*

One thing I hear all the time, especially from people in my hometown, is that people in the city are rude and unfriendly.

This is a belief that I have never understood because I have lived here for 10 years and I just don’t see it.

I meet extremely friendly Torontonians every day. I meet strangers and share little funny moments of life with them every single day (well, as long as I’ve left my house…come on, everyone has those ‘stay in my pj’s’ kind of days!). I am constantly receiving offers of help with T’s stroller, or holding doors, offering me seats on TTC, etc.

A co-worker had an experience this week that has really struck a chord with me and I have been wanting to share this with as many people as possible in hopes of dispelling this idea that Torontonians are rude, stuck-up and narcissistic.

There was a morning this week where there were several subway and streetcar lines not operating. In a city of 2.86 million people, you can imagine the chaos that this caused as people were attempting to get to work for the day.

My friend was standing at a streetcar stop with a large crowd of people waiting for the substitute buses that were being dispatched to deal with the problem. A man in a vehicle pulled up, unrolled his window and said: “Ok, guys. I have room for 4 people.”
My co-worker and 3 others accepted the offer and were dropped-off near their work places.

There are good people in the city.

*