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Well, that's all great. But the thread is asking which of these cities is most powerful, not which is the easiest to live in.
Toronto does seem like a very nice place to live though (especially now with President Trump, lol)
For power you could probably argue Chicago, but it's reasonably close such that overall Toronto's many other advantages put it ahead as a city.
Chicago's problem has always been that it's overshadowed by NYC and Los Angeles. It is the Montreal of the USA.
In a vacuum it's a formidable city, but because it's 3rd in the US, it flies under the radar. This is a testament to how great a country the USA is.
It also doesn't help that the city has been in stagnation/decline for the past 10 years or so. The city really needs to find itself and attract more citizens to compete with the rest of American cities, otherwise Houston, San Francisco, and even Brooklyn will all pass it by quite quickly, let alone Toronto, which has already passed it by.
OMG really. You need to forget about music singers and groups have any significance to a cities stature.
Chicago is not a stagnant city OMG. Its Downtown experienced the largest growth in population last decade alone. Chicago had largest downtown population growth from 2000 to 2010 – YoChicago . I still has a prosperous growing Core outward into the cities oldest sought after neighborhoods adding new residents and corporate headquarters moving in. Neighborhoods also are getting new infill and gentrification continues.
***Really, you need to forget Rappers are a important level in a cities stature. After all, RAP is a African-American developed form of music. The musical style was merely imported to Canada and inspired music there too. Heck even the Beatle's of Britain gave credit in influence to American early Blues, Rockabilly and early US Rock n Roll. But as Artist in their own right. All musicians are just that. Musicians that some do make it to ICONS of their craft. Like Québec's and Canada's Celine Dion.
This year, the University of Chicago tied for third with Yale in the Best National Universities category. Last year, UChicago tied for fourth.
This year, Princeton took the top spot, followed by Harvard.
1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA) 3. University of Chicago (IL) (tie) 3. Yale University (CT) (tie)
5. Columbia University (NY) (tie)
5. Stanford University (CA) (tie)
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. Duke University (NC) (tie)
8. University of Pennsylvania (tie)
10. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
As for the CN Tower? IT AIN'T NO EIFFEL TOWER in stature in the world. Though for Toronto it surely is a symbol and landmark of your city. But in a world of 200 story buildings built in Saudi Arabia and Asian cities. It's not Iconic outside of Canada. Merely a Toronto Landmark and really is not what puts Toronto on the World's radar.
Even Seattle has a similar structure like it in its Space Needle. No one calls it iconic. But for Seattle it is still a landmark. SEATTLE
*PLEASE TORONTONIANS. You can't boast for Toronto on the World's Stage? By demeaning Chicago and keep calling it in decline. It is evolving into a city that always overcame its issues from destruction to the Al Capone Era, Radical Racial change that still is increasing in Latino's and even Asian population. African American population has dropped the most. The White population is steady mainly by the 10s of thousands of Young Professionals moving into its Core.
It is time to STOP THE COFFIN NAILING PREMATURELY to lessen Chicago. Marathisu clearly noted it is not and why. There is keeping respectful to any city that yours is up against.
The CN Tower is not only a Toronto icon, buts its a Canadian icon. It's a symbol of Canada. Its also one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. The CN Tower was the tallest free standing structure in the world for over 20 years and still holds that title in the western hemisphere. I'm pretty sure it's iconic.
]Those are American companies.[/b] The U.S. has a population of 300 million people.
This is a weak point. It's called global trade. Do you think that Boeing (based in Chicago) is only selling contracts and aircraft to American-based companies?
Quote:
RBC is mainly a Canadian bank with some international business, but its primarily a Canadian Bank. Canada has about 36 million people.
How are we comparing Walgreens to RBC? Did you not know what countries each of these cities are in and the markets/areas that they serve?
I actually brought this up on purpose to see if you would bring up this point and I'm glad you did. Funny thing is that TD Bank does less revenue, and TD Bank is all over numerous American cities with over 1300 branches and 6.5 million customers.
Anyway, I know what you mean. Perhaps companies like Brookfield (which does a lot of US-based business), Woodbridge, etc are better to compare against.
