Who's Your City, Canada?

I need your help for the new Canadian edition of Who's Your City? I'm working on for publication in early 2009. My team and I at the Prosperity Institute are working through the data and rankings, building all sorts of tables and maps for Canada and North America. 

But what we really need are your stories.

Back in September of 2006, I asked for personal stories about your city, and recieved more than 200 responses many of which made it into the book.  Most of which were about US cities.

Now, I'd like to ask for your stories about Canadian cities Tell me about the place you live.  Why did you pick your city or region? How did you go about picking it - what was your strategy? What other kinds of places did you look at?  How has that choice affected the rest of your life?   Your job or career?  Friends, family, or romantic interests?  Fulfillment and fun?  Real estate jackpots or money pits? Would you do it differently next time? What cities and regions are on your radar  for the future and why? That's it. 100 or 200 words, on any or all of those subjects.  300-500 words could be even better. 

Send your stories to Patrick Adler at patrick.adler@rotman.utoronto.ca , or post them on the comment section of this entry, or do both.  Together, we'll build a reservoir of community knowledge that I hope can make the book as relevant as possible for Canadian readers.

Thanks all.

Comments

[rachel]

toronto is my city. while i was okay with it growing up 400kms away, it wasn't until after i moved to vancouver that i realised it was toronto i really wanted to be in.

i love that i can do just about anything in toronto. there is always a diverse selection of festivals, a daring stage production, a rocking concert, a quirky workshop, a bizarre focus group, a passionate protest, an informative lecture, a fun club night, a comfortable neighbourhood pub, and a number of ways to get to and from it all.

i was attracted to toronto because i am a natural event planner, and toronto has so much potential. from food festivals to technology events to cycling photo exhibits to hallowe'en parties, this is where it happens, and this is where i call home. when i moved here 12yrs ago i knew it was where i was meant to be, and have no regrets in my decision to move here. i don't have another city on the radar. i'm happy right here.

thanks for soliciting for stories. i look forward to reading them.
r.

[Gwen]

It's the Okanagan Valley for us -- specifically a wonderful community called Summerland. After living in Vancouver, Mountain View (California), GTA and Kingston, Ontario, I can only say that Summerland is just right. It's a smaller community with lots of spirit.

Just about everything we could ever want is here -- great alpine and cross-country skiing about 40 minutes away, sailing/swimming/boating on Lake Okanagan, fresh fruit, vegetables, wine and the list goes on.

Both my husband and I telecommute to our jobs so we can work anywhere. We use the web to connect to the larger world while staying involved in our local community.

[metro mama]

I live in Leslieville, in downtown Toronto, and I love it. My husband and I have a 3-year-old, and we believe our neighbourhood is ideal for families.

I came here (from a small town) for my career, and now I will never leave.

I wrote a few blog posts about bringing up baby in the city, here:

http://riverdalemama.blogspot.com/2006/08/toronto.html

[john trenouth]

It might be interesting to have a section in that book on people living in Canada who have spent a significant amount of time living abroad. They could do a little compare and contrast, revealing more in terms of both the good and the bad of where they utlimately chose to live.

Just a thought.

[Aralar]

I grew up in Calgary and moved to Toronto at 16 and spent well over a decade and a half in the metropolis. I fell in love with it at first site because I felt welcome. Being the most multicultural city in the world is a real treat. I love the diversity of people, sectors, and the hustle bustle vibrancy of it all. Most of the last several years I lived in Yorkville in the heart of the city and enjoyed the film festivals, easy public transit, Harbourfront and Toronto Island, and just the variety of life one can live in Toronto. Toronto is very intellectual in that Eastern way and my career has really benefited from the polished style of business there. What I enjoy most about Toronto is that its like New York but livable and still safe compared to other US cities. Its a hub so travel in and out of Canada is easy and hey, Toronto is on the map internationally. On a personal note, Toronto taught me that being colour blind was a good thing. I grew up in Calgary and being a minority was a different and far less kind experience back then. Ironically, family and roots have lured me back to Southern Alberta for now but I have left my heart in Toronto. I've decided that I do want to check out Vancouver for its West Coast lifestyle before deciding if the GTA will be home again. For now, Calgary has a bit of Toronto's cosmo flavor but for everything I was told was weird about me as a kid in Calgary ... it was embraced by Toronto the minute I got there. I believe I had to leave Toronto to love it even more as my adulthood continues :)

[Whitney Gunderson]

Don't forget to include a Jane Jacobs section, or at least a good honorable mention, in the Canadian version of Who's Your City?. I have read about her living in Toronto, and her campaign to close the street in front of her house to automobile traffic and open it up to just foot traffic strikes me as quintessential Toronto and Jane Jacobs. Jacobs won the battle to close the street, as she also did in a New York City community 30 years earlier. Of course, closing a street to automobile traffic was met with horror by traffic engineers, but eventually turned out to be highly beneficial for people and the community.

