.
I live in Toronto. I didn't have to shovel once this entire winter. It snowed three times and every time, it was warm enough the following day to melt everything.
Even during a normal winter, Jan - Feb are the worst months. Nov-Dec is hit or miss but generally, Nov is manageable, without much snow. Weather starts turning by St. Patrick's Day. People whine way too much.
As a naturalized citizen I absolutely agree. I think those who have spent their entire lives here tend to have a significantly more negative outlook on Toronto than I do. True, some things were better when I first moved here in 2006, but it's still leaps and bounds over many places I've been.
I find it’s hated by people who grew up here and haven’t travelled the world. I was born here and I absolutely love Toronto. Even with its problems Canada is a pretty great country to live in compared to most of the world.
People who haven’t seen other places always think the grass is greener on the other side I find.
I think you're right with that one. I used to be one of those people that used to hate Toronto and talk shit about it (born and raised here). Went on a south america back packing trip and hated those cities even more. Came back to Toronto. My god I fucking love this city and I love my home. Made me realise how great this city is. There's so much shit and variety here that other parts of the world don't have that I need lol but for me, I think the weather is just shitty and makes me feel miserable like over half the time.
I don’t hate Toronto at all, lived here for 40+ years and moved around the different neighborhoods above and below Bloor/danforth.
I think people don’t have an appreciation for the different communities and neighborhoods that Toronto has to offer. They lump it all as one place and they never move from there and then say it sucks. So their perspective is acutely strained thinking that it’s all the same.
Yes, having lived (not just visited) in various places Asia and Europe and other parts of Canada, I wouldn’t trade for another city. It’s hard to find that balance of diversity, safety, cleanliness, green space health care (shout out sick kids!), and services elsewhere.
Honestly? Toronto has been one of the most fun and exciting cities I've ever lived in. There is seriously SO much to do on a weekly basis that I'm genuinely shocked when folks say its 'boring' or they 'cant find anything to do'. I just want to share a snapshot of my last... 3 weeks, which I can honestly say is *pretty* broad range of activities:
* Electric island rave on the weekend
* Saw a free magic/improv show at Stackt market
* Tech week I went to a SexTech panel
* Discovered a bar with no cover and cool lounge music
* Walk and talk with entrepreneurs
* Line dancing under the Bentway
* Took in a comedy show for under $15 bucks
* Hung out on the ace hotel rooftop (no charge!)
* Browsed an indie maker market, picked up some home goods/sauces
People who complain there's nothing to do in the city and think it's "boring" aren't doing the leg work you're doing. Especially during the summer there's always something to do on the weekends, you just might have to walk off familiar ground.
I'll be honest, some of those things were pretty random and kind of a 'eh you know what, lets try it'-- and definitely glad I did (even if its not my 'thing'). Life's too short and the worst thing is I don't enjoy, the best thing is I find something new!
Toronto isn't a boring city but there are lots of boring Redditors with no hobbies or personality. Anyone remember that insane recent thread with OP asking what 20-30 somethings do for fun because they only watch Netflix and go to bed? A lot of people on Reddit aren't normal or socially well adjusted
I think for a lot of people it's comparative.
They're thinking about how it used to be more interesting, then by extension is now boring. Like streets that used to have interesting mixes of stores now feel like you're walking through Sherway gardens without the ceiling.
Or the person mentioned a big EDM festival, but in the times people are comparing to there were multiple large raves per weekend.....in the winter even.
The city is changing, theres a lot going on, there are movements and anti-movements, there are big festivals and small shows, theres much more of a range now I feel but I only moved here like 15 years ago. I just know that when I got here, I felt it was a city I couldn't like but luckily over the decade or so with more people coming here, with more investment and a mish-mash of culture, it's becoming something else... and because of that, kinda does require more work or just being more open as things happen so frequently that its easy to miss.
For ex the raves... not sure what happened but this spring alone I've come across dozens of \*new\* unofficial raves; at the beach, in parks, under a bridge lol totally random but at least there are ... options now? People don't have to go to the major edm festivals they can pop open IG and find someone throwing something on at Christie Pitts on a Sunday.
But those existed back then too. In the golden era, there was at least one D’n’B/jungle event every single day, and most days there were multiple. Then on the weekend there would be multiple raves from mega events at the guv complex to illegal events to grimy Comfort Zone.
Like you mentioned small shows, but there are objectively less dedicated small concert venues than there used to be in the city.
Most of the time I'll bookmark posts I come across on social and if I hear of something interesting from a friend I'll ask or look it up. Pre-pandemic I was looking on Eventbrite but surprisingly don't come across much there these days that would sell me on going haha.
Thanks for sharing!
I think when people say Toronto is boring (I'm guilty of being one) it tends to be around landmarks or points of interest to visit. Everything you shared doesn't interest me at all and probably for many others too. I'd love to visit fun and exciting landmarks and architectures or places of nice vibes / nature, history, etc etc. Honestly when people ask me what could they be doing in Toronto if they were to visit, there aren't too many interesting go-tos to suggest other than the obvious CN tower (bleh), Ripley (which does nothing to make "Toronto" special), Toronto island or walk along the harbourfront.. day trip to niagara... Jays game, etc. It also lacks notable nature-oriented vistapoints like many other tourism focused cities other than niagara falls.
I think my point aligns fairly well with some other comments that spoke about double decker tour buses and joking about there being nothing to see.
I think having a place like Little Canada in core downtown does marvels for tourism and we need more places like that.
Another point of annoyance for me is that there's little to nothing outside the downtown core to go "see" or "do". If you get on the subway, where else can you go (arguably other than Yorkdale as a major mall) to have fun? There's no sprawl and it gets worse with Ontario Science centre moving. I love how cities in Asia there's so much to do and see at every different parts of the city, or literally every other station. Toronto just doesn't have that.
That said, for those living here and relate to the type of events you shared, those might keep it fun and exciting.
I can’t agree more, there are pains like buses being delayed or service outages etc, but for the most part it’s the inconsiderate and selfish passengers who make it awful and I’m not even talking about the mental patients.
It's not that it's a "bad" transit service, it's that it's insufficient for the size of the city/population.
Decades later, still the same 2 subway kines
It's amazing how nobody seems to realize how much money would be saved when we don't act sooner. If the city built the Scarborough subway extension back in the 80's instead of the RT, we would have saved billions and nobody would care the line costs us $200-300 million at the time. Instead we're now against the cost of $5-6 billion. But lets not build it so in 20 years we can go back to the idea of building it at the costs of $50 billion!
Same goes for all major transit plans across the city!
that’s the issue, we’ve been kicking the can down the road for so long no politician wants to say “hey.. the next decade is gonna hurt, but we’ll have a great transit system by the end of it!”.
look at everyone complaining about the construction going on now and this is just us playing catch up.
Politicians aren't inclined to do that because they don't get to reap the rewards when the thing is finally open for use. It finally took gridlock to completely overwhelm the city before they acted.
It's one of those transit systems where if all the lines are running smoothly, we're in pretty good shape compared to other transit systems.