Point being, while Toronto is a good economic force, it still does not compare to Chicago. Slow growth of the city of Chicago/metro area means nothing in the context of this question. Chicago still maintains the highest number of fortune 500 companies after NYC in the entire country, as well as operating perhaps the most important financial market in the country. These things continue to be the reality no matter what. In the realm of something being powerful and influential, this is what matters - not the fact that you have a pop star for the last 5 years from a city (this goes for any city, doesn't matter which one) or you have a recognizable tower. I'm sorry, I like Toronto a lot - it's a great city but its influence on the business, economic, and financial scale compared to Chicago is not that large. On top of that, while U of Toronto is great and similar to Northwestern University, it does not even come close to U of Chicago.
This is a weak point. It's called global trade. Do you think that Boeing (based in Chicago) is only selling contracts and aircraft to American-based companies?
I actually brought this up on purpose to see if you would bring up this point and I'm glad you did. Funny thing is that TD Bank does less revenue, and TD Bank is all over numerous American cities with over 1300 branches and 6.5 million customers.
Anyway, I know what you mean. Perhaps companies like Brookfield (which does a lot of US-based business), Woodbridge, etc are better to compare against.
Point being, while Toronto is a good economic force, it still does not compare to Chicago. Slow growth of the city of Chicago/metro area means nothing in the context of this question. Chicago still maintains the highest number of fortune 500 companies after NYC in the entire country, as well as operating perhaps the most important financial market in the country. These things continue to be the reality no matter what. In the realm of something being powerful and influential, this is what matters - not the fact that you have a pop star for the last 5 years from a city (this goes for any city, doesn't matter which one) or you have a recognizable tower. I'm sorry, I like Toronto a lot - it's a great city but its influence on the business, economic, and financial scale compared to Chicago is not that large. On top of that, while U of Toronto is great and similar to Northwestern University, it does not even come close to U of Chicago.
No I think you're wrong. Toronto's influence in the world is very close to Chicago, this big gap you are portraying is much tighter in reality.
But Toronto's best days are ahead of it, whereas Chicago's are behind it.
And like I said, if Toronto was American, a lot more of these American fortune 500 companies would probably move their HQs to Toronto over Chicago. For now it's flawed to compare American Fortune 500 HQ counts because American companies are never going to relocate their HQs to Canada. We settle for Canadian HQs of Fortune 500 companies, which is the next best thing - and Toronto has almost all of them, from Apple to General Motors.
Also no one in their right mind is going to rank Chicago more important than New York financially. I'm sorry.
Chicago and Toronto are about on par in their influence over the global financial markets, both are Alpha world cities. They are breakers in the electrical panel of the world economy. NYC is the main breaker. If **** hits the fan there it's lights out for everyone.
Last edited by Mr. Burns; 11-11-2016 at 10:22 PM..
Well, that's all great. But the thread is asking which of these cities is most powerful, not which is the easiest to live in.
Toronto does seem like a very nice place to live though (especially now with President Trump, lol)
LOL
Based on these 5 studies of economically powerful cities in the link below, Toronto edges out Chicago overall in economic power.
This matches my first post in this thread where I said it's a battle between Toronto and Chicago.
This is a weak point. It's called global trade. Do you think that Boeing (based in Chicago) is only selling contracts and aircraft to American-based companies?
Umm Boeing is a global American company. Based in an American city.
Why would they or any other global U.S. company be HQ'd in Canada? I'm sure there might be an exception here or there, but 99% of the time global American companies are based in America. And there are tons of them. Hence why there are more Fortune 500 (again, mainly another American thing by an American magazine) based in Chicago (an American city) than Toronto.
America is a global powerhouse country with much more history, people companies, etc.
Canada is a mid-sized country.
It also doesn't help that the city has been in stagnation/decline for the past 10 years or so. The city really needs to find itself and attract more citizens to compete with the rest of American cities, otherwise Houston, San Francisco, and even Brooklyn will all pass it by quite quickly, let alone Toronto, which has already passed it by.
If you want to have a discussion about Economics, it's probably good to have a grasp on it. No person in their research would ever just look at population to determine whether a city was on the rise or in decline. Hopefully someday you can realize that population numbers are about the most amateur thing you could look at to only determine the status of a city in this regard.
