http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/8903/rimg01722vi.jpg

Wouldn't you agree that this looks like Vancouver - without the rockies?

The Rockies???, i think you mean the Coastal Mountain range. It looks a Bit like Vancouver except Vancouver does not have those "tram tracks"

The Rockies are about 800 k away from Vancouver ;)

addisonwesley... i must say, you produce lovely textbooks =)

^Too bad he doesn't read them!

jk

Ya, thats the first thing I thought.

I thought it was Toronto! I can see where you are trying to go with this though. IMO Canadian cities do look similar to each other. Don't get me wrong im not saying they are the same but they are all im the same country!

Its too cold to be Vancouver. The sidewalks are too narrow and there are no trees on them.

buildings are too wide

I think maybe the gloomy weather looks like Vancouver.

The road in the middle is too spacious. Where are the townhouses at streetlevel? Doesn't feel like Vancouver's downtown.

Also, there's not supposed to be a LRT stop in the middle of the road. And the styles look a bit too variant to be Vancouver. ;) Some of it would never be approved by the Urban Design Panel.

Queens Quay looks much better than 10 years ago though, even if the street itself isn't particulary pedestrian friendly or exciting.

He may have an ulterior motive for posting this thread:

Before any Vancouver forumer criticized Toronto in the Toronto vs. Los Angeles thread, this was posted by addisonwesley:

In response to "If you took away 5 of Toronto's tallest buildings then there would be a noticable void in the look of the skyline": You'd have to take that office space and spread it out in shorter office buildings (around, say 30 stories?). In the end, you'd probably get a long wall than Vancouver. Remember that the Old City of Toronto's density was 7000/km2, Before amalgamation Toronto was second in North America.
(I guess lower density is what they get for amalgamation)

And do you damned Vancouver people even know Toronto is situated along a lake?! There's sailing here. I mean, it's not as the you can see across the lake to NY state so you don't have to worry about lack of sailing space. The only difference I can imagine would be in the weather and scenery (in terms of sailing enjoyability).

When it comes to nightlife, you can't compare Vancouver to Toronto (I'm leaving out Montreal, which I think would probably beat both). There are some 200 clubs in the entertainment district (from CBC), and Toronto is the third largest theatre centre in the English world after New York and London, respectively. I do think that LOTR theatre thing is pretty gay though (not in the homosexual sense).
http://www.thedistrict.ca/ <---being THE district and all.

The cookie cutter statement about Vancouver's new condos is quite true from what I've seen. And what's worse is that concord developer brought it here. Those buildings truly have no character at all. They do compliment the waterfront and mountains though (with their lack of character..ahahaha..). I think those will be the trademark buildings of Vanouver though - they really work well in that location.

Don't forget that Toronto is the financial heart of Canada, the english-media capital of Canada, and the most ethincally diverse city in the world! :D. People from asia only move to Vanouver because it's close. Even then - immigrants from Asia that do move to Canada settle in Toronto even though it's some 3000 miles farther, not Vancouver.

Anyway...Toronto is on the rise again. I think the west just go lucky because we had SARS (which I must say, really sucked) and the conservative provincial government. There's talk of a new 80 storey or so office building in the financial district and the number of renters in the downtown core and financial district are increasing. The ammendments to the City of Toronto Act 1997 which will give the city more power will be released in the autumn. Still - the city is short one billion dollars (which I do believe that is part of the 23 billion shortfall Ontario is facing becaue the province has to subsidize the other provinces). Ahaha, Vancouver wouldn't know how to handle such a debt let alone recover.

In the end, Vanouver just has a pretty location. Toronto has urban beauty [http://wvs.topleftpixel.com/archives.html] (not saying everything in the city is nice to look at) and better historical architecture:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2991/58nv.jpg

How many times has this argument been argued on internet forums?

Toronto vs. Los Angeles thread
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=231925&page=5

I don't understand why there has to be some much arguement about who is better then who? Every city is great as well every city has some aspects that are less great. We should be celebrating the diversity and beauty or our Canadian cities not arguing about which city is better.

And of course his rant on Vancouver vs. Toronto:

Toronto has urban beauty.
Vancouver has natural beauty.

In the end though, what would Vancouver do without its mountains? Without them, all they really have is some REALLY clean air and the pacific. Then again, it's not as though one would swim the entire pacific - it's just a really large body of water. Looking out on the lake at Queens Quay Toronto, you wouldn't be able to tell if you were on the pacific or lake Ontario now would you? Toronto on the other hand has built itself up. It didn't become popular and powerful because it has a pretty view. Really though, Vancouver has nothing without its view.

And for Christ's sake, considering Concord Pacific (or whatever the hell it's called) is developing CityPlace, obviously the major aesthetic elements are going to be the same. Toronto isn't copying Vanouver, it was the Vancouver developer that went to Toronto. Not to mention, Toronto has much better historical architecture than Vancouver.

Don't you little Vancouverites worry yourselves though, Toronto is back on the rise after the SARS crisis/incident/outbreak (lol, ahem). Empty office space in the downtown core is dropping and talk of a new 'mega' office tower are going around. But that's just talk; Toronto is getting an opera house, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (is that good?) and The Ritz (hopefully Trump Tower Toronto will be built as well). The City of Toronto Act 1997 will be ammended so that the city will have more powers, and the TTC is finally getting a little help from the government (even though 90% of revenue comes from ridership, as opposed to the 40% GVRT gets from its riders). And, as I always mention, perhaps if the city weren't short one billion dollars per annum because of the 'have not' provinces like BC, then maybe the city would have got back on its feet sooner. Maybe Ontario will get lucky like Alberta and find oil, or take a hint from Quebec and just blackmail the feds.

