Is Toronto a second-rate city?

I ask this because there seems to be this disconnect between people moving into the city and those that once ruled the city years ago.

If you talk to someone of a certain age who lived in the city years ago, Toronto was a much desired city to live in as well. Now, to them, not so much. People respected each other and neighbours knew each other.

Toronto was a cleaner and nicer place to live in. I think the city has gone off track but is still generally a good place to live, play, and work in.

People took pride in the city, how could you argue against being full of pride, Toronto was once seen as “New York run by the Swiss” in that we had the big city feel with the rational, efficient, governance needed to run a metropolis. While people took pride in their surroundings, they were also accountable for their actions.

Fast forward years later and Toronto is no longer “New York run by the Swiss” but rather “New York overrun by the unions”. No one is accountable for their actions anymore. How many times have you heard “It’s not my job” or “Someone was supposed to…”?

This new me-first attitude is, unfortunately, generally reserved for Generation Y but has been commonplace in City Hall and of those who left the city long ago.

Speaking of City Hall, there was once a time where politicians at all levels would act without necessarily thinking of a legacy. Politicians did more for the city in less time and with less money than those who currently work at City Hall.

The current crop of politicians have become “career politicians”. To these men and women, the wards they represent, and perhaps cared about at one point, have morphed over time into their own personal fiefdoms where they wield a lot of control and power.

Larger issues that affect the city are trumped by smaller, more local, issues that may affect how the city operates. Bike lanes are a great example. People want a city-wide bike network, just not on their street or on any major routes. City Hall fights a misguided “war on the car” but it’s still much easier to go across the city by car than by transit.

Which brings me to us, the citizens of Toronto, and the GTA, where we need to realize we are all in this together. This 416 vs. 905 divide is fictitious and petty. As a region we need to realize we need each other and that there are more serious issues we need to tackle than preconceived notions and feelings based on area codes.

If you feel Toronto is second-rate it is because we accept second-rate service. We accept all-day rush-hour traffic and dirty streets, buses, and subways. We accept mediocre politicians and officials and their attempts to divide the GTA along urban and suburban lines.

We accept this because we feel there’s no alternative, but there is an alternative. We need to start leading by example and demanding the best from our city, its leaders and residents.

It should no longer be acceptable to trash the City of Toronto with negligent and ignorant comments, nor should it be acceptable to jump to conclusions about the 905 and how people live their lives there. Petty and snarky remarks are part of the past.

Mutual respect and constructive dialogue should be in. We cannot allow Toronto and the GTA to be disrespected anymore. It’s time we demanded change.

I want a city that is vibrant and globally attractive. Toronto can be this kind of city. I want to be part of a city and a region that leads and doesn’t follow.

Our best days are ahead of us Toronto and not behind us. We just need to be shown what Toronto can be and how we fit into this vision.

About Robert Kirsig

Comments

[Manny Sanchez]

"It should no longer be acceptable to trash the City of Toronto with negligent and ignorant comments"

Um, you just did *exactly* that. This entire article was a smear on Toronto with not a single fact to back up anything said. Considering you work for the auto industry it's no wonder you hate a city that realizes cars aren't the solution to all life's problems but for goodness sake, at least to a bit of research to make it look like someone with a shred of objectivity supports your conclusions.

[Thomas Graff]

Its not unions – the problem goes far beyond that – more like “New York run by Vogons and Ferrengi”

Toronto, circa 1970 to 1980, was definitely a first class place to live – even though we lacked the stature of “world class” cities like New York or London. But it was partly a matter of dumb luck, and circumstances combined with a few good decisions. Montreal lost its place – because of separatism, the Olympics and the rise of jet airliners (which meant that Montreal’s advantage as a port was irrelevant) lead to a population shift to Toronto, and an economic shift also took place because of the same things plus Ontario’s more advantageous location for trade with the US, anchored by the auto-sector. Toronto didn’t fall into the same traps as the US, with a hollowed out city core, because of the fact that we lacked a black urban underclass and we had steady immigration to offset any flight to the suburbs. Add to that the fact that the TTC was city-owned, that we didn’t build as many highways carving up the city (not because we didn’t want to, but unlike the US, we had no federally funded Interstate program) and because the province created Metro in the 1950s, which ensured that the city and the growing suburbs were all governed as one.

