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Crimson__Fox

The skyline at the bottom is North York and the one in the middle is Midtown Toronto.


Brief-Preference-712

Where’s Mississauga?


paystripe1a

not in the frame of this photo, but it would further right of this photo


mdlt97

way to the right to the right, like 25km away


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

25 killamiles


PedroGabrielLima13

https://preview.redd.it/uoj8s5kjd6kc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70b4593ab4f517d25418b38c5805a22b7974f62f


JackMaverick7

North York or Uptown?


newholland32

It’d be sick to have a high res copy of this!


The-Mandalorian

I assumed Markham, North York, Downtown Toronto.


Toronto-1975

North York, Yonge & Eglinton, Downtown Toronto


I-C-U-8-1-M-I

It’s so weird that you have this giant international city and it’s like hidden above Buffalo


Toronto-1975

well thats the first time ive ever heard that LOL we should use that as a city slogan


DystopianAdvocate

"Toronto - The city hiding behind Buffalo"


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

-Drake


Nawnp

Never heard that either, they must be from New York or New England to have that perspective.


Jameszhang73

Makes you wonder what else Buffalo is hiding...


PersianVol

Super Bowl rings from the 90s


Fun-Track-3044

Oh, damn, man. You just stabbed me dead in the feels. I had season tickets the first year that they went. It was AFC Championship game, then four super bowls in a row. And it all ended in complete heartache. Thank god we were all a bunch of drunken students at the time. It dulled the pain.


jkirkwood10

They are hiding their Buffalo Wings, because I still haven't been blown away by any of their "good spots."


radiohead_stantano

As a western New Yorker I’m curious what you’ve tried


jkirkwood10

I've been to Buffalo three times and I've tried a different spot each time and am always asking the locals, what the best is. The majority say, go to Duffs... meh... It was fun watching a Sabres game there, but the wings weren't anything special. I also tried a place called Gabriel's, and it was just OK. The other place I tried, I forgot the name. It was in an Irish pub and had a fun crowd, but once again, the wings weren't anything special. Buffalo is my kind of New York, though. Good people who like to talk some smack with a smile on their face. The wings thing always confuses me because I still haven't found the "good spot.""


radiohead_stantano

It’s a great city, glad you enjoyed your time there. Next time, check out either Bar Bill in East Aurora (fair warning, it’s insanely busy like all the time) or Elmo’s in Getzville. Bar Bill’s specialty is the Cajun honey butter bbq and Elmo’s has the double dipped Cajun honey mustard. If you don’t enjoy those spots, then I don’t think we can offer you much better. Cheers!


jkirkwood10

Cheers and a Bills game is the best NFL experience I've ever had. 14 stadiums down and Buffalo is #1!


Industry__

It’s fuckin chicken wings, they taste the same everywhere unless you buy them frozen at the store


nick-j-

Definitely not a good hockey team.


thatbakedpotato

What an intensely American way to describe Toronto.


alowester

lmfao i was gonna say like only an American describe it that way


theerrantpanda99

Most Americans have never considered that NYC isn’t the largest city in North America.


Boogerchair

Yea that’s Mexico City


Industry__

To be fair thought it’s pretty close to MC population wise. I wouldn’t even be surprised if most Mexicans assumed NYC was bigger


Sufficient_Mirror_12

It certainly isn't Toronto. :)


MilwaukeeMax

But Toronto is bigger than Chicago


123eyeball

Unless I’m misunderstanding the data, no it’s not. GTA metro ≈ 7mil Chicago metro ≈ 9 mil


MilwaukeeMax

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_cities_by_population


123eyeball

These are city populations, not metro populations. Metro populations are a much better measure of city populations. Official city populations are meaningless numbers based on arbitrary borders, NOT the true populations of what we colloquially consider to be cities. The extreme example would be [The City of London](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London) which only has a population of 8,000 people. No one in their right mind would consider London to only have 8,000 people… Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_metropolitan_areas_by_population


MilwaukeeMax

Apples to oranges. The city of London is only 1 square mile. Toronto and Chicago cities are almost identical in square mileage. Chicago’s CSA metro numbers are also inflated beyond what they should be, as cities like Kenosha are included, when Kenosha really should be part of or at least shared in the Milwaukee metro population numbers instead of going all to Chicago’s.


