A weekend washout for the GTA

 https://www.cp24.com/video/2026/05/23/a-weekend-washout-for-the-gta-its-going-to-be-an-all-day-affair-climatologist-on-weather-update/ 

No matter how much rain in TO, there is always more of it in Vancouver. It shouldn't be fall in May. However, when Toronto finally gets summer, its summer for more than just a few months. Unfortunately, summer in Vancouver always seems so short, just like its short trains and short buildings. Even shorter-swimming-pools. One hopes that from June 1st to September 1st, Vancouver will have constant 25-30C days. Unfortunately, the dam rain sometimes kicks in to reduce the number of sunny summer days. Then by 2nd week of September, summer is fading & you're lucky to have spring like days. 

CTV News tours Toronto's and Canada's tallest building

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhIgf9wkIsQ , https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=106497

Greater Tokyo has as many people as Canada. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=12&status=15

Ontario only has a few big cities. Other than the GTA, Ottawa is the only other part of Ontario with over a million people. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=7&status=15 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15

Calgary ranked the top place for GTA families moving out of Ontario

 https://dailyhive.com/toronto/gta-families-move-to-calgary 

If you move from Toronto to Calgary, you will still be in a real city. However, Calgary has about a 3rd of the population. The GTA is so much more vast and dense than Calgary. The Calgary_Tower is only a 3rd of the height as the CN_Tower.

For those that move from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary or Edmonton to Vancouver, you will be shocked to see mostly 4 lane bottleneck-chokepoint bridges. The few 6 lane bridges in Greater Vancouver have no proper bus or HOV lanes, so its the epitome of congestion planning.

Calgary ranked the top place for GTA families moving out of Ontario

 https://dailyhive.com/toronto/gta-families-move-to-calgary

Heat and humidity set to return to the GTA starting Friday

 https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/08/07/toronto-weather-gta-heat-humidity

While Toronto & especially Montreal, can have cold winters, they're always set to have hot summers. In contrast, Vancouver sort-of has a summer that's more like spring or fall at  times.

Two Canadian cities rank among the world’s wealthiest

https://dailyhive.com/canada/cities-in-canada-among-worlds-wealthiest

While Toronto now has more people than Chicago, the GTA is still less populated than the Chicagoland Area. Toronto has yet to have a building with at least 100 floors like Chicago, NYC & Melbourne.

There is always a strong resistance to allow the Greater Vancouver Region to rival that of Greater Montreal or the Greater Seattle Area. Thus, the trains are shorter, most of the bridges are narrower & most of the buildings are like stumps. The keep it small & hold it back approach, is all part of the symbolism towards refusing to build proper big city size infrastructure. 

Bitter cold arrives in Toronto, GTA with additional snow possible this evening

 https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/02/18/toronto-weather-snow-storm-extreme-cold-forecast-southern-ontario/

An ‘arctic intrusion’ that has brought temperatures will feel as cold as -26C to the GTA

 https://www.cp24.com/local/toronto/2025/01/20/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-arctic-intrusion-that-has-brought-temperatures-that-will-as-cold-as-26-to-the-gta/

Fortunately, no one from backwards Vancouver or backwater BC was ever able to thwart or stunt the progress of Montreal & especially Toronto from becoming real mighty cities. Calgary & Edmonton have also benefited by not being under anything like the backwater BC mentality. 

Unfortunatly, most of Canada gets crappy cold winter weather & before things got ridiculously expensive in BC, people would increasingly move to Victoria & Vancouver to escape the harsh winters.

Greater Victoria hasn't been allowed to become a mighty city like Sydney, Australia or Montreal. Thus, it remains as a quintessential provincial backwater. Watered-down Vancouver hasn't been allowed to become a major city like Seattle. Indeed, Greater Vancouver's urban planning agenda has done almost everything possible to make sure that nothing on the scale of the GTA, the SF Bay Area or Melbourne, Australia exists in backwater BC. All one has to do is look at how small & inept most of the infrastructure is.