In the end, I think Vancouver does nicely for a tourist city, but if you want to live in one of the safest and most economically powerful cities in Canada, you'd have to choose Toronto. And the office towers in Toronto do represent economic and financial might. Duh, that's why Toronto IS the financial heart and english media capital of Canada.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=4697633#post4697633

Okay, I dont know what you are trying to start RT but it has to stop.

That isnt Vancouver it looks nothing like it. That pic looks like some gloomy and dirty. It almost looks like Hong Kong only with shorter buildings and less street life.

What city is that?

I don't understand why there has to be some much arguement about who is better then who? Every city is great as well every city has some aspects that are less great. We should be celebrating the diversity and beauty or our Canadian cities not arguing about which city is better.

Wow you took the words out of my mouth, Canadians should support Canadian cities, thats why i hate Canadian Cities VS Canadian Cites in the City VS City forums. BTW why is there so much animosity between Toronto and Vancouver on this site? I have always loved Vancouver and never realized how much some of the people dont get along before i joined this site.

Lots of those new condos downtown look like they were taken right out of Vancouver, don't they? I think that in some areas, you wouldn't be able to tell if you were in Vancouver or Toronto.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8034/thefatty0jo.jpg

Lets leave arguing T. vs. V. in the T. vs. V. forums, shall we?

A tad too big then? Sorry. I posted a really large picture.

And of course his rant on Vancouver vs. Toronto:



http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=4697633#post4697633


:hilarious Thanks for the laughs, i havent laughed like that for a long time, although i havent seen this guy here until now.

Yes that second photo does look alot like Vancouver.

But I expect that in the future more canadian cities will be getting these floor to ceiling glass structures. Perhaps someday this will be typical of canadian architecture and not just Vancouver.

I thought the first pic was in Shanghai or elsewhere in China - it looks gloomy and dirty - and no trees.

The second pic looks like Vancouver except for no mountains and less density in behind it.

Hmm, I was lead to believe that it often rains in Vancouver, hence gloomy weather. Perhaps a picture without a street.

Hmm, I was lead to believe that it often rains in Vancouver, hence gloomy weather. Perhaps a picture without a street.


Common stereotypes. The past few years have been quite mild in the late spring and for the whole summer.....and quite warm as well. It has just been this summer that has been a little gloomy.

A good deal of Toronto waterfront could pass for Vancouver or something similar...KGB's pics

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4619/pict36629fc.jpg

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7523/pict36665fc.jpg


The street in the pick that started the thread...not really a fan of it BTW
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2118/pict36703wv.jpg

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/3124/pict36599sp.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/alteclang/P1030174.jpg


http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4056/pict36647av.jpg

Ok they arent the exact same but you can see a resemblance.

Ahaha, a totem pole in Toronto - cRaZy.

Vancouver can sure look like Hong Kong:
http://www.cp.org/uploads/gallery/7801.jpg

None of those Toronto pictures really look like Vancouver. The quality of the landscaping there is just not up to par.

With all the density, I didn't think there'd be room for landscaping.

Synthetic "leaky condo" Stucco and a fondness for all things Glass = Vancouver
Red Brick & an abundance of white 1970's "Greenwin Rental" apartments (that all look the same) = Toronto.
Stone & homes with walk ups (joy to walk up after freezing rain) = Montreal

Luckily these are just generalizations as all cities have diverse buildings. Nonetheless there is certainly an element of truth to each example.

The pics DRJOE posted look similer to the southern false creek neighbourhood.

Hmm, I was lead to believe that it often rains in Vancouver, hence gloomy weather. Perhaps a picture without a street.

It is a bit gloomy from November to April, its not so much the weather in the first pic you posted as the lack of street life and coldness the image has. BTW during the summer Vancouver averages at least half the rain of any other canadian city.

The weather has absolutely nothing to do with the lack of life on that street, in summer it looks the exact same...it always has an eerie lifeless feeling to it.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/8062/pict36814og.jpg

Luckily for Toronto its the exemption to the rule.

Which street is that anyway? Lakeshore?

Vancouver can sure look like Hong Kong:
http://www.cp.org/uploads/gallery/7801.jpg

:laugh: Not really. I wouldn't even say that the scenery or landscape is similar.

The mountains yes, but the skyline no - hong kong's is much much taller and they have lots of office towers. They're even building on the mountains - which are right behind the actual city, not across from it.

A few years ago, I went to Hong Kong and I can tell you that that picture of Vancouver looks like Hong Kong.

Maybe the new territories...do they even have western style sailboats there?! lol - are we just arguing about ONE picture?!?

First photo is at Spadina and Queen's Quay in Toronto, facing east.

I do no believe Vancouver's landscaping is "superior"... if one has ever been to Vienna, London, Paris or Barcelona.



CLP1

Unfortunately for Vancouver, you cannot find any photo of any part of it that remotely looks like the Annex or Cabbagetown or, really, any character residential neighbourhood.

A lot of east Van looks like a lot of Calgary- I should take some pics next time I'm there.

Its too cold to be Vancouver. The sidewalks are too narrow and there are no trees on them.

Did you say "too cold to be Vancouver"?? Are we talking about the same Vancouver?

I do no believe Vancouver's landscaping is "superior"... if one has ever been to Vienna, London, Paris or Barcelona.

is it just me , or are people throwing out some off the wall comparisons this week ?

You cannot compare a city of just over maybe 100 years of histoy with the above mentioned.
Thats like saying " that Atari sucks compared to my subatomic generator ".
Gee thanks captain obvious .

I believe the comparison was made between canadian destination's only .:sly:

^ What does how old a city is have to do with its landscaping?

isn't some of the new lake front development in toronto being done by Concord pacific?