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You referred to density. Toronto doesn't have prewar midrise fabric, so you absolutely implied the neighborhood had highrises.
I have no idea what this means, or the relevance. Tysons Corner is one of the busiest areas of DC, home to some of the best hotels and high end shopping. Therefore, Tysons Corner is downtown DC, using your logic?
Terrible analogy. The West Village and Tribeca are roughly 100 x busier than Yorkville and like 1bajillion x busier than Rosedale. They're basically busier than anywhere in Toronto. The corner of Broadway & 8th or Sixth & West 4th in the Village are probably busier than any intersection in Canada. They're also higher density than any neighborhood in Canada. And you're comparing them to neighborhoods that look like Greenwich, CT.
No. Yorkville was a suburban neighborhood that was essentially demolished and rebuilt in recent years. It's like if I went to Larchmont, NY and started building highrises. Streeterville and Lakeshore East haven't been suburban neighborhoods in the last 150 years, if ever. They're the urban core.
A non-downtown section of Toronto is as busy as a non-downtown section of Chicago? I can live with that. Agreed. Queen West is another non-downtown neighborhood that's busier than Yorkville, but we can agree on this point.
Tyson's corner is not connected to downtown DC like Yorkville is to downtown Toronto. Yorkville is part of downtown Toronto.
Yorkville is in no way a suburban neighborhood, the residential portion are heritage victorian homes on small lots in the shadow of the skyscrapers that are also part of Yorkville:
Photos taken by me. No matter how you spin it, you are part of downtown Toronto in Yorkville.
And that's an older video, many new high rises are under construction in yorkville since then. There are more highrises in Yorkville than all of DC. You're crazy.
OMG, getting sooo sick of Toronto comparisons. When you don't really have a connection to Toronto, it gets old. Just exist in Canada, and quit worrying about comparing yourself to Chicago.
This is a "Chicago vs. Toronto Skyline" comparison thread, hence the "comparison" part of the discussions. If you are sick of this, by all means, there are many other city-vs-city threads for your reading pleasure.
This video proves otherwise : A walk from Yorkville down Bay Street to Union Station.
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Exactly, there's literally abundant video proof, shot street by street, from Financial District to Yorkville showing the continuity of downtown Toronto via dense midrise and highrise residential and commercial buildings all the way along Yonge, University, and Bay Streets. If that's not enough, I don't know what is.
I'm not a big fan of downtown Toronto - too expensive, too noisy, too chaotic for me - but to say Yorkville is "suburbia" separated from rest of downtown Toronto is just plain misleading in broad daylight despite the abundance of facts, videos, and pictures that have already been presented.
Moving on...
Back to the topic of skylines between 2 cities, I'm really interested by Toronto's skyline changes in midtown area (Yonge and Eglinton, Yonge and St Clair) since the area is booming with construction. Can someone comment, and wondering if there are similar areas of development outside of downtown in Chicago?
A friend of mine took the following pic from his balcony, showing the skyline of Midtown Toronto (Yonge and Eglinton area), about a year ago in Oct 2018. In the foreground, there's still lots of SFH "yellow-belt" neighborhoods that are low density, but along the Eglinton Avenue corridor in the background the construction is booming (boosted by the upcoming opening of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT / TTC Line 5 in 2021):
This is a "Chicago vs. Toronto Skyline" comparison thread, hence the "comparison" part of the discussions. If you are sick of this, by all means, there are many other city-vs-city threads for your reading pleasure.
Well, I think he meant more that the thread went to downtown size discussion and stretching Toronto's winch makes it probably the larges downtown claim outside Manhattan.
Then the single-family home comments don't matter for downtown addition, or high-rises do much more etc.
What should matter is what a CBD should have. Does the area/neighborhood wanted to be added/included, have some of the cores main hotels? Office space? Retail that is part of a downtowns total connection too it?
As I noted. Chicago's CBD map is not over generous. Someone saying even the Rush St corridor on its northern city map border.... of its CBD. Is deserving for its key hotels, retail and even skyscrapers. But highly residential too. While another saw it as much less worthy as any Toronto core expansion.
The Toronto blog link posted earlier in a thread. Had the blogger argue for the added north portions to be made official. But seemed to say in another blog by them. That as of 2018. The city did not make it official.
So that then means fluid extensions can be added for Chicago too...... but no one argued for it. Just Toronto posters for a larger downtown stretch.
Another thread in NA downtown sizes might be a better idea for all this size means .... more importance and stature apparently too. Especially if Torontonians feel this sets their city apart from the rest.
This is a "Chicago vs. Toronto Skyline" comparison thread, hence the "comparison" part of the discussions. If you are sick of this, by all means, there are many other city-vs-city threads for your reading pleasure.