But since the early 70s, these trends were replaced in large parts by other ones. Growth went far beyond the Metro boundaries – so planning wasn’t region wide anymore and in fact the 905 was sucking jobs and life out of the city because of the lower tax rates there. While Ontario was the centre of economic growth in the 60s and 70s, it has now shifted to the West, and Montreal has stabilized and started to revive itself.

Add in downloading. aging and inadequate infrastructure, and the political quagmire created by Mike Harris’s redesign of City Council in place of Metro and 6 cities/boroughs.

FTA, NAFTA and internal changes in the US (shift of power and population to the south and away from the Rust Belt) and the rise of nations elsewhere around the world (India, China, combined with the end of Communism in Eastern Europe etc.) and our location is not as much of an economic advantage as it once was for economic growth.

Here is the elephant in the room – immigration. Yes, immigration has made Toronto a diverse and more exciting city, but since 1990, we have had a steady high level of immigration adding 70,000 or more people per year to the GTA, yet we no longer have the underlying economic growth drivers we had 25 to 50 years ago. Favourable conditions for growth meant that we could easily accommodate immigrants, but bringing in immigrants does not create economic growth.

High unemployment rates, underemployment, low wages and low wage growth, high levels of poverty – these are all evidence of a population growing faster than the need for labour or the ability of an economy to successful absorb the additional labour – and labour force growth is driven by immigration – not by birth rates or even by migration from elsewhere in Canada (all the Newfies and Maritimers go to Alberta now, whereas in the 60s they all came to Toronto – if they remade “Goin Down the Road” today they easterners would bypass Toronto completely!)

Traffic congestion, decrepit infrastructure and having a public transit system that is wholly inadequate for the job is a symptom of both population growth and a lack of investment by higher levels of government.

High housing costs are also a symptom of population growth. Plus, the “dream” of having house with a backyard is something that a smaller percentage of people will be able to achieve – the combination of population growth and efforts to stop further sprawl is driving intensification – few people with families would willingly to choose to live in a high-rise condo were it not for provincial policies like the Green Belt.

So, I am not optimistic the quality of life in Toronto getting better and our “best days” being in front of us.

There is little pride in this city – because so few people who live here were born here, or even expect to retire here – Toronto is like purgatory – a place where you work while you are on your way to somewhere else. Yann Martel’s comment about Canada being like a hotel is doubly true for Toronto. We co-existin this city, but share very little because this city lacks a deeply ingrained culture of its own, unlike even Montreal (for example, name an item of food or drink that is uniquely identified with this city, or that we think is better here than anywhere else!). Heritage buildings get torn down, or we keep only the façade as a token gesture,

Our politicians are obsessed with keeping property taxes low – a city with some pride in itself is a city where a “visionary” politician could sell the voters on making major investments that require higher taxes – like building more transit lines, or perhaps building a big urban park on the waterfront (like Millennium Park in Chicago) instead of selling off a couple of thousand acres for condos and office buildings. Instead, or politicians find way to tax people surreptitiously – taxing car licenses, or land transfers, or getting a share of gas taxes. Road tolls are more of the same.

Toronto is a city of cheapskates – we want low taxes – as for having a beautiful city or a city of parks and boulevards and pretty buildings that would make this city as fantastic as Barcelona (yet alone Paris), well, forget it – we only care about money and day-to-day issues like traffic congestion. We aren't even aiming at being second rate!

[905 dude]

Toronto tries too had its not a bad place, but never as great as folks hear seem to think. The TTC has never been the better way but if repeat something long enough folks think it is true.

