Quote:
Originally Posted by laser99
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.
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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.