Toronto: Love it or hate it?

[mariomike]

The Economist has just listed Toronto in the top ten most livable cities.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-economist-liveability-1.4784524

#7 in 2018

#4 in 2017

#4 in 2016

#4 in 2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking#2018_results

Yeah, I love that area -

So do I. Water is the natural boundary on three of the four sides. Hills everywhere in between.

Small, curvy streets, with no flat spaces, and very few straight lines. Three different roads named after Étienne Brûlé!

It's easy to get a bit disoriented, but it's so nice that you don't really mind. 

As far as the rest of the city is concerned, I've been retired for over nine years. So, I'm no longer current on most of it.

But, I must say we love that Union-Pearson Express ( UPX ).

 

[Til.Valhall]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Liveability_Ranking#2018_results

Way to go Calgary.

This bluenoser is driving past Toronto next time.  ;D

EDIT:
I heard that the 2003 blackout was 15 years ago today. I was in a swimming pool in Downsview, hot and humid as f**K at the time. For a few days after, I was shown a glimpse of a real SHTF scenario, but also how well everyone seemed to cooperate and carry on. Anybody else here remember the blackout?

 

[mariomike]

I heard that the 2003 blackout was 15 years ago today. I was in a swimming pool in Downsview, hot and humid as f**K at the time. For a few days after, I was shown a glimpse of a real SHTF scenario, but also how well everyone seemed to cooperate and carry on. Anybody else here remember the blackout?

I do. Emergency power systems at Emergency Services Headquarters maintained communications and dispatch functions.

Our department activated its Healthcare Divisional Operations Centre (H-DOC) and declared a divisional emergency once the scope of the blackout was known.

Our Paramedics negotiated dangerous streets lacking lights and traffic signals, climbed multiple flights of stairs to access patients in apartment buildings, and carried patients down the stairs to the ambulance.

Call Volumes were twice the normal levels in the first hours of the blackout and increased call levels for the next couple days.

We distributed portable generators and fuel to enable recharging of paramedic radio and defibrillator batteries in the service districts. We ensured adequate supplies of water were available for paramedics.
Paramedics climbed the 33 flights of stairs at Yonge and Eglinton several times delivering cans of diesel fuel to maintain the portable generators for the radio transmitter.

Our  Community Medicine Paramedics issued two news releases during the blackout offering advice to residents on how to cope with the heat without air conditioning and asking the public to check on vulnerable citizens and help protect them from heat-related illnesses.

We activated Telecomm 1. Due to the high volume of calls, we did not respond to "stuck elevator" calls unless there was a confirmed patient.

Paramedics were mandated to work 16 hours on, and 8 hours off for the duration. I slept at HQ.

The trunk portable radio and the paging system failed and the cellular phone system was intermittently interrupted.
Staff delivered portable generators and fuel to each Service District to assist in the charging of portable radios and defibrillator batteries within each District.

Our Emergency Power Unit (EPU) truck was deployed to Southlake Regional Hospital due to a failure of their back-up power system.

Our call volume increased by 100 per cent, compared to the week before.

 

[Xylric]

I had just finished high school, and was due to start college in two weeks. I will absolutely remember that day, because I was volunteering with my mother's class at a water park (4-5 year olds), and my mother dislocated one of her thumbs going down a water slide. The power went out roughly ten minutes after we got back to the classroom, when we were distributing the day's snack. I feel in love with astronomy that night, because I saw Mars with the naked eye for the first time (I'd seen it before through a telescope, but it's a very different thing to see it unaided).

My neighbour (who recently passed away) pulled out all of the ice cream from his freezer and our families made sure to eat it all before it melted.

 

[mariomike]

Other than 2003, the only time the entire city was blacked out during my lifetime was one night in 1965. 

For a few days after, I was shown a glimpse of a real SHTF scenario, but also how well everyone seemed to cooperate and carry on.

Toronto's emergency services remembered the one-night NYC blackout of 1977.

The mass looting that ensued remains the only civil disturbance in the history of NYC to encompass all five boroughs simultaneously, and the 3776 arrests were the largest mass arrest in the city's history.

For whatever reasons, Toronto ( the city, including its five former boroughs of Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York and East York  ) was spared that.

Metro Police reported no spike in crime that night.

 

[Xylric]

Other than 2003, the only time the entire city was blacked out during my lifetime was one night in 1965. 

Toronto's emergency services remembered the one-night NYC blackout of 1977.

The mass looting that ensued remains the only civil disturbance in the history of NYC to encompass all five boroughs simultaneously, and the 3776 arrests were the largest mass arrest in the city's history.

