What do you love about life in Toronto?

My colleagues at the Star and I have written a lot lately about the aspects of Toronto that are causing many of us to find life a constant grind, and causing some of us to flee the city.

- EDWARD KEENAN

But I also want to ask you, as beach and patio and street festival season is in full swing: What do you (still) love about the city?

What is it that makes you grateful to be here? That, when you're stuck in a traffic jam or subway delay, you can reflect on as making it all worthwhile (or at least, as providing a hearty counterpoint to the complaints).

I don't mean, "my family is here," or "I can only work here." Those are things you might cite as reasons you have to be here. I mean things that make you want to stay here. Reasons you like life in Toronto.

I ask because after I wrote about the number of people fleeing the city recently, I got a lot of emails sharing the same complaints about traffic and affordability and changes people thought were for the worse.

But I also got a few emails saying it isn't all bad and I certainly agree it's not. One, from a reader named Thiru, offered a counterpoint to the complaints: