Sell Big City Living.

[Stryker]

Alright long story short, I'm finally moving back to Toronto in may, and I'm just trying to pysc myself up for living in the city. Any ideas of things I can do etc, to excite myself.

EDIT: I'm not looking for literal sales pitch for me, just share things that make you really happy to be living in a major city.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

The sheer choice of options you have to do anything.
The varieties of cuisine and restaurants to go and try out.
The hustle and bustle
The fact that you can walk anywhere.
The neighbourhoods within the city.

And if it all gets too much - just being able to get away from it all on the Islands or the Leslie St spit when you wouldn't even think you are in a city of over 2.5million people.

The Leslie St spit is one of Toronto's most under-rated destinations IMO

[Acajack]

Anonymity?

[hipster duck]

When I was young and didn't have much money, the following little things made me happy about living in Toronto:

- That there were numerous free vantage points in the city where you could discover that the city went on practically without limits.

- That you could pick a neighbourhood at random, and there would always be a used book store. There were dozens of them at the time (I don't know if this is still the case), but I could spend hours just reading books in them, and nobody would bother me.

- The existence of the Metro Toronto Reference Library. Kind of like the last point, only X10.

- Spending a warm spring day exploring the suburbs using a Day Pass. I remember, one warm day in March when it was 20 degrees and spring was in the air, I bought a day pass and did a gigantic square traveling through northern Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke and eating $5 lunches in ethnic strip malls. I remember it as vividly as exotic vacations I would take later in life where I spent literally 500X as much money.

- The lesser known arts festivals and events that are advertised in small print ads in NOW. Toronto was amazing at this. There were rap nights where all they played was DJ Premier. There was a dance night at the Boat where all they played was French ye-ye music from the 60s. There was a Sigmund Freud film festival hosted at a CAMH hospital. I once walked into a high school hip hop dance competition at Central Tech where I was the only white person, and almost everyone else was a black teenage girl yelling at the top of her lungs and furiously banging thunder sticks. These events were either free or maybe had a cover charge of $5, $10 tops.

Damn. I miss the Toronto of my youth already.

[esquire]

If you need to be sold on it, maybe it isn't for you.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

When I was young and didn't have much money, the following little things made me happy about living in Toronto:

- That there were numerous free vantage points in the city where you could discover that the city went on practically without limits.

- That you could pick a neighbourhood at random, and there would always be a used book store. There were dozens of them at the time (I don't know if this is still the case), but I could spend hours just reading books in them, and nobody would bother me.

- The existence of the Metro Toronto Reference Library. Kind of like the last point, only X10.

- Spending a warm spring day exploring the suburbs using a Day Pass. I remember, one warm day in March when it was 20 degrees and spring was in the air, I bought a day pass and did a gigantic square traveling through northern Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke and eating $5 lunches in ethnic strip malls. I remember it as vividly as exotic vacations I would take later in life where I spent literally 500X as much money.

- The lesser known arts festivals and events that are advertised in small print ads in NOW. Toronto was amazing at this. There were rap nights where all they played was DJ Premier. There was a dance night at the Boat where all they played was French ye-ye music from the 60s. There was a Sigmund Freud film festival hosted at a CAMH hospital. I once walked into a high school hip hop dance competition at Central Tech where I was the only white person, and almost everyone else was a black teenage girl yelling at the top of her lungs and furiously banging thunder sticks. These events were either free or maybe had a cover charge of $5, $10 tops.

Damn. I miss the Toronto of my youth already.

I'm sold. How can I get back to the Toronto of my youth? Though I was an outsider driving in from Hamilton, so it was Oz to me. Even now I still find the Gardiner thrilling.

Sigh.

• Video Link

[SignalHillHiker]

Best wishes buddy. Cambridge and Oakville both have large NL communities if that's important to you.

To me the benefit of big city living is greater opportunity - from career, to relationships, to people-related experiences. Ease of travel elsewhere is great too.

[MolsonExport]

The food, the bustle, the anonymity, the neighborhoods, the culture, the urban fabric, the eclecticism, the energy/thrill, the hot (asian) women ...