"Toronto is just like New York without all the stuff"
-30 Rock

[Keith]

Toronto is due to be second rate because the surrounding 905 region, the rest of Ontario and the rest of Canada despise Toronto and despise its success.

Just like crabs in a bucket.

They won't support the necessary investment to build a strong Toronto. They can't seem to understand that a strong Toronto is vital to the GTA, Ontario and Canada.

And to top it all off, Torontonians are incapable of playing the politicians to get what they want. They keep voting for Liberals who promise and never deliver. And the keep out the Conservatives who consider Toronto an electoral wasteland. As a result Toronto will forever be doomed to mediocrity. Just like Canada.

[MSher]

Is that not pretty narrow minded? Your community is what you make of it- all it takes is one person to get the socialization started. I grew up in a community in Scarborough where everyone was like family. We had neighbourhood BBQ's, meetings, parties and celebrations because someone decided that starting the trend would be a good idea. And guess what, it is.

Even in downtown condominiums there are social committees who organize mixers to help get tenants familiar with each other.

Respect has to be earned. So instead of posting a blog complaining about how disrespectful and cold people are, why don't you stop being 'disrespectful and cold' and do something about it in your community. Because of you don't, how are you any different?

[Johnnyk]

The place lacks imagination, flair, boldness. Try Barcelona or Hong Kong.
Little shared history or tradition. Try Vienna or Bordeaux or Rome or...
No major events since 1837. Sorry, forgot the PanAm Games are coming!
Dismal architecture. Try Chicago, Paris or any one of 20+ European cities.
No man-made features of note. Try Amsterdam.
No compelling geography to marvel at every day. Try San Francisco or Hong Kong or Sydney.

[Editboy]

The people of Toronto are just too small minded. Our total lack of imagination will prevent us from ever becoming anything other than Topeka North.

[Anthony]

Toronto does seem to be a city in flux. It's stuck somewhere in between trying to be green, like Vancouver, trying to be cultural, like Montreal, trying to be an international economic powerhouse, like New York City, while all at the same time, trying to maintain that it's "the way Toronto should be going". I think Toronto needs to quit with the bureaucratic squabbling with the Ontario government, for city council to pull their heads outta their butts, and get a concrete, innovative 25-50 year plan in place to describe EXACTLY where they want Toronto to be in all aspects, not the piecework of Transit City, Green City, this city, that city, etc, etc..... Almost all of Canada's other cities have a vision, an innovative and creative ideal of where they want to be in the future, but not Toronto, cause there's so much petty inter-jurisdiction complaining, just look at the nickname for Vaughan, "The city above Toronto", everyone knows that that's not only a geographical reference! So, whether your a Mississaugan, Woodbridge-r, Torontonian, Oshawan (I don't know if those are the actual demonyms, lol), or a Canadian, Italian-Canadian, African-Canadian, First Nations Canadian, vice versa, Toronto is ALL of yours's city, even if you live in Markham or Richmond Hill, Toronto is the metropolitan core, and the surrounding municipalities need to quit bickering and putting their needs way ahead of the greater good of the GTA. look at Vancouver, even though there's a great many suburban municipalities around the city of Vancouver, most people in Metro Vancouver acknowledge that Vancouver is the business, retail, educational, activity, health care and financial hub of the Metro area, and people realize that the City of Vancouver needs extra funding for things such as infrastructure, hospitals, education, transit and the like, cause it has a much larger population, and serves many more purposes than the surrounding cities, hence the billions being spent on the Vancouver International Airport, the transit system, new roads and freeways, expanding the Trans-Canada, etc. What gets funded in Toronto is essentially good for the whole GTA, whereas what gets funded in, say, Markham only serves the municipal population, plus, the Ontario government doesn't help matters either, considering that they have no problem throwing money at York and Peel Regions to expand their transit system by leaps and bounds, yet the TTC is still left on the backburner for their potentially revolutionary "Transit City" plan. Government bureaucracy in Ontario sucks, plain and simple, too much red tape, too much government overlap.