Canadian Urban Canyons

[mistercorporate]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I agree with this. Toronto is under-rated by most everyone. Except by those who live in the 416!

In my time, I have seen some good snark, bad snark, and great snark. This, sir, is a work of snarking genius. Well played, you will forever be known as the snark-demigod! It contains the perfect balance of compliment with insult, how do you do it?!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by mistercorporate

In my time, I have seen some good snark, bad snark, and great snark. This, sir, is a work of snarking genius. Well played, you will forever be known as the snark-demigod! It contains the perfect balance of compliment with insult, how do you do it?!

Thanks for the compliment, but in all modesty I thought 959 was even better...

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by isaidso

That street scene isn't beautiful in any sense, actually. Toronto streets are more vibrant and interesting than Vancouver streets (for the most part) but Vancouver wins hands down aesthetically. I was only there for 2 weeks but I struggled to find ugly bits... even out as far as Burnaby.

Source

[shappy]

Seoul was mentioned earlier... one of Seoul's best neighbourhoods is Hannam-Dong:

source

The above could literally be Kensington, Queen or hell even Gerrard. These kinds of places can look shabby but they're special. Toronto has a number of areas like this. Sure it's not the prettiest but if you're walking through Kensington and can't get past the aesthetics, well...

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

One of my favorite canyons. I can't seem to find a pic of it but this park hidden away behind old bank towers.

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6498...7i13312!8i6656

And people on this site used to sneer when I said that Toronto, at times, bears an uncanny resemblance to London more so than to Chicago. There's nowhere in Chicago that looks your Streetview link, but you could easily fool people into believing it was from the City.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.51449...7i13312!8i6656

[yaletown_fella]

Originally Posted by christmas

I just want to make it clear that I love Toronto and seeing it grow and come into its own as a city of quality is one of the most gratifying experiences to me. I'm in Vancouver for now, but my ultimate destination will be Toronto (home).

However, the city is undoubtedly lacking in terms of infrastructural quality and how it is presented on street-level. As a starter, referring to what Isaidso said, the utility poles (esp. on King & Queen) is unnecessarily derelict. No (world-class) city that I've visited with streetcars and trams, has messy utility poles as seen in Toronto. The ones along Queen and King is to the point where it makes photography difficult unless you are digging for that run-down, hippy vibe.

Plus, it's not only those wooden poles that are the problem. It's the chaotic lines of which indicate no consideration on part of the city to aesthetically improve the quality of its infrastructure:

Seriously, this is Canada we're talking about. Not the rural parts of China or India. And even those cities get it right with their main streets:

Everything you showed is south of Bloor. Proves my point that Toronto is a city of neighborhoods, not a downtown city. I like to think of Toronto like LA (a patchwork of wealthy SFH suburbs, condolands, and gritty neighborhoods), and Montreal like SF with its idealistic beautiful downtown/plateau area .

[yaletown_fella]

The Junction at Keele and Dundas dosent have any of the wooden poles/electrical and has quite nice victorian stone/brick architecture and stylish streetlights. College just west of Bathurst with its Victorian streelights and buried electrical also comes to mind. But Im objective and these commercial areas seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

[shappy]

Most neighbourhoods south of Bloor have them above ground. A few on/around Bloor that (mostly) don't:

Danforth: https://goo.gl/maps/GiTNgzoiWGK2
Yorkville: https://goo.gl/maps/CNEB6jWcPVS2
Annex: https://goo.gl/maps/DsXa7bDRACH2
Yonge/Summerhill: https://goo.gl/maps/BXsJx7S1gHy
Church/Wellesley: https://goo.gl/maps/UDZaqANy7X62
Yonge/St. Clair: https://goo.gl/maps/Tr7HAg5csVE2 (has overhead streetcar wires)

[mistercorporate]

If you have money, then even the most grimy Canadian urban landscape will inspire and energize you. If you are just scraping by, even the most beautiful street will be bittersweet at best, and feel like a depressing wasteland at worst.

