And I’m not alone, either. Witness new Tumblr “Fuck Yeah Toronto” [via] that, among other bits and bobs, showcases some great photography like the example below (I hope it’s okay I’m putting a small version of it here). More importantly, the caption under the blog title reads “Because if you don’t love Toronto, you probably have no soul”. In this instance, the exclamation “Fuck yeah” seems perfectly appropriate.

I say this because: a) I’m bored with everyone hating Toronto, especially those who live here; b) Toronto is pretty fucking great, despite the glaring fact that it is not and never will be ‘like New York’. Get over it already; c) over the last 6-12 months, Toronto has seen a resurgence of both civic participation and a sense of pride, urgency and excitement about the city. A good chunk of that, I’d argue, stems from the sense of community that has emerged in the Toronto ‘Twitter-sphere’ and has also been nurtured and encouraged by award-winning magazine Spacing, and the two main Toronto blogs, Torontoist and blogTO.

That is, I admit, a little problematic given the demographics (largely young-ish, urban and uni-educated). But the dismal cloud of hopelessness that has always pervaded this city has, in uneasy fits and starts, started to lift and clear. People are feeling hopeful again, sometimes because of seemingly insignificant things. Some of us have stopped assuming that, despite all we have here, we were just going to give up at some point and move to NYC, San Francisco or London.

So, sure, such straightforward boosterism is sometimes a little crass. But, amidst a swirl of change and growth, there are times an exuberant, irrational yell is the truly optimistic response. To wit: Fuck Yeah Toronto! Now this is something I can get behind.