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I never saw an obvious gay presence in Toronto. How is Toronto some massive outlier like SF? It doesn't strike me as obviously more gay friendly than Montreal or other major cities.
You mustn't have seen the gay areas. Toronto has a HUGE gay presence.
This is a good observation. If Oakville stands out as by far the most attractive Toronto suburb (and I largely agree with you on this), then most large American cities east of the Mississippi have multiple Oakville-type suburbs in their metro areas.
Oakville and Burlington resemble "eastern US" suburbs more than anywhere else. You can also get the "feel" to a lesser extent in: Aurora (rich far-flung suburb), much of central Etobicoke ("classic" postwar suburbia), Port Credit and southern Mississauga, and the Markham side of Thornhill (but not the Vaughan side) parts of Richmond Hill (west of Bayview).
Most of North York and Scarborough as well as most of Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and Markham feel distinctively "GTA."
After spending a week there, which, of course doesn't make me an expert, I would say: New York city, cleaned up. I just don't see how it is like San Francisco except for the gay friendly part. We were told, by a guide, on one of our tours, next year Toronto will host the largest Gay Pride parade ever held. Just the traffic, everyone being in a hurry, the downtown district, etc. reminds me of NYC. not San Francisco, at all.
After spending a week there, which, of course doesn't make me an expert, I would say: New York city, cleaned up. I just don't see how it is like San Francisco except for the gay friendly part. We were told, by a guide, on one of our tours, next year Toronto will host the largest Gay Pride parade ever held. Just the traffic, everyone being in a hurry, the downtown district, etc. reminds me of NYC. not San Francisco, at all.
you probably didn't spend much time in New York City either.
everyone in a hurry? People walk so slowly here that I often have the urge to kick them.
Toronto's many major thoroughfares downtown such as Dundas, Queen, Yonge, Jarvis, Bathurst etc are dominated by decrepit low rise (lower than 3 stories) buildings, often with huge gaps in between. Do you don't see that in Manhattan that much.
Toronto's retail only exists on a limited number of streets while all the side streets are dead quiet residential houses even near the core. You don't see that in lower Manhattan or midtown.
In addition, Toronto hardly has any public squares to people to linger and rest.
What's more, Toronto's wealthy neighourhoods near the core such as Rosedale, Forest hill, Moore Park the Annex etc are pretty much all single family houses. Do you see anything like that within 3 miles of Time Square? Upper Eastsiders don't actually line in 2 story houses, do they?
Not sure if you took the TTC subway at 1pm. Most cars are 80% empty. NYC subways aren't like that.
Last edited by botticelli; 10-11-2013 at 08:09 AM..
As hard as it may be to believe for some people, Toronto reminds a LOT of other people of New York. Of course there are many differences that nitpickers can't seem to resist pointing out (and often exaggerating), but it's hard to deny that there are also many similarities.
Botticelli, I don't think you're as familiar with NYC as you seem to think you are, there's a lot more to it than Manhattan. You compare certain Toronto neighbourhoods near downtown to Manhattan neighbourhoods when the more proper comparison would be a neighbourhood in Queens or Brooklyn within close proximity to Manhattan. You have to adjust your comparisons in keeping with the difference in scale of the two cities, since NYC is much denser and larger than Toronto.
Even though New York has 5 boroughs, Manhattan is the icon of NYC that most people identify with. Toronto doesn't have anything that comes close to Manhattan and never will.
As hard as it may be to believe for some people, Toronto reminds a LOT of other people of New York. Of course there are many differences that nitpickers can't seem to resist pointing out (and often exaggerating), but it's hard to deny that there are also many similarities.
Botticelli, I don't think you're as familiar with NYC as you seem to think you are, there's a lot more to it than Manhattan. You compare certain Toronto neighbourhoods near downtown to Manhattan neighbourhoods when the more proper comparison would be a neighbourhood in Queens or Brooklyn within close proximity to Manhattan. You have to adjust your comparisons in keeping with the difference in scale of the two cities, since NYC is much denser and larger than Toronto.
Does Toronto share similarities with NYC? Sure. But most of them are pretty superficial comparisons (they're big cities with tall buildings, ethnic diversity, boroughs, etc.)
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