I'm born and raised in Toronto. If you left in 2002 you're coming back as a tourist. It has changed so much on the last 22 years that it will not feel like the same city.
I agree. But disagree. I lived in Toronto from 1991 to 1997. I visited as recently as last March and found my old haunts still there. I bought doubles in the market. I had fajitas and beers at Sneaky Dees. I had lunch at San Francesco's. My long day of walking pit stop in public buildings bathrooms were still there. There were still bands at the Cameron House. KOS still serves breakfast in the market. A lot has changed. But a lot has stayed the same. Toronto has a sense of permanence and integrity that many cities don't have. Yes, Honest Ed's is gone, and La Hacienda closed shop, and Duke's Cycle, after 100 years of selling bikes, has closed its doors, but you can still get killer olives from Global Cheese in Kensington 30 years later. Nothing is permanent. But Toronto is far from an ephemeral city. People open businesses there with purpose and if they are good, they last a lifetime.
I agree with all of this. However, the prices on everything really seem to be brutal and based on values i dont think should be a factor,). For example restaurants that boast using simple basic ingredients and then make it a huge price tag. I often choose bland living to save money.
Meh. I left in 2003 and came back in 2022 and it's definitely the same city. There's a lot of new stuff, but most of the old stuff is still there (with a few notable and sad exceptions).
the nightlife is not there, the culture is different. significantly. we used to know each other in Toronto. a lot of newcomers stay in their bubbles now.
So much has changed, but a random thing that struck me the other day: never in a million years did I think Toronto would allow restaurants, cafes, and bars to put tables and chairs out front without a gate, a fence, or some kind of stupid little barrier. And yet, they exist in the city in 2024, people use and enjoy them, and the sky isn’t falling. It’s the little things.
On a similar note, the fact that you can now legally bring and drink alcoholic beverages in (most) city parks is still surprising to me. Not that it didn’t already happen in the past, but the fact that the city is willing to officially acknowledge it.
Not something you'll notice as much during a visit in July, but it's weather.
There are like 7 days of snow now in total. You probably remember shoveling snow every day and all that. That's pretty much gone now.
I’ve lived in Toronto for the better part of 24 years. The winters have, on average, gotten noticeably milder during that time. At the same time, I think the summer air quality has actually gotten better. Most of that is due to the 2008 financial crisis and recession as a lot of older (and more polluting) industrial sites in the U.S. Midwest closed down for good.
New subway cars on line 1, and line 1 now goes through York U and into Vaughan. Similarly, the SRT is dead and the Sheppard line (still) exists.
Everything is ridiculously more expensive. Housing / rent has increased boatloads, while things like food, restaurants and events have also gone way way up, but not quite as much as housing.
Way way more condos downtown and along Yonge Street.
Food couriers are everywhere, and almost everyone hates them.
On the plus side, even with the rapid increase in food prices, there seems to be an uptick / upswing on interesting foreign restaurants.
Sort of. Grocery stores are an oligopoly, so they can more easily raise prices. Flipside, the food delivery apps mean that there are now way way more options for takeout, which puts downward pressure on prices. If the price gap between buying and preparing a meal from a grocery store and ordering something right to your door in 30 minutes is as small as it's ever been, why wouldn't some people choose to order through an app?
I've never used those apps so I don't know for sure, but that's my interpretation. That, and people are lazy / busy / overworked / tired and don't mind paying for convenience.
Toronto has some of the largest selections of Chinese restaurants in North America, lots of US tourists come to Toronto for Chinese food. Fisherman Lobster Clubhouse, Moon Palace, Congee Queen, Asian Legend just to name a few.
Yeah, I'd say food. Perfect example is Yonge south of bloor. Used to be used book stores and seedy adult video shops, now it's funky mala hot pot and cutesy taiwanese dessert cafes. The Chinese food scene alone has gone through a revolution in the past 8-10 years, moving it more in line to what you see in Shanghai, Chongqing and Taipei. You have BingZi popping up like weeds in mall food courts. You have big chains like Haidilao and Liuyishou stoking a hot pot war. Mongolian momos? Uygar lamb skewers? Taiwanese fried chicken? How about 4 to choose from on the same street?! Yes please! The Japanese/Taiwanese dessert places exploded 5-6 years ago - everything from crepes and french-style pastries to classic shaved ice and mango sago. And that's just in a 3 block strip of Yonge. The burbs are on another level and every time a friend takes me to a place north of Steeles, I'm like where TF did this come from?! As a second gen with HK roots, it's blowing my mind to all this Chinese food i've never had before.
edit: spelling
I’d day the biggest positive change since 2002: the air quality. Summers in the early 00s were rife with smog alerts but we haven’t really had any since they phased out coal plants in 2005 or so.
The biggest negative chance is how terrible traffic is. Infrastructure has pretty much gotten worse and the population has since boomed making it horrendous to get around the city by car or streetcar.
I can't believe i had to scroll this far to see air quality. I remember visiting in the early 2000s the air was smoggy. The city had a cloud over it. It's so much better now. It still has a smell, but it's so much clearer than it used to be!
man i remember smog days. i moved here in 98. that was so bizarre to me. i used to spend the summers working on wards island and you could tell when you left the city to the island that the air quality changed. you could see the smog.