For whatever reasons, Toronto ( the city, including its five former boroughs of Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, York and East York  ) was spared that.

Metro Police reported no spike in crime that night.

I was just about to go into college when it occurred, spending the day helping my mother with a field-trip with her preschool. Amusingly, I remember that day less for the beginning of the blackout, and more because my mother injured her hand on a water slide. But I remember how it played out over the evening. The nearby convenience store gave out the ice cream it had in stock for free, as it was right across from an elementary school, and the kids were all local. Everyone gathered on the  field behind the school for the best night of stargazing many of them remembered (it was the first time I saw Mars and Jupiter with the naked eye).

I think the best explanation I have for the general lack of civil disturbance in Toronto during that power failure was due to both its oddly low population density for a city that size (though this is no longer the case), and the fact that the various communities which form Toronto were far more integrated than NYC. Looking at the map, the lack of major divisions brought on by major waterways in Toronto meant that we were far more likely to see each other as neighbors.

Though personally, I think it's due to the fact that we just don't *do* such things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the last disturbance on the scale of the '77 blackout in Toronto back in 1837?

 

[mariomike]

I think the best explanation I have for the general lack of civil disturbance in Toronto during that power failure was due to both its oddly low population density for a city that size (though this is no longer the case), and the fact that the various communities which form Toronto were far more integrated than NYC. Looking at the map, the lack of major divisions brought on by major waterways in Toronto meant that we were far more likely to see each other as neighbors.

To protect their communities,

"Men armed with baseball bats and tire irons marched to the neighborhood’s bridges and off-ramps like soldiers going off to war."

To add to the paranoia, '77 was also the summer of the Son of Sam.

 

[Xylric]

To protect their communities,

"Men armed with baseball bats and tire irons marched to the neighborhood’s bridges and off-ramps like soldiers going off to war."

To add to the paranoia, '77 was also the summer of the Son of Sam.

Oh yes, my grandfather spent time in New York that summer, and his descriptions of the city at the time is what fueled my interest in criminology.

 

[mariomike]

Oh yes, my grandfather spent time in New York that summer, and his descriptions of the city at the time is what fueled my interest in criminology.

I bet it did!

Back in the '70's, the Bronx was burning. Literally,

"(Burn baby burn) disco inferno
(Burn baby burn) burn that mothxx down
(Burn baby burn) disco inferno
(Burn baby burn) burn that mothxx down"

The day after, my partner and I watched the TV newsreels at the station. We were awestruck.

Being young guys, a small part of us was sad we weren't there to witness it.

Because NYC made working for Metro look like Mayberry. 

 

[Cloud Cover]

In part those problems fuelled the meaning behind Springsteens "Jungleland".

Anyway, this seems way off topic...
Toronto as a province- love it!! Toronto as the dominant city in a province- not so much.

 

[mariomike]

Toronto as a province- love it!!

Unfortunately,

Resistance is futile.

QUOTE

Report prepared by the City Solicitor, City of Toronto
June, 2000 (updated October 2001)

Secession from the Province of Ontario

• Subsection 42(1)(f) of the Constitution Act provides that amendments to the Constitution of Canada to establish a new province are to be made in accordance with the general amending procedure set out in section 38. This procedure requires resolutions of the Senate, the House of Commons and at least two thirds of the provinces having at least 50% of the population of all the provinces.
• Subsection 38(2) provides that where a constitutional amendment is made under 38(1) that derogates from the legislative powers, the proprietary rights or any other rights or privileges of the legislature or government of a province, the resolutions referred to in the previous bullet must be supported by a majority of the members of each of the Senate, the House of Commons and the Legislative Assemblies required under subsection (1). In other words, a majority of all members of these bodies must support the amendment, not just the majority of those present and voting.
• Subsection 38(3) provides that when the majority of the members of a Legislative Assembly rejects a resolution for a constitutional amendment that would derogate from the powers, rights or privileges of that Assembly, the government of that province can opt out.
• Consequently, an amendment to the Constitution Act to create Toronto as a new province would require support from the Province of Ontario.


END QUOTE

Note: In 2000, Toronto city council proposed for Toronto secession from Ontario to be made a ballot issue — only to have the proposal swiftly slapped down by Ontario’s then-Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Too bad. It would have opened the door for Montreal to be it's own province. Then we can just build a pipeline around them.

 

[CBH99]

In part those problems fuelled the meaning behind Springsteens "Jungleland".

Anyway, this seems way off topic...
Toronto as a province- love it!! Toronto as the dominant city in a province- not so much.

