"Toronto - World Class On My Doorstep" Toronto by tpal

Toronto Travel Guide: 4,277 reviews and 8,800 photos

Feels Like Home

If you are my age and grew up in Buffalo, New York, the city of Toronto is a very familiar place. Nowadays we think of our Canadian neighbor as that cosmopolitan international megalopolis to the north that has it all and is everything that we are not...but it wasn't always that way.

In the early 1950's, I can recall my parents talking about all the people from Toronto coming to Buffalo for the "nightlife". Apparently, there wasn't anything to do in the backwater Canadian town on the north shore of Lake Ontario. In fact, the populations of metropolitan Buffalo and metropolitan Toronto in 1950 were almost identical at about 1,100,000. Difference was we were in New York, near Niagara Falls, still on the the jazz and nightclub circuit and...the St. Lawrence Seaway Project hadn't been built yet (a whole other subject).

Well, times have changed a bit. Not necessarily for Buffalo where the area population still hovers around one million but Toronto has grown up some. Metropolitan Toronto now counts its population at over four and half million people and is recognized as one of the great cities of the world. Oh, and last time I looked, there was plenty to do on the north shore of Lake Ontario!

I imagine that over the past 40 years I have been to Toronto a hundred or so times. The greatest concentration of visits, often weekly, being during the late 60's and early 70's when the Yorkville area was Canada's answer to Haight-Ashbury. Joni Mitchell was playing at the Purple Onion and I could sit inches away from Gordon Lightfoot downstairs at the Riverboat. Today, of course, all remnants of "hippiedoom" have been replaced by toney shops and upscale condos.

Still Toronto draws us back regularly but Buffalonians rarely feel like tourists. It's more like going to Manhattan for a night on the town when you live on Long Island. As a result I've rarely brought my camera and even though I can get around Toronto without a map, I've needed to do some research to build a Virtual Tourist page. The result, therefore, is a sort of "as it happens" page that will grow over time with subsequent visits. It may be a little disjointed but hopefully it will add a little different perspective.

  • Last visit to Toronto: Apr 2005
  • Intro Updated Jul 25, 2005
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Reviews (11)

Comments (20)

  • deecat's Profile Photo
    Jan 12, 2010 at 4:37 PM

    These are, indeed, marvelous tips with excellent insights, terrific photographs, and top-notch narratives. Toronto sounds similar to Chicago! I think I would enjoy it ever so much.

  • Jim_Eliason's Profile Photo
    Nov 28, 2007 at 6:50 PM

    great tips!

  • 1courage's Profile Photo
    Feb 21, 2007 at 8:21 AM

    lol, yes, my first impression was that this is a real cathedral, than I suddenly realized that this in reality glass corridor. But very spectacular, no doubt about it.

  • HORSCHECK's Profile Photo
    Feb 25, 2006 at 7:07 AM

    Interesting page with brilliant photos. Brings back many memoriies of my week in Toronto. Keep up the good work. :o)

  • Katmosphere's Profile Photo
    Oct 4, 2005 at 2:23 PM

    Hi there :)

  • kymbanm's Profile Photo
    Oct 4, 2005 at 1:02 PM

    I wandered over here from the featured member on the VT HP :) Great meeting both of you in TO, just wish there'd been more time ... with your training, think you two can come up w/ a time machine for the next meet?

  • CdnJane's Profile Photo
    Oct 2, 2005 at 6:47 AM

    Tom and Carol, it was great meeting you in Toronto. Hope you enjoyed the VT Meeting, as we enjoyed you being there. Thanks for taking the Butterfly pics on the CN Tower.

  • spgood301's Profile Photo
    Sep 29, 2005 at 2:46 PM

    Hi Tom, it was nice meeting you & Carol in Toronto.

  • Hexepatty's Profile Photo
    Sep 27, 2005 at 5:17 AM

    Cool to know your history with Toronto goes back a bit. LOVELY meeting you both. I have a nice photo of you both in a travelogue under my TO page. HUGS! Patty

  • Karolina01's Profile Photo
    Sep 26, 2005 at 6:13 PM

    Hello Carol & Tom, it was nice meeting you in Toronto.

tpal

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