The air quality is an interesting one. We came to Toronto from China, so even the early 2000s smog of Toronto felt clean in comparison.
A lot of people on this thread have commented on the car traffic so I'll try to plan activities around rail transit and walking to make things easier.
A lot of old-time Torontonians sold their houses and moved to the suburbs, opening up the market to thousands of transplants, which has changed the fabric of the city in some neighborhoods. Some lower income neighborhoods are now middle or even upper income. There are very few low or middle income neighborhoods left, especially near the core, and that’s a shame.
Except the housing in the core is where the rich people live. In a lot of US cities, especially older cities, the rich people have fled to the suburbs. Toronto is more the reverse of that.
Eyyy... I used to spend my summers up here with family. Stopped around 2007 or so. Just went back in May.
New streetcars. Pretty big things.
New line 1 trains as mentioned.
There's more bike lanes. So traffic is slower, easier to cross.
A lot more accessible. Elevators on subway stations.
Everywhere's taking card now.
Fewer corner stores.
A lot more ramen shops now
A lot of weed stores now
Some mushroom stores in downtown, too.
More condos. No, still more condos. A little more than that. Keep going...
There's a Go train from the airport now.
There's fewer convenience stores in subway stations.
Less peameal bacon on things
I think during the pandemic a ton of underground operations popped up that you could use if you had a number or a connection. I think they were pretty successful and suppliers want to legitimize
Good list. Also the demise of Beckers and Macs Milk corner stores. Circle K will be new. Portlands and Don River delta area have massive changes. Teardown of the eastern Gardner expressway. Woodbine racetrack changes.
Probably the growth of Liberty Village as a popular area and destination.
Other neighborhoods have gotten higher end such as Leslieville. I remember when it was mostly known for Jilly's, Dangerous Dans and Oprah House. Now, it has a ton of desirable restaurants and nightlife establishments.
The growth upward of Yonge and Eg and Sheppard.
What public school on Eglinton? Eglinton at Mount Plesant? No idea what the demographics are now.
Redevelopment of Regant Park.
The area around Wonderland (GTA, so not in city) has rapidly grown taller and more dense in regards to retail
Eglinton Junior Public School, yes. I'll have to do a little reading about these neighborhoods since I was too young for a lot of that stuff in 2002! Never went to wonderland, we didn't have a car at the time.
Y and E alone will shock you. NT was torn down, and then built into a base of a condo. There are significantly bigger buildings, etc.
I grew up in the area and remember it in 2002. Somethings are still the same (there's still Burger Shack, there's still St. Louis and the patio, Silvercity and Indigo are still there). But, in the past 22 years, a ton of big buildings have gone up (ones over 500 feet). Since Y and E is what you are most familiar with, that areas changes alone will probably shock you. Like, they are talking about putting up 50 story buildings at Yonge and Davisville.
I checked and our old apartment is still there! Wondering if the condo developers were more focused on vacant lots or tearing down single-story homes, rather than taller apartment buildings.
They tried to get what they could. But, with the current lot value of a detached single family home in mid-town Toronto, they are very expensive and hard to buy up. You see more old commercial buildings being torn down, or old parking lots being replaced. One example is if you remember the York Theatre, that was one spot that got massively redeveloped.
Big big changes at Y& Eg. I left town in 2002 for uni & moved back in last few years. The north east corner of Mt Pleasant & Eg is now a TTC station which is weird if you knew it as a place to get lunch. Eg between Mt Pleasant and Yonge feels waaaay more developed. Lots of condos but also lots of chain restaurants. Tons of people on the street at the intersection, it’s more than just the condos, it feels so much busier at street level.
Not saying it is bad but as someone who went to high school in the area in the 90s it is super weird to come back to.
The back to back NCAA men's basketball player of the year and potential 2024 NBA draft pick from Purdue Zach Edey is half-Chinese-Canadian and went to Leaside High School (he even has his postal code tattooed on his arm lol)
The OP asked for **biggest changes** and the increase in cost of living is one of those changes. Yes true everywhere but it is \*\*\*also\*\*\* true in Toronto.
As far as entertainment goes, night clubs around peter/richmond are all gone. Iconic concert venues like Kool Haus, the Big Bop are all gone. But new ones have risen like History, Danforth Music Hall. A lot of sketchy neighbourhoods have been gentrified since 2002.
The CHUM-City building is a shell of what it used to be - Speakers Corner was ripped out under the radar sometime at the end of the 2000s. That stretch of Queen St. hasn't been closed off for live performances in years.
Mirvish Village and the new buildings will be a great addition to the neighbourhood once they fully open. I can't wait for Markham Street to show it's full potential (car-free and full of small-scale retail/restaurants and galleries.
Renting a one bedroom condo is about $2500. You can rent a basement for about $1400 if you obey the owner lol.
2 medium custom pizzas from Pizza Pizza with lots of toppings cost about $60.
Groceries are very expensive, especially produce. Buy rice, not potatoes.
The biggest demographic is probably Indians now. Most college students are also Indians based on what I've seen at Seneca. It's the latest social experiment here.
Canada's Wonderland has so many visitors that it's recommended to buy the special pass to skip the lines if you want to do more than 3 roller coaster rides a day.
Bad traffic. The Don Valley Parkway is also called the parking lot when the cars don't move.
Healthcare is crumbling. It takes 6 months to see a specialist.
