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In a sense I agree: these are the "prime" areas that really define L.A. In turn, L.A. doesn't really have anything like the Annex, Kensington Market, College St. Little Italy, Queen West, or the St. Lawrence/Old Town area.
The Annex is simply a residential area sitting along Bloor West, a busy commercial street. I don't understand why it is a big deal. There are tons of neighourhood like this in all cities. I mean outside Bloor, the Annex is just a sleepy suburb with nothing but SFH.
Queen West? What's the so special? LA has Melrose Ave.
Kensington Market, St Lawrence market, do you really think farmer's market only exist in Toronto? LA's farmer's market/Fairfax is equally nice and vibrant
College st/Littly Italy, it is like Chinatown, which big cities DON'T have them?
I hate to sound like I am trying to put down Toronto, but you guys probably have no idea what LA is really like. A weekend on Santa Monica beach and Hollywood Blvd doesn't give you anything close to what LA really offers. I actually lived there for 4 years.
List of named ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles:
Africa (Black):
Leimert Park
Little Ethiopia
Asia:
Chinatown
Little Tokyo
Sawtelle (Japan)
Koreatown
Historic Filipinotown
Thai Town
Europe:
Beverlywood (Eastern European Jewish)
Fairfax District (Eastern European Jewish)
Little Italy
Via Italia, San Pedro
Middle East and Central Asia:
Little Persia
Little Armenia
Latin America and Caribbean:
Olvera Street, (Mexican, formerly known as Sonora Town, birthplace of Los Angeles)
Realistically, LA has so much width and depth that only NYC can compare with. And you think stuff like the Annex, Queen W and Kensington Market is some sort of a big deal.
And you think stuff like the Annex, Queen W and Kensington Market is some sort of a big deal.
Where do I claim they're a "big deal"? I said they're the most definitive Toronto neighborhoods. I didn't say it made TO better than L.A. let on par with NYC as a so-called "world class city." And I find the Toronto/NYC comparisons embarrassing.
Please refrain from the condescending "you're all a bunch of Philistines who don't know what a world class city is" attitude.
Given that you're so informed surely you can cite some data showing that L.A.'s suburbs are so much more dense than Toronto's.
Last edited by King of Kensington; 11-10-2012 at 10:13 PM..
Whoever compared York Region to the Inland Empire is totally off the mark. Inland Empire is a distant, barely commutable exurb of the Los Angeles area. Maybe not even an exurb but just a totally distinct region, separated by mountains and desert. York Region is just north of Toronto and very much connected to the urban areas just south of it.
The problem is people seem to love to engage in hyperbole when it comes to Toronto. Either it's just like New York and London or it's a cultural backwater and basically a sleepy suburb west of University north of Bloor and east of Jarvis, no more world class than say, Cleveland.
List of named ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles:
Africa (Black):
Leimert Park
Little Ethiopia
Asia:
Chinatown
Little Tokyo
Sawtelle (Japan)
Koreatown
Historic Filipinotown
Thai Town
Europe:
Beverlywood (Eastern European Jewish)
Fairfax District (Eastern European Jewish)
Little Italy
Via Italia, San Pedro
Middle East and Central Asia:
Little Persia
Little Armenia
Latin America and Caribbean:
Olvera Street, (Mexican, formerly known as Sonora Town, birthplace of Los Angeles)
Realistically, LA has so much width and depth that only NYC can compare with. And you think stuff like the Annex, Queen W and Kensington Market is some sort of a big deal. [/quote]
Yeah, but you're also claiming that the LA neighbourhoods above are some sort of a big deal. Leimert Park? camaann. You're also pushing it. In many cases the "ethnic" LA neighbourhoods are just marketed that way. Did you know there's a Little Lithuania in LA too? (Los Feliz, and I know for a fact almost no Lithuanians live there, just a church) Artesia is supposedly Little India too, but they only make up under 5% of the population. San Pedro is hardly Italian anymore (same thing could be said for TO's college street). etc.
