Your city's qualities & defaults

[bkd]

Edmonton -

Pros: It's not Calgary

Cons: It's not Calgary

[J_Murphy]

St. John's

Pros
1)Downtown. So much history and culture. The city has transformed over the past 10 years or so bringing with it many new shops and restaurants and various other developments. This is truly the heart of St. John's.
2)Nature. You don't have to go far to feel like you are completely removed from urban life. Breathtaking landscape views, eagles, icebergs, whales, moose, etc are within a walking distance of downtown or even a short drive north, west or south from the city.
3)Size. The city in my opinion is just the right size, not too big and not too small. Our "traffic" problems are laughable for people from Toronto, Calgary or any other big city. You can pretty much get anywhere within the city within 20-30 minutes off peak traffic hours (if you have a car, public transit is not very good).

Cons
1)Weather. Very little extreme cold or extreme heat, but a lot of cloud, rain and fog. It is also very unpredicable and inconsistent, it can be sunny and 25 degres one day, and raining and 5 the next.
2)NIMBYS. They are everywhere.
3)Isolation. Air travel is pretty much your only option to get anywhere, unless you want a ridiculously long drive paired with a ferry run.


I could name more of both, but these are the things that stick out for me.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

I'm far too new to Edmonton to comment, so I'll do Toronto:

Strengths:
1. One of the largest, most vibrant downtowns on the continent with a world-class skyline to match.
2. A true summer that's a month longer than most places in Canada.
3. Financial center of Canada. TSX is the seventh largest stock exchange in the world, big five banks are headquartered there.

Flaws:
1. Traffic. Traffic, traffic, traffic. 3 hours to cover 70km is a bit much (this severity doesn't happen everyday, but it happens often enough to be worth mentioning).
2. Post 2000s projects are lacking a bit in the architecture category.
3. Culturally isolated from the rest of the country. A fifth of the country's population lives in the GTHA, and thus everything you'll need can be found there. It's convenient, sure, but I find Torontonians to be far less geographically aware than Canadians from other parts of the country.

Your third flaw doesn't sound like a Torontonian's perspective at all. The rest of the country is culturally isolated from Toronto, perhaps?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Your third flaw doesn't sound like a Torontonian's perspective at all. The rest of the country is culturally isolated from Toronto, perhaps?

I'd say it's the view of a Torontonian who is trying to look beyond the traditional Torontonian perspective on Canada.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I'd say it's the view of a Torontonian who is trying to look beyond the traditional Torontonian perspective on Canada.

Brings to mind this born and raised Torontonian I once sat next to on a flight from Pearson to LAX.

A genial and well travelled person, we talked about our travels. He had been many places, especially in the US but had never been east of Scarborough or north of Barrie. He knew SW Ontario (from his drives to Detroit), but had never been anywhere else in Canada.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by lio45

I will be passing by (on the 401) soon, what would you recommend?

(I'm a big sushi fan, and setting the bar at West Coast sushi for bang for the buck and freshness... Will be impressed if it turns out Kingston can compete!)

My main recommendation: Izumo sushi, at Princess & University. It's a bit to the west of downtown in a more seedy area and it doesn't really look that impressive from the outside, but WHOLY CRAP IS THE FOOD AMAZING THERE. It's the best sushi I've ever had in my life, and I've had sushi in a lot of places. Very much a hidden secret, tourists never go there due to its location. If you have the cash to burn, I highly recommend the chef specials (they're called 'Amy Sushi' and 'Kevin Sushi' on them menu). During the summer they're only open for supper, so the timing may not work out. On the topic of west coast, some famous guy (I want to say a hockey player?) from BC sent them a letter saying they have the "best damn sushi east of the Rocky Mountains" once.

Ta-ke downtown (Princess & Bagot) is in a nicer setting and is also really good, they're open for lunch too.

Arisu at Division & Queen has really good nigiri, 99% sure they're also open only for dinner.

A lot of my friends really like Aji Sai on Ontario Street but I personally am not a fan. I've also heard good things about Ka-me on Division Street but I've never been.

[SignalHillHiker]

Qualities

1. Old Town heritage and density. Although most of the Old Town dates only to the Great Fire of 1892, it is quite large - including just about everything east of Empire Avenue and even those areas with more modern buildings adhere to the old, winding street grid. This makes the dense, walkable, urban part of St. John's much larger than most North American cities with a comparable population. And there is so much to do, especially shopping. We don't have many chain stores in the downtown but what we do have are usually as good or, in some cases, better. La Boudoir and The Boobie Trap have won international awards. JUNK has the best designer clothing for men. Always in Vogue, Model Citizens, and Rosie the Rebel have all the cool women's fashions that give the city its edge. TVAL has the very best beauty and bath products money can buy. We're not lacking at all, even though most of the business names are unique to St. John's.