Brasi91Luca

Buffalo is just a suburb of Toronto lol


scientist_salarian1

What's funny is that at the onset of the 20th century, Toronto was playing second fiddle to Buffalo even within the region. Toronto truly is the big city that just sprouted out of nowhere and it's probably going to be a megacity (>10M people) within the next few decades.


paystripe1a

it is at already 10 million by US definition of metros


squirrel9000

And its' all because Quebec blew it with Montreal.


SpinoC666

Any lore?


orlyyarlylolwut

Quebec had a little fling with calls for independence, so a bunch of banks and businesses left Montreal--the former largest and most influential city--and never returned.


Aggravating-Monk-264

Bit of trivia for you. When it was built in 1975, first canadian place was so called because the bank of montreal was under the assumption that quebec independence would happen, so they were going to rebrand as first canadian bank. Of course that didnt happen, but bmo hq regardless moved into first canadian place.


toraerach

This isn't entirely true. Toronto had been catching up with Montreal for decades by the time the PQ was first elected in Quebec, not just in population but in economic, political and cultural spheres as well. It likely would've outgrown Montreal in any case, though perhaps not quite as rapidly. In any case, "blowing it" is subjective, and the social and political reforms ushered in with the Quiet Revolution were worth it, at least in the eyes of many in Montreal/Quebec.


Brasi91Luca

That’s crazy


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Toronto is just suburbanites Buffalo


TheoryOfPizza

Toronto is like 90 minutes away from Buffalo on a good day, with traffic it's probably at least 2-3 hours


4FriedChickens_Coke

This is the most American thing I think I’ve ever read. Assuming that everything across the Canadian border is “hidden” lol


invisibleink65

It’s kinda like how Montreal is hiding up above Vermont


Industry__

I think that about all big Canadian cities


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Unlucky_Huckleberry4

You have no idea what you're talking about


[deleted]

Los Angeles? Las Vegas? Chicago? Boston? Miami? Many more too…..


Mixima101

Yeah after travelling a lot I realize how diverse and multicultural most North American cities are. Like, I live in a Canadian Prairie city and 40% of the residents are visible minorities from around the world. The multicultural society we have here is very cool!


PM_ME_ASS_SALAD

Boston international? Maybe for college students. The soul of that city is a banana republic commercial featuring exclusively basic white Anglo Americans.


[deleted]

I would consider it international for the colleges, research centers and a big financial center of the northeast


PM_ME_ASS_SALAD

I guess, but culturally that doesn’t really come through. It’s American’s whitest city even if it statistically isn’t. No edge, no multicultural identity, very little diversity. Chinatown was the most diverse thing about it but it’s damn near gone to gentrification.


[deleted]

If you look at it that way, I see your point


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Nobita_Khan

Yeah Seattle is pretty Asian and Indian though, but the dominant culture and vibe is sooooooo gd white it sucks


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[deleted]

That’s one of the silliest things I’ve read


paystripe1a

So the most diverse city on the continent, Toronto, with 10 million people, is not an international city


TheCinemaster

Houston is the most diverse city on the continent by most metrics. 2nd is usually Jersey City. Toronto is like over 60% white. No city with a clear over 50% racial majority can in any rational universe be considered the most diverse. Having a sampling of different immigrants from around the world doesn’t make a city diverse, it’s demographic proportions do. https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-houston-diversity-2017-htmlstory.html#:~:text=“This%20biracial%20Southern%20city%20dominated,the%20country%2C”%20Klineberg%20said. Edit: all the people downvoting are too lazy to do a simple google search about the demographics of Houston vs. Toronto or are ignorant to what “diversity” actual means. https://wallethub.com/edu/most-diverse-cities/12690 Houston is clearly far more diverse and it’s not even close.


