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My wife believes that I'm actually ill. I'd like to feel that I'm just focused and determined and I have a tremendous attention to detail.
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G.T. Dave
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David vs. Toronto
COMMENT
Thank you David, your comments (although I disagree!) do now at least demonstrate a little familiarity with the topic rather than your previous “just sayin”-type post. Healthy debate is good but blithely stating an opinion without any back-up just smacks of hubris, so I appreciate your reply.
I agree that the Toronto Life article’s author did put too fine a point on the choice of “hottest” places; he IS right - those aren’t the hot spots any more, and haven’t been for ages but as you say, that’s not really the issue.
The population of Toronto (the GTA in fact) is closer to Houston or Chicago than any of LA/SFO/NYC so it’s not entirely fair for you to make those comparisons. But, if you read carefully, that’s not what either author was saying.
Both authors are saying that what makes Toronto great is, amongst many other things, the network of communities we have developed. The “nice” people you describe. And, exactly the things you don’t seem to like about it. We don’t care about celebrity; we’re not obsessed with showing off at high-end clubs.
Sure, our transit system could be improved, but it gets us around. No, we don’t have the Golden Gate Bridge or the Empire State Building, but we do have the good ol’ CN Tower, lots of interesting architecture, hundreds of amazing restaurants that don’t require us to go into debt and best of all, streets that are by and large safe enough to walk at any time of day or night. We don’t need to carry guns around, our murder rate is 2.0 victims / 100,000 (vs. NYC at 7.3 per 100,000) and unlike our neighbours to the south, we’re enjoying a relatively stable and successful economy right now.
So, in my mind, Toronto IS a world-class city - because those are the measurements that mean the most to me. I’m most certainly not trying to convince you to come here or to change your opinion. On the contrary, I think it’s just great that you love New York so much, and that you seem to love the other Big Famous American cities you have travelled to.
I too have been fortunate enough to travel to many great cities around the world, from Dubai to Buenos Aires, Copenhagen to Bombay, Paris to Vancouver. I loved many, many things about those cities, and disliked many too. But unlike you I don’t feel the need to insult their residents in order to make Toronto seem better or grander, nor would I denigrate them by saying I thought they were “cute”. I think they’re all great in their own way.
Finally, it might shock you to learn that although I’ve travelled the world, I have never been to New York. Truthfully it just doesn’t really appeal. I guess I’m just not a fan of hubris.
Sorry if that hurts.