^ Exactly.

And considering the economics of building a super tall I doubt many developers really care about going that high even if they could.

NYC has five 1,000 footers underway on 57th street alone.
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And this is Toronto where penthouse units don't sell for $90 million US like one did at the One57 building. They can afford to build tall because they have customers for high priced units. Not the same here.
 
When speaking of New York, you really mean Manhattan. I may be wrong, but I doubt that in ten years Toronto will have vaulted to being the top financial centre on the planet like New York city with a population of eight-and-half million people.
 
Just got back from 3 days in New York. They're building a lot. It's more buzzy than ever. I'd say toronto will never catch up with NYC. Lets stop that.
 
I'd rather Toronto was Toronto and New York was New York
 
argus said:
When speaking of New York, you really mean Manhattan. I may be wrong, but I doubt that in ten years Toronto will have vaulted to being the top financial centre on the planet like New York city with a population of eight-and-half million people.
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yes. I don't know why we often bring up NYC as if it is a comparable city. It is not and never was. It is more than 3X our size, the world's very financial centre, the place where world's super rich like to park their money. Toronto is a regional financial hub, the largest city of a relatively small country and is definitely not on the radar of the world's super elite and rich. Having a property on Park or Madison ave is a symbol of status. Having a condo anywhere in Toronto is not.

by world stardard, NYC is a mega world city and Toronto is a medium-sized North American city. It is not fair to compare.
 
ksun said:
yes. I don't know why we often bring up NYC as if it is a comparable city. It is not and never was. It is more than 3X our size, the world's very financial centre, the place where world's super rich like to park their money. Toronto is a regional financial hub, the largest city of a relatively small country and is definitely not on the radar of the world's super elite and rich. Having a property on Park or Madison ave is a symbol of status. Having a condo anywhere in Toronto is not.

by world stardard, NYC is a mega world city and Toronto is a medium-sized North American city. It is not fair to compare.
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Or fourth largest but yeah, sure, 'medium-sized' by "world stardards."
 
I've brought up NY is because its touted as a place where its impossible to build. For example if I say something to the effect, lets approve M&G, someone will say 'look at NY they dont allow anything heritage-ish to get knocked down without endless consultations, and they are a sophisticated model that knows how to manage density etc, etc.'

But in fact there are five 1,000 footers planned for 57th street alone.

No-one is saying Toronto should be NY, and no-one is saying Toronto shouldn't be Toronto.
 
I don't want to derail the thread, but I always want to comment that, while Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America given the legal city-limits, I think that metro regions are a better point of comparison.

For that, Mexico City (25 million), NYC (23 million) and LA (18 million) are on a totally different level than the rest. However, the city boundary as we measure it doesn't capture the story well enough, since a city like San Francisco has only 700,000 people but the Bay Area has 9 million.

Chicago, at close to 10 Million in the combined statistical area, is the best comparable city in my opinion. Even though it is a bit larger, because it is flat, on the lake, has a similar financial footprint, and a dense core with sprawling suburbs it seems the most apt. Toronto should reach Chicagoland population in the next few decades given the growth pattern of the GTHA (which is only 7 million).

Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta and Miami all have similar combined statistical area populations to Toronto. Check this list on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Combined_Statistical_Areas

Comparative analysis with all these cities is interesting to me - but NYC, LA, and Mexico city, not as much, as their vastness just doesn't jive with Toronto. While Toronto is growing at a healthy rate, there are many cities that have similar metro footprints to Toronto in North America at this time.
 
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Why do we always have to bring up NYC? As was already said, we are not now, nor shall we ever be, NYC, and what's wrong with that?. So many people speak with such disdain for our fair city, when, in fact, I consider myself lucky to live here, especially now that we're going through such rapid development. It's a very unique point in our history, we should all, as skyscraper fanatics, be happy to be witness to such unprecedented growth. Would I love to see a super tall built?, most definitely! Will one be built? Of that I have absolutely no doubt, it's simply a question of when. It may be in 10 years, might be in 50 years, but until then, we have plenty to keep us talking and clicking shutters for decades to come, so, let's just enjoy what we have (which is, in many circles,the envy of the architectural world), and let the future happen as it will...that's just my two cents, but what do I know? :cool:
 
What I don't get is why it bugs some people that we might not compare "favourably" against New York in some ways.

Who cares?! We can learn things from comparisons, if there's enough research behind it.

Where it's a waste of time is when people make quick judgements based on too few variables, bad data, etc. Problem is most people are too lazy to take the time needed to build good arguments.

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agoraflaneur said:
I don't want to derail the thread, but I always want to comment that, while Toronto is the fourth largest city in North America given the legal city-limits, I think that metro regions are a better point of comparison.

For that, Mexico City (25 million), NYC (23 million) and LA (18 million) are on a totally different level than the rest. However, the city boundary as we measure it doesn't capture the story well enough, since a city like San Francisco has only 700,000 people but the Bay Area has 9 million.

Chicago, at close to 10 Million in the combined statistical area, is the best comparable city in my opinion. Even though it is a bit larger, because it is flat, on the lake, has a similar financial footprint, and a dense core with sprawling suburbs it seems the most apt. Toronto should reach Chicagoland population in the next few decades given the growth pattern of the GTHA (which is only 7 million).

Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta and Miami all have similar combined statistical area populations to Toronto. Check this list on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Combined_Statistical_Areas

Comparative analysis with all these cities is interesting to me - but NYC, LA, and Mexico city, not as much, as their vastness just doesn't jive with Toronto. While Toronto is growing at a healthy rate, there are many cities that have similar metro footprints to Toronto in North America at this time.
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Yes municipal boundaries aren't necessarily accurate. If we had not amalgamated with North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, East York & York, then "Toronto" as a city would be much smaller. It is much more reasonable to look at urban area population (which we're at about 6 million).

I agree with ksun that we are a "medium" city, maybe medium-large by North American standards and agree with everything agoraflaneur has said. We are similar to Boston & Washington DC, a significantly big city but not one of the largest in North America like NYC or LA. We are also very fast-growing however.

Hanlansboy said:
Why do we always have to bring up NYC? As was already said, we are not now, nor shall we ever be, NYC, and what's wrong with that?. So many people speak with such disdain for our fair city, when, in fact, I consider myself lucky to live here, especially now that we're going through such rapid development. It's a very unique point in our history, we should all, as skyscraper fanatics, be happy to be witness to such unprecedented growth. Would I love to see a super tall built?, most definitely! Will one be built? Of that I have absolutely no doubt, it's simply a question of when. It may be in 10 years, might be in 50 years, but until then, we have plenty to keep us talking and clicking shutters for decades to come, so, let's just enjoy what we have (which is, in many circles,the envy of the architectural world), and let the future happen as it will...that's just my two cents, but what do I know? :cool:
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I agree, we will never by NYC or any other city, and that's totally fine with me, I like our city and what it is becoming. This is a great place to live, especially if you enjoy living in a rapidly-growing & changing place with lots of construction & development activity :).

I was floored by how much construction I saw around the King West area last time I walked around there.
 
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