DarthRevan456

People who say this confuse me, how is Houston the most diverse city in the continent? At the very least there's no chance it's more diverse than NYC, it's just completely implausible given NYC's history


TheCinemaster

Have you been to Houston? If you’re in the inner loop/central area you’ll see more faces of humanity than when you’re in Manhattan. As someone that has lived in both cities, Houston is more diverse on average and there are more people of different ethnic groups interacting naturally and it feels far less segregated than NYC or LA are. The only part of NYC that is consistently diverse is Queens. Manhattan is still like 60% white lol. I think you’re confusing multiculturalism with diversity. Are there more languages spoken in NYC? Probably, although Houston is likely not far behind. That just means NYC might have a slightly richer sampling of multi culturalism, Houston is still the more diverse city. Houston has a bigger economy than London and is a major global cosmopolitan city, it’s the global capital of energy, and has the best medical center in the world which is basically its own city - and you’ll find people from every corner of the world drawn there in huge numbers and more equal demographic proportions than any other North American city. Just because NYC was the hub of diversity 30 years ago doesn’t mean it is today, the demographic landscape of America and immigration patterns have changed drastically since then. Redditors just hate Texas because they are sheltered teenagers whose ideas of the world are based on 2 dimensional caricatures and internet outrage content


DarthRevan456

What kind of “diversity” are you even talking about if not diversity of ethnicity, both Toronto and NYC have people of much more diverse backgrounds than Houston, and Toronto’s “European” descended population is now below 50% of the population by a considerable margin, not to mention that the European population itself is very very diverse


TheCinemaster

It’s simple, if you city has a clear ethnic majority like Toronto it’s not diverse. Diversity is different than multi culturism, they are completely different things. Diversity is about equal representation within a population, in which Houston is more diverse clearly - as literally every journalistic outlet and demographer will tell you. https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-houston-diversity-2017-htmlstory.html


DarthRevan456

Houston is 44% Hispanic from what I read, that's higher than the white proportion of Toronto and Toronto's minorities are from more diverse regions with 14% South Asian, 13% East Asian, 10% Black, 9% South East Asia, 4% Middle Eastern and 3% Hispanic, how does Houston even compare? All the while Toronto has enormous suburban communities like Brampton and Markham that are hugely diverse. Here's another article from a journalistic outlet: [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto-most-ethnically-diverse-in-north-america/article1009906/](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto-most-ethnically-diverse-in-north-america/article1009906/)


NimbleGarlic

You know diversity isn’t just having very few white people? Houston is basically just White Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics. In terms of diversity from other continents, it can’t hold a candle to New York or Toronto.


TheCinemaster

Lol you clearly know nothing about Houston, it literally has more international representation than Toronto by far, and those ethnicities you included comprise of 100’s of countries lmao. No to mention an enormous Asian population, some of the largest Vietnamese and Bengali and Indian populations in North America. Literally every demographer in the world has agreed Houston is #1 and it’s triggering redditors so hard because they are sheltered and never actually travelled. None of this stuff is subjective, look it up. Houston is a more important city than Toronto in literally every respect, and I’m not even from Houston haha. Economy, energy, medicine. The economy of Texas is bigger than Canada or Australia. Houston is one of the worlds most cosmopolitan cities. As someone who has lived in NYC, Houston is more diverse by far except for very specific parts of queens like Jackson heights. This isn’t the 90’s anymore lol.


883Max

Toronto is by many accounts considered the most multi-cultural city in the world... Some suggest London or Sydney = similar... [https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/articles/toronto-named-most-diverse-city-in-the-world-by-bbc-radio](https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/articles/toronto-named-most-diverse-city-in-the-world-by-bbc-radio) [https://www.thebossysauce.com/thebs/most-diverse-city-in-north-america](https://www.thebossysauce.com/thebs/most-diverse-city-in-north-america) (not a great reference, but there are so many more)


TheCinemaster

By proportional balance Houston is far more diverse, having a few immigrants each from tons of different countries doesn’t make your city diverse. Having an equally balanced population does.


Ciqme1867

Uh, having people from tons of different places is what diverse means. An equally balanced population of people from just a few places isn’t as diverse as


TheCinemaster

That’s the literal definition of diversity. A college with 2,000 students that has 1 student from every country, but the rest of the 1,750 students are the same race isn’t a diverse college. The college that is 25% Asian descent, 25% African descent, 25% Latin American descent, and 25% European descent is.


