City
What annoys Torontonians the most?
The question "what annoys Torontonians the most" could easily be seen as troll-bait. And, to some minor extent, I suppose that'd be an accurate description of this little exercise. But, on the other hand, I also think posing such a question could -- perhaps oddly -- be a lot of fun.
I know what annoys me about this city, and from reading the comments on this site I sometimes think that I have a pretty decent understanding of what bothers our readers. Still, at the end of the day, it's tough to get a good sense of those annoyances that sit at the top of the heap.
Back in January, the TTC probably would have taken the cake. As we enter the final stage of the mayoral race, however, I'd have to think that many Torontonians are fed up with listening to this bunch of uninspiring candidates. Then again, there's always the Leafs -- and the general apathy of our sports franchises.
I make no claim that the poll below is comprehensive, but it does represent a shortlist of a whole slew of things that receive the ire of Torontonians. If a number of annoyances have been missed, the curmudgeon in me would be only too happy to create a second list -- even if it ultimately includes "local blogs who create lists of things that annoy Torontonians."
Photo by Tom Froese on Flickr.
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Who thinks montreal is superior? Montreal is and has been in decline for decades.
Lingua Franca is English.
My vote is for the ingrates that get Toronto tax dollars. You don't like us but you like our money?
What bothers me the most is people who complain about Toronto, but only about non-legit things like traffic, the people/rudeness, cleanliness, things that plague all big and great cities.
Long story short every place has its pros and cons.
The only thing that really annoys me I guess is the winter season/construction season cycle.
When the cleanest part of Toronto is the alleys (Because garbage trucks don't douse them with their juices), we've got a problem.
I mentioned this comment to a friend earlier and her reply was "Just wait till you live here a year." I've been here for 4 months, so we'll see.
What annoys me most about this city is pretty much every commenter on this site. You all have a strange way to hate the city you live in. Move out, it's not hard.
On the flip side, I do love how many people seem to also simply love Toronto.
God, I miss that so much.
I went there and people love to indulge about how 'artsy' and 'hip' they are.
I think "That Some People Are Trying To Kill Transit City" would have been a good option for the poll.
And both - drivers and cyclists - could use some education on the rules and consequences.
I've lived in Toronto 4 years and I can honestly say that what annoys me the most is the transportation system as a whole.
From airhead-text-messaging jaywalkers, to law-breaking cyclists, to careless cab drivers, to lone SUV drivers, to the Notorious T.T.C all the way to having to wait an hour when you're one minute late to the GO train.
Toronto isn't a special place. Tourism-wise, it's kind of dead.
The appeal of any city is its people. When those people walk carelessly onto traffic, zig-zag through traffic on their bikes they got at Uncle Jacob's, pull off dangerous maneuvers to get to their next customer, give you attitude at the subway booth two days after a price hike. You kind of start hating that city. I can hate Toronto many times a day.
Stupid broken promises.
The only way to make politicians accountable is if their bad actions cost them. No consequence = no accountability.
Where do you find it impossible to drive to?
If you mean downtown during rush hour why not park at a lot and patron the TTC your have so much hope for?
I drive almost everywhere in Toronto now except big events which typically are catered by the TTC.
I've been living away from TO for three years and I miss it very much.
I think our city needs to consider this for Tourism and PUBLIC HEALH purposes.
All day I have been hearing people complain about this city. And, NOW this post.
Really? Do we have it THAT bad?
This city rocks, and yes it is problematic and, yes, we need things to change, but we have it good in most respects.
Why not take these bullet-pointed annoyances and DO somethinga about to make our city go from Rocking! to OUT OF THIS WORLD FANTASTIC!
The non-TO-ers refer to us the Center of the Universe much more than we do.
People complain about smell but where is it?
If anything, this is my #1 complaint about living in TO. That it's somehow cool for sanitation workers to just wander off leaving a trail of filth in their wake.
What's annoying about Toronto is how much time people spend complaining about what's wrong and how little time they spend making it right or even simply celebrating the good.