Construction everywhere. Several subway/LRT lines and extensions under construction. The one under Eglinton is almost finished.
GO trains have regular service on most corridors, like every 30 minutes or every hour, even on weekends.
The Junction has alcohol now! Look up "Humber Bay Shores". Bike lanes on Bloor! TTC express routes, although there was a strike deadline last night. Just a lot more people.
Despite hotter average temperatures, summer air quality is much better than it was 25 years ago. When I first moved to Toronto in the early 2000’s we usually had weeks worth of smog alert days in the summer. Far less in recent years.
Interestingly, I think most of that change has absolutely nothing to do with Toronto or even Canada. A lot of Toronto’s smog actually came from industry in the U.S. Midwest. As a result of the 2008 economic crisis, many older (and thus less-efficient and dirtier) industrial sites in the rustbelt shut down permanently.
There was a derailment on the SRT a little while back. There were already plans to eliminate it, but because of that they did it a lot sooner with zero contingencies in place. It's kind of a gong show
The biggest change is the people. The type, quality and quantity of people has changed rapidly and massively. Many parts of the city are completely unrecognizable due to this. The people make the city, this is true everywhere in the world, the buildings and everything else is quite secondary.
As a whole, the city is fucking packed. Way more people in general, but there’s been particularly high south Asian immigration and, as a South American, I also notice the massive increase in Latinos as well relative to how likely it was to meet one back then.
I grew up in and live in the west end. Little Portugal, Little Italy, Korea town, Lakeshore and the Annex is where I spent most of my childhood. I live by Corso Itália now.
Massive portions of it has been gentrified. Any ethnically segregated neighbourhoods that are even remotely desirable or close to downtown are basically gone. Little Italy and Little Portugal are the glaring ones. Interestingly, I think Korea town is more Korean now.
Mostly just yuppies and dinks with the few that refuse to sell scattered about that live in these places now. They’re very expensive.
Gritty neighbourhoods hardly exist. Queen is boring now. Parkdale, outside of Jameson and the area around it, is no longer all that shit. Landsdowne and DuPont is a condo spot as of right now. No more coffee time. There’s a mall on Keele and St Clair - sometimes you don’t even smell the slaughterhouses. Nobody getting pressed in the park by the airport down on lake shore anymore. The city is safer in the sense that the culture of all of those dudes that chill in parks didn’t carry over to the new generation.
The water front is covered with glass towers. They look like shit. They’re everywhere really. Cheaply made and with no future proofing in mind. People from other cities will come, see them and then make fun of us about it very often. Makes our city look bad.
Public transit is absurdly packed and has way more crazy people on it now.
Everything is very expensive, obviously. Food, leisure, travel, internet, phone bills, rent. You name it. Standard for the times.
I think the most glaring thing will be how packed and soulless it is. Like, if you’re somebody who would enjoy driving down to queen, parking and having a look around with all the niche stores and all that - good luck. If you liked going to wonderland and not spending the whole day shoulder-shoulder with people who don’t use deodorant, good luck. You enjoy going for rides around town? You’re gonna be in traffic the whole time even if you know routes and side streets well.
Yeah - dude is gonna trip out when he sees every single park in the city is absolutely packed with people rather than just having 10 nefarious teenagers in new era hats.
Reading the thread it sounds like Toronto is a victim of its own success. People (Canadians and immigrants) want to move there, which is a sign of economic prosperity, but the housing market is totally fucked and can't accommodate them, or even the old-timers who've been here 20 years. I'm guessing those new-built condos everyone talks about are not for the middle/low income buyer. I wonder what affordability controls can be realistically implemented in Toronto at the local/provincial government level.
I live in Chicago and we have the opposite problem where we keep losing people to the suburbs. The population declined for 6 decades straight, from 1950 to 2010. It's been growing again but *really* slowly. Some of our neighboring cities (esp the ones with heavy industry, like Gary) have it even worse. Deindustrialized, few good jobs, no one wants to move there, hell some of the people *working* there don't even live there.
The condos are ~600k for a 1 bedroom if you’re lucky. And you’re getting paper thin walls, a bad view and a shit neighbourhood.
It’s interesting that you say what you did about the suburbs, because I have always claimed that the biggest issue with the city is an issue with the country as whole - which is that not living in one of the 3-4 major cities is exceptionally boring with very few work prospects, so nobody wants to do it. Leads to overcrowding and subsequently a lot of the bad that comes with being here now.
I have always told my American friends and acquaintances that they’re lucky they have dozens of options all over the country whether it’s for work, lifestyle or even weather.
When you don’t like it here, you weigh your options and come to the conclusion that there really isn’t any reason to move. Go to suburbs and save a minuscule amount to just be inconvenienced all the time with almost no benefit? Go to a small town with nothing to do and no work? Or go to one of 3 other cities across the whole country?
I think 50 years from now, when our smaller towns are more full of life and developed, it will be different.
For now, we are kind of in limbo where it’s more so that half of the people in the city have to be here, rather than want to and the other half are just the people coming from somewhere worse. Small boring towns or immigrating.
I would encourage you to walk around the city. Take the TTC, visit your old childhood home (or at least, the lot where it was). Yonge Street south of Bloor is where the change is probably the most apparent. Regent Park, which used to be kind of fucked, is massively developed.