[The City Gal]

Dr. Florida,

I am so excited! This is great!

I moved to Canada at the age of 19 and for me, My City was Toronto. Having a big university in the downtown core, where I could easily integrate with different cultural groups, work to pay for school and learn more about my new country.

I will send a full version in an e-mail.

[Jason Koulouras]

Good stuff Richard, appreciate you coming out with a Canadian version.

[Wil]

A lot of Californians live in B.C., both full time and part time, you should get some interesting stories.... I'll send my story in later.

[Robert S. Porter]

I was born and raised and continue to reside in Regina, Saskatchewan. In this sense I’ve done nothing to select my city and region. In this I suppose I am like countless others who continue to reside in their birth cities due to familial ties. I did, however, leave the city for four months while I lived in Langley, British Columbia on the periphery of Vancouver. Nevertheless, I found myself drawn back my hometown for personal, climatic and geographical reasons.

What I realized in this short interlude was that my small city has much to offer. Certainly Vancouver and Toronto and other larger centers have many more options, but I still maintain that my life is not impoverished by this decision. Despite its small size, Regina offers a good number of amenities. The local theater and symphony put on excellent performances, Wascana Centre offers a first rate urban park for those so inclined and the University of Regina, despite its reputation or lack thereof, offers excellent education and research, especially considering its size.

At this point in my life—a university student—my decision to stay in Regina has been rewarding. The smaller university has allowed me to make more connections and thus opportunities for the future. Similarly, there are very few places in Canada where I would have been able to become a homeowner at age 20. The resulting boom in Saskatchewan has meant that my home doubled in value in only a year’s time. Assuming no catastrophes, these turn of events provide stable basis on which I can build my future life and career.

As for the future, very little is certain. I note with a tinge of sadness that my future will most likely be centered elsewhere. The career path that I hope to pursue almost certainly will require temporary or permanent relocation. Because I hope to become an academic historian focusing on Canadian history (with a corollary interest in urban history!), I have limited myself effectively to Canada. Likewise, academia ensures that market conditions will have a large impact upon my future places of residence.

However, while it will be sad to leave behind what I know, there is an element of excitement in my future. At this time I would love to return to someday to Regina for my career, but I also recognize the opportunities available across the country. Taking into consideration academics and culture, combined with vibrant immigrant communities, many centers across Canada are very appealing. Perhaps I’ll even end up in Toronto, the bane of Western Canada’s existence.

[I also emailed a copy of this.]

[donn]

montreal is where i call home. if you are looking to live in a place where you can pretty much walk around naked with a cat as a loin cloth and not have anyone give a crap -- then it is here. live and let live. you dont have to have cash, or status or title, just live your life how you see fit. of course a lot of the media in canada say how the govnt here is facist and is intolerable, but the govnt isnt shit. this is like an irrational place that shouldnt exist in NA, but exist it does. some french place on an island in the middle of winters not fit for much, but we live together, and at the end of the day you do what you want and that is fine, no linear thing about it needed. i think the poorer economy and loss of the more traditional finance and business sectors in the quiet revolution set up a less ambitious and less traditional value system --the conditions and values for a very laissez faire and by cdn standards chaotic lifestyle. for anyone who has ever spent any signifgant time here - there isnt no argument, this is a very distinct thing. i feel lucky to be a part of it. it dont make much sense at all. nor does it have to. and that is why it works...

[Annie]

I sent my Toronto love to Patrick's email! Can't wait to see what sort of analysis comes from the responses.

I really enjoy this blog and the new book is incredible. Keep up the great work.

[Terri Evans]

Here is an exerpt of a longer email sent to Patrick:

When I was growing up in Winnipeg, a t-shirt was made in the late 1980s or early 1990s to promote economic development and tourism for the city. It read – 100 reasons to love Winnipeg - and proceeded to rattle off reasons, some relating to cultural institutions, some to historic or heritage sites, some relating the natural environment or conservation areas. The number 1 reason was “people like me”. This t-shirt resonates with me still as like many Winnipeggers, I moved away in my early adulthood but remain connected to “my city” – not the one I live in now, Coquitlam, BC – in thought and through occasional visits. I’ve long thought that the people of Winnipeg are its greatest asset – especially for the friendly, industrious, and resourceful character that seems to pervade the Prairie culture. The west coast may have beautiful landscapes, but we Winnipeggers know that “our city” has a much richer resource.