Nothing is perfect, no city is without its faults and while I'm not suggesting you should be complacent with your annoyances, there are trade offs to living anywhere.
I hope BlogTO can set the tone and balance things out with a 'what do you love about Toronto post'.
I have many complaints about the TTC, but the vast majority of them are actually about the TTC customers, and it hardly seems fair to blame the TTC for that.
Where we need to improve is in making Toronto more beautiful, our architecture is mediocre at best. And anything built by the city, is absolutely horrible. Nothing the city has built in the last 80 years, can instill any sense of civic pride (OK, except our libraries - they are usually really well done). Our sidewalks are a hodge podge of new concrete, old concrete, asphalt patches, buble gum stains and cracks. Our roads are the same, the minute a road is freshly paved, someone else from the city or some utility digs a hole in it and then patches it back up. Between the streetcar wires, hydro wires and utility wires combined with the mismatched poles our city looks a bit like a rats nest when you look up.
1. Getting to the Island is awful. The docks you travel through to get to the island are a monstrosity. It looks and feels like an abattoir.
2. The restaurants and food along the Lake Shore and at the Island -- with the exception of the Island Cafe -- are appalling.
3. Getting around the city is a nightmare. There need to be more subways and more one way streets.
4. It's annoying you can't buy beer and wine at convenience and grocery stores.
5. Too many street names. It would be way easier if the streets were simply numbered as in Hamilton or New York.
6. Run down parks and public spaces, beginning with Queens Park. What a dump.
I think it is awesome that you did this exercise Derek. Very timely.
2. its up to the owners to keep theirs restaurants the way they want it. as long as it meets the health code.
3. more subways of course that would be nice. so would flying cars and a teleportation system.
4. Go back to Montreal.
5. Street name add uniqueness. If you want numbered streets, move to the west side of Toronto in Mimico.
6. Queen's Park is one of the worst parks in Toronto. Go to High Park, Trinity-Bellwoods, Tommy Thompson, Lakefront Promenade, Humber Bay, The Beaches all trump that Queen's Park which isn't really a park rather just some land with grass on it.
I'd be up for putting together a post like that. What would you nominate (and here I'm asking all readers of this comment thread)?
"The notion that Montreal is still superior?" If that were so why is Toronto filled with people from Montreal?
HUK
We also need a Mayor who is/was born & raised here who appreciates Toronto's short yet important history & gives it precedence over building a bunch of new condo dev. projects that all look the same. We need someone who remembers what the vibe was in Toronto in the 80's when Toronto was an example of what a thriving & progressive North American city should be. Not someone who will easily bend for all the rich 905'ers who sure pay a lot of taxes & invest in the city, but ultimately only have their own self interest in mind and not that of the city.
TTC is horribly run but nothing ever changes
Garbage strike every 2 years but nothing changes
Filthy sidewalks full of gum, cig butts and Tims cups but nothing ever changes
World's worst drivers but nothing ever changes
Ludicrous zoning decisions but nothing ever changes
Atrocious architecture but nothing ever changes
Pi$$ poor preservation of heritage buildings
oh I got more gimme a sec
Try riding your bike west of Spadina on Dundas the as*holes who repaved after replacing the streetcar tracks should be punched in the face for doing such a crappy job.
Can't wait for Harbord's new pavement job to be super sh itty.
NOO BEER IN CONVENICE STORES OR GROCERNY
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Why not? It would be awesome for the little guy and it would be awesome for people who like to drink beer. When it comes to buying booze we're treated like f'ing children by the government, which is somewhat ironic now isn't it.
I'm surprised there's no mention in this poll of bedbugs.
2)Narrow sidewalks downtown (not on all streets though). For example take King street west at john, the sidewalk which is barely wide enough for pedestrian traffic is reduced furthermore by restaurant's outdoor tables...
3)Cyclists on sidewalk even on narrow crowded ones.
4)no clearing of snow by the city on secondary streets (toronto needs to follow montreal's example when it comes to snow removal)
5)the overwhelming bare concrete feeling on a lot of downtown streets which makes walking outside on a sunny day unbearable. This could be improved if all businesses had awnings and there were more mature trees lining the streets and providing shade.