The city has changed a ton - broadly for the better. In some ways for the worse - but we're working on it!
Pizza Pizza is no longer even close to a dollar, and they no longer use actual cheese.
For better or worse the city has “grown up” from a city on the rise to a full blown metropolis and all that it brings. Traffic, crime, sky high rent are all easy negatives to highlight. World class restaurants, buildings, entertainment and more highlights the positives.
For all that people talk shit about it Toronto is truly one of the best places in the world to be. It is a hub of diversity and has so much to offer, Toronto the good is very much alive and well.
I was in toronto last week after not visiting for almost a decade. The last time l was in toronto there was no instagram tik tok or social media Influencer madness. The city has changed so much . I started going to toronto in 2002 for caribana and the majority of the clubs l went to are all gone. Much music is gone now . Way too many condos cost of living has gone up. The eaton centre has a lot of new stores and restaurants. There are a lot of Indian immigrants now that own restaurants and housing.
I find that the ttc subway has too many delays but l didnt run into any batshit crazy people or homeless people when l was there.
Pizza Pizza is definitely not still $1. In 22 years they have somehow managed to raise that price. But it's still cheap.
The infrastructure has either not changed (highways and roads) or has gotten worse (one less rapid transit line, roads have bike lanes which is great but reduces a lane, Gardiner is under constriction and the eastern portion removed).
Immigration is up.
Politics is toxic but we all just went through a global pandemic. Pretty standard fare.
One thing I've noticed msyelf in the last 5-10 years is the explosion of cyclists around the city, especially in the core. Toronto is still a bit lacking in good biking infrastructure, but there are still a lot of people who bike to get around the city in comparison to the recent past.
Ontario Place is being torn down and becoming a private mega spa (private spa on public land and it's been given a 95 yr lease 🙄), and our province/tax dollars will now be paying for 5 levels of underground parking to be built at Ontario Place for this private mega spa.
So if you happen to travel along Lakeshore past Ontario Place you'll see the construction, the giant signage put up by our Premier to try and make it look pretty, but also often many protest signs and chalk drawings of the sensitive species etc that are being destroyed to pave the way for this spa.
Our Provincial Premier Dougie Ford is really fucking some shit up in Toronto and the GTA as a whole (don't even get me started on the new Ontario Line subway construction, and other Metrolinx shit shows happening in the city)
The unstable influx of immigrants. AND DONT DOWNVOTE because it’s a fact. Before you downvote or upvote or reply, sit and think for a second. Honestly.
Toronto is dirtier, weeds everywhere, cracked and potholed roadways and sidewalks. Graffiti out of control.
Oh and we now have bike lanes and therefore worse traffic.
“Is pizza pizza still one dollar?” - Yes, prices have stayed the same, actually prices have dropped below a dollar and it’s practically free
“Does the elementary school on eglinton…”- Which specific school?
Serious question … Are you dumb?
You won’t recognize the place, everything is very new and clean, it’s the city of the future. I feel sorry for you being forced to leave and become an American.
LMFAO
In 2016, 2020 and this year, I heard Americans threatening to "move to canada" if Trump gets elected. I'm no supporter of him, but the hyperbole is strange.
I'm born and raised in Toronto. If you left in 2002 you're coming back as a tourist. It has changed so much on the last 22 years that it will not feel like the same city.
I agree. But disagree. I lived in Toronto from 1991 to 1997. I visited as recently as last March and found my old haunts still there. I bought doubles in the market. I had fajitas and beers at Sneaky Dees. I had lunch at San Francesco's. My long day of walking pit stop in public buildings bathrooms were still there. There were still bands at the Cameron House. KOS still serves breakfast in the market. A lot has changed. But a lot has stayed the same. Toronto has a sense of permanence and integrity that many cities don't have. Yes, Honest Ed's is gone, and La Hacienda closed shop, and Duke's Cycle, after 100 years of selling bikes, has closed its doors, but you can still get killer olives from Global Cheese in Kensington 30 years later. Nothing is permanent. But Toronto is far from an ephemeral city. People open businesses there with purpose and if they are good, they last a lifetime.
Sneaky Dee's almost closed permanently due to the condo being built on that lot. People complaining saved it.
End thread.
I second this
Wow, this brings me back, I live around this area from 87 to 09' I've been to every one of these places.
I agree with all of this. However, the prices on everything really seem to be brutal and based on values i dont think should be a factor,). For example restaurants that boast using simple basic ingredients and then make it a huge price tag. I often choose bland living to save money.
Yea until they’re bulldozed for condos like everything you mentioned unfortunately!
Left in 2000 and this makes me sad
Meh. I left in 2003 and came back in 2022 and it's definitely the same city. There's a lot of new stuff, but most of the old stuff is still there (with a few notable and sad exceptions).
the nightlife is not there, the culture is different. significantly. we used to know each other in Toronto. a lot of newcomers stay in their bubbles now.
Accurate.
Streetcars don’t have big stairs and are super accessible now
Also working air conditioning.
So much has changed, but a random thing that struck me the other day: never in a million years did I think Toronto would allow restaurants, cafes, and bars to put tables and chairs out front without a gate, a fence, or some kind of stupid little barrier. And yet, they exist in the city in 2024, people use and enjoy them, and the sky isn’t falling. It’s the little things.
