Remind yourself that you’re in love with Toronto

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an affiliate of The Economist magazine, released its annual list of most livable cities, and it was a clean sweep of the top five for the Canucks and the Aussies. For the fifth year straight, Melbourne was in first place (Vancouver was on top the year before that), with Vancouver third, Toronto fourth, and Calgary in a fifth-place tie with Adelaide. The only other country to have a city in the top five was Austria, with Vienna in second place. Those crafty Aussies also took seventh with Sydney and eighth with Perth; Auckland, New Zealand was ninth, and Helsinki, Finland tied to round out the top 10 with Zurich, Switzerland.

Deciding the placements of 140 cities were categories that included stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, using a weighted matrix. In addition to its overall ranking, Toronto was named the eighth safest city on the list. Overall, with 100 being a perfect city, Toronto rated a 97.2.

But a “rating” doesn’t tell the story of a city. We know the real story of how lucky we are to be here because we live it every day. We know how safe we feel walking its streets, how secure in its (at least limited by world standards) lack of corruption, how clean the subway is and how easy it is to hail a cab, how our kids get to go to school without our worrying all day that they’ll get shot, how there’s always a store or a drive-through open when you need one — and how there is always something to do, and somewhere to go to find people in a lonely moment. What really matters is the less tangible; like any good relationship, we love Toronto less because of the qualities it possesses than how it makes us feel.

Toronto is a great city not just because of what it has, but because of what it might have, that feeling of limitless possibility we get to enjoy because of all those quantifiable things that get it on a list like this, that make it safe, both physically and emotionally, to explore.

As Jane Jacobs wrote, “By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange.” In Wanderlust: A History of Walking, author Rebecca Solnit wrote: “Cities have always offered anonymity, variety, and conjunction, qualities best basked in by walking: one does not have to go into the bakery or the fortune-teller's, only to know that one might. A city always contains more than any inhabitant can know, and a great city always makes the unknown and the possible spurs to the imagination.”

Toronto's walkability is unbeatable!

The CNE opens this weekend, which for many of us marks the unofficial end of summer, those last couple weeks to cram in some sun and get the kids ready for school. Before you let reality resume, use our still-long days and summer warmth to wander, and possibly spur your own imagination.

Take your sweetie to the Chester Hill Lookout for a goodnight kiss. A few blocks north of the Danforth near Broadview, after a pleasant westerly walk down Chester Hill Road, you’ll find overlooking the DVP one of the most stunning views in the city.

Seek out some of the city’s private streets, just don’t tell them I told you to. These streets are on private property, so leave the car and if you get caught, just pretend you’re lost and beat a hasty retreat. Southwest of Queen and Dufferin, between two houses on Melbourne Street, you’ll find the half dozen or so beautiful Victorian terraced homes of Melbourne Place. Wychwood Park, perhaps our best-known private street, is a Davenport/Bathurst enclave that was once home to Marshall McLuhan. The University of Toronto owns the mansions of Elmsley Place, just off St. Joseph Street east of Queen’s Park Crescent.

Come the next rain day, visit the conservatory at Centennial Park for 12,000 square feet of stunning botanical garden in three greenhouses with every-changing flower displays. Next sunny day, head for Ward’s Island, the easternmost part of Centre Island, and enjoy a walk through cottage country in the heart of the city.

Designed by internationally renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, Toronto Music Garden at Harbourfront is another inner-city gem you likely haven’t taken the time to explore but should. Gorgeous gardens, live music on concert nights, and free admission.

As city innovator Patrick Geddes said, “A city is more than a place in space; it is a drama in time.” To really experience Toronto, forget about the ratings and remind yourself how it feels.