For years, I’ve been singing the praises of Accordion City, which some of you like to refer to it by its nickname, “Toronto”. Yes, it’s a little short on the kind of attractions that make it a big tourist destination, but as my friend Cory Doctorow says: “It may be short on things that make it a great tourism spot, but it makes up for it with things that make it a great place to live.”
And he’s right. Things like solid, stable banks, the fact that everyone bikes, same-sex marriages, the salmagundi of ethnicities, cultures and cuisines, contributions to medicine, community-mindedness, quirky locals and the fact that our film festival saved Slumdog Millionaire from direct-to-DVD purgatory are hardly the stuff of breathless tourism pamphlets and travelogues. But if you’re planning to stay here for a stretch longer than the typical vacation, you’ll soon discover that this city is North America’s unrealized gem, one of the world’s best places to live, work and play.
I plan to write more about this great city in an upcoming series of guides for people coming to town to attend the FutureRuby conference, but in the meantime, Toronto Life is picking up the slack with the cover story of their current issue, titled 50 Reasons to Love Toronto Right Now. If you don’t feel like shelling out ducats for the dead-tree edition, you’re in luck – the article also appears online.