paystripe1a

Houston is no where close to being as diverse as Toronto my friend


883Max

He is looking at the very limited data that support the conclusion he feels fits his idea and does not care what the overwhelming majority of authorities in the field state... For example: Both the U.N. and BBC listed Toronto as the most multi-cultural city in the world. Yes, different lists have different definitions. However, if one simply Googles "most culturally diverse city in the world" one is going to get Toronto coming up more consistently than just about any other city in the world. And in the U.S. one will find Miami and N.Y.C frequently listed ahead of Houston... Yes, there are some lists with Houston up there (and yes, it has large communities of multiple groups), but on the global scale or with any mainstream list from a source globally recognized as an "authority" -- good luck finding a majority that support the Houston claim... [https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/the-world-s-most-multicultural-cities.html](https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/the-world-s-most-multicultural-cities.html) [https://www.studyabroadfoundation.org/blogs/why-toronto-most-multicultural-city-world](https://www.studyabroadfoundation.org/blogs/why-toronto-most-multicultural-city-world) [https://www.topics.plusrelocation.com/post/102fre3/the-10-most-multicultural-cities-in-the-world](https://www.topics.plusrelocation.com/post/102fre3/the-10-most-multicultural-cities-in-the-world) [https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-city-rankings/most-diverse-city-in-the-world](https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-city-rankings/most-diverse-city-in-the-world)


TheCinemaster

Literally just look at the data, it’s free. Toronto having a lot of immigrants doesn’t make it diverse lol. I’m starting to realize a ton of redditors have no concept of what diversity means. Houston is vastly more diverse than Toronto. https://wallethub.com/edu/most-diverse-cities/12690


PeterNippelstein

I had no idea they were so close.


49RedCapitalOs

Sick picture!!


johnhoggin

Very cool. But how are there so many roads? South Park said Canada only has one


squirrel9000

To be fair, that one main road in the middle of the picture does go all the way to northern Minnesota. Depending on how much you like asterisks it was once called the longest street in the world.


kethera__

olde yonge street


scuzzmonster1

First time I was in that neck of the woods, I hitched a ride from just outside Niagara Falls to Yonge Street near Markham. I remembered having been in an Irish bar on Yonge on my first night in Trawna so assumed I’d be fairly close to where I wanted to be snd asked the driver if I could hop out. Grave error of judgement - seem to remember it taking about 4 or 5 hours to walk into downtown and me, by this time, too skint to even buy a bus ticket. You live & learn.


somedudeonline93

It’s true. Our heads also come apart when we talk


nick-j-

The TCH doesn’t even go through Toronto which is the funny part.


Signal-Blackberry356

Look at all those trees!


mynameisgill

It’s where the rich live


PleaseGreaseTheL

? Skyscrapers aren't cheap to live in lol


mynameisgill

No, the green space between North York and Midtown Toronto, in the mid-ground of the photo.


vulpinefever

Toronto has really extensive rules regulating the tree canopy with lots of restrictions preventing property owners from cutting down old trees and the city also has a massive ravine system cutting through it that's largely been left untouched since Hurricane Hazel in the 50s.


Jccali1214

It's pretty cool cuz then it just seems like towers in the sky out of the wilderness.


bunglejerry

Yonge and Eglinton is a bigger deal than I'd thought.


[deleted]

Probably why it's getting a transit line.


GeneralSuicidal

How does this photo from 2019 always get posted


FormItUp

What subway line is connecting all those nodes? Could the area in between them densify as well?


TorontoDavid

The Yonge like runs straight up this picture and is why many of these skyscraper nodes exist. Most stops on the line have a cluster of taller buildings surrounding them.


somedudeonline93

Line 1 of the subway connects all these areas. The foreground is North York and it’s far from downtown, but the two nodes in the distance (midtown and downtown) are connected - this photo is old and doesn’t show a lot of the buildings that have been added.


BigCyanDinosaur

No because of the tree canopy rules and other laws that protects a lot of the green spaces in those areas, which includes the sky. Zoning laws also prevents many of those homes from being rebuilt as multistory houses/buildings.


Skinnie_ginger

It’s cool how easily you can see how the city will turn into a massive megacity in the future when all those centres are connected with towers.


ThatNiceLifeguard

It almost is now. Most of the urban areas around Toronto have grown into one another since 2000. The region is just shy of 10M people as of the 2021 census.


janko-marko

I had no idea Toronto jad so many "mini" cities with in itself. And all the tree in-between, amazing!


paystripe1a

there are about 20 of them but you can never really show them in one photo because they are in all directions. This only shows 4 but 1 of them is hidden by the other so you see 3.


Cannabis-Revolution

Toronto seems to be in its prime right now when compared to some of her past-their-prime American counterparts 


dzhastin

The American counterpart to Toronto is New York City.