So let's look at some other things.
1) GDP. We'll leave Texas cities like Houston and Dallas out of this since they outperform almost everybody. In Real GDP (2009 dollars), the Chicago MSA's growth is nearly the same as Boston's by percentage, and higher than both NYC's and Philadelphia's. Los Angeles has higher growth than these four, but by only 2% higher than Chicago.
2) Between 2010 and 2015, the median household income in Chicago increased by 13.2% which was higher than San Diego, Dallas, and Los Angeles. It was also almost the same as Houston (only 0.2% lower) and only 1% lower than NYC.
Also, the amount of people with a Bachelor's Degree or higher increased at the same percentage for Chicago as Los Angeles did, and higher than Houston. NYC was higher, but not by a lot - 3%.
Brookfield (Canadian company based in Toronto) actually owns that new mall located next to the new World Trade Center in NYC (called Brookfield Place). Not to be confused with Westfield, which owns the mall actually IN the World Trade Center though. But the two are actually connected indoors, and also have very similar architecture/design so it almost feels like the same place.
TD bank is also a pretty common bank here.
There's some Toronto influence on NYC business.
As for Chicago, I just recently found out that Walgreens bought out Duane Reade a few years back. So all those Duane Reade's that are trying to be all "NYC" are actually Walgreen's in disguise, which is a Chicago company. No wonder why they have gotten so expensive lately.
Just some examples of both cities influence in my everyday life
Umm Boeing is a global American company. Based in an American city.
Why would they or any other global U.S. company be HQ'd in Canada?
Pretty sure you missed the entire point of what I did here. I am comparing how big the largest companies are in Chicago versus Toronto. Does it makes sense, or do I still need to explain it to you? You are bringing up completely irrelevant points. The only good point you made was about the banks being Canadian - except TD Bank has an American subsidiary that has a lot of American business, especially on the east coast. You act as if Canada is isolationist in its business and if somehow that's a knock to Chicago because Chicago has global companies HQ'd within it.
Which furthers my point. The largest companies in Toronto are merely Canadian companies that do have some international business, but not a ton. Their influence on the rest of the world is not that much. The ones in Chicago like ADM, Boeing, Mondelez International, AbbVie, McDonald's, etc are companies that do much business on the global scale, outside of America, furthering the importance of Chicago's economic reach compared to Toronto.
As for Chicago, I just recently found out that Walgreens bought out Duane Reade a few years back. So all those Duane Reade's that are trying to be all "NYC" are actually Walgreen's in disguise, which is a Chicago company. No wonder why they have got so expensive lately.
Just some examples of both cities influence in my everyday life
Oh yeah. This was the source of an actual argument between my girlfriend and I, LOL. I told her that they're basically the same things because they sell essentially the same things down to the generic brand (Duane Reade sells Walgreens brand things, and even the rewards system on their card readers is Walgreens). The colors are a little different between the two stores, but they are essentially the same thing - -which makes sense considering Walgreens owns DR.
Of course the Chicago influence doesn't stop there considering McDonald's is a Chicago company and those are everywhere too. These too:
* MillerCoors Beer
* Mondelez International - formerly Kraft. Oreos, Toblerone, Nabisco, Kraft Macaroni & Chese, etc.
* ConAgra Foods - Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Reddi-wip, Swiss Miss, etc
* Sara Lee/Hillshire Brands
* Quaker Oats
* Tropicana
* Oscar Mayer
* Morton Salt (as well as Morton Steakhouse)
* Potbelly Sandwiches
* Cosi
* Argo Tea
* Beam-Suntory (Jim Beam, Courvosier, etc)
* Solo Cup
Many, many more companies HQ'd in the area that most people would know.
Last edited by marothisu; 11-11-2016 at 11:06 PM..
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The musical style was merely imported to Canada and inspired music there too. Heck even the Beatle's of Britain gave credit in influence to American early Blues, Rockabilly and early US Rock n Roll. 
But as Artist in their own right. All musicians are just that. Musicians that some do make it to ICONS of their craft. Like Québec's and Canada's Celine Dion. 