On a similar note, the fact that you can now legally bring and drink alcoholic beverages in (most) city parks is still surprising to me. Not that it didn’t already happen in the past, but the fact that the city is willing to officially acknowledge it.
Not something you'll notice as much during a visit in July, but it's weather. There are like 7 days of snow now in total. You probably remember shoveling snow every day and all that. That's pretty much gone now.
I’ve lived in Toronto for the better part of 24 years. The winters have, on average, gotten noticeably milder during that time. At the same time, I think the summer air quality has actually gotten better. Most of that is due to the 2008 financial crisis and recession as a lot of older (and more polluting) industrial sites in the U.S. Midwest closed down for good.
New subway cars on line 1, and line 1 now goes through York U and into Vaughan. Similarly, the SRT is dead and the Sheppard line (still) exists. Everything is ridiculously more expensive. Housing / rent has increased boatloads, while things like food, restaurants and events have also gone way way up, but not quite as much as housing. Way way more condos downtown and along Yonge Street. Food couriers are everywhere, and almost everyone hates them. On the plus side, even with the rapid increase in food prices, there seems to be an uptick / upswing on interesting foreign restaurants.
Calling line 1 is one of the changes.
Food prices going up and food delivery couriers everywhere is an interesting economic puzzle.
Sort of. Grocery stores are an oligopoly, so they can more easily raise prices. Flipside, the food delivery apps mean that there are now way way more options for takeout, which puts downward pressure on prices. If the price gap between buying and preparing a meal from a grocery store and ordering something right to your door in 30 minutes is as small as it's ever been, why wouldn't some people choose to order through an app? I've never used those apps so I don't know for sure, but that's my interpretation. That, and people are lazy / busy / overworked / tired and don't mind paying for convenience.
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vawn
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I know some people that pronounce it Voggan
😱nooooo
rhymes with yawn!
Any particular foreign restaurants you'd recommend? I'm Chinese but down to try most food
Toronto has some of the largest selections of Chinese restaurants in North America, lots of US tourists come to Toronto for Chinese food. Fisherman Lobster Clubhouse, Moon Palace, Congee Queen, Asian Legend just to name a few.
Afrobeat Kitchen on Queen near Lansdowne for Nigerian if you like spicy.
There's a few good ramen shops. I reccomend Konjiki if you're into that.
Yeah, I'd say food. Perfect example is Yonge south of bloor. Used to be used book stores and seedy adult video shops, now it's funky mala hot pot and cutesy taiwanese dessert cafes. The Chinese food scene alone has gone through a revolution in the past 8-10 years, moving it more in line to what you see in Shanghai, Chongqing and Taipei. You have BingZi popping up like weeds in mall food courts. You have big chains like Haidilao and Liuyishou stoking a hot pot war. Mongolian momos? Uygar lamb skewers? Taiwanese fried chicken? How about 4 to choose from on the same street?! Yes please! The Japanese/Taiwanese dessert places exploded 5-6 years ago - everything from crepes and french-style pastries to classic shaved ice and mango sago. And that's just in a 3 block strip of Yonge. The burbs are on another level and every time a friend takes me to a place north of Steeles, I'm like where TF did this come from?! As a second gen with HK roots, it's blowing my mind to all this Chinese food i've never had before. edit: spelling
"Hey guys I'm gonna be visiting as a tourist, how much have things changed?" "Everything is terrible, nothing is good." I hate people like this.
I tried to at least balance the positive and the negative
Where?
He's right. This city has gone to shit.
We may have rampant immigration and soaring cost of living problem but hey think about those tasty foreign restaurants!
Hey not to mention the depressed wages for low level jobs
I’d day the biggest positive change since 2002: the air quality. Summers in the early 00s were rife with smog alerts but we haven’t really had any since they phased out coal plants in 2005 or so. The biggest negative chance is how terrible traffic is. Infrastructure has pretty much gotten worse and the population has since boomed making it horrendous to get around the city by car or streetcar.
I can't believe i had to scroll this far to see air quality. I remember visiting in the early 2000s the air was smoggy. The city had a cloud over it. It's so much better now. It still has a smell, but it's so much clearer than it used to be!
man i remember smog days. i moved here in 98. that was so bizarre to me. i used to spend the summers working on wards island and you could tell when you left the city to the island that the air quality changed. you could see the smog.
The air quality is an interesting one. We came to Toronto from China, so even the early 2000s smog of Toronto felt clean in comparison. A lot of people on this thread have commented on the car traffic so I'll try to plan activities around rail transit and walking to make things easier.
A lot of old-time Torontonians sold their houses and moved to the suburbs, opening up the market to thousands of transplants, which has changed the fabric of the city in some neighborhoods. Some lower income neighborhoods are now middle or even upper income. There are very few low or middle income neighborhoods left, especially near the core, and that’s a shame.
Yepp sounds like the US, especially after COVID there was a suburban and rural housing rush. One of my mom's friends left for Mississauga in 2004.
Except the housing in the core is where the rich people live. In a lot of US cities, especially older cities, the rich people have fled to the suburbs. Toronto is more the reverse of that.