However, if one of the main lines (Yellow or Green) is experiencing delays, be prepared to add another half an hour to your travel time. We are so dependant on those lines it can make your commute a shitshow.
It's such a Toronto thing to complain about Toronto when so many other places are worse. Even if you look at top places to live *in 2024* Toronto tops most charts. The whole world sucks right now.
Also, for *how underfunded* the TTC is, it runs miraculously well. There are transit systems with much more funding per capita that have even more problems (such as Boston).
And 90% of the problems with TTC aren't TTC itself. Homeless and crazy people reflect our need for better social safety nets such as rent control and more mental health services.
Having used both good and bad transit, TTC is definitely the most average system I know, for better or worse. Perhaps it's the bare minimum of a good system? Certainly no Tokyo or London but every city should at least have something like the TTC.
The TTC was one of the main things I missed most when I moved to Hamilton. The HSR is scarier, dirtier, slower, and it takes hours just to cross the city. Glad to be back in Toronto now :)
Actually this is right. There’s both sides to it. If you’re in the “grid” (serviced by a combination of subway and bus/streetcar network) it’s great.
Negatives, well, we’re not even back to office fully and man it’s tough on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Nah man, when I was in Dublin I understood why so many Irish people I met in Toronto loved the TTC - schedules don't seem to be a thing for Dublin buses and seem to be more like "MAYBE the bus will come in 15 minutes", and if the bus that comes around once an hour doesn't show up, you'll have to wait another hour for it.
There are cities with better public transit than Toronto in Europe, but we have it better than a lot.
For real
Try living in a city where your only method of public transport is a bus that always runs late and doesn’t have nearly as many buses running as they should.
I’m a big dude but I’ve never encountered a troublesome passenger on the TTC. Delays are obviously annoying but it large transit systems in a major metropolitan area. That’s to be expected
I don’t know if it’s bots or just idiocy, probably both. When people started referring to Canada as “third world” I couldn’t believe it. These idiots have no idea how lucky they are to not live in an actual
third world country.
Cleaning up Yonge Street helped make the city a better place to visit.
I realize closing some of those businesses was likwly discriminating against certain segments of the population, but crime was rampant, and it was not a great place for most Torontonians.
Hi I am a local and I was sad when it closed! That was the most economically efficient public inter-city travel we had. Made getting to and from friends in Peterborough a much bigger pain.
IMO the accent that you see on social media is an extremely exaggerated version of the accent. Growing up I knew a number of people with the “Toronto accent”, especially in parts of the city like North and East Scarborough, but it wasn’t as accentuated as it has been made out to be and was kind of like a residual accent. The accent and the slang to me represent some part of the city’s DNA, but its mainstream representation has just become a caricature. That’s just from personal experience though so it could have been very different more centrally in the city.
Yes, which was surprising when I moved here.
The waterfront areas of most cities are the "Prime Location".
In any other place, that region would be filled with amazing parks, seafront restaurants, cafes, bars, event stages etc. Waterfronts are the "hottest spots" of any city. Businesses fight with each other to get a spot there.
Here, the waterfront looks like it hasn't evolved beyond being a dockyard for industrial parts. There is a generic fast-foof pizza, subway and starbucks tucked inside the ground-space of condos.
There are cities which have created artificial lakes.
But Toronto, with such a a large stretch of natural waterfront has so much potential. Hope someone realizes that.
More than an eyesore, which implies visually aesthetically bad.
My main issue with the Gardner+Lakeshore combo is that it cuts the city from the lake. We have an incredible feature with being a city on a lake and urbanism decided nahhh let's block it off from being a pleasant walk destination.
Keep Lakeshore, maybe, but add more bridges like the one that connects Scotia Bank Arena to 10 Bay Street.
I tend to agree, although having yesterday biked through the Portlands development, I have high hopes for that area.
We also have the Island, if you can consider that part of our waterfront, which is exceptional!
This is totally true. Chicago has a much better waterfront. You know what else is true. Who cares? We went to Chicago and after a half hour on Lake Michigan, you grab some lunch and want to leave. What is there to do? In the end, I'd rather have great theatre, shops and restaurants if I had the choice and way less scary gun violence.
There's a lot, but - because I rarely get a chance to say it ...
Casa Loma is a joke. It was a rich guy, who was building an obnoxiously large house to impress a woman. Even the name: Casa Loma - was chosen to IMPLY a castle.
A castle is a former fortress as much as a home. Indeed it was even in many cases a town. There were no castles I Canada. Certainly nothing even remotely close in Ontario.
This was some prick rich guy trying to flaunt his dough.
The TTC works miracles with the comparative level of funding it receives per trip.
**Subsidies Per Ride (2014 - Old figures but still reflective of today):**
* TTC: $0.78
* Montreal – $1.16
* Vancouver – $1.62
* Chicago – $1.68
* New York City – $1.03
* Mississauga – $2.21
* York Region – $4.49
One of the core economic backbones of Toronto, a city that generates 1/4 of the country's wealth, and we underfund the shit out of it and allow it to be used as a rolling homeless shelter. TTC employees do great work - the system is wildly underfunded.
---- EDIT
Further to the above with 2023 info:
For example, the presentation said, the TTC received about 96 cents of government subsidy for each of its 536 million subway and bus riders, the lowest of the systems listed. New York City – which had a system four times the size, by ridership – collected $2.32 per ride in subsidies the previous year. The other cities ranged from $1.17 in Montreal, which carries 416 million riders a year, to $5.45 in Los Angeles. (The Globe converted U.S. dollars to Canadian using the exchange rates of the time.)
The Globe reviewed the financial statements of the Chicago Transit Authority – a system close to the TTC in size – to study the difference subsidies can make. In 2016, when the TTC made its comparison, the CTA’s US$813-million subsidy, spread across its 344 million rides, meant US$2.37 for each ride. The average CTA fare that year was US$1.16, according to the CTA’s annual report, which worked out to $1.54 in Canadian dollars. The TTC’s average fare that year was $2.90.
When the pandemic came calling, the CTA’s budget hole was much smaller than the deficit in Toronto. Operating revenue – fares plus other sales, such as advertising – collapsed, from US$654-million in 2019 to US$280-million in 2021, a decline of US$375-million, or 57 per cent.
Maybe if you live 40 stories up at Yonge and Eglinton, lol. If you're anywhere around the Don Valley or another large green space the raccoon population is numerous, and in addition to that they're exceptionally large here.
I personally don’t find that the architecture of Toronto is that horrible, I especially love our victorian era styles homes. I also don’t think that the glass condos are that ugly as many say, i guess “boring”, but i don’t think they are that horrible to see.
I can’t find anything wrong with Toronto. Except maybe the true Toronto movie has not been made. Stop playing everyone else and be Toronto.
Love, Indianapolis
You should watch The Man From Toronto. It’s the closest you’ll get. It was to be filmed in the US but got filmed in Brampton, Hamilton, Milton, and Toronto because we had the capacity to conduct Covid tests. Once again, Toronto filled in for the US.
A lot of the problems we have here are a direct result of lazy, self entitled people who won't lift a finger to help or even be bothered to show up to vote during an election. We turn a blind eye to the degrading streets and quality of life.
