Quote:
Originally Posted by counterfactual
For some reason, I find Haligonians have this weird attitude towards Toronto; we condescend towards Toronto about being a superior, nicer, friendlier city, but then ragefit over proposals for tall buildings as if *one* high rise will automatically turn us into Toronto or something. Usual line: "18 floors?!?! Look, we don't need to be Toronto, okay??"
It's bizarre.
I think we can take plenty lessons from Toronto, both on what they've done wrong and right. Halifax will never be Toronto and following some things Toronto won't change this.
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I don't think your comment is personally directed towards me, but I will comment on it from a personal perspective. I can't speak for the other Haligonians to which you may be referring.
I have been to Toronto many times, for work and pleasure, have family and friends who live there. I enjoy visiting the area for all it has to offer, but at the same time don't enjoy the scale of the city compared to smaller ones (i.e. Halifax). This scale includes the sheer land area of the city (which affects commute times, for example) and the size of the population which seems to often result in compressed crowds at popular events/locations. These are just examples from my perspective of what I feel are negative aspects of the city.
So, while I enjoy what it has to offer, I feel it comes at a price, but what this price actually entails is all very subjective - I would hazard a guess that it varies from individual to individual.
Another thing about Toronto vs. say, Montreal or Vancouver, is that it doesn't have the "feel" of those cities. Can't objectify it, really, but to me it feels more like a city that exists to fulfill a function (i.e. to be a centre of business, etc.) rather than existing because people want to live there. Almost like a Fort McMurray in a strange sort of way (a little extreme, I realize), in that people go there to work but would really rather be somewhere else. I don't get that feel in other large cities.
I don't know about "ragefitting" about tall buildings, as we have tall buildings, just not as tall and not as numerous, but to be expected in a smaller city. I honestly don't come across this around here, but then maybe I travel in different circles. The aspect that I do hear about more is complaining about money spent on something, much the same way that Keith does here (no offense intended, Keith). However that complaining seems to die down once the project is finished and they can see the benefit of it in a tangible fashion (or, they get tired of complaining about it and move on to something else
).
But, yes, there is a difference between small, medium, and large cities. I fail to see, really, where it would be considered strange to have a preference towards one vs the other.
I wonder if this is just a symptom of being on a skyscraper messageboard, as I find that there seems to be a prevalent mentality of "either you're with us or against us", and it seems to be frowned upon to have views which straddle both worlds or to not agree that every building must be built in its tallest possible iteration (which will put you at risk of being labeled "anti development" or something similar). However, I believe this just is part of the "territory" of this board - no biggie one way or the other.
And yes, I do agree that we can learn a lot from Toronto, as I alluded to already.