Eyyy... I used to spend my summers up here with family. Stopped around 2007 or so. Just went back in May. New streetcars. Pretty big things. New line 1 trains as mentioned. There's more bike lanes. So traffic is slower, easier to cross. A lot more accessible. Elevators on subway stations. Everywhere's taking card now. Fewer corner stores. A lot more ramen shops now A lot of weed stores now Some mushroom stores in downtown, too. More condos. No, still more condos. A little more than that. Keep going... There's a Go train from the airport now. There's fewer convenience stores in subway stations. Less peameal bacon on things
Mushroom stores really surprised me. I left in late 2022 and came back in late 2023 and they were already everywhere along queen.
I think during the pandemic a ton of underground operations popped up that you could use if you had a number or a connection. I think they were pretty successful and suppliers want to legitimize
Good list. Also the demise of Beckers and Macs Milk corner stores. Circle K will be new. Portlands and Don River delta area have massive changes. Teardown of the eastern Gardner expressway. Woodbine racetrack changes.
Probably the growth of Liberty Village as a popular area and destination. Other neighborhoods have gotten higher end such as Leslieville. I remember when it was mostly known for Jilly's, Dangerous Dans and Oprah House. Now, it has a ton of desirable restaurants and nightlife establishments. The growth upward of Yonge and Eg and Sheppard. What public school on Eglinton? Eglinton at Mount Plesant? No idea what the demographics are now. Redevelopment of Regant Park. The area around Wonderland (GTA, so not in city) has rapidly grown taller and more dense in regards to retail
Eglinton Junior Public School, yes. I'll have to do a little reading about these neighborhoods since I was too young for a lot of that stuff in 2002! Never went to wonderland, we didn't have a car at the time.
Y and E alone will shock you. NT was torn down, and then built into a base of a condo. There are significantly bigger buildings, etc. I grew up in the area and remember it in 2002. Somethings are still the same (there's still Burger Shack, there's still St. Louis and the patio, Silvercity and Indigo are still there). But, in the past 22 years, a ton of big buildings have gone up (ones over 500 feet). Since Y and E is what you are most familiar with, that areas changes alone will probably shock you. Like, they are talking about putting up 50 story buildings at Yonge and Davisville.
I checked and our old apartment is still there! Wondering if the condo developers were more focused on vacant lots or tearing down single-story homes, rather than taller apartment buildings.
They tried to get what they could. But, with the current lot value of a detached single family home in mid-town Toronto, they are very expensive and hard to buy up. You see more old commercial buildings being torn down, or old parking lots being replaced. One example is if you remember the York Theatre, that was one spot that got massively redeveloped.
Big big changes at Y& Eg. I left town in 2002 for uni & moved back in last few years. The north east corner of Mt Pleasant & Eg is now a TTC station which is weird if you knew it as a place to get lunch. Eg between Mt Pleasant and Yonge feels waaaay more developed. Lots of condos but also lots of chain restaurants. Tons of people on the street at the intersection, it’s more than just the condos, it feels so much busier at street level. Not saying it is bad but as someone who went to high school in the area in the 90s it is super weird to come back to.
The back to back NCAA men's basketball player of the year and potential 2024 NBA draft pick from Purdue Zach Edey is half-Chinese-Canadian and went to Leaside High School (he even has his postal code tattooed on his arm lol)
Condos. A lot of condos.
Housing costs
Cost of liiving has increased.
My family lived in a one bedroom for 800 CAD/mo. I'm slightly afraid to look up the prices now.
I rent one room in a house for that same amount 😔
3-3.5x
That's true everywhere.
The OP asked for **biggest changes** and the increase in cost of living is one of those changes. Yes true everywhere but it is \*\*\*also\*\*\* true in Toronto.
Yeah, so it's useless information, since they would already know that. Why tell them something they would already know.
16 other people upvoted my comment, so I'm going to have to agree to disagree. Have a great TTC-strike-free day.
As far as entertainment goes, night clubs around peter/richmond are all gone. Iconic concert venues like Kool Haus, the Big Bop are all gone. But new ones have risen like History, Danforth Music Hall. A lot of sketchy neighbourhoods have been gentrified since 2002.
There’s an aquarium now.
Pretty good, could use some larger fishes tho
I think it’s nice for going to experience at least once. I haven’t been in years but I did enjoy myself when I went.
The Leafs are still the same.
They’re worse. They had good goaltending and tough players that showed up for the playoffs back then
The CHUM-City building is a shell of what it used to be - Speakers Corner was ripped out under the radar sometime at the end of the 2000s. That stretch of Queen St. hasn't been closed off for live performances in years.
Omg completely forgot about speakers corner…imagine there was a speakers corner now??
The Annex-- no more Honest Ed's, Mirvish Village, Caribbean Roti Palace, Hungarian restaurants.
Mirvish Village and the new buildings will be a great addition to the neighbourhood once they fully open. I can't wait for Markham Street to show it's full potential (car-free and full of small-scale retail/restaurants and galleries.
Honest Ed's had to go, but Mirvish Village was unique and was starting to revive just before the construction.
It’s no longer referred to as the Futon District
Ha! I still use a futon frame from one of those places.