Extreme cold stretches across Toronto...

 https://toronto.citynews.ca/2025/01/19/extreme-cold-stretches-across-toronto-and-ontario-until-wednesday/

https://www.budgetyourtrip.com/compare/chicago-vs-toronto-4887398-6167865

https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/19863~14091/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Toronto-and-Chicago

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Toronto

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

Toronto braces for longest stretch of cold temperatures since 2022

 https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/toronto-braces-for-longest-stretch-of-cold-temperatures-since-2022/article_c34cebf6-cd12-11ef-8bd1-0784526b84e1.html

Prominent Toronto office tower will be completely demolished

 https://dailyhive.com/toronto/prominent-toronto-office-tower-completely-demolished There is a time when a stumpy Vancouver size building must be replaced with a Toronto size tower.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto

The Greater Toronto Area has been the only place in Canada where some Australian size residential towers have been permitted. So far, Montreal & Vancouver won't allow any residential towers to even reach 65 stories.

If Montreal were to ever allow something like a La_Defense, Parramatta or a Canary_Wharf on the London_Docklands, then some Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto size towers would potentially be allowed.

Extremely restrictive Vancouver can't stop Burnaby, Coquitlam & especially Surrey from eventually having some Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto size towers.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/3200-east-broadway-vancouver-rupert-station-mst-aquilini Since these buildings would be within the small city linmits of Vancover, they won't be allowed to be on the scale of what Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto permit.

No residential or office tower within the city limits of little Vancouver is allowed to be as tall as the Telus_Sky tower at 222.3 m (729 ft) in Calgary and Seattle's Rainier_Square_Tower at 850-foot (260 m). 

The Living_Shangri-La tower, at 200.86 metres (659 ft) and the Paradox_Hotel_Vancouver at 188-metre (617 ft) are the tallest within Vancouver.

Unfortunatly, Montreal can't quite be included into the category with, Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Toronto (BSMT). That's because their tallest buildings still have to be shorter that what Paris & Melbourne allow. However, the Greater Montreal transportation infrastructure is at a level of what you would expect for a big city to have. Fortunately, Québec has never been thwarted by anything like a BC Mind Virus (BCMV).

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane%2C+Sydney%2C+Melbourne+and+Toronto

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Brisbane+Airport+Railway+Line

Toronto and Freeway Widening: The Gift That Keeps on Giving (More Traffic)

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBESmfpB3vw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto#Transportation

The Real Reason Hwy 401 is the Busiest in North America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFBQDIY3V74

More Lanes are (Still) a Bad Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZwOAIect4

How Toronto Got Addicted to Cars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkO-DttA9ew

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Toronto_Area#Transportation

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Toronto

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

The goal to build one of Metro Vancouver's new tallest buildings

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/citizen-tower-anthem-properties-burnaby-metrotown-ipo

Unlike Calgary and Seattle, Vancouver won't permit any residential building to be this tall within its strictly controlled city limits. Fortunately, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey will allow taller buildings.

https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/vancouver-developer-seeks-to-raise-82m-for-metrotown-project-via-ipo-9508936 This is Business Outside of Vancouver.

https://storeys.com/anthem-properties-burnaby-66-storey-citizen-metro-king-metrotown This is like an average semi-tall building in Toronto and the GTA.

https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/real-estate/two-more-towers-up-to-80-storeys-tall-more-rental-housing-could-be-coming-to-burnabys-brentwood-8461795 There has been an unwretten ruel in Greater Vancouver for several decades. As long as something is impressive by PG, Kamloops, Kelowna & especially Victoria standards, that's good enough for backwater BC.

https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/burnaby-councillor-opposes-plan-for-80-storey-tower-in-burnaby-5509305 No buildings taller than 40 stories & no roads wider than 4 lanes is very symbolic of the, KEEP IT SMALL mentality of BC. Even the newer SkyTran cars still only form 4 car trains. The Canada Line only has 2 car trains. 

https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9875630 When the scale of things in BC have been kept back for several decades, its difficult for some people to fathom an attempt to have a taller or larger scale of developments and infrastructure. 

Even the mountains just north of LA are allowed to be taller than those of (Greater_Vancouver).

