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Don't really understand many of these comparisons at all. Toronto is so unlike Minneapolis. Montreal is so unlike San Francisco and Pittsburgh. Brooklyn? Queens? What?
Anyway... Toronto is very unique but if it's like any American city it's mostly like Chicago, in terms of size and economic importance. Aesthetically it's quite similar to Lower and Midtown Manhattan in the financial core, main club district, fashion district, and research/education districts, albeit less dense and tall. In the residential areas the city proper of Toronto has many neighborhoods that resemble Philadelphia & New Jersey (East side of Toronto), and Cleveland (West side of Toronto). The suburbs in the GTA resemble Houston.
In terms of culture Toronto is very New York -- far more than people who have never lived in either city understand. Very cosmopolitan and internationally connected. In the downtown area there is basically only 3 types of Torontonians: wealthy yuppies, middle class hipsters, or fresh-off-the-boat immigrants. That's Manhattan and west Brooklyn to a T.
Politically Toronto is far less liberal than people realize. Rob Ford was very right winged, and in 2011 Stephen Harper won a majority Tory government mostly due to Toronto and the surrounding ridings. There is a very strong liberal political influence akin to Seattle, but can also be very conservative in many areas. It's got the political diversity of Dallas, I'd say.
Montreal is also very unique but it is similar to what a New Orleans and Boston hybrid would be if you had to pin it down. It's a very historic and old city, and the most "European" city in all of North America. It still maintains that colonial American atmosphere too.
Vancouver takes many influences from basically the entire American west-coast. Aesthetically it's obviously similar to Seattle and Portland, but some parts are very Bay-Area. It also has an aesthetic Miami thing going on in the downtown and water front. Basically every new condo and office building being built in Vancouver is either bright white or light blue.
Over about the past 15 years Vancouver has also become extremely important in the North American television and film industry which gives it a Hollywood feeling. The amount of movies and television shows that are filmed and/or produced in Vancouver and the surrounding areas is actually quite staggering.
Calgary and Denver are a great comparison. Probably as good as you'll get for a Canadian and American city. I'd also add in Houston due to the whole oil industry, as well.
Winnipeg is a good comparison to Omaha, as said. Minneapolis is a little too wealthy and cosmopolitan to be compared to Winnipeg, but across the river I think St. Paul makes a good comparison to Winnipeg. It's the more blue collar of the Twin Cities.
Hamilton is like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo and Cleveland all in one Canadian coated package. Huge blue collar presence. Steel and car manufacturing used to be huge there, but it's trying to transition into the service sector -- of course it never will succeed at it though, because Toronto dominates that and is only a few dozen miles away.
London is a great comparison to Rochester, as someone stated. Roughly 400,000-500,000 people with a great, but underrated university. Fairly wealthy and conservative leaning.
Last edited by joey joe-joe; 12-18-2015 at 06:24 PM..
Anyway... Toronto is very unique but if it's like any American city it's mostly like Chicago, in terms of size and economic importance. Aesthetically it's quite similar to Lower and Midtown Manhattan in the financial core, main club district, fashion district, and research/education districts, albeit less dense and tall. In the residential areas the city proper of Toronto has many neighborhoods that resemble Philadelphia & New Jersey (East side of Toronto), and Cleveland (West side of Toronto). The suburbs in the GTA resemble Houston.
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I don't disagree with this, but what part of Cleveland are you thinking of exactly? Ohio City? The area around Little Italy? Lakewood?
I have mixed feelings about Cleveland, and outside of West Queen, I haven't explore much of Toronto's westside. I'm intrigued.
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Originally Posted by joey joe-joe
Politically Toronto is far less liberal than people realize. Rob Ford was very right winged, and in 2011 Stephen Harper won a majority Tory government mostly due to Toronto and the surrounding ridings. There is a very strong liberal political influence akin to Seattle, but can also be very conservative in many areas. It's got the political diversity of Dallas, I'd say.
I'd love to hear more about this too. Seattle is also the more conservative than people assume, but in other ways it's one of the most liberal cities in the US.