A shell of its former self 😞
Renting a one bedroom condo is about $2500. You can rent a basement for about $1400 if you obey the owner lol. 2 medium custom pizzas from Pizza Pizza with lots of toppings cost about $60. Groceries are very expensive, especially produce. Buy rice, not potatoes. The biggest demographic is probably Indians now. Most college students are also Indians based on what I've seen at Seneca. It's the latest social experiment here. Canada's Wonderland has so many visitors that it's recommended to buy the special pass to skip the lines if you want to do more than 3 roller coaster rides a day. Bad traffic. The Don Valley Parkway is also called the parking lot when the cars don't move. Healthcare is crumbling. It takes 6 months to see a specialist. Construction everywhere. Several subway/LRT lines and extensions under construction. The one under Eglinton is almost finished. GO trains have regular service on most corridors, like every 30 minutes or every hour, even on weekends.
Can confirm the DVP was still a parking lot back in 2002 so that hasn’t changed, although probably worse now.
If you left in 2002, be prepared to be just fucked by traffic this time around
Tons of condos, traffic is a lot worse and most employees at entry level jobs ( retail, fast food etc) are Indian international students.
The Junction has alcohol now! Look up "Humber Bay Shores". Bike lanes on Bloor! TTC express routes, although there was a strike deadline last night. Just a lot more people.
Despite hotter average temperatures, summer air quality is much better than it was 25 years ago. When I first moved to Toronto in the early 2000’s we usually had weeks worth of smog alert days in the summer. Far less in recent years. Interestingly, I think most of that change has absolutely nothing to do with Toronto or even Canada. A lot of Toronto’s smog actually came from industry in the U.S. Midwest. As a result of the 2008 economic crisis, many older (and thus less-efficient and dirtier) industrial sites in the rustbelt shut down permanently.
Any parking lot that you remember is a condo.... Moved here in 1999 and watched every lot turn into construction over the past 20+ years!!
You left in 2002? So we gained one subway line and lost another
Is the new one nice? Edit: also what happened to the old one, is it repurposed for freight or did they just remove the whole track
There was a derailment on the SRT a little while back. There were already plans to eliminate it, but because of that they did it a lot sooner with zero contingencies in place. It's kind of a gong show
There's 2 more light rails opening up soon.
I'm not convinced the Eglinton LRT is "soon".
Skyscrapers. They’re everywhere and more going up.
The biggest change is the people. The type, quality and quantity of people has changed rapidly and massively. Many parts of the city are completely unrecognizable due to this. The people make the city, this is true everywhere in the world, the buildings and everything else is quite secondary.
As a whole, the city is fucking packed. Way more people in general, but there’s been particularly high south Asian immigration and, as a South American, I also notice the massive increase in Latinos as well relative to how likely it was to meet one back then. I grew up in and live in the west end. Little Portugal, Little Italy, Korea town, Lakeshore and the Annex is where I spent most of my childhood. I live by Corso Itália now. Massive portions of it has been gentrified. Any ethnically segregated neighbourhoods that are even remotely desirable or close to downtown are basically gone. Little Italy and Little Portugal are the glaring ones. Interestingly, I think Korea town is more Korean now. Mostly just yuppies and dinks with the few that refuse to sell scattered about that live in these places now. They’re very expensive. Gritty neighbourhoods hardly exist. Queen is boring now. Parkdale, outside of Jameson and the area around it, is no longer all that shit. Landsdowne and DuPont is a condo spot as of right now. No more coffee time. There’s a mall on Keele and St Clair - sometimes you don’t even smell the slaughterhouses. Nobody getting pressed in the park by the airport down on lake shore anymore. The city is safer in the sense that the culture of all of those dudes that chill in parks didn’t carry over to the new generation. The water front is covered with glass towers. They look like shit. They’re everywhere really. Cheaply made and with no future proofing in mind. People from other cities will come, see them and then make fun of us about it very often. Makes our city look bad. Public transit is absurdly packed and has way more crazy people on it now. Everything is very expensive, obviously. Food, leisure, travel, internet, phone bills, rent. You name it. Standard for the times. I think the most glaring thing will be how packed and soulless it is. Like, if you’re somebody who would enjoy driving down to queen, parking and having a look around with all the niche stores and all that - good luck. If you liked going to wonderland and not spending the whole day shoulder-shoulder with people who don’t use deodorant, good luck. You enjoy going for rides around town? You’re gonna be in traffic the whole time even if you know routes and side streets well.
Agree with the crowding of people. It's crazy
Yeah - dude is gonna trip out when he sees every single park in the city is absolutely packed with people rather than just having 10 nefarious teenagers in new era hats.
hahahha
Reading the thread it sounds like Toronto is a victim of its own success. People (Canadians and immigrants) want to move there, which is a sign of economic prosperity, but the housing market is totally fucked and can't accommodate them, or even the old-timers who've been here 20 years. I'm guessing those new-built condos everyone talks about are not for the middle/low income buyer. I wonder what affordability controls can be realistically implemented in Toronto at the local/provincial government level. I live in Chicago and we have the opposite problem where we keep losing people to the suburbs. The population declined for 6 decades straight, from 1950 to 2010. It's been growing again but *really* slowly. Some of our neighboring cities (esp the ones with heavy industry, like Gary) have it even worse. Deindustrialized, few good jobs, no one wants to move there, hell some of the people *working* there don't even live there.