To complicate matters even more, now that the Borg have spread so far throughout the galaxy (Ahem, sorry, I meant Toronto has SPRAWLED so far out) - what happens to all the cities that aren't Toronto, but are now somehow inside of Toronto?  What if they DON'T want to be a part of the new province, and want to stay Ontario?  What happens then?

(I f**king hate Toronto...allowed to say it, since that's the topic of the thread)  :threat:  :nod:

 

[mariomike]

, now that the Borg have spread so far throughout the galaxy (Ahem, sorry, I meant Toronto has SPRAWLED so far out)

Metro Toronto's boundary ( 240 square miles ) has not changed since it was created 1954.

Your profile says 41 CBG. That's about 2,700 air miles away.  I think you are safe from the "SPRAWLED"  "Borg". 

- what happens to all the cities that aren't Toronto, but are now somehow inside of Toronto? 

Are you asking about the Greater Toronto Area ( GTA - Halton, Peel, York and Durham )?

What if they DON'T want to be a part of the new province, and want to stay Ontario? 

If Toronto can't secede from Ontario, how could the GTA?

QUOTE

Report prepared by the City Solicitor, City of Toronto
June, 2000 (updated October 2001)

Secession from the Province of Ontario

• Subsection 42(1)(f) of the Constitution Act provides that amendments to the Constitution of Canada to establish a new province are to be made in accordance with the general amending procedure set out in section 38. This procedure requires resolutions of the Senate, the House of Commons and at least two thirds of the provinces having at least 50% of the population of all the provinces.
• Subsection 38(2) provides that where a constitutional amendment is made under 38(1) that derogates from the legislative powers, the proprietary rights or any other rights or privileges of the legislature or government of a province, the resolutions referred to in the previous bullet must be supported by a majority of the members of each of the Senate, the House of Commons and the Legislative Assemblies required under subsection (1). In other words, a majority of all members of these bodies must support the amendment, not just the majority of those present and voting.
• Subsection 38(3) provides that when the majority of the members of a Legislative Assembly rejects a resolution for a constitutional amendment that would derogate from the powers, rights or privileges of that Assembly, the government of that province can opt out.
• Consequently, an amendment to the Constitution Act to create Toronto as a new province would require support from the Province of Ontario.


END QUOTE

Note: In 2000, Toronto city council proposed for Toronto secession from Ontario to be made a ballot issue — only to have the proposal swiftly slapped down by Ontario’s then-Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris.

Carleton political science professor Jonathan Malloy, was blunt — calling the idea of secession “pretty much impossible.”

Just the ones with a propensity to dis the Ford Nation, apparently.

Like turning your backs on Rob. Or electing John Tory - instead of Doug - as mayor.

I suspect Toronto has plenty more bad karma coming its way from Queen's Park.

(I f**king hate Toronto...allowed to say it, since that's the topic of the thread)  :threat:  :nod:

That's nice. Makes me nostalgic of when Metro had a residency requirement preventing out of town applicants joining our emergency services.

It was removed by the province. Another thing the taxpayers of Toronto can thank Queen's Park for. < sarcasm.

With so many out of town applicants, if others share that same attitude, what contribution will they make to the city? Will they receive any satisfaction helping our citizens? Do they want to become important, vital members of a community they hate, but are sworn to serve?

 

[mariomike]

From: "Case of Wuhan coronavirus confirmed in Toronto"

We The North. 

In a league in which 29 of the 30 franchises are located in the U.S., the Raptors represent the hopes not just of a city, but an entire nation.

When you wonder why the rest of Canada dislikes Toronto, please reference back to the pretentiousness of this post.

It is a "quote".

How ‘We The North’ came to define a team, a brand and a city

https://the-message.ca/2019/05/30/how-we-the-north-came-to-define-a-team-a-brand-and-a-city/

In a league in which 29 of the 30 franchises are located in the U.S., the Raptors represent the hopes not just of a city, but an entire nation—and “We the North” has become a fundamental part of their identity.

 

[FSTO]

I could (maybe) start supporting the Blue Jays and Raptors but until the media of Toronto show a semblance of respect towards the CFL and USports, they'll get SFA support from me.


Yea, who cares but I really resent the baloney of a Toronto teams full of foreigners representing the entire country.

 

[Furniture]

I think you missed the point...

It's not about who wrote the line, it's the arrogance of the statement.

I get it, you've lived and worked in Toronto all of your life. You know nothing else, and assume anyone who doesn't like Toronto doesn't like it out of jealousy.