Likewise, Dallas is more liberal than most people thinks, but its suburbs are extremely conservative.
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Originally Posted by joey joe-joe
Montreal is also very unique but it is similar to what a New Orleans and Boston hybrid would be if you had to pin it down. It's a very historic and old city, and the most "European" city in all of North America. It still maintains that colonial American atmosphere too.
I do disagree with this. Besides the fact that many Acadians resettled in Louisiana from Nova Scotia a few hundred years ago, I don't really see the connection between New Orleans and Montreal. I think Phoenix, San Diego, and Miami have more in common with Montreal than New Orleans. It's really a stretch for me to see any similarities between the two cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by joey joe-joe
Hamilton is like Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo and Cleveland all in one Canadian coated package. Huge blue collar presence. Steel and car manufacturing used to be huge there, but it's trying to transition into the service sector -- of course it never will succeed at it though, because Toronto dominates that and is only a few dozen miles away.
Hamilton is hard. I've been to Hamilton a dozen times driving from Syracuse to Chicago, and the US has a lot more blight than Hamilton. I'm sure Hamilton has it's problems, but many American Rustbelt cities would dream to be where is now. In that sense, it's economically closer to Pittsburgh than anywhere, but as you were saying, Hamilton is weird due to its proximity to Toronto, so it can't really accomplish what Pittsburgh has. Yet, it's much better off than Detroit. It's also less impoverished than Cleveland and Buffalo. Yet, all four of those American cities offer a lot more culturally than Hamilton. All four of those cities are a lot more hip and cool than Hamilton. It's hard to find a good parallel.
What American Rustbelt city has recovered fairly well from deindustrialization, yet still has some problems, yet is perpetually overshadowed by a major metro area? Maybe Worcester, Massachusetts? Maybe Allentown, Pennsylvania? I don't really know. Hamilton is a hard one.
Edit: I know! I think Hamilton's American equivalent is Kenosha, Wisconsin. It's a kinda boring, kinda poor, but not exactly ghetto, post-industrial city on Lake Michigan in the shadow of Chicago.
Last edited by Dawn.Davenport; 12-18-2015 at 07:00 PM..
The Danforth and the Beaches is almost a copy and paste of residential Newark. Many Forest Hill and York Mills homes bear a striking resemblance to the Philly Style town homes in Society Hill, Old City, etc.
Markland Woods is extremely similar looking to Shaker Heights.
Everything from Dufferin to Bathurst to Mimico looks exactly like the post-war homes in Cleveland.
^ Cleveland has tons of woodframe houses and few rowhouses, and the houses tend to be on larger lots. Toronto is heavily dominated by brick construction, with many rowhouses and semi-detached houses crammed together on narrow lots.
A quick tour around residential Cleveland on streetview makes it pretty apparent that it doesn't really resemble Toronto much at all.
1. Toronto --> Chicago (Self explanatory but in case others don't quite get it. Both are on the great lakes, both are around the same physical size and population size and density, both are pioneers in the high-rise game, both share climate and landlocked features such as intermodal port systems, their expanded areas are about the same size, literally could go on all day).
2. Montreal --> Boston (Boston is to English and North American English history as Montreal is to French and North American French history).
3. Vancouver --> Seattle (Pacific access, Pacific Northwest, geography, climate, location, immigration patterns, livability/safety/crime (low by their country's standards), high-tech, surrounded by mountain ranges formed by volcanic activity, could go on all day).
4. Ottawa --> Washington DC (Planned cities that straddle two cultural regions (Washington = Northeast/South, Ottawa = Anglo/Franco, both administrative centers, both among the highest income rates in their countries and educational attainment rates, and this list could really go on for a while).