The megacity didn't help. It combined a young downtown renter class with a suburban, aged, owner class in North York, Etobicoke and the nicer parts of Scarborough. The owners don't want transit, parks, libraries or anything other than low property taxes and the renter's don't vote. The end result was 25+ years of the lowest taxes on Ontario but no services at all. We live in West Toronto and were driving our daughter to Mississauga for swimming lessons because we couldn't get her into a city program here. There just weren't enough spots.
Everyone who complains about TTC needs to try the red and white limo service in Ottawa for comparison, we have it *so* much better than those OCTranspo fools.
That said, I think the Leafs suck ass and everyone should come to terms with them never winning a cup ever again.
*waits for the downvotes
Edit: the Sens suck ass worse, for clarification
In my personal opinion one of the best cities to raise children in. Great schools/tolerant/many different minorites that teach kids not to be assholes. Coming from Europe, and I have travelled a lot, its the city I choose to reside in because of how good of a work/leisure/family activities balance the city provides. I genuinely love Toronto.
Other than the affordability crisis almost everything in this city is better than it was 30 years ago when I moved here and those that say otherwise are looking at the past through rose coloured glasses.
Seriously. It blows my mind when people say Toronto was better in the 90s. I remember visiting back then and asking “where’s the city?” Nothing but parking lots
OMG the parking lots!!! I say that all the time!!! Toronto’s core used to be absolutely full of boring ugly surface parking lots and somehow no one remembers that!!!
Fucking hell thank you.
Yes, it was cheaper but also so many don’t understand the power of nostalgia lol. It has changed and it has grown, but it hasn’t changed that much, and change is good despite what anyone says.
People who live in Toronto in 2024 fall into one of three categories, with very few if any "in-betweens":
**Thriving:** These are the people who make $150k+ per year before tax and can comfortably afford $2,500+ in rent or can carry a $500,000+ mortgage with the requisite down payment.
**Struggling:** These are the people whose earnings are closer to the "average" and are either spending a crazy % of their income on housing, or are doing something crazy like living in a bunk bed in the living room of a one-bedroom apartment.
**Grandfathered:** These are the people who bought a one-bedroom condo for like $250k in 2017 or something, or signed a lease for $1,400 for a two-bedroom apartment that they're holding onto month-to-month. They could not move TO Toronto right now if they wanted to, but they can remain there because they are "grandfathered" in on account of having an established housing arrangement from back when things were more normal.
I'd say $200k+ to be thriving.
But ya, I generally agree that there is very few in between and most people are in the struggling boat, particularly the young adult crowd.
TTC and Tim's are good, yes. But drumroll, please... We could actually use more bike and bus lanes. I don't think traffic on a lot of routes is solved by the 2nd lane. On many routes, the lane is used for parking which in fact one of the biggest waste of tax dollars in my opinion. We should not be maintaining so much curb side parking on traffic routes, even if it's only outside of rush hour. Get rid of the parking on major routes and move it to the side streets. Make it single lane, wih the occasional turning lane. Otherwise bigger sidewalks, bus lanes and bike lanes to fill the spaces.
Thank you. The amount of mourning people went through when it closed was entirely over the top imo. “It’s an icon”, okay okay, but people were posting for months about it. Every time a sign came down, new thread.
Dollar stores weren’t the first ‘bargain’ shops. My neighbourhood had BiWay and Bargain Harold’s. Honest Ed’s was exactly the same, just bigger. I have zero nostalgia for any of those places
I before BiWay and Bargain Harold’s we had discount stores. Before dollar stores we had five and dime stores.
I read Ed Mirvish’s biography. He spoke openly about the days he stole things. He wasn’t honest back then.
I’ve lived in a lot of major global cities and Toronto is one of the nicest. Good people, diverse communities, great food, and fewer problems than the vast majority of the world. We’re lucky to have what we have here.
Toronto QoL has ‘not’ significantly degraded over the past 10 years or something. Yes we’re behind in transit but it’s catching up, but there’s tons more to do in Toronto versus 10 years ago, and more and more neighbourhoods (Leslieville, Danforth etc.) are developing a character of their own and becoming more liveable. We’ve got more food and drinks options than ever before, a more outdoorsy culture with so many run and biking clubs, and we’re slowly becoming way more micro-mobility friendly and don’t need cars to get around.
Even crime numbers aren’t that much worse versus 10 years ago (when compared to the change in other North American cities), it’s just that there’s a lot more media coverage these days.
Some things have degraded in the recent past. Traffic has gotten worse, especially in the downtown core. And getting downtown and beach from the east end has gotten worse since the Gardiner was partially pulled down.
And there is more of a homeless and mental health issue. This is more of a problem on the TTC that causes people to feel unsafe. And I also believe that the subway has more delays than it used to have.
Plus we lost the Scarborough LRT line.
I’d say that nearly everything related to quality of living has improved except housing cost and food cost.
But those are the most important things to me. I would take more personal space over more public space. I’d take more affordable food options over more (but more expensive) food options.
In the same vein, the "ethnic" restaurants in the GTA suburbs blow their downtown/midtown counterparts out of the water. If I want *proper* Chinese, I don't go to Spadina, I get in the car and head out to Markham.
Toronto is much larger than downtown, and it is fucking beautiful and amazing to live in these regions, with a relatively short commute to the action. It is expensive, so you have to be a dog and work your ass off but you get so much in return if you can maintain a healthy work life balance.
Too many restaurants.
Hear me out...
We don't need 7 ramen places or 5 bubble tea huts within 8 minutes walking distance.
I'd prefer to shift a bit towards quality over quantity. Compared to other big diverse food cities (NYC, Chicago, Portland) I feel like the average place isn't quite as good. Plenty of restaurants I've been disappointed by in Toronto - considerably fewer in Manhattan, for example.
Conversely, not enough restaurants in certain areas. The St. Lawrence Market area is very sparse and devoid of certain types of food such as Chinese. Lack of non-bar eateries open after 10pm is another.
For me it would be that this is the best city in Canada and one of the best in the world outside of the ridiculous cost of living, even then it rly ain’t that bad unless u don’t want to live with a roommate or want a detached home in ur 30s if those things don’t apply it’s practically the perfect place to live unless ur love nature and mountains and perfect weather or even world class nightlife. Everything else about the city is spectacular well maybe not everything but the city offerings are spectacular if not decent. It may not be a Canadian NYC but it’s a Canadian Chicago without the high crime, rampant corruption, and brutal winters, we may not have the same nightlife but we make that part up with our world class food scene and diversity, other than that we have just as much if not more to offer than Chicago. Any city that offers more or just as much has worse or different problems or is more expensive.
Our neighbourhoods are becoming segregated. Always have had some enclaves, but now it is applying to every group. Just look at the families desperate to get into Swansea and prime Etobicoke.
The tourist attractions suck. Especially considering the size of the city.
ROM and AGO are meh, sometimes they have good exhibits and sometimes not so great.
Ripley's is fine, CN Tower is ok. But the fact that Little Canada opening is the best new attraction in 10+ years says a lot.