Toronto’s CNE is off to a rough start after record-setting rainfall on opening weekend

 https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontos-cne-is-off-to-a-rough-start-after-record-setting-rainfall-on-opening-weekend/article_434d6f46-5f14-11ef-9fc3-1322ab0c4434.html

It's always unfortunate when a Vancouver type rainstorm causes the CNE to be watered down. 

Five of Ontario's top 10 worst roads are located in the Greater Toronto Area

 https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/five-of-ontario-s-top-10-worst-roads-are-located-in-the-toronto-area-1.6903196 Of course its a good idea to make sure that the roads & streets are as smooth as possible.

The Greater_Toronto_Area is gradually becoming a vast urban region like the Chicago_metropolitan_area. So many more modes of transit must be provided for the GTA. IE, trains, HOV, bus & bike lanes. 

https://www.insauga.com/one-of-ontarios-worst-roads-is-among-the-busiest-streets-in-mississauga

Being from the BC Lower_Mainland, it's hard to believe that Canada's GTA is on its way to becoming like another Chicagoland. But then I always remember that Ontario, like Quebec & Alberta aren't under anything like the BC mentality & all of its restrictions.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/worst-roads-ontario-2024-1.7215979 

In effect, the Burlington_Bay_James_N._Allan_Skyway went from a BC like 4 lane bridge to an 8 lane Ontario crossing in the mid 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Bay_James_N._Allan_Skyway#1985_twin_bridge

https://511on.ca/map/Cctv/loc06--3 Both bridges are safer than cramming everything into one crossing structure. 

https://burlingtontraffic.ca/qew-burlington-bay-james-n-allan-skyway The 4th lane each way could eventually become a bus & HOV_lane.

The 4 lane Burlington_Canal_Lift_Bridge is more like a narrow Vancouver bridge. Just 2 lanes each way with no space for an emergency lane or bus & HOV lane. That's why the Burlington_Bay_James_N._Allan_Skyway crossing is still better than any bridge within the Vancouver city limits. The skyway crossing combined with the lift bridge, provides 12 lanes, because the emergency lanes usually aren't counted. Just imagine if all that was funneled into a 4 lane Vancouver bridge. Fortunately, the backward BC bottleneck mentality has never taken over Ontario. 

While Oak Street in Vancouver has 6 lanes, the Oak_Street_Bridge was only designed to have 4 lanes. Thus, it's a fine example of the BC mentality and the multigenerational Vancouverization agenda. Vancouverization is all about watering things down & creating bottlenecks or chokepoints.

https://wikimedia.org/Oak_Street_Bridge.jpg

The narrow 4 lane bridge should have been designed with a provision to eventually be at least 8 lanes wide. 3 lanes each way, plus a bus & HOV lane each way, but that would conflict with the narrow mindedness of Vancouver. It's sad that at least a bus & bike bridge wasn't built next to it, but that would conflict with the BC bottleneck planning approach to things.

https://wikimedia.org/Oak_Street_Bridge_and_Fraser_River.jpg

https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/70.html A 6 lane street funneled into a 4 lane bridge. WTH?

The Oak_Street_Bridge really should have been opened as a 10 lane bridge. Yet, Oak_Street has only 6 lanes. A 10 lane OSB could have not only allowed for 3 lanes each way, but a bus & HOV_lane each way. Then the 5th lane each way could have been an emergency lane. 

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/driving-and-cycling/traveller-information/routes-and-driving-conditions/hov-lanes

At the very least, a HOV, bus & bike bridge should be built next to the OSB. However, the multi generational backward BC mentality just doesn't care.

The 4 lane joke that is the George_Massey_Tunnel, should have had a HOV, bus & bike bridge built next to it several decades ago. But that would have actually created better mobility & less congestion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Massey_Tunnel#Replacement Of course just like with the old tunnel, the new tunnel won't have a provision for LRT & emergency lanes. Thus, a LRT bridge would eventually have to be built next to it. Apparently, having a train from the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal to the airport still doesn't make sense. That's just the backward BC way.