The "one-up" is at a new level here. Stretching boundaries to include this, or that. Honestly, it's a poll in the Internet, Chicago has clearly won, and I really don't like Toronto going up against our 3rd largest city. Take it to NYC, Toronto. You are Canada's largest city. I don't feel the comparison is fair, as they're cities in different countries. These Toronto vs. Chicago threads have soured me (a LOT) on ever visiting Toronto. I've been to Vancouver, Quebec, and recently, Montreal. I will never go to Toronto.
The "one-up" is at a new level here. Stretching boundaries to include this, or that. Honestly, it's a poll in the Internet, Chicago has clearly won, and I really don't like Toronto going up against our 3rd largest city. Take it to NYC, Toronto. You are Canada's largest city. I don't feel the comparison is fair, as they're cities in different countries. These Toronto vs. Chicago threads have soured me (a LOT) on ever visiting Toronto. I've been to Vancouver, Quebec, and recently, Montreal. I will never go to Toronto.
Well quite frankly, of the major cities in Canada, I think it's by far the least unique, in that it can pretty much be thrown in anywhere in NA and be right at home. It's nice for a single visit, but if you've seen other large NA cities, aside from its massive skyline, there won't be much unique flare.
Well quite frankly, of the major cities in Canada, I think it's by far the least unique, in that it can pretty much be thrown in anywhere in NA and be right at home. It's nice for a single visit, but if you've seen other large NA cities, aside from its massive skyline, there won't be much unique flare.
I see Chicago's skyline frequently...Toronto's skyline holds no interest, for me.
The "one-up" is at a new level here. Stretching boundaries to include this, or that. Honestly, it's a poll in the Internet, Chicago has clearly won, and I really don't like Toronto going up against our 3rd largest city. Take it to NYC, Toronto. You are Canada's largest city. I don't feel the comparison is fair, as they're cities in different countries. These Toronto vs. Chicago threads have soured me (a LOT) on ever visiting Toronto. I've been to Vancouver, Quebec, and recently, Montreal. I will never go to Toronto.
Chicago is a much apt comparison for Toronto than NYC. Regardless of it being the largest city in Canada, it's not fair to compare Toronto to NYC. The U.S. is the most economically powerful country on earth. NYC is on an altogether separate level.
I do agree that every time we have one of these Chicago versus Toronto comparisons, it always end up the same way. Homerism, subjectivity and ultimately negative posting. Would be nice to call a moratorium on these Chicago / Toronto htreads for a while. If you've read one, you've read them all.
Also, I would not let message board heros (whether from Chicago or Toronto) and their conjecture and opinions dissuade you from visiting Toronto. Toronto is a pretty cool and unique city certainly worth a visit.
Well quite frankly, of the major cities in Canada, I think it's by far the least unique, in that it can pretty much be thrown in anywhere in NA and be right at home. It's nice for a single visit, but if you've seen other large NA cities, aside from its massive skyline, there won't be much unique flare.
It may not be the most "unique" but the amount of activities and neighbourhoods within downtown Toronto is insane and can rival any city. St Lawrence/Distillery district is unique, so is Kensington market. You have tall skyscrapers and then you have SFH right next door. Multiple ethnic enclaves from a massive Chinatown to Little Italy, Koreatown etc.. that are one of the largest in North America. Toronto has a nice harbourfront that is a peaceful oasis yet located next to a small airport. The skyline? sure it's bland and it's all blue glass, but it's the closest skyline to an Asian megacity in North America. Somedays it looks meh and depressing, and somedays it looks amazing cause of how fast it's growing.
Chicago is a much apt comparison for Toronto than NYC. Regardless of it being the largest city in Canada, it's not fair to compare Toronto to NYC.
Definitely. I mean the Golden Horseshoe and Chicagoland are extremely close in terms of land area (10k sq.mi for Toronto and just under 11k for Chicago) and population (9.2 million for Toronto, 9.5 million for Chicago). They're both great lake cities with other significant similarities. Of course they're not exact parallels, but they're far and away the best comparisons for each other.
I do think Chicago has the prettier skyline. It's been around longer and I think the diversity of architectural styles from over the course of the last century or so is what sets it apart. Toronto's CN Tower is really neat, but the skyline is largely very modern which makes it (to my eyes) less interesting. I would also argue that Chicago's skyline which sprawls mostly North/South along the lakefront has a different effect than Toronto's which mostly extends inland from the lakefront/Old Toronto. From most common vantage points, Chicago's feels larger to me. Neither is bad by any stretch, but I lean towards Chicago.
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