The New York-based architecture and design trade magazine, METROPOLIS, has released its 2015 list of Planet Earth’s most liveable cities. TORONTO is #1. This comes shortly after The Economist also ranked ‘Big T.O’. as ‘the world’s best city to live in’.  We must be doing something right.

Urban experts including Danish architect Jan Gehl and the Secretary General of the UN’s World Tourism Organization, Taleb Rifai did the ranking after considering a variety of facets – housing, amenities, connectivity and the pleasures a city has to offer those who live in it.  <BELOW – Top 10 of the World’s Most Liveable Cities – Metropolis Magazine
#1 – TORONTO
2 – Tokyo
3 – Helsinki
4 – Copenhagen
5 – Hong Kong
6 – Indianapolis
7 – Medellin
8 – Pittsburgh
9 – Rotterdam
10 – Singapore

Paul Makovsky, editorial director at Metropolis: “We had a lot of debates about why TORONTO over some of these other cities, but in the end we felt that this year TORONTO deserved to be No. 1.”  In an interview with Metro News he cited TORONTO’s commitment to urban revitalization with projects like the redevelopment of Regent Park into a mixed-income neighbourhood and the transformation of the waterfront.  Another big factor: the Tower Renewal Project, which is modernizing high-rise residential buildings in the inner suburbs. “In many other cities they’re simply demolishing (old tower blocks) but your program to renovate those buildings is really admirable and something that other cities should be looking at.”  Makovsky also mentioned transit projects such as the Eglinton Crosstown and the Union-Pearson Express, a train connecting Union Station with Pearson Airport. “I went to check out the UP Express and it seemed like everyone was really critical of the project. But they failed to realize that it’s the only air-rail link in North America.”  And to top it off – “New York doesn’t have a good Chinatown, but you have four of them.”

<PHOTO ABOVE – Getty Images>