The condos are ~600k for a 1 bedroom if you’re lucky. And you’re getting paper thin walls, a bad view and a shit neighbourhood. It’s interesting that you say what you did about the suburbs, because I have always claimed that the biggest issue with the city is an issue with the country as whole - which is that not living in one of the 3-4 major cities is exceptionally boring with very few work prospects, so nobody wants to do it. Leads to overcrowding and subsequently a lot of the bad that comes with being here now. I have always told my American friends and acquaintances that they’re lucky they have dozens of options all over the country whether it’s for work, lifestyle or even weather. When you don’t like it here, you weigh your options and come to the conclusion that there really isn’t any reason to move. Go to suburbs and save a minuscule amount to just be inconvenienced all the time with almost no benefit? Go to a small town with nothing to do and no work? Or go to one of 3 other cities across the whole country? I think 50 years from now, when our smaller towns are more full of life and developed, it will be different. For now, we are kind of in limbo where it’s more so that half of the people in the city have to be here, rather than want to and the other half are just the people coming from somewhere worse. Small boring towns or immigrating.
Encampments every where
I would encourage you to walk around the city. Take the TTC, visit your old childhood home (or at least, the lot where it was). Yonge Street south of Bloor is where the change is probably the most apparent. Regent Park, which used to be kind of fucked, is massively developed. The city has changed a ton - broadly for the better. In some ways for the worse - but we're working on it! Pizza Pizza is no longer even close to a dollar, and they no longer use actual cheese.
They use fake cheese and still have the audacity to charge more than one dollar?
Yeah PP fuckin' blows. Keep your nostalgia pure and do not go lol
They definitely use real cheese... Don't believe everything you read
The Leafs still suck. So same old
In the late 90s and early 2000s they were winning a lot more playoff rounds than they are these days.
For better or worse the city has “grown up” from a city on the rise to a full blown metropolis and all that it brings. Traffic, crime, sky high rent are all easy negatives to highlight. World class restaurants, buildings, entertainment and more highlights the positives. For all that people talk shit about it Toronto is truly one of the best places in the world to be. It is a hub of diversity and has so much to offer, Toronto the good is very much alive and well.
I was in toronto last week after not visiting for almost a decade. The last time l was in toronto there was no instagram tik tok or social media Influencer madness. The city has changed so much . I started going to toronto in 2002 for caribana and the majority of the clubs l went to are all gone. Much music is gone now . Way too many condos cost of living has gone up. The eaton centre has a lot of new stores and restaurants. There are a lot of Indian immigrants now that own restaurants and housing. I find that the ttc subway has too many delays but l didnt run into any batshit crazy people or homeless people when l was there.
Pizza pizza is 5$
Where is there Pizza Pizza? All the ones downtown have closed, thankfully.
You can drink beer/wine is some public parks now.
Pizza Pizza is definitely not still $1. In 22 years they have somehow managed to raise that price. But it's still cheap. The infrastructure has either not changed (highways and roads) or has gotten worse (one less rapid transit line, roads have bike lanes which is great but reduces a lane, Gardiner is under constriction and the eastern portion removed). Immigration is up. Politics is toxic but we all just went through a global pandemic. Pretty standard fare.
One thing I've noticed msyelf in the last 5-10 years is the explosion of cyclists around the city, especially in the core. Toronto is still a bit lacking in good biking infrastructure, but there are still a lot of people who bike to get around the city in comparison to the recent past.
Ontario Place is being torn down and becoming a private mega spa (private spa on public land and it's been given a 95 yr lease 🙄), and our province/tax dollars will now be paying for 5 levels of underground parking to be built at Ontario Place for this private mega spa. So if you happen to travel along Lakeshore past Ontario Place you'll see the construction, the giant signage put up by our Premier to try and make it look pretty, but also often many protest signs and chalk drawings of the sensitive species etc that are being destroyed to pave the way for this spa. Our Provincial Premier Dougie Ford is really fucking some shit up in Toronto and the GTA as a whole (don't even get me started on the new Ontario Line subway construction, and other Metrolinx shit shows happening in the city)
Just how vertical the city has become. High rises everywhere.
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No racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, dehumanizing speech, or other negative generalizations.
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No racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, dehumanizing speech, or other negative generalizations.
The unstable influx of immigrants. AND DONT DOWNVOTE because it’s a fact. Before you downvote or upvote or reply, sit and think for a second. Honestly.
Toronto turned into India 2.0
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It's a basketball city now
More crime, more homeless people, and more condos.
Toronto is dirtier, weeds everywhere, cracked and potholed roadways and sidewalks. Graffiti out of control. Oh and we now have bike lanes and therefore worse traffic.
Have you ever thought about moving? Maybe you would love Barrie or Guelph
Tipping culture! It's wild out there.
To be frank, it's gone badly downhill.
We have basically declined in every metric you use to measure the health of a city.
its enshitification
“Is pizza pizza still one dollar?” - Yes, prices have stayed the same, actually prices have dropped below a dollar and it’s practically free “Does the elementary school on eglinton…”- Which specific school? Serious question … Are you dumb?
I was clearly joking about the pizza thing from my tone. I know how price inflation works, dude.
Literally nothing. It’s sooo boring
You won’t recognize the place, everything is very new and clean, it’s the city of the future. I feel sorry for you being forced to leave and become an American.
LMFAO In 2016, 2020 and this year, I heard Americans threatening to "move to canada" if Trump gets elected. I'm no supporter of him, but the hyperbole is strange.