erikyow
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2009
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Re: Fan Pier
I can't speak for Vancouver, SF, Portland or Seattle (since I've only been to San Francisco once when I was 11), but depending on what you value in a city, Boston has Toronto beat. If you need to have the high rise buildings, Toronto's your place. Only New York has more buildings over 300 feet, though many of those are 70s apartment blocks that were dumped all over the city and therefore the downtown core pales compared to Chicago - hell, until recently even Boston had more buildings over 500 feet, even if Toronto has 5 buildings over 800 feet. But, it's also a massively large, spread out city that, while the metro area, at 5.5 million, is a bit larger than Boston's, the city feels a lot larger and not in the New-York-this-place-goes-on-forever-but-there's-so-much-to-do kind of way. In terms of density, the former city of Toronto (Toronto was merged with it's immediate suburbs to create the 'megacity' in 1997) was comparable with Boston. But if you examine density based on the area codes of the respective cities, the 617 area code has about 2 million people in 380 sq km. The 416 area code has 2.6 million in 630 sq km. So, you have only 700,000 residents living in an area only a little less than twice the size. So while downtown Toronto is dense, it quickly drops off vis-?-vis Boston and her close surroundings.
Furthermore, Toronto has megasuburbs to boot. Mississauga, Ontario is the largest suburb in North America, with an estimated 750,000 residents. Just to the north is Brampton with close to 500,000. This has resulted in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) being multi-polar, which reduces the popularity of downtown Toronto by allowing people to work, play and be social in their own, shitty suburbs (Brampton is a hole!). This also creates a small feeling.
Lastly, the transit system in Toronto makes the T look like the best thing since the third rail. For starters, the GTA has almost 10 individual transit agencies. That means if you want to go from Toronto to any of the suburbs without taking the commuter rail system (GO Transit), you have to take the subway to one of the designated transfer stations and then switch to the other transit system, paying the fare all over again. In Canada, transit is generally controlled by the municipality, and not regionalized like it is in the US (Vancouver and, increasingly, Montr?al are exceptions to this rule). Therefore, each time you cross a municipal boundary, you generally have to change systems.
The Toronto system, the TTC, is OK. The trains run with generally no more than a 6 minute headway from 06:00-01:30 (except for Sundays where the subway doesn't being until 09:00(!)). However, it has the same problems as the T with its unions as well as a cranky infrastructure that creates incredible traffic jams (like when a track switch freezes at rush hour). Furthermore, the union stronghold means that they are no where close to having anything resembling a smartcard system.
I practically have one foot in Toronto already and I admit the place is growing on me. One way Toronto beats Boston is the pride people take in the city. Maybe it's a 'New York effect' in that Toronto is the largest city in the country, home to much of the nation's money, fame, and fortune and is the number one tourist destination. As a result, there are always things going on, particularly in the Summer, both to the pleasure of residents and visitors alike. This manifests itself in a pride that is both pleasant to see coming from Boston, where so many people seem to be perpetually planning their escape, as well as annoying as many people are unaware of what goes on outside of the area defined as a local call.
Montr?al, on the other hand, steals my heart. It's an extremely compact city with great density, due to the fact that the city is on an island and the suburbs have only spilled over to the adjacent sides of the rivers that surround it in the past 30 years. It has a great, lively atmosphere and even though it can have some gritty areas still feels safe and alive. Though the 'European' character I find is overrated. Montr?al is no more Parisian than Boston is Londonian.
That said, Boston has it's own attributes that I don't need to tell any of you here. It'll always be my place of birth and I'll always be proud be from there even if Canada is now my 'home'. As for what's the "greatest", well that's up to everyone's opinions and tastes. I think Boston is the best city in the United States, though I admit there are some kickass cities I have yet to visit (or revisit, in San Francisco's case).
I can't speak for Vancouver, SF, Portland or Seattle (since I've only been to San Francisco once when I was 11), but depending on what you value in a city, Boston has Toronto beat. If you need to have the high rise buildings, Toronto's your place. Only New York has more buildings over 300 feet, though many of those are 70s apartment blocks that were dumped all over the city and therefore the downtown core pales compared to Chicago - hell, until recently even Boston had more buildings over 500 feet, even if Toronto has 5 buildings over 800 feet. But, it's also a massively large, spread out city that, while the metro area, at 5.5 million, is a bit larger than Boston's, the city feels a lot larger and not in the New-York-this-place-goes-on-forever-but-there's-so-much-to-do kind of way. In terms of density, the former city of Toronto (Toronto was merged with it's immediate suburbs to create the 'megacity' in 1997) was comparable with Boston. But if you examine density based on the area codes of the respective cities, the 617 area code has about 2 million people in 380 sq km. The 416 area code has 2.6 million in 630 sq km. So, you have only 700,000 residents living in an area only a little less than twice the size. So while downtown Toronto is dense, it quickly drops off vis-?-vis Boston and her close surroundings.
Furthermore, Toronto has megasuburbs to boot. Mississauga, Ontario is the largest suburb in North America, with an estimated 750,000 residents. Just to the north is Brampton with close to 500,000. This has resulted in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) being multi-polar, which reduces the popularity of downtown Toronto by allowing people to work, play and be social in their own, shitty suburbs (Brampton is a hole!). This also creates a small feeling.
Lastly, the transit system in Toronto makes the T look like the best thing since the third rail. For starters, the GTA has almost 10 individual transit agencies. That means if you want to go from Toronto to any of the suburbs without taking the commuter rail system (GO Transit), you have to take the subway to one of the designated transfer stations and then switch to the other transit system, paying the fare all over again. In Canada, transit is generally controlled by the municipality, and not regionalized like it is in the US (Vancouver and, increasingly, Montr?al are exceptions to this rule). Therefore, each time you cross a municipal boundary, you generally have to change systems.
The Toronto system, the TTC, is OK. The trains run with generally no more than a 6 minute headway from 06:00-01:30 (except for Sundays where the subway doesn't being until 09:00(!)). However, it has the same problems as the T with its unions as well as a cranky infrastructure that creates incredible traffic jams (like when a track switch freezes at rush hour). Furthermore, the union stronghold means that they are no where close to having anything resembling a smartcard system.
I practically have one foot in Toronto already and I admit the place is growing on me. One way Toronto beats Boston is the pride people take in the city. Maybe it's a 'New York effect' in that Toronto is the largest city in the country, home to much of the nation's money, fame, and fortune and is the number one tourist destination. As a result, there are always things going on, particularly in the Summer, both to the pleasure of residents and visitors alike. This manifests itself in a pride that is both pleasant to see coming from Boston, where so many people seem to be perpetually planning their escape, as well as annoying as many people are unaware of what goes on outside of the area defined as a local call.
Montr?al, on the other hand, steals my heart. It's an extremely compact city with great density, due to the fact that the city is on an island and the suburbs have only spilled over to the adjacent sides of the rivers that surround it in the past 30 years. It has a great, lively atmosphere and even though it can have some gritty areas still feels safe and alive. Though the 'European' character I find is overrated. Montr?al is no more Parisian than Boston is Londonian.
That said, Boston has it's own attributes that I don't need to tell any of you here. It'll always be my place of birth and I'll always be proud be from there even if Canada is now my 'home'. As for what's the "greatest", well that's up to everyone's opinions and tastes. I think Boston is the best city in the United States, though I admit there are some kickass cities I have yet to visit (or revisit, in San Francisco's case).