Yeah, but you're also claiming that the LA neighbourhoods above are some sort of a big deal. Leimert Park? camaann. You're also pushing it. In many cases the "ethnic" LA neighbourhoods are just marketed that way. Did you know there's a Little Lithuania in LA too? (Los Feliz, and I know for a fact almost no Lithuanians live there, just a church) Artesia is supposedly Little India too, but they only make up under 5% of the population. San Pedro is hardly Italian anymore (same thing could be said for TO's college street). etc.
Of course I was pushing it, just like someone mentioned Burlington or Port Credit as evidence of Toronto's interesting neighhourhoods.
Many Torontonians seem to be under the wrong impression that Los Angeles is just a huge suburban city with no downtown, few vibrant/walkable neigbourhoods, no culture except Hollywood where everyone just drives around from one shopping mall or another. Well, that's more like GTA north of Eglinton Ave. In reality, Los Angeles offers tons that Toronto doesn't, and it is no more boring than TO.
LA is an immensely interesting city. It has extremely vibrant and urban hoods comparable to Yorkville or King West, and also upscale or quaint and exclusive paradises hidden in the middle of the city. Many streets on the west side is usually filled with pedestrians. Having a smaller and less visible downtown doesn't mean LA itself is less busy. It just have multiple centres.
Stuff like Kensington Market, St Lawrence Market, Queen West are nothing that special. Other cities do have those. The Annex IMO is just another regular and slightly boring neighourhood. There is no point of bringing it every time as if it is an example.
Having lived in both cities, I am not gonna judge which is "better", but I will come to argue whenever someone posts ignorant posts claiming Los Angeles is not as vibrant and livable as Toronto or it doesn't have stuff like Queen West. Most large cities have its artsy, quirky and interesting streets. You just didn't travel well enough to see them.
LA does have a sizable downtown, and it is getting more vibrant. Outside downtown, LA has very vibrant centers such as Santa Monica, Wilshire/Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Hollywood, Pasadena etc. Toronto doesn't have anything close to them.
Downtown Long Beach is also a very vibrant center busier than downtown Los Angeles at night with a lot of good restaurants and nightspots.
Canadian cities are in general more dense than American cities. More houses built on 50 foot lots rather than 80 foot, more clearly delineated borders between built-up and rural areas, more high-rises and multi-family housing even in smaller cities. Where I live, Welland, is very different in urban form than a similarly sized U.S. town would be. As soon as you get out of town, suddenly it's farms and houses on large (5+ acre) lots. Within town, all the houses are on tiny lots, almost all the neighborhoods have sidewalks, there are corner stores spread out throughout the town, and lots of apartment buildings, even some high rises. Most U.S. cities of similar size (50,000) would have probably an old downtown core surrounded by lots of houses on half acre or one acre lots... none or very few apartments or townhouses of any kind... and the outskirts of town would have subdivisions randomly built just outside city limits. In Canada you kinda go from countryside to WHAM - now you're in a town and there's sidewalks, streetlights, etc. In the U.S., it's usually a more gradual transition.... that is what they call SPRAWL.
Many US cities of all sizes have changed a lot in the last few years with the downtown areas being renovated and people moving back into the downtown.
...Kensington Market, St Lawrence market, do you really think farmer's market only exist in Toronto? LA's farmer's market/Fairfax is equally nice and vibrant
Whoever compared York Region to the Inland Empire is totally off the mark. Inland Empire is a distant, barely commutable exurb of the Los Angeles area. Maybe not even an exurb but just a totally distinct region, separated by mountains and desert. York Region is just north of Toronto and very much connected to the urban areas just south of it.
I live in the Temecula Valley which is in the SW Inland Empire. Our area is definitely seperated from Los Angeles and in fact we are closer to San Diego. Actually quite a few people commute to the LA area though it is not something that I would do. In fact I don't commute anywhere however we visit the LA area frequently as our daughter lives in Lakewood.
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Artesia is supposedly Little India too, but they only make up under 5% of the population. San Pedro is hardly Italian anymore (same thing could be said for TO's college street). etc.