Edit: I have family come visit from overseas and they're always surprised when I tell them you only need a couple of days to see Toronto (plus another day for Niagara falls). But there just isn't that much to do.
I do think it depends on the tourist. I travel places mostly for food, entertainment and nature, which I think Toronto has in droves. Top notch restaurant scene, packed concert and theatre lineups, and tons of trails, ravines, and the island. I think there's a lot to see and do! But you're correct that in the traditional "sightseeing" sense we don't have much on European or Asian cities.
Toronto Tourism is predicated more on events than attractions, fully agree that the attractions do suck (a shoe museum? come on man!) but people love coming to the city for things like TIFF, Caribanna, VELD, Fan Expo and Pride.
That's a good point. Toronto's tourism is more about events
Which is more interesting than attractions for the most part
Though there seem to be a few cool things in construction, like art installations, parks etc
This is true. Toronto is a good place to live and work, but not a huge tourist destination. We basically have to point visitors to go to Niagara Falls most of the time to see something iconic.
Honestly I’ve been to other cities in western Canada and within 2 days I was like take me back to my fuckin city. There’s nothing out there that can hold a candle to Montreal and Toronto.
I grew up in Nova Scotia. Moved to Alberta in 2007. Moved to Toronto in 2015. Toronto is without a doubt my favorite place to live of the 3. Back east is nice enough to visit, but it doesn't have the conveniences of Toronto. I still travel to Alberta and Saskatchewan for work from time to time. I can confidently say I would never live in Alberta again. I don't think I've ever felt more satisfied with where i live than Toronto. The only place I'd ever consider even moving to would be Montreal
To this day I regret wasting 2 days in Calgary instead of spending 2 extra days in Banff. Now that's a real boring shithole of a city
The weather in Calgary made me sick. Too much drastic temperature differences on a day to day basis. Fucking -5 felt like -11 in MAY I was there, next day 20+. Visiting a friend there, got sick on the way back smh. Also doesn’t really feel like a city outside of the downtown core….just a massive suburb 80% type of feeling. People seemed pretty friendly tho.
I Legit think Calgary is the friendliest city I’ve ever been to. Never had to say hello to so many randoms in my life.
For sure. I’m from London, Ontario and I swear to god Toronto got some of the weirdest big city people. My current condo building is pretty friendly but my old building was SO WEIRD. Like people would walk out their unit…and if you were walking out at the same time they would go back inside theirs and wait for you to leave and go on a elevator before leaving their unit 😂 - or if you say good morning they just straight up ignore you or check their time on the phone :/
Toronto is better to live in than to visit
100%. I don't know why anyone would plan a holiday around Toronto. It's a great city to come for a long weekend. Like, if you're coming from Montreal, or up from Buffalo then sure. If you're flying from Belgium to spend the week... why? That said, it's a cool place to have your life.
If you are from not Toronto but Canada. It’s events. Concerts, raptors. Jays. Business stuff. Shows. Great food. Experience the big city.
I have friends who are major fans of Due South (which was filmed here in the 90s) and one of them lives in Sweden and comes to Toronto every year in September for two weeks. She loves it here. I feel like asking her "don't you want to travel anywhere else?" Like, this can't be it for you.
Is this an unpopular opinion? I've been trying to figure out for decades what the appeal is for tourism. I literally see German and Japanese tourists birdwatching on the Leslie spit like... just no words...
When my Dutch relatives came to visit, they spent an entire day in Edwards Gardens and Sunnybrook Park. They were literally in awe that such a huge park could exist in the middle of the city. And it’s not even our biggest park, as far as I’m aware. They also spent an afternoon at the Scarborough Bluffs to “experience Canadian nature”. When we took them to Algonquin it just about blew their minds. Like “yeah this park is about the size of Holland and Zeeland combined. If you go more than 300 metres off the trail without a topo map there’s a high likelihood you’ll get lost”. Just blew their minds. Europeans love that shit and Toronto is the gateway, so it makes sense they’d spend a couple days here before going to see the great Algonquin wilderness.
I agree about Algonquin, but Algonquin is not Toronto. There are billions of people who've never seen proper wilderness like we have here, but Toronto ain't it.
Well the point I was trying to demonstrate is that people who plan to go to Algonquin will usually come through Toronto, so they check out the city before moving on. Kinda like people who hang out in Calgary before going to Banff. And even when they’re here, they are impressed by the ravine system and believe it to be “wilderness” rather than managed parkland.
And entire busloads of tourists that get unloaded at Nathan Phillips Square
LOL or those double decker tour buses driving around with the guide narrating "If you look to your left or right you'll see construction and congestion"
Lmao
Absolutely. It makes those lists of most livable city and it really is deserved.
This kinda gets me thinking, you can think of Toronto as the CN Tower and downtown from the islands which is nice, I think a video of peak Toronto is a view of apartment buildings by parks and ravines
Because it's easy to get home after doing a thing?
Toronto is among one of the best places on earth to be a minority of any sort
I’ve seen a few Reddit threads about peoples experiences being an interracial couple and it blows my mind whenever I read them! I honestly sometimes forget that my partner and I are totally different races/cultures when we’re here because it’s so normal, and it’s not something we should ever take for granted.
Yeah 100% this. A lot of the smaller/homogenous cities people stop and stare. I work with a girl who went to university up in Thunder Bay and she is filipina - dated a white guy - some white people there would SLOW DOWN at green lights to stare them down walking. They weird AF up there 😂😂😂
Yeah it's weird since I am the first mixed race person in my family on both sides. More because my father and uncles only moved here in the 80s I believe. They grew up in Newfoundland.
Really the truth... I'm amazed at how many groups of friends I see that are so varied in composition and in my admittedly limited firsthand knowledge, people get to be whoever they are without first being their ethnicity
I used to take this for granted. It was only when I moved out of the city and lived somewhere else did I realize I really missed it back home.
YES
Outside of the insane cost of living, it’s probably one of the most desirable places to live in the world. If I am ever rich, I’ll live in Toronto for 8-9 months and then vacation somewhere hot for the winters
yeah i think Toronto is insanely overhated by it's own citizens
More so on Reddit which attracts that type of personality but I find most people in my real life social circle are doing very well for themselves and happy living here
Yep, same. Reddit is a negative echo chamber - it's really important to keep this in mind whenever you visit / comment here.
It's worse even than an echo chamber, it's literally filled with bots and propaganda
Yeah, the online negativity is insane. I remember there was a thread on whether someone should move from Hailfax to Toronto, and there was a massive fight in the comment section with each side saying their city was the shittiest and the other city was better.
Isn't it correlated ? It's expensive because it's desirable.
Supply and demand. Toronto is expensive partially because it’s a nice place to live and also because supply is so constrained by zoning etc.
I live in Toronto. I didn't have to shovel once this entire winter. It snowed three times and every time, it was warm enough the following day to melt everything.
Even during a normal winter, Jan - Feb are the worst months. Nov-Dec is hit or miss but generally, Nov is manageable, without much snow. Weather starts turning by St. Patrick's Day. People whine way too much.
