Toronto

Coordinates: 43°39′N, 79°23′W

City of Toronto
Image:Toronto Skyline Photo.jpg
Image:Toronto Flag.svg Flag Image:Toronto Coat of Arms.jpg Coat of arms
Nickname: "T.O., T Dot, Hogtown, The Big Smoke'"
Motto: Diversity Our Strength
Image:Toronto Location in Ontario.png Location of Toronto and its census metropolitan area in the province of Ontario
Coordinates: 43.5°40′N, 79.5°25′W
Country	Canada
Province	Image:Flag of Ontario.svg Ontario
Districts	Old Toronto East York Etobicoke North York Scarborough York
Established	1793, as "Town of York"
Incorporated	March 6, 1834, as "City of Toronto"
Amalgamated	January 1, 1998
Government
- Mayor	David Miller
- Local government	Toronto City Council (44 councillors)
- Representatives	23 MPs, 22 MPPs, and 6 Senators
Area [1][2]
- City	630.18 km²  (243.3 sq mi)
- Urban	1,748.57 km² (675.1 sq mi)
- Metro	5,903.63 km² (2,279.4 sq mi)
Elevation	76 m (249.3 ft)
Population (2006)[1][2]
- City	2,503,281 (Ranked 1st)
- Density	3,972.33/km² (10,288.3/sq mi)
- Urban	4,753,120
- Urban Density	2,718.29/km² (7,040.3/sq mi)
- Metro	5,113,149 (Toronto CMA)
- Metro Density	866.10/km² (2,243.2/sq mi)
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code span	M
Area code(s)	(416) and (647)
Website: toronto.ca

Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario, located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. The city had a population of 2,503,281 and its census metropolitan area (CMA) had a population of 5,113,149 at the 2006 Canadian census.^[1] The Greater Toronto Area (GTA), a provincial planning area that differs from the federal CMA, had a population of 5,555,912 at the 2006 Canadian Census.^[3] Toronto is the economic centre of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, a large urbanized region of 8.1 million people,^[4] spreading outwards from the western shores of Lake Ontario. Residents of Toronto are called Torontonians.

As Canada's economic capital and a major global city, Toronto has highly developed finance, business services, telecommunications, aerospace, transportation, media, arts, film, television production, publishing, software production, medical research, education, tourism and sports industries.^[5][6] The city is home to a majority of the country's corporate headquarters and transnational corporate offices as well as the Toronto Stock Exchange, the world's seventh largest stock exchange.^[5]

Toronto hosts top professional teams, including the Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Toronto Argonauts. Defining the Toronto skyline is the CN Tower, the world's tallest free standing structure. The city is also an important international cultural player with many world-class museums, galleries, performance venues and festivals. Toronto's population is cosmopolitan and international, which reflects its role as a major destination for immigrants to Canada.^[7] Because of its low crime rates,^[8] clean environment and generally high standard of living, Toronto is consistently rated one of the world's most livable cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit^[9] and the Mercer Quality of Living Survey.^[10] In 2006, Toronto was rated as the most expensive city in Canada to live in.^[11]

History

Main article: History of Toronto

Further information: Toronto's name

When Europeans first arrived at the site of present-day Toronto, the vicinity was inhabited by the Huron tribes, who by then had displaced the Iroquois tribes that occupied the region for centuries before c. 1500. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto, meaning "place where trees stand in the water".^[12] It refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point led to widespread use of the name.

French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759.^[13] During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the unsettled lands north of Lake Ontario. In 1787, the British negotiated the Toronto Purchase with the Mississaugas of New Credit, thereby securing more than a quarter million acres of land in the Toronto area.^[14]

In 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the existing settlement, naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe chose the town to replace Newark as the capital of Upper Canada, believing the new site would be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans.^[15] Fort York was constructed at the entrance of the town's natural harbour, sheltered by a long sand-bar peninsula. The town's settlement formed at the eastern end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day Parliament Street and Front Street.

