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Downtown, Midtown and Uptown

doady said:
I think what people would consider downtown, midtown, and uptown also changes as a city grows and gets older. They must change... especially when the boundaries have changed as well. It might have made sense to call Yonge-Eglinton "Uptown" back when it was actually in the north part of Toronto, but now that it is in the central part of Toronto, still calling it "Uptown" is just living in the past, and nostalgia is just sad.
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I wouldn't write it off as nostalgia. Just a belief that changing political boundaries do not change the essence of neighbourhoods, including their names. I laugh at someone who claims that "Cooksville doesn't exist any more. It's Mississauga now." - and I have heard people make that sort of claim. Cooksville didn't disappear, it's still there and I can still point at a location on a map and say "that's Cooksville". It's just the people who collect the garbage and clear the streets who changed.

People who don't believe in shifting definitions are thinking that the Uptown neighbourhood is still the Uptown neighbourhood. And merging Mississauga with Toronto wouldn't turn Clarkson into Long Branch.
 
doady said:
I think what people would consider downtown, midtown, and uptown also changes as a city grows and gets older. They must change... especially when the boundaries have changed as well. It might have made sense to call Yonge-Eglinton "Uptown" back when it was actually in the north part of Toronto, but now that it is in the central part of Toronto, still calling it "Uptown" is just living in the past, and nostalgia is just sad.
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I don't think that changes anything. "Uptown" doesn't have to mean the northern extreme of the City. Lots of cities have "uptowns" and they're often relatively central areas.
 
The only way I see closure to this discussion is if Downtown, Midtown and Uptown are officially defined by the city (on street signs) and/or the TTC (such as attaching "Midtown" or "Uptown" to an existing station name). Currently it seems like only Downtown is really defined - on subway signage, by the "Downtown Yonge" BIA, etc.
 
Myself and people I've talked to always refer to areas all around the financial district downtown.

Uptown would be all the areas around the bloor/yorkville area.

Haven't really used the term midtown, but I guess anything in-between.
 
MBS said:
Myself and people I've talked to always refer to areas all around the financial district downtown.

Uptown would be all the areas around the bloor/yorkville area.

Haven't really used the term midtown, but I guess anything in-between.
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It's time to update that, considering that even the street poles on Yonge say "downtown".
 
MBS said:
Myself and people I've talked to always refer to areas all around the financial district downtown.

Uptown would be all the areas around the bloor/yorkville area.

Haven't really used the term midtown, but I guess anything in-between.
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Why would Midtown necessarily be between Downtown and Uptown? It can be mid-town in relation to Toronto's borders.

In regards to Uptown, it is more a state of mind than a name indicating location. The Bloor-Yorkville shopping area is what makes Uptown uptown with all those upper crust types shopping away behind the glass you're peering through.

And Downtown, like others have said, shrinks and grows depending on how far away from it you are, although a reference to Downtown including anything north of the railway tracks (at Summerhill) from any distance is just sloppy.

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Downtown,Midtown and Uptown: Toronto has all three-like Manhattan!

Everyone: Interesting debate on Toronto terms on what is considered Downtown,Midtown and Uptown.

In Manhattan,NYC Downtown and Midtown are distinct but Uptown is a bit open-Upper W or E sides or Harlem and any point N is Uptown.

Toronto definitely has all three and I agree with what has been posted so far-it basically all centers on Yonge Street.

Let me use a Philadelphia term here and mention the term "Center City"-
That obviously would be what is considered Downtown Toronto.
Observations here from LI MIKE
 
I was thinking about this the other day...and can't come up with a good answer. I grew up at Yonge and Bloor, and certainly didn't consider that "downtown"--downtown was Union station, King and Bay, etc. Basically the financial district. Nowadays I would call everything south of about Wellesley and between University and Church "downtown," Wellesley to Eglinton "midtown" and uptown...who cares? Practically never been north of Eg in my life anyway ;).

I guess this goes to the question of where Toronto's centre is. One thing we have in common with a number of (much) larger cities is an essentially polycentric layout, with the hubs for retail, finance and culture all located in distinct and uncontiguous areas. The more common model in cities of a similar size in North America is certainly to have those functions *much* closer together, as in Montreal and San Francisco. whereh the spearation is no more than a few blocks. Hell, even in Chicago the Loop and near north are a stone's throw apart. The way that Toronto's very large central area (from the lake to Yorkville) has such discrete poles with very intense urbanity in between is one of my favourite things about it.

And Scarberian, big thumb's up at your use of "cromulent."
 
I'm not sure if the downtown/midtown/uptown thing really "works" that well for Toronto. Yonge and Eglinton is for instance often referred to as "uptown" or "midtown" but while it does sort of serve as a satellite CBD, it doesn't really have a downtown-ish feel at all - just venture not very far east or west of Yonge and you're in quiet, leafy, outer-city area (i.e. Davisville, Chaplin Estates, Sherwood Park) that feels much more like High Park than say, Yonge and Dundas.

It works much better in Manhattan where it is a very narrow island that you can designate dt/mt/ut without having an extra "west side" or "east side" (OK they do exist but they're not separate from dt/mt/ut).
 
I was at the Urban Affairs library today and I found some planning documents about the Central Area of Toronto (the definition still used today) from the mid-1970s. Within the larger Central Area, they had Downtown and Midtown defined.

Downtown was from College (west of Yonge) and Gerrard (east of Yonge) down to the Gardiner and ran east to Jarvis. The western boundary was University (until Queen), Simcoe (until King), John (until Front) and then finally Bathurst.

Midtown was split into South Midtown and North Midtown (why not Midtown and Uptown?) South Midtown was below Bloor - running to Sherbourne to Queen's Park. North Midtown was Yorkville - stretching north to the CPR tracks west of Yonge and to Rosedale Valley Rd. east of Yonge.
 
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