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Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin
Fair assessment. Despite the lifting of capacity limits and most other restrictions, the city still feels like it's been left as a quieter, more subdued version of itself. Granted, it also probably hasn't helped that it's been a particularly bitter winter, and that there's still some inertia in getting back to normal.
Speaking personally though, I've had many friends leave the city over the past 2 years - whether in search of affordable housing or new experiences; while others have just become more reclusive & withdrawn - so for me, it is a lesser version of itself. And with fewer people to go out with, that means I'm less likely to go out as well. While this may be anecdotal, the out-migration of young people from Toronto has been well documented.
That all said, with mask mandates disappearing next week and warmer weather on the way, I'm sure we'll see a bit more liveliness return to our streets. But otherwise, I'm in agreement that it may take a few years to get back to where we were in 2019.
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Hell, I'm one of them who moved out.
I think that's more of a Toronto specific phenomenon of the last 2 years particularly though, and Toronto / Montreal are likely the furthest behind from "returning to normal" as well.
As offices start to return to in person work more I fully expect the city to liven up more as people have to return to the city for work, and a lot of those who moved away slowly move back.
It'll be interesting to see how things are a year from now as we finally seem to be pulling out of COVID more or less for good. What does that look like? Right now in Toronto it's essentially immediately following the lifting of restrictions, it was obviously not going to bounce back 100% immediately. By fall universities will be fully back to classes, basically all offices will be done their return to work transitions, etc.