2. Beautiful surroundings and colours. Rolling green hills breaking suddenly at towering, oceanside cliffs. The wide expanse of the Atlantic. Icebergs and whales. Vibrant and colourful rowhouses. This is a very visually engaging city. It's hard to be out and about and not have your mood elevated by your surroundings - and it makes all but a small handful of other cities feel just a little dull and flat by comparison.

3. A strong identity. It's more than the distinct culture, English dialects, and other attributes that make St. John's unique. It's the incredible sense of belonging, the inward focus. You can easily forget there is a "rest of the world" here, which is something one can only experience in the largest or most (geographically, culturally, or whatever else) isolated cities. There's a reason locals ask, "Where do you belong?" when asking where someone is from. It's very rewarding and satisfying to be of a place.

Flaws

1. Nepotism, the status quo, and dreaming small. St. John's is still the type of city where your surname and accent matter more than most people would openly acknowledge. It's the type of place where, "This is the way we've always done it!" seems like a legitimate reason for anything. And it dreams small, takes what it can get. Developer wants to put a gas station on prime downtown land? Have at 'er, b'y, thanks for thinking of us! There's very little vision. It's probably just a symptom of residents being more or less content with what we have, but people need to realize we're not immune to the sprawl outside of the Old Town and the decisions we're making now are impacting the atmosphere of the city. St. John's is already two completely different cities inside and outside Empire Avenue. And the newest, surbuban one may soon enough dominate as the city's identity.

2. Limited Big City amenities. There's almost nothing arts and culture related that we don't have here, and lots of it - but there is a striking lack of many of the amenities larger cities, even including some near our size, already have. For example, no large outdoor concert venue for tens of thousands of people. Pathetic public transit that is still a social service as opposed to part of urban planning and development. A tangled mess of above-ground wiring throughout. And, although this has improved dramatically and we now have at least a mediocre offering of just about everything: limited international cuisine options.

3. Isolation. Although this too is improving, especially with WestJet's affordable direct flight to Dublin with easy connections from there to anywhere else in the world, this is still a very expensive island to get off. And driving is even less of an option. Halifax is the halfway point driving from St. John's to Toronto. We're so far away from everything. That has its benefits, of course - this would be a far lesser city if we were in striking distance of the Maritimes - but it is one of the most infuriating disadvantages of living here.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I'd say it's the view of a Torontonian who is trying to look beyond the traditional Torontonian perspective on Canada.

That's how I took it as well.

[Architype]

Vancouver

"Qualities" -

All the usual stuff, seawall, beaches, parks, beautiful scenery, great places to walk and relax, mild winter weather etc.

The city emphasizes planning, designing, and building for people rather than cars.

Multiculturalism, you can experience cuisine from all parts of the world quite easily.

Nice skyline, interesting modern architecture and urban design. It is quite easy to experience an "urban" lifestyle.

Constantly changing city. There is always some kind of construction activity to watch being built.

Adequate and efficient regional transit system.

"Defaults" or faults -

Extreme traffic congestion at times with bottlenecks all over the place.

Lack of practical parking in downtown residential areas. The city actively tries to prevent people from driving by making it difficult and expensive to park anywhere for more than two hours.

Vancouverites typically don't now much about the geography of their own country. When I tell people I am originally from Newfoundland, I sometimes get a blank look, followed by "is that in Canada?"

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by Architype

Vancouverites typically don't now much about the geography of their own country. When I tell people I am originally from Newfoundland, I sometimes get a blank look, followed by "is that in Canada?"

Wow. I can't even fathom that level of ignorance regarding one's own country. I (naively) thought that, at a basic level, Canadians could at least name the provinces and territories.

[MonkeyRonin]

If I might expand on my previous post bit, there are things that I would say Toronto does particularly well:


- Successful, progressive planning. This can be seen in the dense, seamless downtown, dense suburbs, greenbelt, the prevalence multi-family development throughout the city, high-transit usage, neighbourhood redevelopments, and continued pace of development of all types (housing, offices, institutions, transit, parks, street improvements), while all being quite "livable". Plus we aren't plagued with over-powered NIMBY groups.

- Vibrant summer street life and finely scaled neighbourhoods. Best exemplified by Victorian "village" centres like Kensington, Baldwin Village, Yorkville, etc; and of course the patios, sidewalk markets, festivals, beach parties, and old high streets. Laid-back urban funk. I know this is supposed to be Montreal's thing, at least within Canada, but I think Toronto does it just as well - each just with their own unique take on it.

- Diversity. And it's not just ethnic diversity or neighbourhood diversity either. There is always a huge range of and a lot of "stuff" going on. Like, any sort of subculture or music scene or trend or whatever however niche will have a following in Toronto. The built form itself is quite diverse as well, with just about every North American urban archetype existing here.

- The presence of nature within the city. From the mature tree canopy, to the ravines, beaches, rivers, the lake, and the overgrown, ivy covered buildings, to the raccoons scampering about - it's ubiquitous and well integrated with the urbanity.




