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I wonder how many who voted on here have actually spent a reasonable amount of time in both Toronto and Brooklyn to make an informed comparison. Especially Toronto considering it is in a different country and many I assume have limited travel experience to that city.
If this was your passive aggressive way of insinuating that I'm ill-informed or inexperienced with both places, you'd be wrong. I've lived in NYC for 3 years and have family in Toronto. I'm pretty familiar with them both. You'd be surprised at how easy it is for a US citizen to enter Canada, even though it is suuuch a different country.
If this was your passive aggressive way of insinuating that I'm ill-informed or inexperienced with both places, you'd be wrong. I've lived in NYC for 3 years and have family in Toronto. I'm pretty familiar with them both. You'd be surprised at how easy it is for a US citizen to enter Canada, even though it is suuuch a different country.
Never implying that you specifically are ill informed. I am stating a personal observation - neither passive nor aggressive. You can counter my point if you have further data on exactly how valid the poll results really are. But this is C-D, a U.S.-based forum, and a large majority of posters reside permanently in the U.S., and many have little to no experience living in Toronto or Southern Ontario. That in itself is a fact, and that was all I was trying to say.
I just don't like the tone that some posters have used to put down one city over the other, often going to extremes to say that one is absolutely better than the other or vice versa. From reading these 12 pages of posts, the impression I've gotten so far is that:
- Both Brooklyn and Toronto are fantastic places to live and work, though both come with a high cost of living.
- Both cities form two of the most urban, vibrant, and dense areas in North America (Brooklyn wins overall due to its urban continuity of mid-rise residential throughout the borough, where as Toronto has high spikes of density along the core boulevards surrounded by low-rise houses).
- Both cities have decent transit (Brooklyn more established and wider coverage in terms of rapid transit than Toronto).
- Both cities have strong, diversified economies along with an equally diverse ethnic make up (though there is disagreement on how one defines diversity, and what kind of ethnic/racial make up is "more" diverse than the other)
- Both cities benefit from a large and constant infusion of talent and new residents.
So why can't they both be great in their own ways? I think we can all agree on that.
Last edited by bostonkid123; 09-20-2016 at 04:56 PM..
That's a stupid comparison. A NYC borough with an entire city.. Manhattan vs TO would be more in line (Manhattan would easily win).
How would that comparison be any better? You're still comparing A NYC borough with an entire city...
And like you said, Manhattan would be an easy winner. At least with Brooklyn it is a little bit less one-sided. I still think Brooklyn wins... I think most people would agree that Brooklyn is NYC's #2 borough (#1 is Manhattan, of course) but It's at least a closer comparison than with Manhattan
Last edited by That_One_Guy; 09-20-2016 at 05:08 PM..
Never implying that you specifically are ill informed. I am stating a personal observation - neither passive nor aggressive. You can counter my point if you have further data on exactly how valid the poll results really are. But this is C-D, a U.S.-based forum, and a large majority of posters reside permanently in the U.S., and many have little to no experience living in Toronto or Southern Ontario. That in itself is a fact, and that was all I was trying to say.
I just don't like the tone that some posters have used to put down one city over the other, often going to extremes to say that one is absolutely better than the other or vice versa. From reading these 12 pages of posts, the impression I've gotten so far is that:
- Both Brooklyn and Toronto are fantastic places to live and work, though both come with a high cost of living.
- Both cities form two of the most urban, vibrant, and dense areas in North America (Brooklyn wins overall due to its urban continuity of mid-rise residential throughout the borough, where as Toronto has high spikes of density along the core boulevards surrounded by low-rise houses).
- Both cities have decent transit (Brooklyn more established and wider coverage in terms of rapid transit than Toronto).
- Both cities have strong, diversified economies along with an equally diverse ethnic make up (though there is disagreement on how one defines diversity, and what kind of ethnic/racial make up is "more" diverse than the other)
- Both cities benefit from a large and constant infusion of talent and new residents.
So why can't they both be great in their own ways? I think we can all agree on that.
I agree. Both are great. I don't think most people are trying to put down Toronto, but when compared with NYC any city would feel "put down" like that, but that's not the fault of the other city, that's just because it's being paired against NYC, which is just not a fair comparison. Few cities can compete with NYC.
Even just Brooklyn, which like I said earlier is probably the #2 borough outside of Manhattan.
Both Toronto and Brooklyn have been experiencing an insane amount of growth lately. Toronto is really starting to make a name for itself on an international scale, and Brooklyn is starting to come out of Manhattan's shadow. It's an exciting time to live in either of these two places.
I have been to both. It definitely goes both ways. Actually I think I see more blatantly incorrect things being said about Brooklyn here than Toronto. The only things being said about Toronto that I have seen is that it is car-centric and not as diverse as Brooklyn. Besides the guy that said Toronto is in upstate New York, that was an obvious troll. The diversity is arguable, but compared to Brooklyn or NYC in general (except Staten Island) Toronto does seem a little suburban, but I think people from NYC have their standards set really high.
I mean I don't think New Yorkers have a high standard, I just think it's the truth. For a city that acts like it's the NYC of Canada one would assume that it's more urban than it is, I mean even Chicago is way more urban that Toronto is. I'm not knocking Toronto, and who says that only urban cities can be desirable anyway? Although it's a little bit of a let down when things like this are located in the core of the area.
Other world class cities that Toronto likes to compare itself to like NYC, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, ect. look and feel a lot less suburban. Again, I'm not knocking Toronto I'm just saying it's a pretty valid argument that people are making, especially from northeast cities, when they say "Toronto seems a little suburban".
Last edited by intheclouds1; 09-20-2016 at 06:04 PM..
Why include the whole city when Brooklyn alone can outshine Toronto? Based on what OP said, he didn't include all of NYC because the result is obvious.
Because it doesn't. Brooklyn fails miserably compared to Toronto.
By what metrics is Chicago "way more urban" than Toronto? That statement is patently untrue.
lol no it's not. I think Chicago looks and feels more urban/bigger than Toronto. I personally believe that Chicago truly is a mini new york in some regard. Have you ever been to Chicago? The google images don't do it justice seeing as you don't get the vibrant feel through them, but yes I would say Chicago is more urban than Toronto.
I mean I don't think New Yorkers have a high standard, I just think it's the truth. For a city that acts like it's the NYC of Canada one would assume that it's more urban than it is, I mean even Chicago is way more urban that Toronto is. I'm not knocking Toronto, and who says that only urban cities can be desirable anyway? Although it's a little bit of a let down when things like this are located in the core of the area.
Other world class cities that Toronto likes to compare itself to like NYC, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, ect. look and feel a lot less suburban. Again, I'm not knocking Toronto I'm just saying it's a pretty valid argument that people are making, especially from northeast cities, when they say "Toronto seems a little suburban".
I don't see anything suburban about those areas you linked. They're tightly packed urban, walkable residential areas (with 30-40,000 ppsm) with lots of rowhouses, semi-detached homes and apartment buildings. Just because they're not 3-4 storey brownstones doesn't mean they're not dense and urban, just less so than some of the low-rise residential areas areas you'd find in parts of Brooklyn. Brooklyn does have areas that are much less dense and urban than those Toronto examples, such as this:
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