We stayed in a hotel in Toronto for one night this week. At checkout I questioned an unexplained item for just under ten bucks that appeared on the bill, described only as "DMP charge". Turns out that it's one of those almost ubiquitous fees designed to finance the local tourism authority.
Remind me how that works? If you actually show up in the city, which is presumably what the tourism authority is trying to induce you to do, then you get hit with this fee. If you stay the hell away from the place, no fee! How smart is that?
Probably the threat of a ten dollar sneak addition to your hotel bill won't put you off visiting Toronto, but this might: right now the city is all but impossible to get around. Parts of the subway system, such as it is, are closed nights and weekends for essential upgrades. The main train station is being rebuilt. And just about every major road in the city is being dug up.
After years, if not decades, of neglect, the city is trying to fix all its infrastructure at once. The reason? The Pan Am Games are coming to the area in 2015, and the politicians don't want to be embarrassed when delegates from much poorer nations down south realize how badly Toronto manages these things.
I always used to joke about Toronto being a good place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there. If you are still tempted to go, maybe best to wait until after 2015, when most of the work is finished. Just remember to budget an extra ten bucks for that fee.
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