My friend K. said something interesting last week about Toronto. She doesn’t get why some people/groups are obsessed with Toronto becoming recognized as a “world class” city. She said: “it’s not like we all get a special little prize when we become a world class city.”
London, Tokyo, Paris and New York are world class cities. And from what I’ve been reading, we’re just a second-tier world class city.
- Alpha world cities / full service world cities:
- 12 points: London, New York City, Paris, Tokyo
- 10 points: Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Singapore
- Alpha world cities / full service world cities:
- 9 points: San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zürich
- 8 points: Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, São Paulo
- 7 points: Moscow, Seoul
K. has a point. I don’t need to live in an Alpha city, I just like to visit them — I just want to live in a city with an excellent public transit system and a revitalized waterfront. Imaginative architecture and a respect for preserving our historic treasures would be nice too. And while we’re at it, we should think about urban sprawl and community sustainability issues.