In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the town's capture and plunder by American forces. The surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. American soldiers destroyed much of Fort York and set fire on the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation.

With a population of only 9,000 inhabitants, York was incorporated as the City of Toronto on March 6, 1834, reverting to its original native name. Reformist politician William Lyon Mackenzie became the first Mayor of Toronto, and led the unsuccessful Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 against the British colonial government. The city grew rapidly through the remainder of the 19th century, as a major destination for immigrants to Canada. The first significant population influx occurred with the Irish potato famine between 1846 and 1849 that brought a large number of Irish diaspora into the city, some of them transient and most of them Catholic. By 1851, the Irish-born population had become the largest single ethnic group in the city. Smaller numbers of Protestant Irish immigrants were welcomed by the existing Scottish and English population, giving the Orange Order significant influence over Toronto society.

Toronto was twice for brief periods the capital of the united Province of Canada first from 1849-1852, following unrest in Montreal and later 1856-1858 after which Quebec became capital until just a year prior to Confederation, since then it has been Ottawa. As it had been for Upper Canada from 1793, Toronto became the capital of the province of Ontario after its official creation in 1867 and has remained so since with the Ontario Legislature located at Queen's Park. Because of its capital status, the city has also always been the location of Government House, the residence of the vice-regal representative of the Crown.

The city began to rapidly industrialize in the middle of the 19th century. An extensive sewage system was built, and streets became illuminated with gas lighting as a regular service. Long-distance railway lines were constructed, including a route completed in 1854 linking Toronto with the Upper Great Lakes. The Grand Trunk Railway and the Great Northern Railway joined in the building of the first Union Station in downtown. The advent of the railway dramatically increased the numbers of immigrants arriving and commerce, as had the Lake Ontario steamers and schooners entering the port. Horse-drawn streetcars gave way to electric streetcars in 1891, when the city granted the operation of the transit franchise to the Toronto Railway Company later re-named the current Toronto Transit Commission, now with the third highest ridership of any city public transportation system in North America.

The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 destroyed a large section of downtown Toronto, but the city was quickly rebuilt. The fire had cost more than $10 million in damage, and led to more stringent fire safety laws and the expansion of the city's fire department.

The city received new immigrant groups beginning in the late 19th century into early 20th century, particularly Germans, Italians, and Jews from various parts of Eastern Europe. They were soon followed by Chinese, Russians, Poles and immigrants from other Eastern European nations, as the Irish before them, many of these new migrants lived in overcrowded shanty type slums, such as the "the Ward" which was between Bay Street, now the heart of the country finances and the Discovery District, considered one of the world's most advanced medical research zones. Despite its fast paced growth, by the 1920s, Toronto's population and economic importance in Canada remained second to the much longer established Montreal. However, by 1934 the Toronto Stock Exchange had become the largest in the country.

Following the Second World War, refugees from war-torn Europe arrived as did construction labourers particularly from Italy and Portugal. Following elimination of racially based immigration policies by the late 1960s, immigration began from all parts of the world. Toronto's population grew to more than one million in 1951 when large-scale suburbanization began, and doubled to two million by 1971. By the 1980s, Toronto had surpassed Montreal as Canada's most populous city and the chief economic hub. During this time, many national and multinational corporations moved their head offices from Montreal to Toronto and other western Canadian cities.^[16]

In 1954, the City of Toronto was federated into a regional government known as Metropolitan Toronto.^[17] The postwar boom had resulted in rapid suburban development, and it was believed that a coordinated land use strategy and shared services would provide greater efficiency for the region. The metropolitan government began to manage services that crossed municipal boundaries, including highways, water and public transit. In 1967, the seven smallest municipalities of the region were merged into their larger neighbours, resulting in a six-city configuration that included the old City of Toronto and the surrounding municipalities of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York. In 1998, the metropolitan government was dissolved and the six municipalities were amalgamated into a single municipality, creating the current City of Toronto.

