Beautiful Toronto

[BrandonTO416]

These aren't street scenes, but rather more of an overview of one of my favorite cities of the world.

I've visited Toronto several times over the past year and a half. These are some pics I got.

Downtown from the CN Tower:

If you zoom in past the buildings, its not hard to see this mega-city is filled with buildings to Scarborough and beyond.

Sorry for blurriness - they should wash the windows of the CN Tower. Oh, and the housing condo towers in the center is akin to Peachtree Center in Atlanta - its like 10 buildings identical. LOL

Toronto is just gorgeous. And these aren't even pics of the handsome and cute people in the streets.

Looking northward toward North York:

Zoomed in a little, the distant CBD of North York is quite a skyline onto itself:

Looking northwestward you can see the rowhouses & stuff, along with numerous highrises along the various corridors.

Oh my, is that me standing in the streets of Toronto? I think so. I forgot my contact lense solution. Its rare to see me in glasses.

This actually is standing in North York:

Beautiful view from ferry on lake:

From the Prince Edward Viaduct, just nice looking:

Just as a street level teaser, here is the Greek village area near the TTC Pape station if I remember:

[DallasTexan]

So clean! So bland! So Toronto

Great pics.

[monsoon]

[Scott]

Toronto seems to be blessed with alot of trees like Boston. Tons of hi rises! Doesn't look bland at all!

What a great thread...

[Raleigh-NC]

Truly awesome pics!!! Urbanity at its best.

[tocoto]

Nice big shots of Toronto. Lots of high rises. I would love to see some street level shots of the waterfront sometime. Seems like no one ever posts Tornoto's waterfront.

[BrandonTO416]

Toronto has some huge parks on the riverfront - but in downtown its turned into a condo haven. Its very nice.

But downtown itself is separated from the waterfront condo highrises with a huge railyard (where the Go Transit system all connects and freight also passes through), plus the Gardiner expressway is also in the way. So downtown and the riverfront never will be *connected*.. But its set up so nicely - and the railyard isn't that much of an eyesore. Its great to see that so many people used rail up there.

DallasTexan is my friend - so I can get away with saying this. The only thing bland is Dallas, my friend. LOL The only thing Dallas has is a downtown and Turtle Creek. Very little when compared to Toronto.

It is true, Toronto grew up very rapidly in the modern period of 60'ish architecture. But the street level of the city has everything imaginable. What it lacks in post-modern and art deco skyscrapers of the like of Chicago or New York it definately picks up on its street level and urban atmosphere even in suburban areas.

[turlough]

awesome pics!!! I love the really urban look

[Allan]

Wow! Great pics, Heckles !!

[Canuck]

A note about Toronto's waterfront - it can be off and on between beauty and pure uglyness. There have been numerous complaints about obstacles preventing downtown from reaching the waterfront - the rail tracks, the elevated expressway, the wall of Condos on the water's edge... Plus keep in mind a lot of this land is infill that's only been around for; maybe 80 years. At the beginning it was all industrial, and afterwards all those barriers went up, meaning only now are we getting a chance to make it great.

Other parts of the waterfront have beaches, parks, fun things to do. And then there's the portlands off to the east of downtown. Again this area was heavily industrialized and only now are we getting a chance to play with it. If Toronto had won the 2008 Olympics, it would have hosted most of the facilities (and would have been less than a 5 minute drive to downtown), but with our short-term Olympic hopes slim, we have to find another use for it.

Oh and let's not forget the island airport. It's a huge political issue over here in the municipal election, and depending on who wins it could be expanded/closed and/or a bridge could be built to it. Any of these decisions will have huge implications for the waterfront.

[Canuck]

For THE best Toronto pics I've ever seen (and not taking away from the great job heckles did), check out: http://www.pbase.com/cwk/toronto. I especially recommend the streetscapes and urban wanderings sections, though you can't go wrong with choosing another area.

Also I believe work has recently started on this project along the waterfront:

[Cotuit]

I've never been to Toronto, Montreal's my favoured Canadian destination. I never realized it had so many trees. I've never seen any photos that conveyed that.

[G W North]

Toronto has a thick canopy of trees that is amongst the best of the world's greenest cities. Global Air Photos pictures really show off the green canopy in the inner city:

I've travelled to dozens of major cities in 9 countries, and Toronto is the least bland city I've ever seen. Street-level conveys this, not aerial pictures.

[BrandonTO416]

Magnificent aerial shots! I am glad you posted them.

[tocoto]

Thanks for the rendering of the waterfront project. Waterfront land is so valuable that I would imagine that the obstacles to development in Toronto will be overcome as the city contiues to grow. Boston's waterfront was a real mess and not just by the big dig but also in south and east boston. New development was making the waterfront look better before the big dig, and now after the $14B it is really starting to take off. I think reuniting the city and waterfront could have happened in Boston with far less money, and it could happen in many other places too without prohibitive amounts of money. For example, they might build on decks over portions of the rail lines. The area from the Pru to the Hancock is on a deck over the mass pike in Boston, although the big buildings are to the side of the deck on terra firma.

[G W North]

It is important to note that Toronto's current central waterfront used to be part of the lake. It is "reclaimed land" (I believe that is the term for using land to create new land). The shoreline used to be 1000+ feet inland of where it is now. This new land was created as industrial land. Since the 1970s though, it has gradually gone away from industrial towards residential, retail, and entertainment (theatres, marinas, etc.) uses.

[brinegarempire]

Bland is right..plain vanilla Toronto...No wonder it took Trump this long to get into that town..