The Great Canadian Toronto or Queens Quiz

[lio45]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Do one for Brooklyn vs. Mile-End/NDG (harder given french signage)

That can be blacked out. (The traffic lights too )

Since there might be quite a bit of text to eliminate, I'd just use the black paint brush at the thickest setting (will look crude but we don't care) and quickly wipe off any text, we can still see the style of the buildings and the feel of the street and even the types of commercial offerings even without text.

Might even be less work than we'd think... Take Pic #2 as an example--we'd just have to remove "Kelm Cleaners" on the left and "Hair Salon" on the right and that's it, all other signeage isn't readable.

[kool maudit]

I'm trying to get Mtl/Brooklyn going but those black traffic lights in Mtl are very unique. They were the key tell for the investigators in that Netflix show about Luka Magnotta.

[jonny24]

1. Queens – kinda just based on the rollup-door/chainlink vibe, although Toronto has plenty. Although the lack of graffiti causes doubt…
2. Queens – almost said Toronto but I think I see yellow license plates
3. Toronto – the garbage can looks very Toronto-ish (might even be the city logo in blue?), and the parking signs look identical to Hamilton
4. No clue either way, Toronto?
5. Queens?
6. Queens? These residential ones are very hard. I see yellow plates.
7. Queens – that van turning left in front of the Mustang is a very NY dick move
8. Toronto? I got nothing.
9. Queens – this one I’m a lot more sure of. Farmer’s Insurance I think is American and “Metro Taco” doesn’t sound like a very Toronto name for a taco place. Parking signs look different.
10. Toronto – based on parking signs again. The circle bike posts look familiar as well. The “GOD” sign is an intentional mislead. Although I don’t think I’ve seen those solar panel posts before…

I almost feel like cheating to use uncovered license plates, but they really are the best thing to go off.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by jonny24

1. Queens – kinda just based on the rollup-door/chainlink vibe, although toronto has plenty. Although the lack of graffiti causes doubt…
2. Queens – almost said toronto but i think i see yellow license plates
3. Toronto – the garbage can looks very toronto-ish (might even be the city logo in blue?), and the parking signs look identical to hamilton
4. No clue either way, toronto?
5. Queens?
6. Queens? These residential ones are very hard. I see yellow plates.
7. Queens – that van turning left in front of the mustang is a very ny dick move
8. Toronto? I got nothing.
9. Queens – this one i’m a lot more sure of. Farmer’s insurance i think is american and “metro taco” doesn’t sound like a very toronto name for a taco place. Parking signs look different.
10. Toronto – based on parking signs again. The circle bike posts look familiar as well. The “god” sign is an intentional mislead. Although i don’t think i’ve seen those solar panel posts before…

i almost feel like cheating to use uncovered license plates, but they really are the best thing to go off.

80%

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by jonny24

7. Queens – that van turning left in front of the Mustang is a very NY dick move

Love this. It's true.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by lio45

8) I couldn't help but immediately notice the street is called "Cromwell Crescent" so I'm guessing Toronto just based on that (not that I want to cheat, I just couldn't un-see it)

See I guessed Toronto, but Cromwell ALMOST made me switch to Queens (should have)! I figured the American city would be more likely to name something after the anti-royal guy. But I felt I needed one more Toronto in the mix.

[hipster duck]

• Video Link

vs.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6599...7i16384!8i8192

[kool maudit]

I'm just not sure this can be done with Montreal and Brooklyn. They are broadly similar but the strength of their little local identifiers is a notch or two higher than TO/Queens.

I grabbed these, but once you black out the local stuff, you've kind of chopped away the pic.

Brooklyn:






Montreal:






I mean, there's something there, but if anything, Montreal looks more like Chicago in terms of the actual houses. Its around the industry where you get Red Hook/Williamsburg vibes, and there is a similar scale and feel in Crown Heights, but its not as mistakable as you might think. I remember Jarry as much more Bensonhurst-like than it is, for instance.

[kool maudit]

Toronto has whole commercial strips and postwar areas that have a lot in common with Queens, but Brooklyn is just much brickier than outer Montreal, and the inner sections have the staircase issue.

Both Queens and Brooklyn have a sort of vague, ever-present rustiness that the Canadian cities have less of. It's as though any piece of underused land is just that little bit more inclined to be pavement and chainlink vs. grass and ferns.

That tiny strip of grass in front of the converted factory in the second-last photo there is not very New York. for instance.

The Canadian cities are somehow 'lighter'.

[biguc]

I noticed that when I went on a streetview tour of Queens trying to justify my choices. They don't have grassy medians, for example.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by jonny24

See I guessed Toronto, but Cromwell ALMOST made me switch to Queens (should have)! I figured the American city would be more likely to name something after the anti-royal guy. But I felt I needed one more Toronto in the mix.

That's one of my blind spots due to a Francosphere education. The name rang a bell as some British guy and if I know his name then he probably did important stuff; the places on this continent the most likely to have a street named after Random Famous Historic British Guy are in Upper Canada (or Loyalist pockets of the Maritimes).

I had the opposite reaction to yours only based on misinformation / incomplete information. You had the correct conclusion

Those Cromwell Crescent houses are more Queens than Toronto to me, that's what I would have gone with, had I not had a street name.

[urbandreamer]

Just look at the cars. Americans drive bigger and older cars (less rust.) And the architecture overall is much nicer in America.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

• Video Link

vs.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6599...7i16384!8i8192

one of the best ever shows on network TV.

[rousseau]

The awnings are a dead giveaway in #2 and #9. We don't do those kinds of awnings in our commercial districts here. Or at least not to the extent that several shops in a row will have them.

[rousseau]

Also, in #10 on the left the commercial buildings are a jumble of different heights. That's a hallmark of southern Ontario that you don't see so much of in the northeastern US, where a block of older shopfronts will generally be more uniform in height.

[Innsertnamehere]

Are awnings really that rare though? I mean look at #10.. That's Toronto and it's full of awnings.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by rousseau

The awnings are a dead giveaway in #2 and #9. We don't do those kinds of awnings in our commercial districts here. Or at least not to the extent that several shops in a row will have them.

The Danforth has quite a few of these, I thought.

[rousseau]

Not the same, though. We don't have streets with ten stores in a row with awnings like in #2. Danforth doesn't have many at all, and the ones that are there aren't those big, blustery plastic ones in primary pastel colours.

When you look at Danforth it seems like only the chains have those big tacky awnings: Subway, Global Pet Foods, etc.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by JHikka

The Danforth has quite a few of these, I thought.

One of the perceived similarities that launched this idea in my head was Danforth and Broadway in Astoria, but when I clicked in to look today, I found it wasn't quite as apparent as I had remembered.

But there is still that general Toronto-Queens thing.

I guess Broadway is more like Dundas West than Danforth, maybe? I don't know, but there's something very Toronto to it.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I guess Broadway is more like Dundas West than Danforth, maybe? I don't know, but there's something very Toronto to it.

How about College?