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Chicago is VERY black (nearly half in the city proper), that alone is a huge difference from Toronto which is only about 8-9% black, and largely of Caribbean origin.
It looks like there is a lot of red brick construction. So for me (a SoCal resident) this is very striking because there is very little red brick construction in the LA area. Chicago and TO look like they have lots of neighborhoods with greystones (or brownstones?), brick apartment buildings, and lots of row houses. That's just what I have seen from zooming into random streets in both cities on google maps. I think they are very attractive neighborhoods.
That's about all I can think of though for urban construction similarities.
I have heard others say that TO is more "British" in some ways because you see some historic references to the empire/commonwealth on old buildings. Not sure if that's true.
While I hear others describe Chicago as "all american" because it's in the interior of the country.
I am at a loss to explain this one though because I feel that all of CHI's European immigrants helped shape the character and built form of the city lol.
I don't think Toronto has many brownstone neighbourhoods, or row houses like Boston, Chicago or New York. Most are simply detached or semi-detached houses.
Also Toronto is not "British" at all. No one visits Toronto and is reminded of Great Britain. Yes, you see names such as Royal Bank or Royal York, although there is nothing royal or imperial about them.
Chicago is VERY black (nearly half in the city proper), that alone is a huge difference from Toronto which is only about 8-9% black, and largely of Caribbean origin.
Largely? The vast majority in fact. The Black population here is probably about 75% Caribbean origin. Most of the rest are African immigrants.
There are very, very few people of African American background in Toronto - those descended from the Underground Railroad. Probably no more than 5% of the Black population here.
This isn't the US - the number of people descended from African Americans (either Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia or descendants of the Underground Railroad) is quite small. The only places where the Black population is mostly AA-descended is in the Maritimes and around Windsor/Chatham.
So it's really not surprising that Toronto "lacks" African Americans. However it has the third largest Caribbean population in North America after New York and Miami/Fort Lauderdale.
Ok so I haven't yet been to both cities (just a disclosure so you guys don't pounce on me if I get this totally wrong), but I can think of one thing that look similar between TO and CHI in pictures.
The similaritiy I have observed between the two in photos is the type of historic industrial and residential architecture from the turn of the last century.
It looks like there is a lot of red brick construction. So for me (a SoCal resident) this is very striking because there is very little red brick construction in the LA area. Chicago and TO look like they have lots of neighborhoods with greystones (or brownstones?), brick apartment buildings, and lots of row houses. That's just what I have seen from zooming into random streets in both cities on google maps. I think they are very attractive neighborhoods.
That's about all I can think of though for urban construction similarities.
I have heard others say that TO is more "British" in some ways because you see some historic references to the empire/commonwealth on old buildings. Not sure if that's true.
While I hear others describe Chicago as "all american" because it's in the interior of the country.
I am at a loss to explain this one though because I feel that all of CHI's European immigrants helped shape the character and built form of the city lol.
I'm of the view that Queens NY is the "Toronto of America." Similar built form, ranging from rowhouses to postwar suburbia, with a lot of high rise clusters spread around. Built around the same time, mostly in the 20th century. Demographically quite similar too - southern and eastern European, Caribbean, Chinese, South Asian. Queens however has far more Latin Americans however while Toronto is whiter. Obviously it's not a carbon copy of any city. But I find Queens reminds me of Toronto more than anywhere else in America, with Chicago in second.
Toronto doesn't compare to Chicago at all. Have you been to downtown Chicago? Chicago is a big time major city. Toronto's downtown is no where near as big as Chicago's. And that crappy lake front that Toronto has is laughable compared to Chicago's as well. I guess Toronto would compare more to Vancouver.
That Toronto to Chicago comparison needs to stop, it's not close. Chicago's downtown as far as nightlife kills anything I've seen in Toronto as well. Just not even in the same league.
Toronto doesn't compare to Chicago at all. Have you been to downtown Chicago? Chicago is a big time major city. Toronto's downtown is no where near as big as Chicago's. And that crappy lake front that Toronto has is laughable compared to Chicago's as well. I guess Toronto would compare more to Vancouver.
That Toronto to Chicago comparison needs to stop, it's not close. Chicago's downtown as far as nightlife kills anything I've seen in Toronto as well. Just not even in the same league.
I agree Toronto doesn't give as much a "big city" feel as Chicago, especially downtown. Chicago simply have bigger and grander buildings and streets and you can tell that it has been a big shot for a long time; Chicago doesn't have tiny and short houses on streets as centrally located as Beverly, Spadina, Church, Elm, etc. It just looks a whole lot "bigger".
Toronto, while growing fast, still shows clearly it was not meant to be designed as a major metropolis, but more like a town expanding quickly with a lot of newly added highrises, however, it is not where Chicago is, and you can't hide its smallness in every pocket of downtown.
Several of friends after visiting Toronto mentioned the city strike them as a mid-sized city, which IMO is pretty accurate.
But that doesn't make Toronto more comparable to Vancouver, which is 1/3 of its size. Vancouver is a small city. Toronto is more comparable with Philadelphia as mentioned many times.
In terms of a "big city" feel, quantitatively, if NYC is a 10, Chicago gets an 8, Toronto 6, Philly 5, and Vancouver a distance 2. Ottawa would get a starting point of 1 and anything smaller doesn't qualify.
Botti, let's take out Asia Pacific (China) for future comparisons... No one can ever hope to match China's mega cities in this time continuum
I think Toronto is a fairly large city already by North American and European standards. There's not too many cities in the western developed world that has 6+ million people. Not to mention that Toronto's growing at a very fast pace. I was listening to CBC the other day, which did a special report on "Toronto 2025" that projected the GTA to add another 1.5 million people in the next 10 years, set to reach 7.5 million by 2025.
I'm going to ignore responding to Laser's posts for now. If you check his posting history, you'll know what I mean... here's a sample of his opinions on Toronto:
"Why is Toronto such a hard place to socialize?"
"Is Toronto boring as far as nightlife goes?"
"Toronto a difficult place to make friends"
"Toronto has a race problem"
"WHY are toronto women so reserved and flaky?!"
With such contradictory comments as: "I've been in Toronto for the past 5 years and it sucks. It's so funny, downtown Toronto has not changed." ... even though he said in another post "If I were moving to Canada, i'd go to Toronto first." So, has he or has he not lived in Toronto? Lol.
If I were you, I'd take people like him with a very large bucketful of salt.
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