1 week Ago By [email protected] (Ben Cohen)
Just as a smoker can lose sense of how much they stink, Torontonians may not be aware of how their city comes across to visitors. Do strangers scoff at our simple subway setup, prolific pot parlours and constant construction? Not necessarily. After an afternoon of speaking with some of them, the Star discovered that Toronto may actually be taking its virtues for granted.
As it turns out, while we spent months complaining about the traffic, the transit, the heat and the rain, people from around the world planned trips to Toronto. . Chatting with people in line for the CN Tower is hardly a scientific survey, but their perspectives on the city encouraging.
Seen through their eyes, Toronto seemed much larger, brighter, cleaner and safer — though there were some critiques. Visitors were asked: What do you like about Toronto? What do you not like? What’s something you have back home that we’re missing? The Toronto Star hit the streets to find out what visitors think of the city. What to they like? What do they dislike? What from home would they like to see Toronto adopt? What does Toronto have that they would like to see at home? Many visitors appreciated Toronto’s safety, diversity and the friendliness of its people.
“The people, it’s mixed, eclectic gathering of a lot of different ethnicities,” said Ben Than Soe, visiting from Boston. Aying Gardaer, who grew up in Hong Kong but now lives in the U.K.
, echoed this sentiment. “Everybody’s so different, everybody’s so friendly, and nobody’s judging.” Berlin’s Lucas Pearson loved the safety of Toronto, especially at night.
“Berlin is very dangerous at night,” he said. “Where I’m staying, I feel safe. We go for walks at 12 o’clock, one in the morning and nothing happens.
” Statistics back this up; Toronto is the sixth safest major city in the world, , and the safest in North America. Aying Gardaer, visiting from the U.K.
, stops by City Hall. She cites traffic as her main dislike about the city. “The driving is aggressive.
” These findings might feel at odds for some. Polling over the years has repeatedly shown that Canadians are perhaps more afraid of crime and violence than they ought to be, particularly when it comes to perceptions of Toronto. A found that 52 per cent of Canadians think Toronto is unsafe.
A reported 65 per cent of Canadians believe crime and violence have gotten worse. Looking at crime statistics, then and now, would have one draw the opposite conclusions. With the notable exception of Daviender Bakshia, who said traffic in Toronto didn’t bother him because it was “almost the same” as it is back home in Delhi, most tourists agreed driving in Toronto is awful.
“The driving is aggressive and it makes me scared,” said Gardaer. “It’s dangerous. In the U.
K., they give you the way: they’re polite.” She said she finds she’s stuck in traffic a lot here, too, but that’s to be expected.
. Global data from GPS company TomTom last year showed London, England, was the only city significantly worse off than Toronto in this regard. Daviender Bakshia, is visiting from Delhi, India.
When asked what about Toronto he likes, he praised the city’s air quality. Contrary to Bakshia’s observation, Delhi was much better off than Toronto, ranking 44th worst on the list. Visitors from more naturally beautiful places felt Toronto lacked green space.
Irish visitors missed the lush fields of the Emerald Isle. South American tourists felt cut off from nature. Khemchan Persaud of Guyana suggested Toronto invest more in promoting nature walks.
“In Guyana, we have lots of bird watching, we have the forests, we have the savannahs.” According to the World Cities Culture Forum, among its members, with only 13 per cent of the city being green. Oslo, by contrast, is 68 per cent parks and gardens.
This is only getting worse. . Advocates warn this trend is damaging our health.
A says even just looking at green spaces has been “repeatedly demonstrated” to reduce anxiety, reduce stress, shorten hospital stays, lower heart rates and increase directed attention. Some visitors noticed the proliferation of cannabis stores. Pedro from Portugal, who declined to give his last name and had visited 12 years ago, observed: “We found a lot of things closed and kind of abandoned.
But we walked three kilometres to our hotel and we saw a lot of marijuana stores.” Toronto has 380 authorized cannabis stores, more than double the number from 2021. For reference, there are .
When asked how Toronto could improve, Khemchan Persaud from Guyana, suggested investing more in nature walks. Everyone who participated in the Star’s informal tourist survey praised Toronto’s cleanliness, except Dubliner Lena Walsh, who saw “a lot of trash everywhere.” Despite this, Walsh was enthralled by Toronto, noting the sheer size of its buildings.
“The buildings are massive,” she said. “I’ve never been in a place as big.” Dickey and Shirley Hamilton from Jamaica want to return in the winter to experience snow.
“I’ve never seen snow,” Dickey said. Even the CN Tower, though no longer the tallest building in the world, still commands an audience. This was evidenced by the lengthy queue the Star observed when it visited on a random Tuesday morning this month.
But even if the tower toppled tomorrow, Toronto could still count itself among the most vertical cities around. It ranked 18th globally for buildings taller than 150 metres and 20th for those taller than 200 metres. Visitors including Boston’s Than Soe praised Toronto’s mild summer weather.
He may have felt differently had he experienced Toronto’s severe summer storms, which caused $1 billion in damage, or recent flooding in the northwest GTA. Shirley and Dickey Hamilton from Jamaica were enjoying their visit this summer, but they want to return in the winter to experience snow. “I’ve never seen snow,” Dickey said.
Not everyone felt so warmly about the cold. According to Brazilians Bruno and Kelly Joia, there’s little difference in temperature between summer in Toronto and winter back home. Asked if they were enjoying the weather here, they replied with an emphatic “No!” Even though due to wildfire smoke, some still find the air here easier to breathe.
Bakshia of Delhi praised Toronto’s air quality compared to Delhi’s severe pollution. Some visitors have noted the rise in cannabis stores. Pedro from Portugal, who did not share his last name and last visited 12 years ago, remarked, “We found a lot of things closed and kind of abandoned.
But we walked three kilometers to our hotel and saw many marijuana stores.” Overall, , according to global air quality tracker IQAir. To combat it, this year, setting up stations where people can come in and breathe filtered air.
Visiting a new city offers a fresh perspective. Despite its flaws, it turns out that Toronto impresses many visitors..