6)overpriced housing market and appartment rentals given the state of transit.
7)alcohol only at lcbo.
8)people who think t.o is the center of the world which to me is New York.
9)prevalence of unhealthy and out of shape people.
2. TTC website. (again, compare it to Translink in Vancouver http://www.translink.ca/)
2. that waterfront beaches are polluted and we can't swim at them.
I love our mixed income neighborhoods, our rich and fertile soil, our extreme weather, and our Toronto attitude. And diversity... in not only culture, but also passion, political opinion and taste. Toronto is not a lonely city... there is someone and something for everyone here. No matter how kinky or eclectic you are, there are people in Toronto who will welcome you with open arms and celebrate your oddities with you.
7) alcohol only at lcbo.
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What the f are you talking about there's tons of beer at the LCBO.
Did you just come out of a 20 year coma or something?
I agree that the street names should be kept. They have history attached to them, and it'd be a waste to get rid of them.
Maybe introducing some sort of block system? I know Toronto's not a perfect grid, and the blocks would be, shall we say, "creatively interpreted"... at the very least, it might be an interesting project.
1. The peeps from the West Side have a very specific accent. It's loaded with Canadian Raising but the speech is ultra soft as though they've been coached for late night talk radio or phone sex work.
2. The under 25 downtown kids has an accent very similar to the Upper East Side in New York/think Anderson Cooper. Hang around Grange Park or the Market if you wanna hear it. Canadian Raising is pretty much absent from this group.
3. Scarboro -- if you consider the suburbs part of the city -- has a hard Brooklyn Type thing going on. G's a dropped like a hot potato. And the " I " vowel is struck has hard as the " Northern Cities Raising " you associate with Buffalo, Chicago or ( God Help Us ) Sarah Palin. ( for FIRE try FA-EYE-ER vs FI-HIGH-ER )
4. The farther you move away from the core, the more you get a mishmash of Northern Cities Raising meets Inland North Dialect with the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.
5. No location, but when you hear first generation kids from Latin -- Italy, Portugal, Greek -- backgrounds, you hear an accent right out of New Jersey.
Also, have you BEEN to comparable US cities (Chicago comes to mind)? Fulla fatties. As a size 8, I was positively petite last time I was there.
Add to that the outrage if the Kingston Rd dentist or doctor doesn't serve the Scarborough community in 18 different languages.
I thought acceptance was a reciprocal type thing. My bad.
So many cities far smaller has better transit and it is time for Toronto to put more emphasis on infrastructure.
Though, I do agree that our transit infrastructure desperately needs work; public transit, roads, sidewalks and bicycle lanes, we've still got a ways to go.
As for my pet peeves, they are few. But my main peeve is that I'm sick of being held hostage at least once a year by greedy unions who insist on striking (garbage, ttc, teachers, city workers, etc). Unions served their purpose years ago but have no place in today's society. I want to see a city council who is willing to stand against them and work for the population for a change (and no, I do NOT want to see Ford as Mayor).
Someday I hope this no longer bothers me.
Let's take all of the money from people who actually work for a living and give it to the scum-bags who don't (i.e. those who voted him in).
The state of the waterfront: What you on about? The waterfront is amazing, sure it's not perfect but it's turning in to a world class neighborhood. Toronto is still younge! Most waterfronts in europe are dingy exhange hubs...
The theory that we are a city divided (east/west or city/suburb) This is something very true, the eastside is generaly full of white trash living on welfare. The suburbs are full of pretentious 2.4 family house houlds full of ginos and ginas.
The incompetence of our sports franchises: The hip said it best...
David Miller: Loved his clean sweep campaign. Has done alot better than many of his predecsors.
The TTC: aboslute shit! They are spending all the money in the wrong places. Just look at the underground in london. It's always prestine, on time and service updates are contious. They even play little quirky quotes from old scholars. I think the ttc needs an injection of youth and class.