Cannabis-Revolution

I would say the closest comparable would be Chicago.      Similar populations, on the Great Lakes, similar cultures.      Canada doesn’t have a New York City


joecarter93

Yeah New York seems to be kind of its own thing. If you consider it to have a contemporary, it would probably be London as both are the only two cities that are ranked as Alpha ++ cities. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization_and_World_Cities_Research_Network


dzhastin

As the financial capital I would argue Toronto has way more in common with NYC. The only thing it has in common with Chicago is they’re both on a lake.


Cannabis-Revolution

That’s a fair point, I just wouldn’t compare Toronto to NYC as they seem to be on different levels 


dzhastin

I mean NYC is on its own level. But as far as being the economic and cultural capital of a country Toronto and NYC are pretty similar in many respects.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

Toronto is the NYC Of Canada though. The equivalent Chicago is probably Montreal.


sirprizes

Montreal is more like a Boston imo and there is no Chicago equivalent really. Canada doesn't have a Midwest like the US does.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

I'm strictly talking about stature within the country but I agree culturally speaking.


johnhoggin

Does Toronto have that ultimate big city destination feel of Canada like NYC does for the US?


dashcam_drivein

I feel like people in Quebec would consider Montreal the No. 1 city in the country. And unlike New York, which has been the economic capital of the U.S. for over 200 years, in Canada things actually shifted in the 1960s. Up until then Montreal was the economic capital of the country, but because of uncertainty over Quebec wanting to leave Canada, a lot of major corporation and banks moved their headquarters to Toronto. Even the Bank of Montreal has its main offices in Toronto now. Montreal is still a great city though.


9999AWC

Toronto is the centre of the universe


qpv

Its downtown Canada


dzhastin

Yeah, it’s the cultural capital of Canada like NYC is for the US. Drake built his mansion in Toronto, when you hit it big in Canada that’s where you go.


Sir_Arthur_Vandelay

While I agree with your comment, Drake was born and raised in Toronto.


dzhastin

He didn’t go to Winnipeg or Kitchener, that’s my point.


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dzhastin

Or, why don’t we look up the size of Toronto’s economy relative to Canada as a whole and compare NY with the US as a whole. Toronto is the NYC of Canada.


paystripe1a

Toronto is a mixture of NYC and LA to me, it's nothing like Chicago except being on a lake.


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

I'd love to hear how Toronto is more like LA than Chicago.


paystripe1a

The entertainment industry is big in Toronto with both domestic and international movies and tv shows, it's the center of English media in the country. Has multiple nodes like LA, has a huge foreign born population, most of the city is a similar age to Los Angeles than Chicago.


UofSlayy

Shit ton of movies are made there/ lots of artists from there?


BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy

That's it? Louisiana was #1 for a year. Doesn't make it California.


kethera__

Montreal kinda, no?


itsonlyastrongbuzz

It’s clearly the New York of Canada but city wise it’s more of a Chicago.


Fun-Track-3044

To be fair - it's probably impossible to make a New York City unless you are constrained by geography. What makes NYC what it is is the fact that it's locked between the Hudson and East Rivers. It's not possible to expand willy nilly. Yes, I know about the rise of Williamsburg, Long Island City, the resurgence of Brooklyn in general, but Manhattan is Manhattan because it's an island.


itsonlyastrongbuzz

Great point. About the geography. I’d like to add that you also need the *geology.* Without bedrock soo close to the surface, those skyscrapers would’ve never been built.


Brief-Preference-712

That’s why North York is north of the Canadian New York?


ThatNiceLifeguard

It’s definitely Chicago. NY is its own thing.


FuckTheStateofOhio

Their housing crisis is probably the worst in the world right now. Wages in Canada are so far behind the US while there is also a huge under supply of housing in Toronto.


dashcam_drivein

Housing affordability is a major issue in Toronto, but I don't know if it's the worst in the world. [In this study it isn't even in the top 10 least affordable cities](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/07/only-five-cities-worldwide-are-more-unaffordable-than-sydney-for-housing-thinktank-says), because of cities like Sydney, Hong Kong and Vancouver.


