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moneysense.ca, 30/04/10
Best Places to Live: Toronto will never be number one
Despite what you think of the Big Smoke, it’s not going to top our list. And that’s OK.
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As most of us know, there’s something about Toronto that people love to hate. When I grew up in Winnipeg no one wanted to visit the T-Dot and when they called in the army to clear snow in 2000, it was the greatest news anyone from the Peg had heard in years. I’ve always been a fan of the city, and only fell in love with it more when I moved here almost eight years ago — but I still get a kick out of the complex relationship people outside (and inside too) of the city have with the “centre of the universe.”
Yesterday, a reporter asked the city’s mayor, David Miller, what he thinks of Ottawa topping our Best Places to Live list. His response, reported in the Toronto Star, was perfect. “That may be that magazine’s opinion, but I think it’s not shared by Torontonians and it’s certainly not shared by the tens of thousands of people who move here every year.” While the mayor has to stay stuff like that, his defensive response just highlights the animosity between Toronto and the places outside of the GTA.
A list like this will just give the haters more ammo, but there are some very good reasons as to why Toronto didn’t top the list — in fact, it wound up 85th. According to Phil Froats, MoneySense’s data manager, Toronto has high house prices and a growing unemployment rate. The city ranked 148th out of 179th in our unemployment category; Ottawa ranked 38th. The city also got penalized for it’s house prices to household income ratio — because prices are so expensive it takes longer to buy a house, even though household incomes are higher in the Big Smoke.
Another reason the city dropped from 79th to 85th was that, for the first time, we separated Toronto’s surrounding areas. Without places like Oakville and Newmarket propping up the city’s stats (these places have higher household incomes and discretionary incomes than its more populous neighbour) Toronto’s ranking drops.
The city also has had poor population growth, despite what Miller says. According to Statistics Canada, from 2001 to 2006 the population only grew by 21,787 people, or 0.9%. That surprised me, but the numbers don’t lie. (Unfortunately, that’s the most recent information Statscan has.) By comparison, Ottawa saw its population grow by 5.9%.
There are many great things about Toronto, the culture for one — the city ranked 3rd out of 179 — but living here I can say it has a strong sense of community, it’s not difficult to get around and traffic isn’t that bad, despite what most outsiders think.
Toronto will never top the list, so Miller shouldn’t get too wrapped up in not beating Ottawa. It’s too big with too many pros and cons and while a smaller city might be less stressful to live in, I’d rather keep Toronto, and the ridicule that comes with living here, just as it is.
More Best Places to Live 2010
• Who made the top 25? Use our interactive map to find out.
• Find out where your city ranks. Search our interactive chart.
• Canada’s 10 worst places to live
• Best cities slideshow
• Worst cities slideshow
• Ottawa’s mayor tells us why his city is the best.
• Best Places to Live article: Who made the list and why?
• Follow MoneySense on Twitter
• Follow me on Twitter
moneysense.ca, 30/04/10
It's the largest city in the country. It will have all the problems of the largest city in any country, but by comparison, it occurs in Toronto at a much smaller degree. Crime rate has continued to drop in the last 4 yrs. It feels safe here, a big thing for me. And all the things that make a city great, it's here. Interesting though that when you ask a Torontonian about another Canadian city, they'll say how great that city is, or how bad, plain and simple. Ask someone from another city about Toronto, even if they say that Toronto is great, they'll add "but my city is better" or something to that effect. Yes, it's expensive but things that are expensive are either things in demand or of high quality. I'm staying.
As usual these kinds of studies always engage in mind numbing spin doctoring and lying with numbers to justify their ridiculous conclusions. Large cities offer access to services and amenities as well as physically stunning landscapes which small communities do not offer at all. It is a score on one side and zero on the other. A Shakespeare festival does not equal an NHL team. Having a decent doctor/patient ratio does not equal having access to medical procedures and diagnostics not available AT ALL in small communities. There are high income jobs by the thousands in large cities that do not exist at all in small towns. House prices go up because of demand and loan availability. It is a sign of strength not of weakness, of desirability not undesirability. To say that a small town is more affordable is like saying a Honda Civic is better than a Porsche because more people can afford a Civic. Until you admit that you can not compare Toronto or Vancouver with all their opportunities, sports, culture, shopping and entertainment to a small community, you will continue to make yourself look more like Money Foolish than Money Sense. Sometimes you get what you pay for!
[...] even published a companion article about why Toronto will never be Number One on [...]
All the immigration to Toronto is creating defacto ghettos and segregation. Torontonians are becoming ruder and dirtier, the level of litter is becoming disgusting. I have witnessed teenagers tossing their KFC lunches out of cars, garbage bins are often overflowing, and people in public behave as though there is no around them blocking supermarket aisles or crowding sidewalks walking abreast and not giving any quarter to other passing in the opposite direction. Then there are the 3rd world drivers whom we give out drivers licenses to. Toronto is going downhill It's a wonderful place if you are wealthy and can insulate yourself from the masses living in million dollar homes and hanging out in expensive restaurants, nightclubs and theaters. But for the vast majority Toronto is an urban pressure cooker. Then there is the rampant crime. All one has to do is look at the police crime reports and there are countless robberies and muggings on the streets. Gangs of youths think nothing of swarming pedestrians and depriving them of their belongings.