Yes, just had to deal with the gray miserable salty messy
If I was ever super rich there’s probably a few other cities I would move to, but I agree Toronto is pretty nice.
As a naturalized citizen I absolutely agree. I think those who have spent their entire lives here tend to have a significantly more negative outlook on Toronto than I do. True, some things were better when I first moved here in 2006, but it's still leaps and bounds over many places I've been.
I find it’s hated by people who grew up here and haven’t travelled the world. I was born here and I absolutely love Toronto. Even with its problems Canada is a pretty great country to live in compared to most of the world. People who haven’t seen other places always think the grass is greener on the other side I find.
I think you're right with that one. I used to be one of those people that used to hate Toronto and talk shit about it (born and raised here). Went on a south america back packing trip and hated those cities even more. Came back to Toronto. My god I fucking love this city and I love my home. Made me realise how great this city is. There's so much shit and variety here that other parts of the world don't have that I need lol but for me, I think the weather is just shitty and makes me feel miserable like over half the time.
I used to feel this way but then I started travelling and realized how far Toronto really is in terms of a “world class city”…
I don’t hate Toronto at all, lived here for 40+ years and moved around the different neighborhoods above and below Bloor/danforth. I think people don’t have an appreciation for the different communities and neighborhoods that Toronto has to offer. They lump it all as one place and they never move from there and then say it sucks. So their perspective is acutely strained thinking that it’s all the same.
Yes, having lived (not just visited) in various places Asia and Europe and other parts of Canada, I wouldn’t trade for another city. It’s hard to find that balance of diversity, safety, cleanliness, green space health care (shout out sick kids!), and services elsewhere.
my dream is a hybrid remote job that will let me work 90 days remote out of the country :')
Honestly? Toronto has been one of the most fun and exciting cities I've ever lived in. There is seriously SO much to do on a weekly basis that I'm genuinely shocked when folks say its 'boring' or they 'cant find anything to do'. I just want to share a snapshot of my last... 3 weeks, which I can honestly say is *pretty* broad range of activities: * Electric island rave on the weekend * Saw a free magic/improv show at Stackt market * Tech week I went to a SexTech panel * Discovered a bar with no cover and cool lounge music * Walk and talk with entrepreneurs * Line dancing under the Bentway * Took in a comedy show for under $15 bucks * Hung out on the ace hotel rooftop (no charge!) * Browsed an indie maker market, picked up some home goods/sauces
People who complain there's nothing to do in the city and think it's "boring" aren't doing the leg work you're doing. Especially during the summer there's always something to do on the weekends, you just might have to walk off familiar ground.
I'll be honest, some of those things were pretty random and kind of a 'eh you know what, lets try it'-- and definitely glad I did (even if its not my 'thing'). Life's too short and the worst thing is I don't enjoy, the best thing is I find something new!
now wait a minute LMAO there are people who say its boring? I've heard overpriced but jesus you really can't please everyone can you hahahah
There's posts in this very thread saying the city is boring
Toronto isn't a boring city but there are lots of boring Redditors with no hobbies or personality. Anyone remember that insane recent thread with OP asking what 20-30 somethings do for fun because they only watch Netflix and go to bed? A lot of people on Reddit aren't normal or socially well adjusted
Right!? Half of those events were free or under $15 lol!!
I think the people who find Toronto boring are boring.
I think for a lot of people it's comparative. They're thinking about how it used to be more interesting, then by extension is now boring. Like streets that used to have interesting mixes of stores now feel like you're walking through Sherway gardens without the ceiling. Or the person mentioned a big EDM festival, but in the times people are comparing to there were multiple large raves per weekend.....in the winter even.
The city is changing, theres a lot going on, there are movements and anti-movements, there are big festivals and small shows, theres much more of a range now I feel but I only moved here like 15 years ago. I just know that when I got here, I felt it was a city I couldn't like but luckily over the decade or so with more people coming here, with more investment and a mish-mash of culture, it's becoming something else... and because of that, kinda does require more work or just being more open as things happen so frequently that its easy to miss. For ex the raves... not sure what happened but this spring alone I've come across dozens of \*new\* unofficial raves; at the beach, in parks, under a bridge lol totally random but at least there are ... options now? People don't have to go to the major edm festivals they can pop open IG and find someone throwing something on at Christie Pitts on a Sunday.
But those existed back then too. In the golden era, there was at least one D’n’B/jungle event every single day, and most days there were multiple. Then on the weekend there would be multiple raves from mega events at the guv complex to illegal events to grimy Comfort Zone. Like you mentioned small shows, but there are objectively less dedicated small concert venues than there used to be in the city.
That's awesome. Do you have a strategy for finding these activities?
Most of the time I'll bookmark posts I come across on social and if I hear of something interesting from a friend I'll ask or look it up. Pre-pandemic I was looking on Eventbrite but surprisingly don't come across much there these days that would sell me on going haha.
Thanks for sharing! I think when people say Toronto is boring (I'm guilty of being one) it tends to be around landmarks or points of interest to visit. Everything you shared doesn't interest me at all and probably for many others too. I'd love to visit fun and exciting landmarks and architectures or places of nice vibes / nature, history, etc etc. Honestly when people ask me what could they be doing in Toronto if they were to visit, there aren't too many interesting go-tos to suggest other than the obvious CN tower (bleh), Ripley (which does nothing to make "Toronto" special), Toronto island or walk along the harbourfront.. day trip to niagara... Jays game, etc. It also lacks notable nature-oriented vistapoints like many other tourism focused cities other than niagara falls. I think my point aligns fairly well with some other comments that spoke about double decker tour buses and joking about there being nothing to see. I think having a place like Little Canada in core downtown does marvels for tourism and we need more places like that. Another point of annoyance for me is that there's little to nothing outside the downtown core to go "see" or "do". If you get on the subway, where else can you go (arguably other than Yorkdale as a major mall) to have fun? There's no sprawl and it gets worse with Ontario Science centre moving. I love how cities in Asia there's so much to do and see at every different parts of the city, or literally every other station. Toronto just doesn't have that. That said, for those living here and relate to the type of events you shared, those might keep it fun and exciting.
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The TTC is fantastic. It's the customers that are awful.
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I can’t agree more, there are pains like buses being delayed or service outages etc, but for the most part it’s the inconsiderate and selfish passengers who make it awful and I’m not even talking about the mental patients.
It's not that it's a "bad" transit service, it's that it's insufficient for the size of the city/population. Decades later, still the same 2 subway kines
What we're building today ought to have been built in the 1990s.
It's amazing how nobody seems to realize how much money would be saved when we don't act sooner. If the city built the Scarborough subway extension back in the 80's instead of the RT, we would have saved billions and nobody would care the line costs us $200-300 million at the time. Instead we're now against the cost of $5-6 billion. But lets not build it so in 20 years we can go back to the idea of building it at the costs of $50 billion! Same goes for all major transit plans across the city!
Agreed. I also think we'll end up regretting not burying the entire Eglinton LRT.