[mistercorporate]

-Lots of Uber drivers, never have to take a damn cab ever again!
-Subways and the PATH in winter, never have to expose yourself to the elements during the goddamn awful Canadian winter.
-Exotic bishes
-Anonymity, you can experiment with your life
-Eat out at a completely different eatery cheaply every day for the rest of your life, never having the same meal twice.
-Exposure to new ideas and new ways of thinking
-A variety of career options
-If you prefer a niche, you'll find like minded individuals regardless of how unique it is.
-Stick here long enough and you'll get big city swagger, or become an effeminate hipster, whichever you prefer.
-Sports fans get lots of options.
-A variety of neighbourhoods with completely different vibes and people, if you so choose.
-Always a variety of things going on, there's absolutely no excuses to be bored any time of any day of any week, ever. Google that ishh or just explore, tons going on, it's insane.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

If you need to be sold on it, maybe it isn't for you.

That's true, but not everyone who moves from a smaller city to a larger one is singing "start spreading the news, I'm leavin' today, I'm gonna be a part of it"...

Many people are just following the work, or going where they think they might find some.

Most aren't likely hardcore anti-city and are going with an open mind.

But it's not a "dream move" for as many people as we often think.

Just thinking of my parents, they moved around from very small towns to fairly large cities for my father's job. They weren't dreaming of the big city, it's just that the circumstances of life landed them there.

Eventually, city life grew on them and I don't think they'll ever move to a small town again.

But nothing they've ever told me tells me that growing up in small towns (very small in their cases) they were itching to get out and move to a big city.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I'm sold. How can I get back to the Toronto of my youth? Though I was an outsider driving in from Hamilton, so it was Oz to me.

In retrospect, another reason I really enjoyed growing up around Toronto was that Torontonians had a very interesting way of organizing and presenting cultural knowledge to permit a rich sentimental education.

People within Toronto cultural sub-groups took their milieu very seriously - almost academically.

For example, there was a video store - Queen Video - where they had a special section just for Criterion Collection films. So you'd have Brian de Palma in the same section as Francois Truffault. Video stores are a dying breed, but even in the art house video stores I've known in Vancouver and other cities, the general inclination would be to separate films by director and then by country of origin. The way Queen Video did it, I could sample films that a team of experts found to be historically significant just by heading to one section. It was the same, down the street, at Book City, where they proudly displayed a large selection of the Loeb Classical Library. Most good book stores don't have a classics section, let alone attempt to amass one of the greatest collections of a literary collection. And there were more examples of this mentality of drilling down into esoterica - the ye-ye dance night and the strange film festivals were others.

It's a very masculine way of sorting through information and organizing knowledge, and, in hindsight, I appreciate the influence this method of organizing had on me tremendously.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

For example, there was a video store - Queen Video - where they had a special section just for Criterion Collection films. So you'd have Brian de Palma in the same section as Francois Truffault. Video stores are a dying breed, but even in the art house video stores I've known in Vancouver and other cities, the general inclination would be to separate films by director and then by country of origin. The way Queen Video did it, I could sample films that a team of experts found to be historically significant just by heading to one section.

Shout-out to Video Difference in Halifax as well, which has a Criterion section, and an AFI section, and a whole each of other unique sections which practically force you to peruse unfamiliar titles.

Anyway, re: Toronto, it seems like virtually every neighbourhood has a decent indie video-rental shop. I had three within walking distance when I lived at Bloor and Lansdowne two years ago, and all seemed quite healthy. All were chock full of stuff I would never see browsing a web-based service. So that's a metropolitan advantage. An abundance of book stores is a similar advantage. These things just can't survive anymore in large numbers in small cities, or at all in most small towns.

[niwell]

The Queen location of Queen video is closing The Bloor st location is staying open though apparently.

Suspect Video, which IMO is the best in the city by far, is also closing at the end of the year in preparation for the redevelopment of the honest ed's site. They don't plan on relocating to a new location.

[Acajack]

Funny you guys should all mention video stores.

When I was a youngster and started exploring the "city" (mostly Ottawa, but also Toronto and Montreal to some degree) from the boonies one of the things I really liked was video stores offering different stuff.

The ones in central Ottawa were within reasonable striking distance from my parents' house, but they've all closed now AFAIK. Video Mondo and Elgin Video were the best! RIP.

I suspect this will be the fate of most of the others that are still alive elsewhere in Canada.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The ones in central Ottawa were within reasonable striking distance from my parents' house, but they've all closed now AFAIK. Video Mondo and Elgin Video were the best! RIP..