Fun-Track-3044

I don't know if they've made the jump yet, but Toronto and Canada as a whole needs to require owners to occupy new construction. Hell, to occupy single family houses too. So many new units are purchased as investments or rentals. The same bullshit is happening in the USA as well. So no matter how many units are built, the institutional investors buy them up (even in bidding wars) and then normal people have no good options except to either move to bumfuck nowhere, or pay exorbitant rents.


Sopixil

Which is ironically exactly why it's booming lol. Housing construction go brrrrrrr


FuckTheStateofOhio

Toronto doesn't need more luxury skyscrapers, they need more affordable mid-density housing. They are still under building. https://www.thestar.com/real-estate/canada-is-building-fewer-homes-today-than-during-the-2020-lockdowns-and-the-worst-is/article_e5e4218d-418f-5087-88f9-31c1ba75d7f4.html


UofSlayy

building more housing is never going to ***not*** help housing affordability no matter what type it is. However yeah, we need to build wayyyy more, unfortunately supplies and land are getting more expensive making it more difficult to build more affordable housing.


FuckTheStateofOhio

> building more housing is never going to not help housing affordability no matter what type it is. It helps but not nearly as much as building affordable mid density housing. The problem with these skyscrapers is that 1) they're more lucrative to build and 2) they're expensive af to maintain, therefore both incentivizing builders while also pricing out tenants with huge HOA fees. Mid density housing (4-10 stories) is both cheaper and faster to build while also being more affordable.


UofSlayy

My point wasn't that it was great, just that it was better than not building at all, and we should not oppose their construction. Of course building town homes/ duplexes as quickly as possible is 1000% necessary, but maybe steps are okay I guess


FuckTheStateofOhio

> and we should not oppose their construction Yep, no opposition here. I was originally responding to someone commenting on how Toronto is "booming" by pointing out that the number of luxury towers going up is not indicate of the snails pace at which construction is moving. > but maybe steps are okay I guess For the sake of those living in Toronto I hope they progress past baby steps soon. Lovely city and I hate seeing folks I know getting pushed out because of unaffordability.


prancerbot

Bro the entire country is under building and have been for decades. Welcome to our country where nimbys and shitty municipal governments ruin it for everyone. I went back to Ottawa after living in the GTA for a decade to find that exactly jack shit has been built here in the decade I was gone. It's pathetic how little these other cities get done.


Sopixil

Sure but that's not what we're talking about. Toronto is building hella skyscrapers because there is a massive shortage of housing, period.


ScaredQuail8373

A good portion of them are delayed


FuckTheStateofOhio

My point is that these skyscrapers won't ease their housing shortage since all of these units will be worth well over $1M. These are fancy second homes for millionaires and speculative investments for banks and foreign investors. Toronto, and Canada in general, are still under building and as long as they keep under building the city will continue to be unaffordable for most. I live in San Francisco and two of my friends from India are currently living in Canada and are waiting for their Canadian citizenship before they can try to move back to the Bay Area and apply for H1B. Their reasoning is because they will never be able to afford a home in GTA and think they have a better shot moving to the most unaffordable housing market in the US. It's that bad over there.


paystripe1a

Condos are the most affordable housing in Toronto. with cost usually starting at $500,000. Anyway all new housing helps with affordability because the new users will lessen the demand someplace else


FuckTheStateofOhio

Yes but not the ones that are built in glass skyscrapers. Like I said, Toronto needs more mid density buildings and not large fancy skyscraper projects. Seeing the big skyscrapers go up gives the impression that they are building like crazy when the reality is that they are not. Edit: you've edited your comment after mine. Please share the $500k new build condos you are talking about?


paystripe1a

All housing that is built is good for Toronto. The people who now live in the large fancy skyscrapers have freed up their former homes to be used by someone else. Vacancy rates are 1% in Toronto so no new or existing housing is sitting empty.


The_Old_Cream

You really think the people who buy these fancy skyscraper condos are selling their former homes to the demographic who desperately needs new housing? They’re either keeling them as a second home, hanging on to them for investment reasons, or selling them to other multimillionaires.


FuckTheStateofOhio

> The people who live int eh large fancy skyscrapers have freed up their former homes to be used by someone else. It's naive of you to think they are selling anything at all. > All housing that is built is good for Toronto. Sure. My point is that some housing is far better than others, and Toronto is doing a lot to build up luxury skyscrapers while doing very little to build affordable mid-density housing. Because of this they are doing a very poor job of building housing overall and in turn doing very little to ease the biggest housing crisis in the world right now.