The reality is many of us have seen the rest of the world, and have found Toronto lacking. Lacking in history, lacking in importance, lacking in character, lacking in pretty much any way that matters outside of being the biggest city in Canada.

Congratulations! Toronto is the China of Canada, complete with being ground zero for pandemic viral outbreaks. 

 

[mariomike]

I could (maybe) start supporting the Blue Jays and Raptors but until the media of Toronto show a semblance of respect towards the CFL and USports, they'll get SFA support from me.


Yea, who cares but I really resent the baloney of a Toronto teams full of foreigners representing the entire country.

If you really resent a team that much, why not just change the channel?

It's not about who wrote the line, it's the arrogance of the statement.

Write a letter to the editor if it bothers you that much,
https://the-message.ca/contact/

I get it, you've lived and worked in Toronto all of your life.

That's how it is for Toronto police officers, firefighters and paramedics.  The CAF was my part-time job.

Home for me is peaceful hilly terrain and ravines, winding roads and mature trees in our quiet neighbourhood surrounded on three sides by water. I attached a few pictures. The price of homes in our neighbourhood might surprise you.

We travel to nice places on vacation. Especially since I retired 11 years ago. We can get to Union or Pearson in just a few minutes now on the UP Express. In fact, my wife is coming in tonight from Florida.

Most importantly, we travel where we want. When we want.

I can collect my OMERS pension in just about any country in the world. I can live anywhere in Canada. I have an EU passport, and my wife has a US passport.

You know nothing else, and assume anyone who doesn't like Toronto doesn't like it out of jealousy.

Don't assume you know what I assume, furniture. Thank-you. Not unless you're psychic.

What I do when I don't like a place? I forget about it and discover a new place. I don't whine about how much I hate it.

I know nothing about you. Except from your various internet handles and profile pic.

I do know this: Our emergency services are flooded with out-of-town applicants who want to work here.

You and I have engaged before, furniture.

Wages, pensions, and benefits fall under selfish.

Congratulations! Toronto is the China of Canada, complete with being ground zero for pandemic viral outbreaks.

You can leave race out of it.

Chinese - Canadians have made a great contribution to this city, and this country.

 

[Furniture]

That's how it is for Toronto police officers, firefighters and paramedics.  The CAF was my part-time job.

Home for me is peaceful hilly terrain and ravines, winding roads and mature trees in our quiet neighbourhood surrounded on three sides by water. I attached a few pictures. The price of homes in our neighbourhood might surprise you.

I'm glad you enjoy where you live, you've said it many times over the years on here. Sounds like a nice neighbourhood.

We travel to nice places on vacation. Especially since I retired 11 years ago. We can get to Union or Pearson in just a few minutes now on the UP Express. In fact, my wife is coming in tonight from Florida.

Most importantly, we travel where we want. When we want.

I can collect my OMERS pension in just about any country in the world. I can live anywhere in Canada. I have an EU passport, and my wife has a US passport.

Don't assume you know what I assume, furniture. Thank-you. Not unless you're psychic.

What I do when I don't like a place? I forget about it and discover a new place. I don't whine about how much I hate it.

So you have lived other places? Cool. I made an assumption about your history, I apologize if it caused offence.

I mention Toronto because someone on this forum relates everything back to Toronto. I can assure you that outside of very occasional topics on the forum Toronto occupies none of my mind.

I know nothing about you. Except from your various internet handles and profile pic.

You and I have engaged before, furniture.

You can leave race out of it.

Chinese - Canadians have made a great contribution to this city, and this country.

You seem to think you know me well enough to imply that I am a racist... Quite a bold assessment coming from someone that admittedly knows nothing about me. At least I kept my assumption to place of residence.

Toronto is to Canadian cities what China is to Nations. The largest by population. Toronto is also to Canada what China is to the world, in that it is the first place that 2019-nCoV was confirmed. That you decided to make it a race thing is entirely on you.

Frankly if you thought I was a racist you should have used a PM, this is nothing but an attempt to bully someone. Cancel culture at it's finest.

 

[mariomike]

So you have lived other places? Cool. I made an assumption about your history, I apologize if it caused offence.

None taken. I must be getting cranky in my old age. 

But, no I've never lived anywhere else. I don't say that with any particular pride, it's just a fact.

That is because I wrote the civil service exam straight out of Grade 12*, and was hired full-time probationary a few months later. 

* Prior to 1975, you didn't require a college diploma to apply. 

Also, there was a residency requirement:

You had to be a Metro ( within the City or one of the five boroughs ) resident prior to application, and remain so after you were hired.