Geography and climate

Main article: Geography and climate of Toronto

Toronto covers an area of 629.91 square kilometres (243.21 sq mi),^[18] with a maximum north-south distance of 21 kilometres (13 mi) and a maximum east-west distance of 43 kilometres (27 mi). It has a 46 kilometre (29 mi) long waterfront shoreline. Its borders are bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, Etobicoke Creek and Highway 427 to the west, Steeles Avenue to the north and the Rouge River to the east.

Topography

The city is intersected by two rivers and numerous tributaries: the Humber River in the west end and the Don River east of downtown at opposite ends of the Toronto Harbour. The many creeks and rivers create large tracts of densely-forested ravines, and provide ideal sites for parks and recreational trails. However, the ravines also interfere with the city's grid plan, and this results in major thoroughfares such as Finch Avenue, Leslie Street, Lawrence Avenue, St. Clair Avenue and Keele Street terminating on one side of ravines and continuing on the other side. Other thoroughfares such as the Bloor Street Viaduct are required to span above the ravines. These deep ravines prove useful for draining the city's vast storm sewer system during heavy rains but some sections, particularly near the Don River are prone to sudden, heavy floods. Storage tanks at waste treatment facilties will often receive too much river discharge causing them to overflow, allowing untreated sewage to escape into Lake Ontario.

During the last ice age, the present site of Toronto was beneath Glacial Lake Iroquois. Today, a series of escarpments mark the lake's former boundary, known as the Iroquois Shoreline. The escarpments are most prominent from Victoria Park Avenue to the mouth of Highland Creek, where they form the Scarborough Bluffs. Other noticeable sections include the area near St. Clair Avenue West between Bathurst Street and the Don River, and north of Davenport Road from Caledonia to Spadina Avenue. Although not remarkably hilly, Toronto does have elevation differences ranging from 75 metres (246 ft) above-sea-level at the Lake Ontario shore to 270 metres (886 ft) ASL near the York University grounds in the city's north end.

Much of the current lakeshore land area fronting the Toronto Harbour is actually artificial landfill. In the mid-19th century the lakefront was set back up to a kilometre (0.6 mi) further inland than it is today. Much of the Toronto harbour (the quays) and adjacent Portlands are also fill. The Toronto Islands were actually a landspit until a storm in 1858 severed its connection to the mainland.

Climate

Toronto's climate is moderate for Canada due to its southerly location within the country and its proximity to Lake Ontario. It has a humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfa), with warm, humid summers and generally cold winters, although fairly mild by Canadian and many northern continental U.S. standards. The city experiences four distinct seasons with considerable variance in day to day temperature, particularly during the colder weather season. Due to urbanization and other factors Toronto has a fairly low diurnal temperature range, at least in built-up city and lakeshore areas. At different times of the year, the proximity to Lake Ontario and the other Great Lakes has various localized and regional impacts on the climate, including lake effect snow.

Toronto winters sometimes feature short cold snaps where maximum temperatures remain below −10 °C (14 °F), often made to feel colder by windchill. Snowstorms, sometimes mixed with ice and rain can disrupt work and travel schedules, accumulating snow can fall anytime from November until mid-April. However, mild stretches also occur throughout winter melting accumulated snow, with temperatures reaching into the 5 to 14 °C (40 to 57 °F) range and infrequently higher. Summer in Toronto is characterized by long stretches of humid weather. Daytime temperatures occasionally surpass 35 °C (95 °F), with high humidity making it feel oppressive during usually brief periods of hot weather. Spring and Autumn are transitional seasons with generally mild or cool temperatures with alternating dry and wet periods, typical conditions of both seasons usually arrive later than in other continental climates at similar latitudes owing to the presence of Lake Ontario and to a lesser degree, the other Great Lakes.^[19]

Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, but summer is usually the wettest season, the bulk falling during thunderstorms. The average yearly precipitation is 793 millimetres (31.7 in), with an average annual snowfall of about 115 centimetres (46 in). Toronto experiences an average of 2,038 sunshine hours or 44% of possible, most of it during the warmer weather season.^[19]

Neighbourhoods

See also: List of neighbourhoods in Toronto

The City of Toronto encompasses a geographical area formerly administered by six separate municipalities. These municipalities have each developed a distinct history and identity over the years, and their names remain in common use among Torontonians. Throughout the city there exist hundreds of small neighbourhoods. Former Municipalities: East York | Etobicoke | North York | Old Toronto | Scarborough | York.

