Toronto:The Accidental City

"The truth is that Toronto’s ego actually bruises very easilyâ€"a sense of decline over the past twenty years and a lack of mythology for its citizens to seek comfort in means that our civic skin isn't as thick as the rest of the country thinks it is. Torontonians habitually and chronically undervalue their city and its stories; we think that all the important things happen in London, Paris, Tokyo and New York.

...Toronto doesn't inspire in the traditional City Beautiful sense that other metropolises do, but slowly people are coming to grips with what we've got here, this strange mix of Victorian and Edwardian architecture jammed up against modern glass buildings and industrial warehouses. Because many of us have an urban “ideal” in our minds (one that often resembles Haussmann's Paris), Torontonians sometimes feel a bit down about what we've got."