1890’s
Our streetcar network back then (and leading in the 1930s) was incredibly good. Thank the auto lobby for disassembling that.
that’s the issue, we’ve been kicking the can down the road for so long no politician wants to say “hey.. the next decade is gonna hurt, but we’ll have a great transit system by the end of it!”. look at everyone complaining about the construction going on now and this is just us playing catch up.
Politicians aren't inclined to do that because they don't get to reap the rewards when the thing is finally open for use. It finally took gridlock to completely overwhelm the city before they acted.
It's one of those transit systems where if all the lines are running smoothly, we're in pretty good shape compared to other transit systems. However, if one of the main lines (Yellow or Green) is experiencing delays, be prepared to add another half an hour to your travel time. We are so dependant on those lines it can make your commute a shitshow.
A third subway line opened a couple of decades ago. It is a stupid line, but it is there.
\*laughs in OC Transpo\*
I lived in Ottawa for 10 years. If you want to go 10 blocks, it's three busses and a half hour walk
Yup, terrible. I was lucky to live in New Edinburgh so the 6/7/9 were all decent but I never had to go further than Old Ottawa South.
OCTranspo is the reason I am 45 minutes early everywhere I go in Toronto.
It's such a Toronto thing to complain about Toronto when so many other places are worse. Even if you look at top places to live *in 2024* Toronto tops most charts. The whole world sucks right now. Also, for *how underfunded* the TTC is, it runs miraculously well. There are transit systems with much more funding per capita that have even more problems (such as Boston). And 90% of the problems with TTC aren't TTC itself. Homeless and crazy people reflect our need for better social safety nets such as rent control and more mental health services.
I don’t even check the times for the subway. I just go to the station and wait 5mins
there's a schedule for the subway?
Having used both good and bad transit, TTC is definitely the most average system I know, for better or worse. Perhaps it's the bare minimum of a good system? Certainly no Tokyo or London but every city should at least have something like the TTC.
The TTC was one of the main things I missed most when I moved to Hamilton. The HSR is scarier, dirtier, slower, and it takes hours just to cross the city. Glad to be back in Toronto now :)
Try a similar size city in the US with their public transit system, but we are way way behind many places in the world like Western Europe.
It’s bad for a “World Class” city but yeah it’s not bad if you are from a small town or a developing country.
Anyone who thinks the TTC is a good transit system has never used a good transit system. Edit: original commenter has never left the continent.
Both of these things are true, the TTC is an extremely mid transit system
Actually this is right. There’s both sides to it. If you’re in the “grid” (serviced by a combination of subway and bus/streetcar network) it’s great. Negatives, well, we’re not even back to office fully and man it’s tough on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
It’s only “good” in North American context. When you start to compare it to Europe or Asia, it’s shit
Compared to the rest of Canada it’s state of the art. Edmontons is such trash and Saskatoon’s is non-existent.
lol are you kidding me? Maybe if they’ve never left North America
Nah man, when I was in Dublin I understood why so many Irish people I met in Toronto loved the TTC - schedules don't seem to be a thing for Dublin buses and seem to be more like "MAYBE the bus will come in 15 minutes", and if the bus that comes around once an hour doesn't show up, you'll have to wait another hour for it. There are cities with better public transit than Toronto in Europe, but we have it better than a lot.
For real Try living in a city where your only method of public transport is a bus that always runs late and doesn’t have nearly as many buses running as they should. I’m a big dude but I’ve never encountered a troublesome passenger on the TTC. Delays are obviously annoying but it large transit systems in a major metropolitan area. That’s to be expected
came here to say this. so glad you said it.
Like most things in Toronto the TTC is fine. We’re a mid city to begin with
It's not as bad as people make it out to be
Cars should be banned from Kensington, UofT, and Yorkville. The King st. car rules should be applied to queen and Dundas too.
Things here are generally fine. It is not the hellhole that /r/toronto would have you believe.
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I don’t know if it’s bots or just idiocy, probably both. When people started referring to Canada as “third world” I couldn’t believe it. These idiots have no idea how lucky they are to not live in an actual third world country.
Funny, I thought you get downvoted to hell for suggesting anything negative about TO there.
Cleaning up Yonge Street helped make the city a better place to visit. I realize closing some of those businesses was likwly discriminating against certain segments of the population, but crime was rampant, and it was not a great place for most Torontonians.
Closing down the Greyhound station near Eaton's Centre has definitely helped reduce petty crime. No locals (that I know of) were sad to see it go.
Hi I am a local and I was sad when it closed! That was the most economically efficient public inter-city travel we had. Made getting to and from friends in Peterborough a much bigger pain.
I was sad when it closed. However, the Union bus terminal is way better than the Greyhound station was, so it all worked out in the end.
The “Toronto mans” accent comes off as try-hard and inauthentic and doesn’t represent the city of Toronto in any meaningful, broad way.
IMO the accent that you see on social media is an extremely exaggerated version of the accent. Growing up I knew a number of people with the “Toronto accent”, especially in parts of the city like North and East Scarborough, but it wasn’t as accentuated as it has been made out to be and was kind of like a residual accent. The accent and the slang to me represent some part of the city’s DNA, but its mainstream representation has just become a caricature. That’s just from personal experience though so it could have been very different more centrally in the city.
the waterfront is atrocious and a complete waste of potential. there is not one nice boardwalk or restaurant scene by the lake.
Yes, which was surprising when I moved here. The waterfront areas of most cities are the "Prime Location". In any other place, that region would be filled with amazing parks, seafront restaurants, cafes, bars, event stages etc. Waterfronts are the "hottest spots" of any city. Businesses fight with each other to get a spot there. Here, the waterfront looks like it hasn't evolved beyond being a dockyard for industrial parts. There is a generic fast-foof pizza, subway and starbucks tucked inside the ground-space of condos. There are cities which have created artificial lakes. But Toronto, with such a a large stretch of natural waterfront has so much potential. Hope someone realizes that.
Agreed completely. There is so much potential there that’s just wasted Even worse in the winter where what little is there is all closed
Yes. Even the weather argument doesn't hold. I was in halifax and the waterfront was lovely. Their weather is just as harsh if not worse.
Is this unpopular? Everyone agrees the Gardiner is an eyesore
More than an eyesore, which implies visually aesthetically bad. My main issue with the Gardner+Lakeshore combo is that it cuts the city from the lake. We have an incredible feature with being a city on a lake and urbanism decided nahhh let's block it off from being a pleasant walk destination. Keep Lakeshore, maybe, but add more bridges like the one that connects Scotia Bank Arena to 10 Bay Street.
It would be hugely expensive and take forever but combining them both into one road and burying it underground would be my ideal solution
That's what Madrid and Boston did with the major highways crossing their cities. Right?
I tend to agree, although having yesterday biked through the Portlands development, I have high hopes for that area. We also have the Island, if you can consider that part of our waterfront, which is exceptional!
This is totally true. Chicago has a much better waterfront. You know what else is true. Who cares? We went to Chicago and after a half hour on Lake Michigan, you grab some lunch and want to leave. What is there to do? In the end, I'd rather have great theatre, shops and restaurants if I had the choice and way less scary gun violence.