The Old City of Toronto covers the area generally known as Downtown. It is the historic core of Toronto and remains the most densely-populated part of the city. The Financial District along Bay Street contains the largest cluster of skyscrapers in Canada, including the First Canadian Place, Toronto Dominion Centre, Scotia Plaza, Royal Bank Plaza, Commerce Court and BCE Place. From that point, the Toronto skyline extends northward along Yonge Street. Old Toronto is also home to many historically wealthy residential enclaves, such as Yorkville, Rosedale, The Annex, Forest Hill, Lawrence Park, Moore Park, and Casa Loma, most strething away from downtown to the north. These neighbourhoods generally feature upscale homes, luxury condominiums and high-end retail. At the same time, the downtown core vicinity includes neighbourhoods with a high proportion of recent immigrants and low-income families living in social housing and rental highrises, such as St. James Town, Regent Park, Moss Park and Parkdale. East and west of Downtown, neighbourhoods such as Kensington Market, Leslieville, Cabbagetown and Riverdale are home to bustling commercial and cultural areas as well as vibrant communities of artists with studio lofts, with an increasing proportion of middle and upper class professionals that mix with the working poor or those on some form of government assistance. Other neighbourhoods in the central city retain an ethnic identity, including two Chinatowns, the popular Greektown area, the very trendy Little Italy, Portugal Village, Little Jamaica, Little Mogidashu and Little India along with others.

The inner suburbs are contained within the former municipalities of York and East York. These are mature and traditionally working class areas, primarily consisting of post-World War I small, single-family homes and small apartment blocks. Neighbourhoods such as Crescent Town, Thorncliffe Park and Weston consist of mainly high-rise apartments which are home to many new immigrant families. Recently, many neighbourhoods have became ethnically diverse and have undergone gentrification, as a result of increasing population and a housing boom during the late 1990s and 2000s. The first neighbourhoods affected were Leaside and North Toronto, gradually progressing into the western neighbourhoods in York. Some of the area's housing is in the process of being replaced or remodelled.

The outer suburbs comprised of the former municipalities of Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York largely retain the grid plan laid before post-war development. Sections were long established and quickly growing towns before the suburban housing boom began and the advent of Metro Government, such as Mimico, Newtonbrook and West Hill. Suburban development grew quickly after the second war to include such upscale neighbourhoods as the Bridle Path in North York, the area surrounding the Scarborough Bluffs in Guildwood, and most of central Etobicoke, such as Humber Valley Village, and The Kingsway. One of largest and earliest "planned communities" was Don Mills, parts of which were first built in the 1950s. Phased development mixing single-detached housing with higher density apartment blocks became more popular as a suburban model of development. To some this model has been copied in other GTA municipalities surrounding Toronto, albeit with less population density. More recently, North York Centre that runs along Yonge Street and the Scarborough City Centre have emerged as secondary business districts outside the downtown core. Highrise development in these areas have given North York and Scarborough distinguishable skylines of their own and a more downtown feel with high-density transit corridors serving them.

Cityscape

See also: Doors Open Toronto

Toronto has become an architectural hotspot featuring uniquely designed buildings from many of the most celebrated architects in the world. The list includes such names as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster, Will Alsop, I. M. Pei, Santiago Calatrava, and Mies van der Rohe as well as award-winning local firms, such as Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (KPMB) and Diamond Schmitt Architects.

