Never Mind the Valley: Here's Toronto

"The capital of cool"?

Seriously?

Toronto has a fantastic multicultural population which means good eats, but my compliments would end there.

Compared to when I grew up (I now live in the suburbs of Toronto), I find Toronto to be dirty and run down. The summer smog warnings are nothing to be proud of.

GTA (Greater Toronto Area) drivers are among the rudest drivers I've ever seen (red light means GO!). Unless you live in the downtown core, you basically need a car. And the major arteries in and out of the city are hardly world class.

The transit system, which everyone brags about, sucks. Compared to Montreal, which has an excellent subway system, geographic coverage is lacking. If you live at one of the corners, you're on a bus for an hour before you get to a subway station.

While crime isn't nearly as bad as the worst US cities, gun crime is much more prevalent than it was when I was young.

The tech industry is doing fairly well here, but Toronto isn't the shiny gem it used to be.