Toronto Is the Future

Stephen Marche explores Toronto as both "the most fascinatingly boring city in the world" and as the epitome of the 21st century post-industrial city. The description is borne from a comparison on one of its most famous North American predecessors:

Last year, the increasing population of Toronto passed the declining population of Chicago. Comparisons come naturally. What Chicago was to the 20th century, Toronto will be to the 21st. Chicago was the great city of industry; Toronto will be the great city of post-industry. Chicago is grit, top-quality butchers, glorious modernist buildings and government blight; Toronto is clean jobs and artisanal ice-creameries, identical condos, excellent public schools and free healthcare for all. Chicago is a decaying factory where Americans used to make stuff.

After describing the personality of the city as safe and reliable, even if still capable of nuance and contradiction, Marche notes the importance of the city's diversity.

At the same time, Toronto is 51% foreign-born, with people from over 230 countries, making it by many assessments, the most diverse city in the world. But diversity is not what sets Toronto apart; the near-unanimous celebration of diversity does. Toronto may be the last city in the world that unabashedly desires difference.

The article airs out more of the challenges to Toronto's ascent as a world-class city, but with a typically Canadian thread of optimism throughout.