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Toronto: Vienna surrounded by L.A.?


mattnf

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I've heard this term used by a Toronto planner to describe the GTA. I get the L.A. part (in fact the suburban sprawl of the GTA does remind one of L.A. with snow) but Vienna? What on earth do they have in common? Perhaps Frankfurt surrounded by L.A. would be a better description? At least it has skyscrapers!

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I've heard this term used by a Toronto planner to describe the GTA. I get the L.A. part (in fact the suburban sprawl of the GTA does remind one of L.A. with snow) but Vienna? What on earth do they have in common? Perhaps Frankfurt surrounded by L.A. would be a better description? At least it has skyscrapers!

Mabye LA and Chicago or New York

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Toronto does have a lot of skyscrapers, but the majority of them are located in the suburbs. Of the 2000+ buildings of 12-storeys or higher in the Toronto area, approximately 1300 are located in post-war suburban neighbourhoods, which is quite a staggering proportion, you might agree.

Of course, inner city Toronto does have a lot of high-rises too, but they are very heavily concentrated in a small area; and so for the most part inner city Toronto is extremely low-rise in nature, dominated by single-family homes or single-family homes converted into apartments. It seems nothing like either Chicago or New York at all.

Perhaps Toronto was compared to Vienna due to its abundance of vibrant low-rise neighbourhoods, but I don't know enough of Vienna to properly judge the validity of that comparison. But probably inner city Toronto is comparable to Los Angeles as well, in its low rise form and detached houses. Both Los Angeles and Toronto have some really well-known, low rise retail strips.

As for the suburbs, I guess it is true there a major element of LA in suburban Toronto, but with thousands of communist-style high-rise apartment buildings, so there is some Moscow as well. Toronto has been described as the North American Moscow for a good reason... and it was not meant to be a flattering label.

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