[Gini]

I have lived in Montreal (my birth city), Vancouver, Ottawa, Nanaimo, and Victoria.
In 1970 I accompanied a group of students on a visit to Victoria from Nanaimo. It was April and the plum trees were in full blossom. I fell in love with Victoria. I remember experiencing an immediate feeling of 'having come home'. The only other place I ever felt that way was in Montreal where I was born. I have never left Victoria since that day. For the past 20 years I have lived in a rural community just thirty minutes from Victoria. I love Victoria. I love Vancouver Island. I could not imaging living anywhere else. I met my husband in Victoria. My sister, and then my parents eventually moved here as did my husband's parents. So my immediate family was here and there was no reason to want to move away. Now our parents are gone but my sister and her family are still here. My son has moved away but he is not far. Yes our extended family are farther away in Eastern Canada and some in the US but this is where I hope to stay.

[stephanie]

In my early 20's I travelled the world looking for the best place to live. With my husband, I settled in Penticton, in the Okanagan Valley in BC. We loved it, but for economic reasons, moved to the coast. Now, 20 years later, my husband is back there working, and I keep the house and the grown children in Surrey. Surrey has never felt like home, and so we chose this situation so that we could get a start on moving back to the Okanagan, without quitting both our jobs and starting out new, and also because the kids had not yet started their own lives. (ages 18, 20, 24).They are getting ready to move on, I am still trying to find work in the OK, but the disjointedness of our lives makes me question the whole situation. I think it would have been better to bite the bullet years ago, and moved and tried to make the best of it. Living where you are not happy just defeats trying to make a meaningful and productive life.

[Brandon]

I always say that I'm a minority in Toronto--I was actually born and raised in the city. But I only say that to demonstrate the incredible diversity of Toronto, which is part of the reason that it is my favourite city. While I do admit to being somewhat biased, it wasn't until I lived and worked in other cities such as Taipei, Hong Kong, Dublin and Philadelphia that I came to that realization.

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, but I started out in Waterloo, Ontario. I'm now finishing my Master's degree in Philadelphia, but I plan to come back to Toronto. Something keeps pulling me back.

That something is the confidence that I can make a great living in Toronto and eventually become a successful entrepreneur (in my chosen industry). That something is vibrant nightlife and authentic cuisine from every corner of the earth. That something is the feeling that Toronto is a fast city constantly on the move. If the global economy is consolidating itself into global cities, I want to make sure that I'm plugged-in.

[Michael Wells]

Several years ago we were driving to Lake Louise and decided to go through the Okanagan Valley. In the middle, I forget the name of the town, was a classic tourist speed trap. You drove through what seemed like the town, then back out into the country (but you were still apparently in town) and traffic speeded up to maybe 50 (mph). A couple of miles down the road the police were waving everybody into a big parking lot and giving them $60 tickets.

Since then we've stuck to the freeways in that part of rural Canada. It's a shame because it's lovely country but not worth it.

[Whitney Gunderson]

I don't think your story is going to make it in the book, Michael. But it made me laugh. It might have a better chance if you didn't forget the name of the town you were talking ab-oot.

[Wendy]

I responded to the original request on my blog:
http://allaboutcities.ca/how-i-picked-vancouver/

Here's the start...

I’m one of the few people you meet in Vancouver who was born here. Growing up, spending time in the forests, mountains and on the beaches near Vancouver became integral to my life, as did going places by bus and bicycle.

Then I went to the US to attend grad school and pursue an academic career...

[Wendy]

Michael - where did you find a freeway in the Okanagan?

[Kim Siever]

Lethbridge is my city. I grew up in Regina. My parents moved me to Vancouver when I was 16. I didn't want to leave my friends, and it wasn't long before I missed the Prairies. After 9 years, I was married, and my wife and I grew tired of the 2-hour daily commutes, the crime, the cost of living, the pollution, and everything else that came with the big city.

We looked at Regina and St. John's, but things just never materialized for either place. We then considered Cardston, Alberta, so we could be in an area where there was a larger concentration of fellow Mormons.

I was going to school at Douglas College at the time, so I applied to transfer to the University of Lethbridge and was accepted. When the transmission on our car broke, we decided to move to Lethbridge instead and get a place on campus so I could walk to school.

We've been here 10 years. In that time, we've discovered a few things we like about Lethbridge.

1. There are fewer Mormons than there are in Cardston.
2. The $75,000 house we bought downtown two years ago has more than doubled in price.
3. The homicide rate is 0.5/year.
4. It takes 10 minutes to drive from our house to anywhere in the city.
5. I can walk to work in under an hour.
6. Cultural events downtown are more accessible than they were in Vancouver.
7. The weather changes
8. Mild winters
9. Mild summers
10. Kayaking on the Old Man River