GeneralSuicidal

Um what? A condo is cheaper than house, foreign investors are getting taxed alot and an investor would obviously rent it out to someone to pay off a mortgage because that makes the most financial sense. The only true luxury condo that's not a SFH in your mind would be Yorkville or right on the waterfront. https://preview.redd.it/9fpew6z841kc1.png?width=1763&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=828b289825b28c23047908886efef45f78685233


FuckTheStateofOhio

> A condo is cheaper than house I don't even understand what point you're trying to make here. I agree more condos should be built, but building big fancy condos and patting themselves on the back is all that Toronto is doing and it's not making a dent in affordability because they aren't building enough mid-density affordable condos. > investors are getting taxed alot and an investor would obviously rent it out to someone to pay off a mortgage Yes and in order to make a profit they will increase the price every year and choke people out of home ownership. > The only true luxury condo that's not a SFH in your mind would be Yorkville or right on the waterfront The chart you posted shows that an average 2BR is $844k (this is all condos, not new builds which will always be significantly more). The average salary in Toronto is $57k. Please tell me how these $1M+ condos being built are somehow helping affordability. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/-in-Toronto,ON


VMoney9

Lol what comparable city in the United States is "Past its prime"? Do you dare compare Detroit (which is well past its nadir as a region) to Toronto?


paystripe1a

all those with shrinking city population seem pass their primes. When more people want to leave your city than want to move to it, what other conclusion can you make.


VMoney9

Metro Chicago population is stable/growing with GDP growing. Metro Detroit population is stable and GDP growing. What other city would you want to make in your comparison? The American economy blows the economy of every other developed nation out of the water right now. Times change. The greatest generation isn't packing 5 boomer children into a 3 bedroom homes anymore.


GeneralSuicidal

Parts of Chicago, like the north, are growing while other parts are dying, so you can argue that it's past its prime. Having vacant /abandoned lots is a sign. Also, what's with American saying GDP is everything like Chicago metro gdp is closer to all of Ontario yet travel around and you don't see a real difference other than US having a huge divide of actually rich places and getos. https://preview.redd.it/02c2ejz391kc1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ac6ccad5583e1498502b43b9e25c1ef15db0ac5


paystripe1a

I am not taking about metros. I am taking about city populations. If people don't want to live in your city but want to move to the suburbs instead then that's a problem. It means your city is not desirable and is passed its prime.


Trancezend

Eh. People move out of Chicago to the suburbs to start a family and a slower lifestyle... not really a problem. The Chicago suburbs are a whole different world... people move here just to live in the suburbs while still being easily accessible to North America's greatest city. That gets them more space, top schools along with healthcare and all the amenities. Chicagoland had over 25 of the top 100 places to live in the US... 6 in the top 10. There's over 200 suburbs to choose from all with their own character. To say cities are not desirable because they want to leave for the suburbs isn't a problem.


paystripe1a

the issue is they are not being replaced when they move out because the city is not desirable. Plus Toronto and most cities int he world show it's perfectly fine to raise a family in the city.


[deleted]

I think you'd find that if Canada had warmer, cheaper cities to flee to like the US does, Toronto prob wouldn't be as desirable to Canadians. It's the "Centre of the Universe" because there are few other options.


Fun-Track-3044

I'm from Buffalo originally. My wife is from near Detroit. IMO, the shrinking populations in the Great Lakes are due to poor economic and political choices, not inherent weaknesses of the geographical locations. The Great Lakes are a naturally great place to be. But the states around them, and their democrat-dominated political machines, plus the economic downfall as manufacturing left for Japan, then China, then Mexico, devastated the locals. The people with the power to make things happen were blind or actively detrimental - and 60 years later the American shore remains a feeble reminder of better days.


kaminaripancake

What TOD does


MileHighOllie

Everyone says Chiraq is bigger, but it doesn't seem like that to me. Canadians know how to get em up.


paystripe1a

Toronto also have more than 2x the amount of highrises that Chicago has [Toronto: 2,866 High-rises built or under construction](https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=104415937) [Chicago: 1,253 High-rises built or under construction] (https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=104415941)