Meanwhile, ways in which the city performs particularly poorly:


- The often tawdry state of the public realm. Wood utility poles, patchy concrete, cheap sidewalks, decrepit infrastructure, that sort of thing. It can sometimes be charming in an endearingly trashy way, but mostly it's embarrassing.

- Ugly-ass suburbs. I guess this is a problem for most cities in North America, but still, they seem particularly dreary and depressing here.

- Congestion. Between transit expansion not having kept pace with usage and population growth, roads never having been built to handle the capacity that they now do, and a poorly thought-out system of bike lanes, getting around the city can be a grueling experience.

- Outward-looking culture. This is something that effects most of Canada, but is nonetheless a regrettable situation as most Torontonians are viewing their own culture through an American lens (and of course, everything American is "better"), rather than actively participating in and fostering what is uniquely ours.

- Politics. This goes well beyond Rob Ford (and other lunatics like Giorgio Mammolitti and Doug Ford), to a quarrelsome & paternalistic city council, and an overbearing bureaucracy governing the city. As well, decades of mismanagement at the provincial level - and in particular, having the issue of transit expansion being played as political football have left the city's infrastructure in a mess. Of course, I can't just blame the politicians themselves - they exist because there are a whole bunch of people who support 'em.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Brings to mind this born and raised Torontonian I once sat next to on a flight from Pearson to LAX.

A genial and well travelled person, we talked about our travels. He had been many places, especially in the US but had never been east of Scarborough or north of Barrie. He knew SW Ontario (from his drives to Detroit), but had never been anywhere else in Canada.

It can be very dangerous for the true Torontonian to travel by road beyond the 416. The nose bleeds that strike north of Sheppard (Eglinton in the case of the most sensitive) or west of the 427 risk turning into hemmorhages if they go much further out. Science has not found an explanation, but trips to the Muskokas, Stratford, and the Niagara wine country seem exempt from the risk.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Echoes

Wow. I can't even fathom that level of ignorance regarding one's own country. I (naively) thought that, at a basic level, Canadians could at least name the provinces and territories.

Vancouverites are not necessarily Canadians or of Canadian origin; although I have encountered people born here who didn't know that Nl was not always part of Canada, etc..

[SignalHillHiker]

Such people have been eradicated from SSP at least, however unwillingly.

Meh, I give Vancouverites a break. Lots of immigrants. We're close to Italy than Vancouver, and we don't expect people living from Ireland to Rome to know anything about us.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Architype

Vancouverites typically don't now much about the geography of their own country. When I tell people I am originally from Newfoundland, I sometimes get a blank look, followed by "is that in Canada?"

Good post and all, but you must of come across some real dumb dumbs if they didn't know about NFLD.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by bkd

Edmonton -

Pros: It's not Calgary

Cons: It's not Calgary

I absolutely love this post, btw. It says so little and yet says so much.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by logan5

Good post and all, but you must of come across some real dumb dumbs if they didn't know about NFLD.

Last year I was in the process of moving from Toronto to Halifax, and since I have extended family in Moncton, I used their address to apply for jobs, since it made me appear more local than if I were applying from Toronto.

I went to the Bloor West Village Telus store in Toronto to get a 506 (New Brunswick) phone number to complete the illusion. After a few minutes of apparently being unable to find New Brunswick in his computer system, the guy serving me asked, "This will sound silly, but New Brunswick is a province, right?"

He was serious. So there are some real dumb dumbs out there, or at least some people who know jack-shit about the rest of the country.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Such people have been eradicated from SSP at least, however unwillingly.

Meh, I give Vancouverites a break. Lots of immigrants. We're close to Italy than Vancouver, and we don't expect people living from Ireland to Rome to know anything about us.

Yes, I do give them a break, I don't expect them to know where St. John's or New-Wes-Valley is located, but they should know where the province is. However, a Vancouverite is defined as anyone who lives here regardless of origin, whereas, I think a to be a "Townie" (of St John's) your family must have been there for a generation or two.

• I also forgot to include Stanley Park specifically as a Vancouver quality. It's now been named best park in the world.
  yes the whole world.

http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/S...489/story.html

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Last year I was in the process of moving from Toronto to Halifax, and since I have extended family in Moncton, I used their address to apply for jobs, since it made me appear more local than if I were applying from Toronto.

I went to the Bloor West Village Telus store in Toronto to get a 506 (New Brunswick) phone number to complete the illusion. After a few minutes of apparently being unable to find New Brunswick in his computer system, the guy serving me asked, "This will sound silly, but New Brunswick is a province, right?"

He was serious. So there are some real dumb dumbs out there, or at least some people who know jack-shit about the rest of the country.

Both Newfoundland and New Brunswick are actual places in New Jersey.

[SignalHillHiker]

My coworkers in TO often think I'm in New Brunswick. Still. It comes up just about every time we have to plans something around time zones.

"Can we have the meeting at 3:30? Wait, Ryan, where are you again? New Brunswick, right, what time is it there? Will you still be working 3:30 our time?"

One in Montreal recently thought I lived in Halifax, Newfoundland.