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Toronto's skyline is hard to capture from one vantage point. Its essential too large and chaotic for that. Although the traditional view from the islands is nice, it doesn't capture the breath that Is probably best captured from east or west. If looking from the south, at least angled slight west or east to capture the main north/south spine of the skyline that goes up either side of Yonge Street. My favourite view of the skyline is on Broadview street between Danforth and Gerrard
Thank you for the suggestions.
We don't mind renting a time slot for a helicopter tour if Toronto does those for skyline views. I would imagine that, perhaps, those would give me the best views of the city's full panoramic skyline. Maybe? We're very much going on a trip for fun and we want to kill it (our experience).
We did that for Vancouver, British Columbia when we were there, they had that and it was definitely the best experience ever when trying to capture a stunning view of the city and its skyline.
Of course this is months away but I prefer booking things months in advance, chances of getting everything you want is expedited the sooner you make plans.
We don't mind renting a time slot for a helicopter tour if Toronto does those for skyline views. I would imagine that, perhaps, those would give me the best views of the city's full panoramic skyline. Maybe? We're very much going on a trip for fun and we want to kill it (our experience).
We did that for Vancouver, British Columbia when we were there, they had that and it was definitely the best experience ever when trying to capture a stunning view of the city and its skyline.
Of course this is months away but I prefer booking things months in advance, chances of getting everything you want is expedited the sooner you make plans.
Actually I was thinking of that. Yes a Helicopter would definitely give you the best view. It'll also help you appreciate the density/size of the DT core.. As you can see, its definitely more dense perpendicular to the lake running either side of Yonge street.
As a person who frequently travels to/through both Chicago and Toronto (~two to three times per year each), I have to take issue with many of the comparisons that are drawn between the two. I think it's easier to compare the two from afar (Great Lakes cities, roughly same populationthriving CBDs and financial sectors, etc.) but the more time I spend in either one, the more I am impressioned by how different they are from each other.
In terms of built form, Chicago has had two defined building booms: turn of the century, and post WWII (especially in the surrounding suburbs). Compare this to Toronto, which prior to WWII had an urban core roughly the size of Cleveland or St. Louis. Toronto's building booms have been in the 70s and 80s when the Canadian financial sector was in the process of moving out of Montreal and to Toronto, and more recently in the 90s and 2000s (especially in the suburbs) to accommodate many Canadian and immigrant transplants to the city. The result, in my opinion, is that Chicago feels like a much older and established city, more along the lines of Montreal, New York or Philadelphia, in comparison to Toronto where the urban core is much smaller... especially after many older districts were razed to make way for new development. This process is still ongoing in many parts of Toronto, whereas most new developments in Chicago are characterized by infill.
The second big difference is the demographic composition of the population. At risk of sounding generalizing and a bit anachronistic, Chicago is characterized primarily by an 'ethnic-ness' (i.e.: many Central/Eastern European and more recently Latino immigrants) who came through the city and left their mark particularly in the realm of architecture, but also food, religion, and language. Toronto is (more recently, but perhaps more profoundly) marked by its "immigrant-ness", as 46% of the Toronto region was born outside of Canada. This is the largest foreign-born percentage for a city of any OECD country. This compares to the 19.2% foreign-born population in Chicago, and even this group consists of a more homogenous bloc of Latino immigrants. 40%+ of the immigrants in Chicago were born in Mexico alone, whereas Toronto's four largest immigrant origins make up only 15% of the population. Previously, Chicago also experienced huge waves of homogenous immigration (Poles, for instance). This leads to a situation where Chicagoans will identify more readily with an ethnic identity of some sort, whereas Torontonians seem to be camped by whether they're an immigrant or not Both cities are, without question, very international, but I would argue that Chicago's 'internationalism' is more marked by its extensive business connections when compared to Toronto. In fact, most of Toronto's economic activity is characterized more by the HQs of Canadian companies and the Canadian operations of international companies, although the population itself is much more 'cosmopolitan', it could be argued.
I could continue, but in short, these two cities and their metros are really quite different, especially in terms of built form and demographics... which both seem pretty important to me. In any case, if I had to make a comparison at all, I would argue that the inner-ring neighborhoods of Toronto resemble Cleveland or St. Louis, if those cities had not experienced marked declines. The suburbs of Toronto, however, much more closely resemble the newer suburbs of Sunbelt cities like Atlanta or Dallas than any other Northeastern or Great Lakes city on the continent.
A couple of pics that show the scale of downtown Toronto and surrounding cityscape. It doesn't really remind me of either Boston or Cleveland. It's just too beastly.
Boston is a really cool city but it isn't like Toronto. Both cities a very educated, wealthy, and financially/economically important but in terms of history, architecture, demographics, and lay out they have little to nothing in common.
Thankfully Toronto is absolutely NOTHING like Cleveland. No offence. They are both on a Great Lake. That's as far is it goes.
Neither. The US city most comparable to Toronto is Chicago IMO.
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