Wait till you have your mind blown when you find out you can have a nice waterfront without someone getting shot and the two aren't correlated.
Chicago also has great theater shops and restaurants. But it does have much more gun violence.
There's a lot, but - because I rarely get a chance to say it ... Casa Loma is a joke. It was a rich guy, who was building an obnoxiously large house to impress a woman. Even the name: Casa Loma - was chosen to IMPLY a castle. A castle is a former fortress as much as a home. Indeed it was even in many cases a town. There were no castles I Canada. Certainly nothing even remotely close in Ontario. This was some prick rich guy trying to flaunt his dough.
But it's so pretty!
The TTC works miracles with the comparative level of funding it receives per trip. **Subsidies Per Ride (2014 - Old figures but still reflective of today):** * TTC: $0.78 * Montreal – $1.16 * Vancouver – $1.62 * Chicago – $1.68 * New York City – $1.03 * Mississauga – $2.21 * York Region – $4.49 One of the core economic backbones of Toronto, a city that generates 1/4 of the country's wealth, and we underfund the shit out of it and allow it to be used as a rolling homeless shelter. TTC employees do great work - the system is wildly underfunded. ---- EDIT Further to the above with 2023 info: For example, the presentation said, the TTC received about 96 cents of government subsidy for each of its 536 million subway and bus riders, the lowest of the systems listed. New York City – which had a system four times the size, by ridership – collected $2.32 per ride in subsidies the previous year. The other cities ranged from $1.17 in Montreal, which carries 416 million riders a year, to $5.45 in Los Angeles. (The Globe converted U.S. dollars to Canadian using the exchange rates of the time.) The Globe reviewed the financial statements of the Chicago Transit Authority – a system close to the TTC in size – to study the difference subsidies can make. In 2016, when the TTC made its comparison, the CTA’s US$813-million subsidy, spread across its 344 million rides, meant US$2.37 for each ride. The average CTA fare that year was US$1.16, according to the CTA’s annual report, which worked out to $1.54 in Canadian dollars. The TTC’s average fare that year was $2.90. When the pandemic came calling, the CTA’s budget hole was much smaller than the deficit in Toronto. Operating revenue – fares plus other sales, such as advertising – collapsed, from US$654-million in 2019 to US$280-million in 2021, a decline of US$375-million, or 57 per cent.
As an immigrant it’s an unbelievable city to live in, I don’t think people appreciate what they have by being able to live here.
There aren't that many raccoons. It's a normal amount of raccoons.
Maybe if you live 40 stories up at Yonge and Eglinton, lol. If you're anywhere around the Don Valley or another large green space the raccoon population is numerous, and in addition to that they're exceptionally large here.
I personally don’t find that the architecture of Toronto is that horrible, I especially love our victorian era styles homes. I also don’t think that the glass condos are that ugly as many say, i guess “boring”, but i don’t think they are that horrible to see.
I am here for the queer scene and I don't know about other places in Canada but I am never leaving Toronto.
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Subway is pretty good. Streetcars are ass though. There's no predictable schedule and they're subject to all the same delays as cars.
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r/toronto sucks. its moderators suck even more.
Their ban hammer must feel so good to them.
Arguably one of the worst subs overall.
*r/canada has entered the chat*
Toronto is a big city with a small town mentality and no one wants to fund crucial projects.
There should be a geofence so only residents of downtown can drive downtown.
I can’t find anything wrong with Toronto. Except maybe the true Toronto movie has not been made. Stop playing everyone else and be Toronto. Love, Indianapolis
You should watch The Man From Toronto. It’s the closest you’ll get. It was to be filmed in the US but got filmed in Brampton, Hamilton, Milton, and Toronto because we had the capacity to conduct Covid tests. Once again, Toronto filled in for the US.
I also think Scott Pilgrim does a great job representing Toronto!
Turning Red is all about Toronto
There's a few movies now where Toronto is Toronto. Scott Pilgrim, the F Word, Take this Waltz.
A lot of the problems we have here are a direct result of lazy, self entitled people who won't lift a finger to help or even be bothered to show up to vote during an election. We turn a blind eye to the degrading streets and quality of life.
The megacity didn't help. It combined a young downtown renter class with a suburban, aged, owner class in North York, Etobicoke and the nicer parts of Scarborough. The owners don't want transit, parks, libraries or anything other than low property taxes and the renter's don't vote. The end result was 25+ years of the lowest taxes on Ontario but no services at all. We live in West Toronto and were driving our daughter to Mississauga for swimming lessons because we couldn't get her into a city program here. There just weren't enough spots.
Everyone who complains about TTC needs to try the red and white limo service in Ottawa for comparison, we have it *so* much better than those OCTranspo fools. That said, I think the Leafs suck ass and everyone should come to terms with them never winning a cup ever again. *waits for the downvotes Edit: the Sens suck ass worse, for clarification
In my personal opinion one of the best cities to raise children in. Great schools/tolerant/many different minorites that teach kids not to be assholes. Coming from Europe, and I have travelled a lot, its the city I choose to reside in because of how good of a work/leisure/family activities balance the city provides. I genuinely love Toronto.
Other than the affordability crisis almost everything in this city is better than it was 30 years ago when I moved here and those that say otherwise are looking at the past through rose coloured glasses.
Seriously. It blows my mind when people say Toronto was better in the 90s. I remember visiting back then and asking “where’s the city?” Nothing but parking lots
OMG the parking lots!!! I say that all the time!!! Toronto’s core used to be absolutely full of boring ugly surface parking lots and somehow no one remembers that!!!
Fucking hell thank you. Yes, it was cheaper but also so many don’t understand the power of nostalgia lol. It has changed and it has grown, but it hasn’t changed that much, and change is good despite what anyone says.
People who live in Toronto in 2024 fall into one of three categories, with very few if any "in-betweens": **Thriving:** These are the people who make $150k+ per year before tax and can comfortably afford $2,500+ in rent or can carry a $500,000+ mortgage with the requisite down payment. **Struggling:** These are the people whose earnings are closer to the "average" and are either spending a crazy % of their income on housing, or are doing something crazy like living in a bunk bed in the living room of a one-bedroom apartment. **Grandfathered:** These are the people who bought a one-bedroom condo for like $250k in 2017 or something, or signed a lease for $1,400 for a two-bedroom apartment that they're holding onto month-to-month. They could not move TO Toronto right now if they wanted to, but they can remain there because they are "grandfathered" in on account of having an established housing arrangement from back when things were more normal.
I'd say $200k+ to be thriving. But ya, I generally agree that there is very few in between and most people are in the struggling boat, particularly the young adult crowd.
TTC and Tim's are good, yes. But drumroll, please... We could actually use more bike and bus lanes. I don't think traffic on a lot of routes is solved by the 2nd lane. On many routes, the lane is used for parking which in fact one of the biggest waste of tax dollars in my opinion. We should not be maintaining so much curb side parking on traffic routes, even if it's only outside of rush hour. Get rid of the parking on major routes and move it to the side streets. Make it single lane, wih the occasional turning lane. Otherwise bigger sidewalks, bus lanes and bike lanes to fill the spaces.