[niwell]

Personally the overhead wires have never really bothered me - it seems to be a running theme in Ontario cities for whatever reason. I know they basically put Toronto on the same level as developing world /African cities with some of the urbantoronto posters but having been to a few of those places it's pretty laughable. I'd also much rather have vibrancy with overhead wires / ramshackle poles than a completely dead but beautifully designed streetscape. Both would be nice but one is a lot easier to fix than the other. Also I'm not sure I'd want a place like Kensington to be completely beautified - it's current look is very much part of the charm.

Some of my favourite places in the U.S. have a fair amount of overhead wires and incredibly messy streetscapes (dirtier than Toronto in most cases) as well. New Orleans and San Francisco outside the immediate downtown core/waterfront come to mind.

Older streetpoles with messy overhead wires are pretty common in Australian cities too:
https://goo.gl/maps/afq9yL7txbr
https://goo.gl/maps/kByg4hAnqQQ2
https://goo.gl/maps/v7athpokFfy
https://goo.gl/maps/zAFLJeJ9Rtk
https://goo.gl/maps/VZcavpUYwaG2

Originally Posted by shappy

Most neighbourhoods south of Bloor have them above ground. A few on/around Bloor that (mostly) don't:

Queen East in Riverside also doesn't have them (it has streetcar wires, of course): https://goo.gl/maps/h6qWXuWrT4p

[TorontoDrew]

[IMG]L Tower by Brock Cruess, on Flickr[/IMG]

[Martin Mtl]

Canada-Monteal 2017 by Dmitriy Zhukov on flickr

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by niwell

Older streetpoles with messy overhead wires are pretty common in Australian cities too:
https://goo.gl/maps/afq9yL7txbr
https://goo.gl/maps/kByg4hAnqQQ2
https://goo.gl/maps/v7athpokFfy
https://goo.gl/maps/zAFLJeJ9Rtk
https://goo.gl/maps/VZcavpUYwaG2

Damn you! You need to be more careful when wielding those Street View links to Melbourne. I got sucked in without meaning to and spent a half hour exploring those delicious tram-linked commercial thoroughfares.

I swear I lived in Melbourne in a previous life.

[TownGuy]

It's scary how similar Melbourne and Toronto look.

[Acajack]

They're actually quite similar in feel as well IMO.

[harls]

Originally Posted by shappy

Seoul was mentioned earlier... one of Seoul's best neighbourhoods is Hannam-Dong:

source

The above could literally be Kensington, Queen or hell even Gerrard. These kinds of places can look shabby but they're special. Toronto has a number of areas like this. Sure it's not the prettiest but if you're walking through Kensington and can't get past the aesthetics, well...

Wow, I totally thought that was Queen Street at first glance. I'm not being sarcastic.

[christmas]

Originally Posted by Acajack

They're actually quite similar in feel as well IMO.

Look down at the road and street quality to see if Melbourne resembles Toronto.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by christmas

Look down at the road and street quality to see if Melbourne resembles Toronto.

Pathetic loser comes to mind with your posts.

This is what the road surface looks like in Kensignton Market.

[IMG]IMG-20170620-WA0000[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]


And other areas around the core. Like "any" major city the roads can be from very good to very poor in condition but for the most part in Toronto they are better then most major metros. It's tough to maintain them with so much construction and there are a few stand out bad stretches around town but to paint the the entire city out to be a land of broken sidewalks and crumbling roads just makes you sound like an ass.

[IMG]IMG-20170722-WA0010[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170706-WA0006[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170609-WA0007[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170712-WA0002[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170711-WA0001[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170706-WA0001[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG-20170709-WA0006[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]20170714_171328[1] by Andrew Moore, on Flickr[/IMG]

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by harls

Wow, I totally thought that was Queen Street at first glance. I'm not being sarcastic.

So did I except for the lack of sidewalk. Has a very grunge Parkdale look to it. And apparently a Melbourne look too lol.

[christmas]

[QUOTE=TorontoDrew;7934135]Pathetic loser comes to mind with your posts.

This is what the road surface looks like in Kensignton Market.

Woah, have some civility if you're capable of having one. (Unlikely considering the pathetic [your fav word btw if you can notice it] "conversation" you had with WhipperSnapper tho, correct?)

So to go back to your photos, shall I start nitpicking as well?