If you are from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, the Pacific NW, Australia or just about anywhere, the watered down BC infrastructure will surprise you.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=old+and+new+narrow+bridges 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=bus+and+bike+bridges

Toronto’s road construction season

 https://globalnews.ca/news/10464912/toronto-construction-season-traffic-solutions/

Driving on parts of the Gardiner that's temporarily reduced to 2 lanes each way for repairs, can give people in the GTA a sense of what it's like driving in stunted Vancouver.

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/03/19/gardiner-construction-phase-two-dufferin-strachan/

The mostly six lane Gardiner should have been designed to have had at least a 4th lane each way so that it could have been used as a bus & HOV lane.

https://bayview-news.com/2024/03/bayview-leaside-commuters-face-impact-of-2024-road-work.html/

Nothing like the Gardiner_Expressway or the Don_Valley_Parkway was ever allowed in Vancouver. That's because a clearing of houses would have been required. Thus, it's been tough enough just to have something like a 6 lane Lake_Shore_Boulevard (LSB) in Vancouver.

Kingsway_at_the_Vancouver-Burnaby boundary, is funneled into a 4 lane bottleneck just east of Boundary+Road. 

Hastings_Street_in_downtown_Vancouver is funneled into a 5 lane cokepoint & gets even narrower.

The Knight_Street-Clark Drive corridor isn't always 6 lanes wide. There are a few 4 lane chokepoints. An urban 6 lane corridor is essential, because a 3rd lane each way can become a bus & HOV lane. However, the congestive Vancouver approach is to funnel everything into a 4 lane bottleneck. Fortunately, most cities have allowed enough extra space for bus & HOV lanes on a roadbed that's more than 2 lanes each way.

Is Toronto construction just as safe & easy as last year?

https://www.toronto.ca/news/city-of-toronto-kicks-off-busy-billion-dollar-construction-season/

Of course all the various construction projects can't be done in one year, as it can take several years or even decades.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/toronto-get-ready-for-more-traffic-delays-as-the-city-kicks-off-its-billion-dollar/article_e5069002-9b38-52d0-aba3-c09b03e720b7.html

Whenever possible express bus & HOV lanes can enable more people to move around. However, if the highway is only a 2-4 lane waggon road, its almost impossible to have proper express bus & HOV lanes on those sections. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Toronto

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

TD towers

 https://robertmoffatt115.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/marketing-mies-at-the-td-centre , 

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/city/toronto

https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/images/LC/tspa_0110747f.jpg

https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0110747F&R=DC-TSPA_0110747F

https://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/db7/incoming/article18648565.ece/BINARY/image.jpg

https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/images/LC/tspa_0110685f.jpg

https://robertmoffatt115.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/bregman-hamann-spaces-for-people/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/td-centre-revitalization-project-1.4200276

https://www.google.com/search?q=toronto-dominion+centre+history&rlz=1C1GCEA_enCA844CA844&source=lnms&tbm=isch&biw=1920&bih=969

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/toronto-dominion-tower/12639 Just a Vancouver stump.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

Urban things in Toronto

https://urbantoronto.ca/


https://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/one


https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2019/06/commerce-court-north


https://skyrisecities.com/database/projects/cibc-square


https://toronto.skyrisecities.com/database/projects/pinnacle-one-yonge


https://dailyhive.com/toronto/ysl-residences-toronto-tallest-building-canada

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA

TTC Subway...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_subway

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Toronto_Subway_2026.png

http://dailyhive.com/toronto/line-1-partial-closure-november-24-25 ,

http://dailyhive.com/toronto/ttc-delay-overcrowding-video ,

http://dailyhive.com/toronto/ttc-code-red-report-lack-funding ,

http://dailyhive.com/toronto/ttc-in-movies-tv-youtube-2017 ,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Innovia_Metro#Toronto

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Toronto_2011_wiki.jpg

http://dailyhive.com/toronto/environment-canada-weather-advisory-toronto-november-15-2018

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_American_rapid_transit_systems_by_ridership

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-capacity_rail_system#List_of_systems

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Toronto

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=GTA