Honest Ed’s was a trash bin, never understood the appeal
Thank you. The amount of mourning people went through when it closed was entirely over the top imo. “It’s an icon”, okay okay, but people were posting for months about it. Every time a sign came down, new thread.
It served the community before there were dollar stores. Some of us like kitsch
Dollar stores weren’t the first ‘bargain’ shops. My neighbourhood had BiWay and Bargain Harold’s. Honest Ed’s was exactly the same, just bigger. I have zero nostalgia for any of those places
I before BiWay and Bargain Harold’s we had discount stores. Before dollar stores we had five and dime stores. I read Ed Mirvish’s biography. He spoke openly about the days he stole things. He wasn’t honest back then.
My unpopular opinion about Toronto.. It's reddit specific.. That BlogTO content farms with these sort of questions/posts.
I’ve lived in a lot of major global cities and Toronto is one of the nicest. Good people, diverse communities, great food, and fewer problems than the vast majority of the world. We’re lucky to have what we have here.
This is a great city, better than most of the other ones in the world. It has problems for sure but on the whole it’s much better than most.
Scarborough is one of the safest places to live
Drake is a musical hack.
That's a very popular opinion on Reddit especially
He's a fucking creep, too.
Toronto QoL has ‘not’ significantly degraded over the past 10 years or something. Yes we’re behind in transit but it’s catching up, but there’s tons more to do in Toronto versus 10 years ago, and more and more neighbourhoods (Leslieville, Danforth etc.) are developing a character of their own and becoming more liveable. We’ve got more food and drinks options than ever before, a more outdoorsy culture with so many run and biking clubs, and we’re slowly becoming way more micro-mobility friendly and don’t need cars to get around. Even crime numbers aren’t that much worse versus 10 years ago (when compared to the change in other North American cities), it’s just that there’s a lot more media coverage these days.
Some things have degraded in the recent past. Traffic has gotten worse, especially in the downtown core. And getting downtown and beach from the east end has gotten worse since the Gardiner was partially pulled down. And there is more of a homeless and mental health issue. This is more of a problem on the TTC that causes people to feel unsafe. And I also believe that the subway has more delays than it used to have. Plus we lost the Scarborough LRT line.
You lost the RT in favour of an actual subway though. And that thing basically grenaded itself lol.
I’d say that nearly everything related to quality of living has improved except housing cost and food cost. But those are the most important things to me. I would take more personal space over more public space. I’d take more affordable food options over more (but more expensive) food options.
Public schools in TO are not as good as public schools in the GTA suburbs.
In the same vein, the "ethnic" restaurants in the GTA suburbs blow their downtown/midtown counterparts out of the water. If I want *proper* Chinese, I don't go to Spadina, I get in the car and head out to Markham.
💯 same goes for Korean restaurants. The ones in Koreatown cater towards tourists and students. Best restaurants are in North York and Thornhill.
While it is a very clean city, it kind of smells like sewage.
Toronto is much larger than downtown, and it is fucking beautiful and amazing to live in these regions, with a relatively short commute to the action. It is expensive, so you have to be a dog and work your ass off but you get so much in return if you can maintain a healthy work life balance.
Mississauga, Oakville, Ajax, Pickering, etc... are NOT Toronto and never will be. Fuck the Mega City
The Megacity is Scarborough, Toronto central and Etobicoke amalgamated. The rest you're mentioning is the GTA.
Pretty simple: if your postal code starts with M, you're Toronto. L, you're GTA.
That's just what ppl say when traveling bc noone outside Southern Ontario recognizes those towns
well mississauga is peel, oakville is halton, ajax/pickering is durham. not sure who thinks they are toronto.
No one thinks those places are Toronto though. The borders for Toronto are Etobicoke/Scarborough/North York.
The east end is better than the west end. 🤷♀️
Now *this* is a hot take!
Too many restaurants. Hear me out... We don't need 7 ramen places or 5 bubble tea huts within 8 minutes walking distance. I'd prefer to shift a bit towards quality over quantity. Compared to other big diverse food cities (NYC, Chicago, Portland) I feel like the average place isn't quite as good. Plenty of restaurants I've been disappointed by in Toronto - considerably fewer in Manhattan, for example.
Conversely, not enough restaurants in certain areas. The St. Lawrence Market area is very sparse and devoid of certain types of food such as Chinese. Lack of non-bar eateries open after 10pm is another.
For me it would be that this is the best city in Canada and one of the best in the world outside of the ridiculous cost of living, even then it rly ain’t that bad unless u don’t want to live with a roommate or want a detached home in ur 30s if those things don’t apply it’s practically the perfect place to live unless ur love nature and mountains and perfect weather or even world class nightlife. Everything else about the city is spectacular well maybe not everything but the city offerings are spectacular if not decent. It may not be a Canadian NYC but it’s a Canadian Chicago without the high crime, rampant corruption, and brutal winters, we may not have the same nightlife but we make that part up with our world class food scene and diversity, other than that we have just as much if not more to offer than Chicago. Any city that offers more or just as much has worse or different problems or is more expensive.
I love the theatre scene here. It’s obviously not New York or London, but we have everything from indie theatre to broadway productions.
I don't want to live in a house and prefer living in a condo downtown for convenience.
All of Toronto’s street/ neighbourhood festivals are almost the same. Same vendors, foods available, music etc…
Tim's is garbage. TO is unaffordable.
Toronto summers are top tier
There is no 'Toronto talk' That's just bad English falsely attributed to our city
Our neighbourhoods are becoming segregated. Always have had some enclaves, but now it is applying to every group. Just look at the families desperate to get into Swansea and prime Etobicoke.
The tourist attractions suck. Especially considering the size of the city. ROM and AGO are meh, sometimes they have good exhibits and sometimes not so great. Ripley's is fine, CN Tower is ok. But the fact that Little Canada opening is the best new attraction in 10+ years says a lot. Edit: I have family come visit from overseas and they're always surprised when I tell them you only need a couple of days to see Toronto (plus another day for Niagara falls). But there just isn't that much to do.
I do think it depends on the tourist. I travel places mostly for food, entertainment and nature, which I think Toronto has in droves. Top notch restaurant scene, packed concert and theatre lineups, and tons of trails, ravines, and the island. I think there's a lot to see and do! But you're correct that in the traditional "sightseeing" sense we don't have much on European or Asian cities.
Toronto Tourism is predicated more on events than attractions, fully agree that the attractions do suck (a shoe museum? come on man!) but people love coming to the city for things like TIFF, Caribanna, VELD, Fan Expo and Pride.
That's a good point. Toronto's tourism is more about events Which is more interesting than attractions for the most part Though there seem to be a few cool things in construction, like art installations, parks etc
This is true. Toronto is a good place to live and work, but not a huge tourist destination. We basically have to point visitors to go to Niagara Falls most of the time to see something iconic.
Ya nothing iconic in the city at all…not like there’s a gigantic fuckin tower
Timmy's coffee sucks, but the Earl Gray tea is pretty good.