"Why did the Torontonian cross the road?"
"To avoid having to talk to an acquaintance."
I haven't lived in TO year-round for a very long time, though I'm back several times a year to visit family and friends (and obviously keep close tabs on goings-on or I wouldn't be on this site). I moved to St John's a year ago for work, and before that lived in south end Halifax for 5 years (previously did much of my growing up in the Valley...). It always strikes me in TO how people often seem socialized to avoid contact or interactions with strangers, to the point of unfriendliness. I don't know that this is inherent to big cities, and TO is actually friendlier at the microcosm than the likes of Vancouver.
On the other hand, if St John's is friendlier, it's far more parochial and even insular. A lot of Nova Scotia is similar (to "CFAs") but Halifax is a remarkably open and pleasant place to live. Most of my life revolved around walking from place to place on the Peninsula or, more recently, taking the Woodside ferry. It's rare in North America to have a city so compact and walkable, to the point that using transit isn't even all that necessary at times. When I'm in Toronto, it's easy enough to get around downtown on foot, but trying to get around on the TTC near, say, Wilson and Bathurst is something of a nightmare. Routes are unreliable, and the car-oriented development means that essential stores and services can be a long walk away. Downtown/midtown is better, but there remains far too much mono-residential development.
So if I were to complain, it would mainly be about the built form of the post-war suburbs. The
I'm pretty sure TheTigerMaster meant the Eglinton LRT...