Made it to 2015 at least.

For me living in the city means I can walk to most things in 15-20 and just the sheer convenience of having a tim's, beer store, and grocery store within a 3 minute walk suits me just fine.

[hipster duck]

The Queen location of Queen video is closing The Bloor st location is staying open though apparently.

Suspect Video, which IMO is the best in the city by far, is also closing at the end of the year in preparation for the redevelopment of the honest ed's site. They don't plan on relocating to a new location.

The ones in central Ottawa were within reasonable striking distance from my parents' house, but they've all closed now AFAIK. Video Mondo and Elgin Video were the best! RIP.

I suspect this will be the fate of most of the others that are still alive elsewhere in Canada.

You know, one of the things that keeps me up at night - more than climate change or the collapse of economies - is that we are entering a world where it's difficult to be exposed to new ideas. This is ironic because there is more knowledge and information floating around than we know what to do with. We could have been on the edge of another scientific and cultural revolution but, instead, we have search engines that tailor our searches to validate pre-existing biases, internet communities and forums that siloize thinking and promote hyper-partisanship and the closure of traditional, bricks and mortar ways of accessing diverse cultural and scientific info.

I mean, without video stores, how is some kid going to find out about an obscure director that will blow his mind? If all you do is buy books on Amazon, how are you going to gain exposure to authors in vastly different fields and totally different political spectrums?

[Darkoshvilli]

Thinly veiled brag about moving to Toronto.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

I mean, without video stores, how is some kid going to find out about an obscure director that will blow his mind? If all you do is buy books on Amazon, how are you going to gain exposure to authors in vastly different fields and totally different political spectrums?

I dunno, YouTube recommendations have directed me to a far wider array of new music than record stores or television ever did, for example. Whether online or at a physical location, you have to actively make some level of effort to seek out those new experiences and perspectives, and the kind of people that did that in the past are the same kind of people that are doing that today on the internet.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

I dunno, YouTube recommendations have directed me to a far wider array of new music than record stores or television ever did, for example. Whether online or at a physical location, you have to actively make some level of effort to seek out those new experiences and perspectives, and the kind of people that did that in the past are the same kind of people that are doing that today on the internet.

Yeah, maybe I'm overreacting.

I still think the self-selecting bias of search engines and the hermetically-sealed nature of internet communities is an issue, though.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

You know, one of the things that keeps me up at night - more than climate change or the collapse of economies - is that we are entering a world where it's difficult to be exposed to new ideas. This is ironic because there is more knowledge and information floating around than we know what to do with. We could have been on the edge of another scientific and cultural revolution but, instead, we have search engines that tailor our searches to validate pre-existing biases, internet communities and forums that siloize thinking and promote hyper-partisanship and the closure of traditional, bricks and mortar ways of accessing diverse cultural and scientific info.

I mean, without video stores, how is some kid going to find out about an obscure director that will blow his mind? If all you do is buy books on Amazon, how are you going to gain exposure to authors in vastly different fields and totally different political spectrums?

I think the internet makes new experiences easier for people who have any interest in broadening their horizons. Just as it makes it easier for others to live surrounded by the echoes of like-minded individuals.

I think the key is exposure when you're young - that's when it really makes a difference.

I've noticed in my own family that there's an obvious difference between those raised in urban and suburban/rural areas. Neither is cooler than the other or wealthier or more experienced, really. There's just a difference.

There's an effortlessness and an ease present in those raised in downtown St. John's and Halifax and wherever else it's really, richly urban. There's a... some sort of lesser limit... among those raised in rural Newfoundland, Lower Sackville (Nova Scotia), and Ajax (Ontario). They're just as cool - one lives in Whistler now and extreme mountain bikes in her spare time, another travels the U.S. attending festivals and concerts and does God-only-knows-what for money along the way.

But there's still a difference. If there's family gossip, for example, you can rest assured every number calling my phone is someone from rural NL, suburban NS, or Ajax. The ones actually from St. John's, Halifax, or any urban area couldn't care less.

There's a... sense of general life competitiveness from the non-urban crowd. It's really hard to accurately explain but it's like... their world, however big it is based on their experiences, isn't broadened by any imagination or innate understanding. It is only what they know, however grand that might be.

Personally, I blame setbacks.