Toronto: A Beta City
Below a debate is raging. Torontonians don't like their city dissed - some people take it personally.
I have to admit that we Torontonians have a gross inferiority complex. Don't deny it. We like to think that we're a premier world class city, but we are plagued by the reality that it's really not. Even Montreal has a higher profile than us.
The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) did a ranking on world cities, and their rankings were as follows:
Alpha Cities
* 12 points: London, New York, Paris, Tokyo
* 10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore
Beta Cities
* 9 points: San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zürich
* 8 points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo
* 7 points: Moscow, Seoul, Taipei
What does it take to be a world class city? I think the biggest factors are economics, numbers, history and culture.
So what's Toronto's problem, and how can Hogtown move up to the ranks of the Alpha giants? A giant antenna/lightning rod and a sports stadium with a retractable roof does not maketh.
On the world scale, Toronto is a mid-sized city. The premier cities - New York, London, Paris and Tokyo - all have populations 10+ million. Toronto's is barely half that. So it would seem that T.O. lacks the population base. However, numbers alone do not make a world city. Lagos and Dhaka have populations nearly in the scores of millions, yet no one would consider rank them among the ranks of the premier world class cities.
Toronto is a salad bowl, a hodge-podge of cultures but lacking in history and, consequently, identity. But before Trudeau, Toronto was a stale, dour, conservative Anglo-Saxon town. It's an entirely different place today. But diversity alone does not make a great city - Tokyo is about as homogeneous as it gets, and it's a top-tier Alpha metropolis.
Toronto also suffers from being in close proximity to several alpha urban centres - New York & Chicago primarily. Then again, London is as far apart from Paris is New York is to Toronto, but London and Paris are culturally many miles apart, and both cities have rich histories that span several centuries. Unfortunately, Canada is perceived in many ways as America Lite, and Toronto is very much an American city minus the violence.
Can Toronto catch up to New York and reach the alpha ranks? New York has had a 200 year head start. New York is also romanticized - about every third Hollywood movie is set in NYC (though ironically Toronto often substitutes for New York in many movies today).
I think Toronto is a great city - clean, safe, prosperous, cosmopolitan - but is in many ways handicapped by circumstances out of its control from becoming a city on the Alpha scale. However, I do believe that, given sound leadership, Toronto will join the Alpha ranks within my lifetime.
I have to admit that we Torontonians have a gross inferiority complex. Don't deny it. We like to think that we're a premier world class city, but we are plagued by the reality that it's really not. Even Montreal has a higher profile than us.
The Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC) did a ranking on world cities, and their rankings were as follows:
Alpha Cities
* 12 points: London, New York, Paris, Tokyo
* 10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore
Beta Cities
* 9 points: San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zürich
* 8 points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo
* 7 points: Moscow, Seoul, Taipei
What does it take to be a world class city? I think the biggest factors are economics, numbers, history and culture.
So what's Toronto's problem, and how can Hogtown move up to the ranks of the Alpha giants? A giant antenna/lightning rod and a sports stadium with a retractable roof does not maketh.
On the world scale, Toronto is a mid-sized city. The premier cities - New York, London, Paris and Tokyo - all have populations 10+ million. Toronto's is barely half that. So it would seem that T.O. lacks the population base. However, numbers alone do not make a world city. Lagos and Dhaka have populations nearly in the scores of millions, yet no one would consider rank them among the ranks of the premier world class cities.
Toronto is a salad bowl, a hodge-podge of cultures but lacking in history and, consequently, identity. But before Trudeau, Toronto was a stale, dour, conservative Anglo-Saxon town. It's an entirely different place today. But diversity alone does not make a great city - Tokyo is about as homogeneous as it gets, and it's a top-tier Alpha metropolis.
Toronto also suffers from being in close proximity to several alpha urban centres - New York & Chicago primarily. Then again, London is as far apart from Paris is New York is to Toronto, but London and Paris are culturally many miles apart, and both cities have rich histories that span several centuries. Unfortunately, Canada is perceived in many ways as America Lite, and Toronto is very much an American city minus the violence.
Can Toronto catch up to New York and reach the alpha ranks? New York has had a 200 year head start. New York is also romanticized - about every third Hollywood movie is set in NYC (though ironically Toronto often substitutes for New York in many movies today).
I think Toronto is a great city - clean, safe, prosperous, cosmopolitan - but is in many ways handicapped by circumstances out of its control from becoming a city on the Alpha scale. However, I do believe that, given sound leadership, Toronto will join the Alpha ranks within my lifetime.
posted by Sen | 8/02/2006 05:21:00 PM
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7 comments
7 Comments:
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Anonymous
theres no need for that kind of language gentle sir. i was just joking...take it easy.
8/02/2006 07:35:00 PM-
Anonymous
Hey y'all!