5. Calgary/Edmonton --> Houston/Dallas or Denver/Dallas (Houston and Dallas, 240 miles apart -- Calgary and Edmonton, also 240 miles apart. Houston and Dallas of similar size and of similar origin and style, Calgary and Edmonton, of similar size and of similar origin. Houston, Dallas, Denver, Calgary, and Edmonton all have massive energy industries so it works very well. Denver has the Rockies, so does Calgary, so physically speaking Denver/Calgary work nicely but because Calgary/Edmonton are 240 miles apart and in the same province and based off energy and of similar size to one another -- that sounds a lot like another North American tandem -- Houston/Dallas).
6. Winnipeg --> Minneapolis (location, geography, safety, immigration trends, climate, landlocked features, ardent support of hockey, so on and so forth -- obviously a far smaller scale).
7. Quebec City --> None. Like New Orleans in the United States, this one goes peerless. In fact, if it had to be paired with somewhere, then maybe New Orleans would work. Not because they share so much in common but because both are smaller metros with distinct and hard-to-come-by aspects.
8. Halifax --> Portland, Maine
9. Regina/Saskatoon --> Boise/Spokane
10. Victoria --> Portland, Oregon (While Victoria is on an island in the ocean and Portland is landlocked, Victoria is to Vancouver what Portland is to Seattle and while the only thing that connects them is location/climate/immigration trends/geography, Portland being a Northwestern city is about as close as it'll get to Victoria -- they aren't anything alike in actuality but overlap on regional attributes).
I don't get the west side = Cleveland, east side = Philadelphia/NJ comparisons at all.
I don't get it either. The East and West sides of Toronto aren't that physically dissimilar. How can one side look like Philly and the other side like Cleveland?
Maybe a much bigger, much more prosperous Cleveland with a crapload of residentials. I guess I could sorta see that.
1. Toronto --> Chicago (Self explanatory but in case others don't quite get it. Both are on the great lakes, both are around the same physical size and population size and density, both are pioneers in the high-rise game, both share climate and landlocked features such as intermodal port systems, their expanded areas are about the same size, literally could go on all day).
2. Montreal --> Boston (Boston is to English and North American English history as Montreal is to French and North American French history).
3. Vancouver --> Seattle (Pacific access, Pacific Northwest, geography, climate, location, immigration patterns, livability/safety/crime (low by their country's standards), high-tech, surrounded by mountain ranges formed by volcanic activity, could go on all day).
4. Ottawa --> Washington DC (Planned cities that straddle two cultural regions (Washington = Northeast/South, Ottawa = Anglo/Franco, both administrative centers, both among the highest income rates in their countries and educational attainment rates, and this list could really go on for a while).
5. Calgary/Edmonton --> Houston/Dallas or Denver/Dallas (Houston and Dallas, 240 miles apart -- Calgary and Edmonton, also 240 miles apart. Houston and Dallas of similar size and of similar origin and style, Calgary and Edmonton, of similar size and of similar origin. Houston, Dallas, Denver, Calgary, and Edmonton all have massive energy industries so it works very well. Denver has the Rockies, so does Calgary, so physically speaking Denver/Calgary work nicely but because Calgary/Edmonton are 240 miles apart and in the same province and based off energy and of similar size to one another -- that sounds a lot like another North American tandem -- Houston/Dallas).
6. Winnipeg --> Minneapolis (location, geography, safety, immigration trends, climate, landlocked features, ardent support of hockey, so on and so forth -- obviously a far smaller scale).
7. Quebec City --> None. Like New Orleans in the United States, this one goes peerless. In fact, if it had to be paired with somewhere, then maybe New Orleans would work. Not because they share so much in common but because both are smaller metros with distinct and hard-to-come-by aspects.
8. Halifax --> Portland, Maine
9. Regina/Saskatoon --> Boise/Spokane
10. Victoria --> Portland, Oregon (While Victoria is on an island in the ocean and Portland is landlocked, Victoria is to Vancouver what Portland is to Seattle and while the only thing that connects them is location/climate/immigration trends/geography, Portland being a Northwestern city is about as close as it'll get to Victoria -- they aren't anything alike in actuality but overlap on regional attributes).
11. London, ON --> Albany, NY
I don't think you've been to any of those cites.
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