On Street Level: Random Thoughts on our Urban World

I thought i’d contribute a bit of an overview of what doesn’t work in my great home city of Toronto.  Having grown up just 2 hours outside of Toronto, I have visited dozens of times and finally decided to move here just over a year ago.  Despite my appreciation, there are some certain obstacles Toronto must overcome to achieve the healthy greatness it truly desires:

• The biggest thing holding the city back is the public transportation system.  The existing subway lines cover perhaps 25% of the city but leave giant regions without truly adequate public transport nearby (especially the Northwest corner).  A subway may be too costly to cover such far distances, however light rail is a possibility.  There has been talks of a light rail system, but this truly needs to solidify itself more quickly.
• The lack of cultural attractions is actually pretty appaling.  The government has not put much money into these types of attractions and the result is a real shortage of tourist attractions and an enormous price tag to go with the ones that do exist.
• Toronto perhaps prides itself a bit too much on being a trendy, gritty haven.  The city needs to make stronger efforts on providing a cleaner environment for its citizens.  It is generally the most run down major city (> 1 000 000 people) in Canada.
• Toronto Life Square: The new building that now resides on the corner of Yonge and Dundas (Toronto’s busiest intersection) is perhaps the greatest tragedy in recent Toronto development history.  The building had limitless possibilites but comes across as cheap, boring and lifeless.  Apparently, the original tenants included a Virgin Mega Store and the Canadian Music Hall of fame.  Instead, we’ve been left with yet another Shoppers Drug Mart and Future Shop.  The city and especially Pen Equity (the square’s property managers) really blew it with this one.

I sounds perhaps a bit too negative on my home city.  But that’s because I really believe the city has a lot of untapped potential.  The city is an incredible melting pot of so many cultures and exudes a great entrepreneurial spirit.  Toronto really badly wants to achieve it’s ‘World Class city’ status, but cannot achieve such a goal without pouring more money into it’s infrastructure and attractions.  Here’s looking to a promising future.