8/04/2006 01:00:00 PMThis ranking, Sen, is, as I think, pretty funny and kind of useless if you try to find out what the problems of Toronto are, comparing it to "Alpha"-Cities. I've never been to Toronto but I've seen Frankfurt a couple of times and compared to the pictures I saw of Toronto Frankfurt is nothing more but a grey block of stone with some good industry and one of the largest airports.
Apart from that Frankfurt is by far smaller than Toronto.
And there's something I really do miss: Can give a brief summary of what you think are the main problems of Toronto?
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Sen
Toronto's main shortcomings:
8/04/2006 03:58:00 PM- lack of international profile
- lack of a defining culture
- lack of people/economic clout on a global scale
Interesting that you bring up Frankfurt. I think Frankfurt is Alpha because Frankfurt's stock exchange is one of the world's largest and because it's the financial HQ of the largest economy in Europe, and it's host to a major international airport.
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Anonymous
Let's stick to the Frankfurt-Toronto-Example:
8/05/2006 06:04:00 AM- lack of international profile:
What exactly is an international profile? Is it the "world"-publicity of a city? Both, Frankfurt and Toronto, are absolutely well known around the globe. And you're probably right: It's assumably the economic arguments that make Frankfurt an "Alpha City" and still it would be interesting to find out if Frankfurts economic potential is, relativ to it's size, higher than that of Toronto. I do doubt that.
But apart from that, in my opinion it's relatively inapproriate to measure the "value" of a city only by economic factors which brings us to your second point:
- lack of defining culture
Why has Toronto a lack of defining culture? Is it because of it's multinational lineaments? Most german cities, especially the big ones (like Frankfurt, can be charakterized by the diverse nationality which is due to the fact that germany has become a pretty strong immigration country. Still Frankfurt has no problem with defining it's german roots or culture. Maybe the problems you see concerning this point are none, but you have chosen a wrong focus when looking at Toronto. The first question that one has to ask before starting to argument is: What is the culture that has to be defined? Then follows: Is it even possible to define THE culture? Can it be distinguished by nationalities? Or is it maybe this diversity of nationalities and cultures that forms the definition of culture you're looking for?
You're last argument is quite difficult to understand exactly. Lack of people on a global scale? Do you mean celebrities? Concerning the economic clout ... are you sure? How do you define economic clout on a global scale? The USA and oil-countries, they have an strong economic clout on a global scale ... but apart from that there are hardly many countries that have such a noticeable clout. Neither in Europe nor elsewhere. Or am I wrong?
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Anonymous
I dont think we want Toronto to be an Alpha city. If it is for size, what matters is quality, not quantity. (Says somebody who was born and raised in Mexico city... with 25 million human beings cramped together).
5/09/2007 04:53:00 PMPlus, all those cities like LA, Chicago.. how many social problems they dont have? Movies like Crash, any from the NY low neighbourhoods, I am sure they dont take that in account when they rank the cities. I know, Toronto has Jane St north, but if that is it, we are cool with Toronto.
A lot of celebrities visit and even own property in Toronto: movie stars, sport celebs, intellectual, art, smart people, everybody says how much they love coming to Toronto either for work or pleasure.
Plus... I have many other points, but I am only going to write about one more: People in Frankfurt sorry (no ofense really) but my exboyfriend got some kids throwing him garbage for being not-german when studying one term there, Paris and their ethnic riots, London with the subway being bombed... you are right, Toronto is a salad, but that is its own very charm, because around the world countries are fighting against their own people, and in Toronto -almost- everybody live in respect and peace.
At least for me that makes it way better city to live than Chicago, LA, Paris, or any other around the world (sad to say it, but even my own home-city)
Oh... and I dont even live there!
Smiley: I know, the Leafs are there... but no city can be perfect :(
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Charles Starks
I have come to think of Toronto as a slightly larger version of Philadelphia without the crime. Toronto is comfortable and has a good quality of life. It is by no means a major world city, nor is it in any danger of becoming one, because it is in a small country, Canada, that is itself merely a collection of regions, largely independent of each other. Ultimately, Toronto is little more than the capital of Ontario.
10/26/2007 10:42:00 PMAnd there's nothing wrong with that. But stop comparing Toronto to New York, London, etc. It's never going to touch those places.
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Anonymous
I know this is so old, but I just read it and I got to say I completely agree with the original post.
2/19/2009 02:29:00 AMDon't get me wrong, I think Toronto is a good place to live, but it is not alpha because it lacks international profile and economic power/money on a global level. Sure many people around the world may have heard of Toronto, but they probably don't know much about it besides its name.
And "germany has become a pretty strong immigration country"? Really? I don't mean to be offensive to Germans, but in general people in Germany are not very friendly to immigrants and foreigners!
Plus you can't compare a city with another just from pictures, pictures often show a biased view.
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