Toronto: Love it or hate it?

[CountDC]

In fairness using Swansea as the example of Toronto isn't really fair as it is a small and unique area:

Swansea Village is the only Toronto neighbourhood that has its own community run Town Hall. Swansea is also the only Toronto neighbourhood to have a lake, a river, and a pond as it's natural boundaries. Swansea's hilly terrain, winding roads and many mature trees accentuate the storybook houses that line the residential streets of this neighbourhood.

Most of Toronto is not like that as the city becomes more high rise buildings with condos popping up everywhere and mature trees are moved out of the way.  Most of Toronto is far from your nice clean and tidy neighbourhood.  Walking and travelling the TTC on a regular basis shows the other side of the city - a dirty ugly area with a lot of self-centered rude entitled people that have zero respect for others and the law even when they need them.  Another record year for violent crime that I am sure will increase again next year, haven't checked but probably another record for hit and runs as well,  TTC bleeds money due to the large number of fare dodgers that bleeding hearts make excuses for.  Would be nice to walk more than 10 minutes or go shopping without running into a refugee that has 5 kids and needs money to support them (funny how they all have 5 kids) and have some driver try to run you down. 

Yeah, Toronto is not my favourite city either.

 

[mariomike]

In fairness using Swansea as the example of Toronto isn't really fair as it is a small and unique area:

Swansea Village is the only Toronto neighbourhood that has its own community run Town Hall. Swansea is also the only Toronto neighbourhood to have a lake, a river, and a pond as it's natural boundaries. Swansea's hilly terrain, winding roads and many mature trees accentuate the storybook houses that line the residential streets of this neighbourhood.

Most of Toronto is not like that as the city becomes more high rise buildings with condos popping up everywhere and mature trees are moved out of the way.  Most of Toronto is far from your nice clean and tidy neighbourhood.

Don't forget to mention, as part of the annexation deal, only Forest Hills and Swansea retained the right to have our garbage picked up from the side of the house, rather than having to haul it to the curb. 

I've been retired a long time, so some of you guys probably know the rest of the city better than I do, now.

All I know for sure it that there are many out of town applicants hoping to join our emergency services.

 

[Remius]

I lived in Toronto for a year.  Food, nightlife, the markets and shopping were all amazing.  Always something going on and always something of various tastes and flavours.  But like some have pointed out it does have a dirtier side to it.  But what big city doesn't?

I lived at Bay and Bloor. In a nice building in a surprisingly big apartment (950sqft) for decent rent.  While looking for a place someone had just been shot in front of another place I was looking at.  But I found the city weird.  On one corner something really nice and classy and right across was crack house looking thing.  People were indeed rude but I found that was mostly downtown with so many people trying to get to wherever they were in a rush to get to.  We paid a flat fee to a really helpful cab driver who took around looking at places made recommendations on where to go and not go to live (at the time he told us a lot of hetero couples chose to live in the gay village because it was clean and relatively safe by Toronto standards).  I did miss the green space a lot.  Yes there were some green "areas" but it wasn't consistent or plentiful.

I enjoyed the experience of living there for a short time but would never consider it as a permanent place to stay.  But that is just me. 

 

[mariomike]

Food, nightlife, the markets and shopping were all amazing. 

As far as nightlife, it wasn't until after 2000 you could get anything stronger than a Pepsi in our area. The Swansea Legion was the only place that was licenced. 

That's our local dining establishment in the photo. Open year round. Serves Atlantic salmon. New York steak. 

Want a beer or wine with that? Sorry. 

Although not part of Swansea, Bloor West Village is just to the north.  It has more than 400 shops, licenced restaurants and service providers.

It also hosts the world's largest Ukrainian Festival every year. 

 

[Jarnhamar]

So, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a game against an opposing team who borrowed the Leafs Zamboni driver to act as their goalie.

Thats gotta sting.

 

[Remius]

So, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost a game against an opposing team who borrowed the Leafs Zamboni driver to act as their goalie.

Thats gotta sting.

From all accounts the fans loved it.  They apparently cheered every time he made a save.  Sometimes special things happen in hockey that transcends team loyalty. 

 

[Jarnhamar]

Also read the dude was 42 and had a kidney transplant. Great on him. Hope he made some cash.

 

[dapaterson]

Apparently it's $500.  But the team is now selling T-shirts, and donating a chunk to kidney charities, and the governor offered honorary state citizenship.