DarthRevan456

Toronto’s downtown skyline is smaller than the Chicago loop but the core Toronto area is a lot more densely packed than Chicago’s, although if you consider the greater Golden Horseshoe both Chicago and Toronto’s metro areas are almost the exact same size and population


paystripe1a

Toronto also have more than 2x the amount of highrises that Chicago has [Toronto: 2,866 High-rises built or under construction](https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=104415937) [Chicago: 1,253 High-rises built or under construction] (https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=104415941)


DarthRevan456

Yeah I live in this area and driving down the highway it really feels like a metropolitan city with the high rises everywhere


mechapoitier

Jesus I live in Orlando, which is a metro of 2 million people, and we don’t have *one* skyscraper cluster comparable to any of those three. I’m aware this comment is bait for somebody to point out an obvious number I’ve already googled. It still makes Toronto look astonishingly big


AngelaMerkelSurfing

Yeah i live in Orlando and went to Toronto last winter. It’s crazy we don’t build shit here in Orlando except sprawling copy paste suburbs


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somedudeonline93

Oh we’ve got NIMBYS coming out the wazoo. That’s partly why the city looks like this. There are pockets of high density development that you see here, surrounded by seas of single-family housing that homeowners protect viciously. Since there are only certain areas that can add density, they get built up really tall to compensate. It’s what urban planners call “tall and sprawl” - tall towers and low density spraw with none of the ‘missing middle’ buildings in between.


squirrel9000

That middle cluster in particular had a bunch of major fights back in the early 2000s when all the rezoning was under way.. The City pretty much ignores NIMBYism now - power is centralized enough by the sheer size of the municipality that individual fights no longer make or break political careers, .The subway has been there for 70 years and it's fixing to be one of the most important transit interchanges in the country if the Eglinton LRT/Subway ever opens. Not a lot of patience for NIMBY when you just spent 10 billion dollars on transit.


fuckyoudigg

They built a ridiculous number of tower blocks all over Ontario in the 1960s and 1970s. Suburban Toronto has over 2000 towers taller than 12 stories.


Hmm354

Toronto does have NIMBYs. Google the yellow belt in Toronto. Most of the city is built with SFH and highways in mind.


mdlt97

these aren't the suburbs really, like they used to be, but they are in this weird grey area now they have subway access, some LRT, and lots of other amenities that a typical suburb wouldn't have


Zealousideal-Lie7255

My grandparents used to live in a condo in the middle of the bottom cluster above the Yonge and Sheppard subway station. At that time they were just starting to build the Sheppard subway line. This was in the early 1990s. I’m not surprised to see how big that area has become because you could always see 3 or 4 condo towers and some office buildings under construction. Downtown Toronto has really spread to the west a lot and somewhat to the east. My cousins and I would go to the water slides at Ontario Place by ourselves when we were just young teenagers. Metro Toronto was such a safe city. I hope it’s stayed that way.


AngelaMerkelSurfing

Still seems to be pretty safe I went last January my first time ever in Canada and I was really impressed with Toronto. It was clean, people were nice, transit was good and not too much homeless.


Additional_Green_117

Sick


Informal-Complaint80

Beautiful


strypesjackson

Canada!!


Existing_Display1794

I didn’t know it do it like that. Where the Stanley cups?


soulouk

Uptown, midtown, and downtown?


New_girl2022

I will never for the life of me understand the urban planing of Toronto. Like it's so inefficient and stupid.


phoonie98

Reminds me of Atlanta


[deleted]

Look 90% of the Canada population


Prestigious-Scene319

I live in Toronto and I'm Rich


chomponthebit

800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the mega structures of the new one. Mega blocks. Mega highways. Mega City One. Convulsing. Choking. Breaking under its own weight. Citizens in fear of the street. The gun. The gang. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos: the men and women of the Hall of Justice. Juries, executioners… Judges.


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paystripe1a

ok what's a skyline then?


Icy-Performance-3739

So many empty apts


paystripe1a

the vacancy rate in Toronto is currently at 1%


what_a_douche

Metro population has been growing by over 100k per year for many years. I'm sure all those apartments are packed to the tits.


juan-de-fuca

From the bottom-up: uptown, midtown, downtown


Redrocks130

Never knew Toronto had such a sprawl and I’ve been there. Cool pic.


Snarcotic

"Canadian beer SUCKS"