Terrific Toronto! (150 photos)

[Doady]

A city like Toronto has no business building subways, these photos make it clear. People in Toronto like to think they live in a city on the same level as DC or Chicago or something, but in reality it is more on the level of St. Louis and Houston.

[funktion_d]

Originally Posted by Doady

A city like Toronto has no business building subways, these photos make it clear. People in Toronto like to think they live in a city on the same level as DC or Chicago or something, but in reality it is more on the level of St. Louis and Houston.

Those photos are limited... and if there were photos of the over crowded subway it would be "Clear" we need more . .lol

I've been to all those, and live downtown Toronto myself. While I see some architectural similarity with Chicago, it's not on the same scale, no doubt about that and the subway reflects that.. It's not as extensive as Chicago's.. Although to be fair to Toronto, the subway plans have been getting scrapped since 1984.. no mayor has been able to build what the city deserves.. Projects keep getting scrapped mostly for political reasons.

Does it deserve subways? yeah i think so. It already has a fair amount of track too and it's used extensively, and crowded already... (meaning we seriously could use more!!). Anyone who rides the TTC sees the obvious problems with overcrowding on a regular basis and it's only getting worse. The subway is an integral part of city planning and investment for the present and future.

I do find Toronto to be a hell of a lot more interesting/vibrant than St Louis or Houston Texas though.

just my thoughts..

[tdawg]

Great photos. I'm curious if there are any plans to bury the power lines?

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Doady

A city like Toronto has no business building subways, these photos make it clear. People in Toronto like to think they live in a city on the same level as DC or Chicago or something, but in reality it is more on the level of St. Louis and Houston.

I doubt that St. Louis's metro is 6 million...D.C had a subway when it was smaller than Toronto, and Montreal at 4 million has one, so ya Toronto deserves it..
Never been to Houston, but Toronto definitely is busy..It's a world travel destination, and is surrounded by and services cities sown the horseshoe so on any given weekend the population is always higher..The ridership numbers alone proves that the city warrants it.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Doady

A city like Toronto has no business building subways, these photos make it clear. People in Toronto like to think they live in a city on the same level as DC or Chicago or something, but in reality it is more on the level of St. Louis and Houston.

Can't tell if this your usual sarcasm is not, but considering Toronto has higher density & transit ridership than any of those 4 cities...it could certainly use a subway system on par with the extensiveness of DC's and Chicago's. How it "looks" is completely irrelevant.

Originally Posted by tdawg

Great photos. I'm curious if there are any plans to bury the power lines?

Power lines are being continuously buried. They're absent from most major streets without streetcar service, as well as those with streetcars that have been redone/built recently. But those on streetcar routes with no plans for renovation will be around for a while yet.

[Nouvellecosse]

doady is a champion of deadpan sarcasm. No need to take these comments seriously.

[Luker]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Correct, but please let me elaborate on that point (this might interest other readers, too). The 2.4 million figure is for the actual CITY of Toronto, an amalgam of the much smaller (pop AND area) plus five metroplitan boroughs: the city itself, and five bouroughs, York and East York close in to the city, North Yourk, Scarborough and Etibicoke (don't pronounce the "k") into what then became Metropolitan Toronto. However including immediate neighbours, such as Missississauga on the West, and those to the North, metroplitan Toronto (the GMTA is it is now called) - though smaller in size than "metro" Houston, still pulls in at approaching 6 million, often causing it to be ranked with Houston as the fourth or fifth largest city in North America.

Actually, new population statistics have become available which have evidently stated Toronto is now the Fourth Largest city in North America behind only:
1) Mexico City - 21.2 Millon
2) New York City - 19.8 Million
3) Los Angeles - 12 - 18 Million depending on which land area you include - Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area OR the Greater Los Angeles Area region,


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle9563181/

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/edito...editorial.html



http://www.thestar.com/opinion/edito...editorial.html

[Wheelingman04]

Originally Posted by Razor

I doubt that St. Louis's metro is 6 million...D.C had a subway when it was smaller than Toronto, and Montreal at 4 million has one, so ya Toronto deserves it..
Never been to Houston, but Toronto definitely is busy..It's a world travel destination, and is surrounded by and services cities sown the horseshoe so on any given weekend the population is always higher..The ridership numbers alone proves that the city warrants it.

I agree. Toronto is much busier than Houston. Houston is very auto centric and the downtown really isn't that vibrant. Even Fort Worth Texas is more vibrant downtown. I have been to both and St. Louis isn't that big. It is just a midsize metro like here in Pittsburgh. Toronto is amazing and it's is growing so fast it's unreal. More people use transit there than most American cities and yes the subway is very crowded.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Doady

A city like Toronto has no business building subways, these photos make it clear. People in Toronto like to think they live in a city on the same level as DC or Chicago or something, but in reality it is more on the level of St. Louis and Houston.

Let's not get carried away. Lausanne has a metro system and its population including suburbs is less than 350K. Scores of cities much smaller than Toronto have subways.

[Evergrey]

I was expecting Toronto, OHIO... but this will do.

[isaidso]

There is a Toronto, Ohio thread somewhere....

[Gresto]

Actually, I though this was about Toronto, Australia. Quite lovely.

[Driver8]

This is the most comprehensive photo spread of the great city of Toronto that I've seen so far on the My City Photos thread. So, I just had to bump it. Very well done!

[dewE]

First of all, great pictures of Toronto and you certainly covered allot of territory!!!

I've lived in an eastern suburb of Toronto for over 10 years now. The population figures on all the welcome signs of each city/suburb are constantly changing to higher numbers and the prices of housing keeps climbing along with them. I don't know when a correction is going to happen, but sooner or later it will happen. Actually I don't know how people can afford to buy homes anymore.

As far as subways go, I agree with an earlier post that subways should have expanded as the city grew, but political fighting and NIMBY prevented that. It doesn't matter if a left or right wing mayor gets elected, their plans are going to get squashed by the opposing parties on all levels of Gov't, and it doesn't appear this is going to end anytime soon (all parties are guilty of this). A prime example is plans were in place for a new LRT going east to Scarborough and other areas of the city, then a federal by-election happens and all levels of Gov't get involved and it becomes a gong show. Then talks begin about cancelling contracts and building a single subway line at a much higher cost in order to win a seat or two federally? It didn't help matters when the mayor (now just out of rehab), didn't know the difference between street cars and LRTs. (My own opinion on street cars is I think Toronto should keep a couple around for historic/tourist purposes and replace the rest with buses or LRTs.)
Another example of political interference in the GTA is the gas power plant cancellation due to a Provincial by-election (costing over 1 billion dollars).

I personally think a big reason for many problems (politically) in Toronto is due to the amalgamation of the city in 1998. I've seen the same thing happen in my home town (population around 20-30 thousand) where small communities had their own mayor and budgets and things ran quite smoothly, then amalgamation happened and they lost their voice and control. Now everything is a fight.

On a positive note, the Go Train service has greatly expanded and runs more often and there appears to be plans in place for an express railway to the airport from union station (about time). There is also talk of a relief line from downtown, but so far I haven't seen anything definitive on that. Meanwhile...the gridlock keeps getting much worse.