Ten things I like about Toronto

Recently Adam posted on his blog 9 things he likes about Seattle. I asked him why nine and he said he couldn't think of ten things. I then asked him what that means about Seattle if you can't even think of ten things you like about it and he countered by saying I should come up with ten things for Toronto. Now as much as I always say I want to leave Toronto, I can tell you a great number of things that I like about it, and when people ask me where I'm from, I am proud to say, TORONTO!



1. Multiculturalism
Now I know you might think multiculturalism is such a "cheap" answer, but I can tell you that this is not a cheap answer. What I love about the multiculturalism about Toronto is the fact that I can get anything authentically ethnic, especially food, but not exclusively! But we can start with food. If I want something authentically homey, like Taiwanese food, I can walk across the street to Metro. If I want Viet, I can walk a little further to Pho 88. Korean? Little Korea on Yonge, Koreatown downtown. Greek? Danforth. Italian? College or Woodbridge. Indian? Scarborough, Brampton. And the list goes on. Let's not talk about the type of Asian things that are available in Pmall and Chinatown. There's even a little authentic Japanese area across the street on Steeles and VicPark. I can even get my eyebrows threaded by Indian aesthetic boutiques or my hair braided if I am willing to venture into the right area. Who needs to travel the world when you can drive around in your car? Which brings us to #2.

2. Proximity Radius
Maybe it's where I live that's making the difference, or the fact that I have car, but I find that I am close to a lot of things. Not only is Little Taipei and Little HK walking distance to my house, I can drive up to Richmond Hill for more Asian stuff, Vaugh Mills for shopping, Wasaga for some clean Lake water; I can drive down to downtown in 20 minutes to visit the Distillery or the CN tower, or a cruise around the lake on the ferry. I can drive west to sauga in 30 minutes and even Waterloo in 1.5 hrs on a weekly basis. In terms of "things to do" proximity in and out of the city, you gotta admit Toronto has it pretty good. Which brings is to #3

3. Traffic flow
As much as I bitch about driving in general, the ability to go anywhere with not too bad of a traffic jam is pretty bitchin'. Like I said, I can hop on to the 404 and drive downtown in less than 20 and 45 min during bad traffic jam is pretty damn good. Have you seen traffic in Vancouver and DC? I'm not even going to start with NYC. I love the fact that when I live downtown I can walk anywhre and when I live uptown I can drive anywhere. Ok, so maybe i'm particularly good with directions and know when's a good time to get onto the road, or i may just be lucky, but honestly, that's one of the great things I love about this city. I can drive when I want to, which is more than I can say about most other big cities.

4. Vast amount of available land
Now, we may not have mountains to climb, but we sure have a lot of parks that we can go rollerblade, bike, and play beach volleyball. Centre island, Ashbridges, Don River Park, Sunnybrook park. I'm sure there are a ton that I don't know about that I am still discovering. It's nice to walk down the street without feeling like you will be runover my crowds of people too. The fact that we do have so much space and yet everything is still reachable, says something about my point #5.

5. Quality of living
Like seriously, it's not until you go somewhere outside of North America before you realize how good we have it. Most of the people in Toronto are middle class and we have relatively few people on the streets living in poverty. We can afford things a lot of people cannot and we can breathe the clean air that most people cannot (you think the smog is bad here on the 5-10 days we have it per year?). We can walk on the streets and come home not feeling like we gotta go sanitize ourselves with disinfectant 32" Plasma TV is not only meant for the rich, nor are cars and personal laptops. Sure, not everyone drives a Ferrari and Maserati, but we all have a pretty high standard of living, which is also caused by or the reason for the few points below.

6. Safety
I can walk out on the street in the middle of the night and now feel unsafe. This is not just in my neighbourhood, but also downtown Toronto. Of course, anywhere you go, there are a few areas where you should not be heading out alone, but on the whole, Torontonians are a very team oriented type of community where you feel safe walking on the streets feeling that if something bad were to happen to you, someone or some organization will come to your aid. Of course, there are also no mafia to ask you for protection fee.

7. Health Care
Going to the doctors any time you need help is so convenient. When I need to do a checkup or I don't feel well, i dont have to think twice before making an appointment. Whether or not this system is being abused by the rest of the city/province/country, is outside the scope of this entry. Another key thing is that I'm not afraid that the people I come in contact with has some contagious virus that they cannot cure.


8. Career Opportunities
Careers availble in Toronto are not limited to particular fields nor just preference for certain gender. Most people here get paid well and there is a myriad of companies and professions available as long as you are willing to work for it. The city is not dominated by any particular organization and monopoly is illegal.

9. Festivals
Stuff are happening every week here, those of you living here probably just don't know about it! From Summer/Winterlicious to A Taste of Danforth, to the hot and spicy festival to the jazz festival to the night market. We do a relatively good job of attracting tourists (though this year's number is relatively low). There are events and they're not hard to get to. Even artists make a stop here (like the Spice Girls) because they like us.


10. National/International imagery
We may not be New York or Paris, but when you are not afraid of telling people you are from Toronto. It's a big enough city for most people to know but it's not so crazy that people might give you a scared or awed look. Toronto is not known for their 9/11 scare or Champs Elysse, Toronto is known for being a nice place to visit and live. Call us boring or whatever, but we've got it all.


Now that I've listed my ten reasons, I have a few things to say. First of all, if you noticed a theme that runs through this list, it should be MODERATION. Toronto is the King of moderation. We have just enough of everything. Not too little. Not too much. You can get anything you want here, but it's not known for being the shopping capital. You can have all the things you need to matain a good life, but it's not known for its excess. The land is big, but not so big you can't do anything or get anywhere. There is enough traffic to keep the streets in maintenance, but not so much that you're not moving. We may not be Vancouver and have the pretty mountains with the highest crime rate, nor are we the prairies where crazy people and oil and gas are present. We are also not Quebec, since we have relatively few French native speakers (but they're here). You can call Toronto boring (and it really is), but who says boring isn't a good thing if that's what you are known for?

I say I want to get outta here, but I have never said I hated Toronto, because, really, who can hate Toronto?