[King of Kensington]

How about Davisville/MtPleasant? i.e. the Davisville neighborhood

I know quite a few Jewish people who live there.

The WASP population there is high - but in excess of 90%? Not even close.

 

[Tewder]

This is true! Plus when you consider the fact that half of all Americans (I have no Cdn stats) live within 50 miles of where they were born, you see people's tendency to stick to the familiar.

... except in California?

I find it's very common in America to move state and go where the work or school is. Hence the massive national trip home that happens on Thanksgiving.

 

[lordmandeep]

Americans move way more across their country then Canadians do.


Just look at the airports, even small airports have daily flights to other small cities.

 

[Coltaine79]

I know quite a few Jewish people who live there.

The WASP population there is high - but in excess of 90%? Not even close.

Combination of exaggeration + combining disparate ethnic groups together for the sake of convenience. I guess I should have used the term "white".

 

[gmania]

I know quite a few Jewish people who live there.

The WASP population there is high - but in excess of 90%? Not even close.

Here's the 2006 Neighbourhood Language and Ethnicity profile for Mt. Pleasant West (an area defined as Keewatin Ave to the north, Mt. Pleasant Ave to the east, Merton to the South, and Yonge to the west).

http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf2/cpa104.pdf

28.2% of the population identifies as a visible minority.

Mt. Pleasant East is a different story with only 12.2%.

http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/2006/pdf2/cpa99.pdf

 

[King of Kensington]

Yes, Davisville is more diverse than people think.

And even in the more single-family east of Mt. Pleasant zone - there are surely a fair number of people of Catholic and Jewish backgrounds there in that 88%.

 

[adma]

^Maybe. But actually the last couple of years I've seen increasing signs of diversity. For example, Roncevalles/High Park area. Last night walking home from my gf's place I passed an old church that's been converted to a mosque on Boustead. Interestingly enough--or logically enough--there's been an increase in muslims buying houses in the surrounding area.

Actually, that mosque has existed for several decades now, and was even a Doors Open attraction for ages...

 

[Dan416]

Another thing I witness is the germination of a unique Toronto accent! Even kids whose grandparents were born here are, in some cases, speaking with purer (almost Spanish-sounding) vowels. I hear it in words like "no" (spoken as if you're from Woodbridge) and "can't" which lacks any trace of nasalness (think of someone from Ohio saying "Canada".)

I'm curious to hear more about this supposed Toronto accent. Where in the city do you teach high school that you're hearing this new Toronto accent? And how does it differ from a typical Ontario/Canadian accent?

 

[Thanos]

I dunno.

There's a big chunk of our east end where the dominant language is either Tamil or Chinese.

How well-integrated are those folks into the idea of "Canada"?

And because there's no white english people around this means that they are not well-integrated into canadian society? Great thinking buddy. I think you and Glen Beck should have a beer together.
I grew up in a neighborhood where "literally" all families were of greek origin and spoke mainly greek. By your knowledge i'm not integrated into canadian society. Gee thanks.
I'd rather have what toronto has where everyone can maintain their culture rather than what has happened in the US where everyone abandons their culture just so they can fit in.

 

[taal]

I think this sums it up ... the World is obsessed by Toronto's diversity - Toronto as a city i.e. it's citizens ... could care less and probably don't give it a second thought.
It's one of those meaningless UN stats ...

Interestingly enough, we always complain how much we care what the world thinks about us (at least on this forum, I don't find this mentality shared by the 'common' citizen), this is probably one of those things we don't really care about.

 

[Thanos]

^ I don't know if it's always been like this on this forum but too many people here spend too much time comparing toronto to other cities. However, i never hear this when i'm peeking into others conversations around the city or with friends.
I'm wondering if forums of other cities are the same way.

 

[Tewder]

And because there's no white english people around this means that they are not well-integrated into canadian society? Great thinking buddy. I think you and Glen Beck should have a beer together.
I grew up in a neighborhood where "literally" all families were of greek origin and spoke mainly greek. By your knowledge i'm not integrated into canadian society. Gee thanks.
I'd rather have what toronto has where everyone can maintain their culture rather than what has happened in the US where everyone abandons their culture just so they can fit in.

I don't think anybody is talking about 'banning' cultural diversity... and if you think that Americans 'abandon' their individual cultural heritages you are completely ignorant about America. As your own personal experience demonstrates people/communities will likely always tend to cluster according to shared linguistic/religious/ethnic background, and this is just as likely in a 'melting pot' US as in Canada, for that matter. Does this mean, however, that we should not as a bigger urban or national collectivity promote things that unite us across those cultural community differences (including the use of English)? Of course we should and of course we do. Even in the cultural 'mosaic' perception of society the tiles of diversity are cemented together with something.

 

[toraerach]

I think this sums it up ... the World is obsessed by Toronto's diversity - Toronto as a city i.e. it's citizens ... could care less and probably don't give it a second thought.
It's one of those meaningless UN stats ...

Until I had moved away from here, I wouldn't have thought much of this whole "diversity our strength" stuff. Like many who've posted in this thread, I thought of it only as something to feel good about because we have nothing else going for us really. Yet once I moved, I experienced this intense cultue shock at suddely finding myslf in an overwhelmingly white, Canadian-born, native English-speaking city (Peterborough). At the time this seemed kind of odd, as I am a white, Canadian-born, native speaker of English. I came to realize that I have more in comon culturally with any number of apparently different people from in and around Toronto than I did with apparently similar people in other parts of the country. I've come to realize that Toronto's local culture (something we all take for granted to some degree) really takes shape in the in-between spaces of diversity - in the exchanges of ideas, practices, and commodities between the many cultural groups that call Toronto home. I would say that Toronto's local culture is defined by its multiculturalism in the same way Montreal's local culture is defined by its bilingualism.

And when it comes to multiculturalism, perhaps we shouldn't think of it as something external to ourselves (as in I belong to this culture, but this person over there belongs to this other culture). We are all, to varying degrees, multicultural in the same way that people can be multilingual - we can read and decode the signs and symbols of multiple cultures with varying degrees of fluency, perhaps often without even ackowledging this consciously.

 

[King of Kensington]

Actually I do get annoyed when people insist that Toronto is the undisputed #1 capital of diversity. This alleged UN study doesn't even exist.

But it's definitely right up there and it's one of the city's best attributes.

 

[Coltaine79]

And because there's no white english people around this means that they are not well-integrated into canadian society? Great thinking buddy. I think you and Glen Beck should have a beer together.
I grew up in a neighborhood where "literally" all families were of greek origin and spoke mainly greek. By your knowledge i'm not integrated into canadian society. Gee thanks.
I'd rather have what toronto has where everyone can maintain their culture rather than what has happened in the US where everyone abandons their culture just so they can fit in.

I think you missed my point... perhaps you should read some of my earlier posts

Hint: I am a member of one of those "non-white, non-english, non-Christian" cultures, so I have a unique view into the inner-goings-on of said cultures. I'm on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from someone like Glenn Beck.

Or read Tewder's post, he gets what I'm saying but he's more optimistic/positive about the situation than I am