Adjei
Senior Member
The non-existence of a Toronto museum speaks to the problem here; the average person has little concern for how Toronto is viewed by other people in the world. Most people just want a nice life for themselves, and aren't willing to pay for showpieces that confer no tangible benefit to people who live here. There's little civic pride or desire to promote the city as a tourist destination, so we end up with a shabby public realm and few major draws for outsiders. Most people don't think that the city is particularly unique or has a history worth celebrating.
In contrast, tourism is a large part of the economy in other cities like London, Paris or NYC so they have a more direct interest in spending money on the public realm and cultural institutions. Tourism is Toronto is increasing, but it's not at the point where the average resident recognizes the value in spending money to attract more visitors.
Well said. With other cities they make sure that the places where tourists go are well kept and maintained but in Toronto we leave it looking shabby like the rest of the city. Take a look at New York because they know must tourists are coming to Manhattan, they make sure the place is well maintained and the public realm is excellent for the most part. This is not the same as in the Bronx, Queens and other boroughs but how many tourists are actually there. In Toronto we leave our prime locations looking run down and shabby. You are correct that the average person has little concern of how Toronto is viewed by others in the world. This also goes to the politicians here too. Since they know people don't care, it's of no concern to them. If people gave a damn about how the city looked, you would be sure they would be willing to change it. There's enough money here to fix it. We just need the will. As for civic pride, I find that its improving and you have the likes of Drake promoting the city every chance you get and now we see more youth who are identifying with the city and being proud of being here. It's getting better than before. I think it would also help promote this city more if we had some sort of city branding. I was in Amsterdam recently and all over the city you have all these "iamsterdam" signs all over the place from the airport to the different sites around the city. I thought it was quite unique and something like that would work here.