 

[PuckChaser]

Apparently it's $500.  But the team is now selling T-shirts, and donating a chunk to kidney charities, and the governor offered honorary state citizenship.

$500 and he keeps the jersey. By the player agreement they cant pay him anything else. Next day though it's over so now they're doing the tshirt thing. Hes getting royalties from it and remainder of proceeds to a kidney foundation of his choice.

He had the transplant 15 years ago, it's a great sports story.

 

[Weinie]

$500 and he keeps the jersey. By the player agreement they cant pay him anything else. Next day though it's over so now they're doing the tshirt thing. Hes getting royalties from it and remainder of proceeds to a kidney foundation of his choice.

He had the transplant 15 years ago, it's a great sports story.

It's a great story period, and I saw his interview with his Mom (who donated the kidney) on US primetime news today. Salt of the earth, blue collar guy who seems like he would be a great fishing/hockey game watchin buddy.

 

[mariomike]

Swansea is also the only Toronto neighbourhood to have a lake, a river, and a pond as it's natural boundaries. Swansea's hilly terrain, winding roads and many mature trees accentuate the storybook houses that line the residential streets of this neighbourhood.

Regarding the pond. Although there is no Zamboni, it's 35-acres of natural unsupervised skating.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Apparently it's $500. 

Any idea how much the average Toronto Maple Leafs player makes per game?

 

[PuckChaser]

Any idea how much the average Toronto Maple Leafs player makes per game?

Lowest paid guys on entry-level contracts make about $8200. Auston Matthews makes $141,800. That's gross, before taxes, escrow and agent fees.

 

[mariomike]

For our Ford Nation fans, two new films for your viewing pleasure,

Mar 06, 2020

CBC

What the Rob Ford movie Run This Town gets right — and what it gets wrong

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/run-this-town-rob-ford-movie-1.5486112

and another,

May 6, 2020

Jim Gaffigan to play notorious Toronto mayor Rob Ford in AMC series

https://ew.com/tv/jim-gaffigan-amc-series-toronto-mayor-rob-ford/

I retired before he became mayor. Some may be wondering how Rob would have handled this pandemic. The answer is, he wouldn't. Since he was not an employee, they could not fire him. So, they did the only thing they could do: As a matter of public safety, they took away his powers to govern during a State of Emergency. They kept him on the city payroll, but transferred his power to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly.

 

[mariomike]

Saw this in one of the Covid-19 discussions,

The only thing I know for sure about Toronto is that they couldn't pay me enough to live there ... and someone tried once.  ;D

Considering the average house price, you would need a pretty big bank account to afford one. 

Canadian Cities Average House Prices April 2018

Toronto, Ont $766,000 

Montreal, Que $341,000 
https://www.livingin-canada.com/house-prices-canada.html

Lots of people want to live in Toronto,

GTA population ( 1986 ) 3,733,085

GTA population ( 2016 ) 6,417,516 - most recent year available.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Toronto#Population

After Toronto was forced to remove the Residency Requirement, our emergency services were flooded with applications from out of town applicants.

When discussing Toronto, it helps to remember there are 140 neighbourhoods officially recognized by the City of Toronto and upwards of 240 official and unofficial neighbourhoods within the city's boundaries.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

mariomike, don't confuse "a lot of people live in the GTA" with "a lot of people want to live in the GTA".

They may not have a choice, unlike I when I turned it down. :nod:

Just sayin!  ;D

 

[jacksparrow]

Small town folks i.e. from towns less than 100k people will always be apprehensive about moving to / living in bigger cities 250k plus people for a myriad of reasons e.g. they're not trendy enough for the city, they can't handle crowd, they prefer to live where everyone looks like them, etc. The same way most people are scared to pack up and move abroad.

mariomike, don't confuse "a lot of people live in the GTA" with "a lot of people want to live in the GTA".

They may not have a choice, unlike I when I turned it down. :nod:

Just sayin!  ;D

 

[GR66]

Small town folks i.e. from towns less than 100k people will always be apprehensive about moving to / living in bigger cities 250k plus people for a myriad of reasons e.g. they're not trendy enough for the city, they can't handle crowd, they prefer to live where everyone looks like them, etc. The same way most people are scared to pack up and move abroad.

Pretty interesting blanket statement about us "small town folks".

:

 

[Jarnhamar]

Pretty interesting blanket statement about us "small town folks".

:

Yup. Small town people only want to live where everyone's the same skin colour.  :

 

[Brad Sallows]

I guess things have changed since the days when the kids couldn't wait to move to the big city.