Architecture

See also: List of tallest buildings in Toronto and List of oldest buildings and structures in Toronto

Defining the Toronto skyline, the CN Tower is Canada's most recognizable and celebrated icon. At a height of 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 inches), it is Canada’s National Tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure, an important telecommunications hub, and the centre of tourism in Toronto.

BCE Place is an office complex in downtown Toronto, which consists of two towers, the Bay Wellington Tower and the TD Canada Trust Tower, linked by the six-storey Allen Lambert Galleria. BCE Place is also the home of the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Allen Lambert Galleria, sometimes described as the "crystal cathedral of commerce", was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It is one of the most photographed spaces in Toronto's financial district, and is heavily featured as a backdrop for TV and film productions.

Commerce Court is a cluster of four office buildings located in the financial district on King Street and Bay Street. The first building, now known as Commerce Court North, was built in 1930 as the headquarters of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, a precursor bank to the current main tenant. Designed by the firm Pearson and Darling, the 34-storey tower was the tallest building in the British Empire/Commonwealth until 1962. At the time of its construction, the building was one of the most opulent corporate headquarters in Canada. In 1972, three other buildings were erected, thus creating the Commerce Court complex: Commerce Court West designed by I. M. Pei (the tallest building in the complex, at 57 storeys, and the tallest building in Canada from 1972-1976), Commerce Court East (14 storeys), and Commerce Court South (5 storeys).

Mies van der Rohe's Toronto Dominion Centre (66 Wellington St W), is a black modernist complex of six imposing towers.

The Trump Tower, a mixed office-hotel-condominium building is tallest skyscraper currently set for construction by the summer of 2007, at 70-storeys high with anticipated completion set for 2010. If built to plans, its antenna height will top 325 metres (1,066 ft), making it the second highest office building (but tallest residential/hotel) in the city, behind the First Canadian Place, 72-storeys high, constructed in 1976 with an antenna height of 355 metres (1,165 ft).

New and recently renovated buildings

Daniel Libeskind’s redesign of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada’s largest and one of the world's most respected museums, is underway. Libeskind has reinvented the museum as a series of enormous “crystals” that will rise dramatically five storeys from the street.

The Art Gallery of Ontario, is undergoing a redesign by Frank Gehry which will completely alter the museum inside and out. The new front façade of the gallery will become an exercise in transparency, with the upper level transformed into a new sculpture court.

A spectacular recent arrival on the Toronto skyline is Will Alsop’s “tabletop” at the Ontario College of Art and Design on McCaul Street. This remarkable structure consists of a striking two-storey rectangle suspended about 40 metres above ground on brightly coloured steel legs.

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, a 2,000-seat opera house designed by Diamond Schmitt, opened in June 2006. The auditorium, which is modeled after European opera houses with its tiered horseshoe-shaped auditorium, is the new home of the Canadian Opera Company and The National Ballet of Canada.

Another site of major change is the downtown campus of the University of Toronto. The expansion of Canada’s largest university got underway in 2001 and since then many new buildings have appeared. Included are a number of residences and faculty buildings designed by such luminaries as Norman Foster and Günter Behnisch. The main buildings, the Leslie Dan Pharmaceutical Building (Foster) and the Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (Behnisch), are lantern-like towers that bring the university happily into the modern age.

Also in the works are major projects at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the National Ballet School of Canada. These were designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg, a firm that is playing a major role in transforming Toronto architecture.

Residential

The many residential communities of Toronto express a character distinct from that of the skyscrapers in the commercial core. Victorian and Edwardian-era residential buildings can be found in enclaves such as Rosedale, Forest Hill, Cabbagetown, the Annex, the Bridle Path and Moore Park.

Wychwood Park is historically significant for the architecture of its homes, and for being one of Toronto's earliest planned communities. The Wychwood Park neighbourhood was designated as an Ontario Heritage Conservation district in 1985. The Casa Loma neighbourhood is named after Casa Loma, a medieval castle built in 1911 that had an elevator, secret passages, and bowling alleys. Spadina House is a 19th century manor that is now a museum.