Toronto , Toronto, Toronto, enough already , it's not about you guys. There are much better places to live.
Survey says !!!
Of course Ottawa has much lower unemployment than Toronto, most people there work for the government.
Toronto probably gets most of the new immigrants and that's another reason for the high unemployment.
These lists are meaningless and only reinforce the animosity between cities.
I love Toronto.
Toronto is so multicultural but what…it is very racist out there.. all groups of people stick to their own kind…
I lived in To for a year in the early 90's when I was in my early 20's. Moved there from Montreal, and couldn't wait to get back home. Toronto is a cold place, and I dont mean the weather. The people as a whole aren't receptive to newcomers. The city itself is very bland, almost like a sterile copy of any American big city, yet it lacks character.
Sure there are good points… best live music scene in Canada, theatre aplenty, tons of crappy sports teams to overpay tickets to see, and of course the hours you get familiarizing yourself with your car since it takes 45 minutes to get anywhere.
I will take Montreal with its charm, affordable housing, friendly people, and overall sense of not trying to be anything other than what it is… a great place to live and visit.
I have lived in Toronto for some fifteen years and although I still enjoy it and find it a convenient place to live I have to agree with those who say its cleanliness and public services have gone downhill. The transit system has not kept up with all those people who came to live here -it is overcrowded and uncomfortable and often has problems with maintenance causing delays.The stations need to be cleaned more often or restructured as there are too few escalators for those who find stairs difficult.
The underground pathways are very clean to a high standard. Why can't out stations be just as good.
I have lived in Toronto for some fifteen years and although I still enjoy it and find it a convenient place to live I have to agree with those who say its cleanliness and public services have gone downhill. The transit system has not kept up with all those people who came to live here -it is overcrowded and uncomfortable and often has problems with maintenance causing delays.The stations need to be cleaned more often or restructured as there are too few escalators for those who find stairs difficult.
The underground pathways are very clean to a high standard. Why can't out stations be just as good.
I have been living in Toronto since my childhood, but over the past 5 years noticed that the quality of life has declined significantly over the years. I even made a temporary move to a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador last year and was amazed by the friendliness and opportunities for career growth that was within reach. Toronto has become a breeding ground for the crooked and upper-class. Racial tensions are on the rise due to growing segregation and lack of integration. Employment has become way too competitive and there are no incentives for locals to start new businesses of projects. Federal Government's solution bring in more immigrants; in essence that does not solve the problems that already exist.
I have been living in Toronto since my childhood, but over the past 5 years noticed that the quality of life has declined significantly over the years. I even made a temporary move to a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador last year and was amazed by the friendliness and opportunities for career growth that was within reach. Toronto has become a breeding ground for the crooked and upper-class. Racial tensions are on the rise due to growing segregation and lack of integration. Employment has become way too competitive and there are no incentives for locals to start new businesses of projects. Federal Government's solution bring in more immigrants; in essence that does not solve the problems that already exist.
I'd have to agree with other posts that in the 10 years that I've lived in Toronto, I've seen it decline, and I think that the best thing for Toronto to do would be to seperate from Canada. Toronto is a victim of its own success, economic success means higher transfer payments out and less investment to things like efficient infrastructure like subways. Toronto is the biggest city, so naturally immigrants graviate here but Canada's archaic ideology of a "cultural mosaic" is breeding intolerance and segregation. The mosaic only "worked" when Canada was primarily European, now it is creating racially segrated ghettos like Brampton or Markham as people are encouraged to focus on what makes them different from everyone else rather than on makes us all similar. It would be great if we became like Singapore, we could built a great city, create and breed our own culture and besides everyone in Canada hates us anyway, no lose for us or them!
Traffic is part of any urban city and is a silly thing to reject a city for especially if your a visitor, talking about Canadian traffic try moving in Vancouver traffic it's much worse the getting around in Toronto traffic.
Pearson is both an efficient and people friendly airport. Getting there is fast and easy VIA TTC, they have direct Airport busses that get you from downtown to the front of the departing gates in less the 30 mins – and vice-versa with the Arrivals to downtown. $12 gets you a private chartered buses that leaves often and make several downtown stops at almost every major intersection.
A little more on the positive side;
Anywhere you go a restaurant can be hit or miss, it seems that you picked allot of bad places if you had so many misses, because there are allot of excellent restaurants there and I'm talking about Burger King.
Talking about rent at least in Toronto a life with your rent. Try paying rent in places like Vancouver, Calgary, or Coquitlam where rent is the same and you get nothing to go with it except dead streets and no action.
TTC and it's employees are/ is the best urban transit in the world which has also been recognized by many other world cities.
Judging a city from an outsiders view is prejudicial, when visiting a city for the first time you should enjoy it’s pros and overlook it’s cons while leaving the critical commentary to those who engage the city day to day, rather then making uneducated claims.