I love Toronto and miss it dearly. You don't know what you got till it's gone. I love the city and everything about it. It's with all t hings in life, if the good outweight the bad then it's time to move on. You make your own city.
I love my City... I'll defend it till my last breath... but the biggest critics are the people that live in Toronto... but I guess the criticism helps our city in a positive way but most of the time its just an ear full of blah blah blahs.....
I was born in Toronto and have no real complaints about it. As a biker and driver, yes the traffic stinks but that's hardly a Toronto-specific problem.
A city of neighbourhoods
Thinking outside the box where "nightlife" is concerned (board game cafes, trivia nights, outdoor movie screenings, etc)
The Drake Hotel
High Park et al
Only thing I wish was different:
More cafes/restaurants/lounges open later
It happens far too often that I am waiting for a bus/ streetcar for WAY too long. I'm ok with 15 minutes wait, but 30? And then by the time the bus/streetcar comes it's packed, the 20 other people at the stop with you can barely squeeze on... it's frustrating and unfair and happens more often than not. Charge us less, at least, if this is the kind of service we are to expect.
Aside from that, I do love our city. It has a great restaurant scene, music scene, there are really spots like Kensington Market, great yoga scene, and really nice people when you get a chance to stop and talk to someone.... we are very lucky!
It's just crappy that something that is such a big part of people's lives- we rely on the TTC daily to get us around this large city of ours-- isn't running effectively for the amount of people that need it.
Way too many bike lanes
Way too many middling to crappy restaurants
Urban development without infrastructure development. You can't encourage people to live downtown and not provide a decent road and public transport system. The 2 need to be developed together. We need a proper, large subway system!
People who think Toronto is a 'world class' city. Because a large portion of the population is brown is that it? It's not worl class. End of.
People who think Parkdale is 'edgy, hip and artsy'. It's a bloody dump. They're the same people who probably think homelessness and mental people wandering around 'adds colour' to the neighbourhood.
Homelessness and mentally ill wandering around is a scourge on our city. It's certainly not healthy for them and benefits no one.
Terrible state of the roads. Hey, I'm in India! Oh wait, no I'm not. Don't give me shit about 'oh, it's because of all the snow we get' BS. I can't imagine the Germans or Scandinavians putting up with that 3rd world level or roads.
Road signage is terrible and so are the drivers. It's like bloody Driving Miss Daisy out there! Oh, and learn some lane discipline: dumdum drivers don't seem to understand that if cars drive approximately the same speed in 3 lanes back ups occur.
Torontonian's desire to be like new york city or Miami. Where did this big fat erection come from for these US cities? 'Lower East Side, Manhattan lofts, new york living, bars like Miami...' it's true and it's in nearly every description of Toronto described by people who desparately want to be cool but don't understand that by trying to turn Toronto into something it's not they end up look like stupid, vapid and boring twats and making Toronto sound like a dull, mixed up, copy-cat place. NYC is cool because it's NYC - it doesn't try and be something else. Toronto needs to form its own identity and make no excuses for what it is. Then it will be cool.
I could go on but I'm getting bored.
I've lived in LA, Montreal, Vancouver and in France. Toronto's actually pretty good. Montreal is indeed great in many ways - they really know how to appreciate life there. But Toronto has a lot of life. There's always something to do here. Vancouver is beautiful but needs some time to offer as much as Toronto.
Toronto's city hall is incompetent, sure. Garbage strike issue was pretty poor. We need someone with some vision that's not afraid to shake things up in city hall.
TTC is inefficient but by no means terrible. More subway lines would be better (airport please?). Something like the Oyster card (London) would fix a lot of issues.
The neighbourhoods are great, varied and interesting. Food, restaurants and bars. There's endless parts of Toronto to explore.
The people I find are approachable and friendly, wasn't so much the case in Vancouver, or with the cultural divide in Montreal.
Waterfront is improving.
But the congestion... it's rough. I can only imagine commuting from the burbs. Hate sitting in traffic.
Montrealers will hate you if you aren't 'arsty' or don't speak French.
Unless you're a child, ride on the goddamn road like an adult!!!