Industrial

One of Toronto's most unique neighbourhoods, the Distillery District contains the largest and best-preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America. A national heritage site, it was listed by National Geographic magazine as a "top pick" in Canada for travellers.

Public spaces

Nathan Phillips Square, a city square that forms the south entrance to Toronto City Hall, is also undergoing a major redesign.

West 8, a Dutch architecture firm, won the Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition in 2006 to provide a new look for the central part of the Toronto waterfront.^[20][21]

In the summer of 1999, Downsview Park initiated an international design competition to realize its vision of creating Canada's first national urban park. In May 2000, the winning park design was announced: "TREE CITY", by the team of Bruce Mau Design, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Oleson Worland Architect and Inside/Outside.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Toronto

The last complete census by Statistics Canada estimated there were 2,481,494 people residing in Toronto in 2001.^[1] The city's population grew by 4% (96,073 residents) between 1996 and 2001, at an annualized rate of 0.8%. Persons aged 14 years and under made up 17.5% of the population, and those aged 65 years and over made up 13.6%. The median age was 36.9 years.

As of 2001, 42.8% of the city's residents belong to a visible minority group,^[25] and visible minorities are projected to comprise a majority in Toronto by 2017.^[26] According to the United Nations Development Programme, Toronto has the second-highest percentage of foreign-born population among world cities, after Miami, Florida. While Miami's foreign-born population consists mostly of Cubans and other Latin Americans, no single nationality or culture dominates Toronto's immigrant population.

The five largest visible minority groups in Toronto are Chinese (10.6%), South Asian/Indo-Caribbean (10.3%), Black/Afro-Caribbean (8.3%), Filipino (3.5%) and Latin American (2.2%).^[27] This diversity is reflected in Toronto's ethnic neighbourhoods which include Little Italy, Little Jamaica, Little India, Chinatown, Koreatown, Malta Village, Greektown, Portugal Village, Corso Italia, Kensington Market, and Little Mogadishu.

Christianity is the largest religious group in Toronto. The 2001 Census reports that 31.1% of the city's population is Catholic, followed by Protestant at 21.1%, Christian Orthodox at 4.8%, and other Christians at 3.9%. Other religions in the city are Islam (6.7%), Hinduism (4.8%), Judaism (4.2%), Buddhism (2.7%), Sikhism (0.9%), and other Eastern Religions (0.2%). 18.7% of the population professes no faith.^[25]

While English is the predominant language spoken by Torontonians, many other languages have considerable numbers of local speakers, including French, Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Tagalog, Hindi, and Urdu.^[28] Italian is the second most widely spoken language at work.^[29][30] As a result, the city's 9-1-1 emergency services are equipped to respond in over 150 languages.^[31]

Government

Main article: Municipal government of Toronto

Further information: Politics of Toronto

Toronto is a single-tier municipality governed by a mayor-council system. The structure of the municipal government is stipulated by the City of Toronto Act. The Mayor of Toronto is elected by direct popular vote to serve as the chief executive of the city. The Toronto City Council is a unicameral legislative body, comprised of 44 councillors representing geographical wards throughout the city. The mayor and members of the city council serve four-year terms without term limits. (Prior to the 2006 municipal election, the mayor and city councillors served three-year terms.)

At the start of the 2007 term, the city council will have seven standing committees, each consisting of a chair, a vice-chair and four other councillors. The Mayor names the committee chairs and the remaining membership of the committees is appointed by City Council.^[32] An executive committee is formed by the chairs of each of standing committee, in addition to the mayor, the deputy mayor and four other councillors. Councillors are also appointed to oversee the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto Police Services Board.

There are about 40 subcommittees, advisory committees and roundtables within the city council. These bodies are made up of city councillors and private citizen volunteers. Examples include the Pedestrian Committee, Waste Diversion Task Force 2010, and the