Underground: Downtown Walkway "Path" Neighbourhoods: Annex, Avondale, Bay Corridor, Bloor East, Casa Loma, Chinatown, Downtown East, Entertainment District, Fashion District, Financial District, Harbourfront, King West Village, Merton, North York, Queen West, Rosedale, St.Lawrence, Summerhill, Yonge & Eglinton, Yonge & St. Clair, York Mills, Yorkville

Toronto is the undisputed financial capital of Canada. (Financial district slide show - min 20). As far as money goes in Canada . . . the buck stops here. Boasting a skyline that really is second to none from a global perspective, Toronto again reflects an architectural maturity in its approach. BCE place, The Royal Bank Building, Nova Scotia Tower, The Reichmann’s First Canadian Place, the lists just goes on and on.

Amidst all of these crowning glories and certainly unique by global standards, quality residential communities abound at the heart of this commercial infrastructure. Condo communities like, Empire Plaza on University Ave., Symphony Place at Roy Thompson Hall on King.  Both offer spacious, upgraded units as the obvious market is Canada’s financial elite either wanting a Pied de Terre or choosing to avoid the drive all together and live right down the street from work.

1 King West in a new condo hotel being built on King at Yonge St. that is worth checking out.   There are a host of quality developments scheduled for the area.   The SoHo is a boutique hotel and condominium development that I'll talk about in an upcoming article.

I personally am a core person, which loosely translated means that I prefer to not drive at all therefore I live only in condominiums in the very heart of the city.  It really is a pleasure to not have to start, consume most of your day and end your day fighting traffic, weaving in and out and all that cursing at others (and them cursing at you). Condo life takes all of this away, not to mention the horrific costs involved in having a car (gas, insurance, parking, maintenance, upkeep, etc.).

Toronto, like most major cities is full of cabs, but what makes Toronto unique is that there is a choice of caliber of cab. That’s right, there are your conventional beaters that you end up having to drive in most cities, but there is a very strong independent cab service in Toronto that has visibly set out to reset the standard for taxiing in Toronto. Cabs are affordable by all standards in Toronto and these well maintained independent cabs charge the same rate as the grungy ones! Go figure! Well, you just step up and flag your cab down. You pick the cab and the quality of ride. I use them every day and cannot give them enough credit.

Another cool thing about Toronto is the way that it has adapted to combat its viscous winter weather. Friends of mine in America consistently tell me that they came to Toronto on business for a couple days one winter and there was nobody on the streets. They are fascinated when I explain to them the intricate maze of underground tunnels connecting the entire down town. You can get into the tunnels as far north as Atrium on Bay which is approximately 38 Elm St. at Minto Plaza and network your way through retail complexes, hotels, restaurants and just about anything/everything else you might name clear down to Royal Bank Plaza, First Canadian Place, Union Station, just to mention a few.

Toronto summers are excellent, kind of what South Florida winters are, especially to me. I am a heat baby whose tolerance level drops off at about 70 degrees (pardon my imperial measure but you Canadians are the only ones in North America to have changed you weight and measure) - figure that one out! My return this year in early May shocked me back into the reality that Toronto’s weather really is acceptable by my needs analysis chart on or around July 1st and runs somewhere into October normally. I know hardy Canadians who say the best months are when that Northerly wind is blowing torrents of frozen rain, sleet and snow into your face, but I just have never gotten there and don’t anticipate getting there any time soon if you know what I mean.

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