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Moss Park / Queen & Sherbourne

this may be a little off topic but i was mugged in Naples Italy a couple of months ago, in broad daylight with people around, about 20 minutes after setting off from our hotel. First time it's ever happened to me. My watch was torn off my wrist and i yelled and struggled for about a minute.. guess i'm lucky i wasn't stabbed. Tourists are marked the second they set foot on the streets.. Naples is a very horrible place for many other reasons besides.. Do not go there, consider yourselves warned!
 
Was it the famous tourist scam they do all over Italy, where small children surround you with cardboard while they're tryiing to go through your pockets?
 
From the agent that leased the space:

It’s been leased to a high end furniture showroom/store. They’re new to the city. I believe they are from Germany and the Netherlands. Nice stuff from what I’ve seen in pictures from their other locations around the world. They should be open in early summer. They have some work to do first.
 
I got mugged... out of all places, at Kew Gardens in the Beaches when I was 14. We were riding our skateboards selfishly at about 10:00 at night and were approached by some white kids with oversized sweaters. Lost some TTC tickets and a few fivers, but my body was intact.

I used to have to take the bus down Sherbourne in the early morning for a summer job... it definitely didn't look appealing for a leisurely strole, particularly around Moss Park.
 
After reading this thread I had a look at Google Maps to see what area you're all talking about. I'm not from Toronto as you might guess, infact I'm not from Canada. I live in Cambridge, UK.

When I was over in Toronto last May, I was staying on Carlton St. One night I decided to take a stroll around the city - it was about 2am, and I didn't really know where I was going. I took a left out of the hotel, further down Carlton St, and then went into Allan Gardens and had a sit down on a bench. Is this a bad area? I did see a fair few hookers in my stroll, and a couple of homeless guys, but I stopped for a chat with some of them (the homeless guys, not the hookers, I just politely declined their offers of "company") and they seemed alright! (I think my English accent gave us something to chat about.)

On my 2am stroll, I continued down Jarvis St, onto Queen St East, and back round to Yonge, and didn't have any trouble. The area didn't look particularly run-down (im comparison with some of the shit-heaps we have over in England!!) Is this area really, really bad? I don't want to jump to any hasty conclusions but it seems that if there's a couple of bad incidents in Toronto, the whole area surrounding the incident is tarnished with the same brush! Over here in London, we have daily shootings and stabbings - does anyone think that because Canada is (stereotypically) quite a peaceful country, with not a great trouble, that when there is trouble, more of a fuss is made about it?
 
Jarvis along the strip you walked is the western border of one of the poorer and more dangerous areas of the city. But its all relative. Toronto is quite safe so it doesn't come close to the more dangerous neighbourhoods in American cities ( I haven't been to the UK so I can't compare to there). The area between Carlton south to Queen and Jarvis east to the Don River has some sketchy areas but is starting to improve. Redeveloping the Regent Park housing projects is a big step forward.
 
Cut Chemist (great handle by the way), you indeed sort of skirted the edges of some of the east side's more notorious neighbourhoods. While I've never found the area particularly dangerous it does have the vast majority of the downtown's services catering to the homeless and the downtrodden so there's a real presence of poverty, even though there's condos, galleries and nicer pockets (i.e., Cabbagetown, Furniture District, Gaybourhood, etc.) mixed in. If you had walked a block east (instead of west) once you reached Queen, you would have been in the "heart" of what this thread is about, but I honestly don't think you would have come to any different of a conclusion.
 
I agree, I lived at Queen & Jarvis for a year before getting amrried and buying a house in the nabe.

The area has more than its fair share of sketchy characters, and I definately saw some weird stuff. We never encountered any violence or danger, just extreme weirdness. Once you start seeing the same street people you begin to recognize them and the place feels less threatening. There are also a surprising number of young professionals in the nabe too, but of course those on the fringe are easier to notice.
 
I walk down Sherbourne on a daily basis, have only ever been propositioned once (by a rough looking streetwalker), other than that, can't say its that bad, am also a Brit, and have lived on some interesting 'hoods in London,that were no worse. I think its how you carry yourself that can make the difference, I have a certain presence (am 6 foot 5 tall), people tend to stay out of my way!
 
BUGEYEDBRIT said:
I walk down Sherbourne on a daily basis, have only ever been propositioned once (by a rough looking streetwalker), other than that, can't say its that bad, am also a Brit, and have lived on some interesting 'hoods in London,that were no worse. I think its how you carry yourself that can make the difference, I have a certain presence (am 6 foot 5 tall), people tend to stay out of my way!
Click to expand...

What happens when you're driving the Sprite down Sherbourne, and Lucas (the Prince of Darkness) shows up?
 
i've been condoized at richmond and sherbourne for 5 yrs and have enjoyed the benefits of living 200m away from a great park and rec facility of moss park/john innes.

i play alot of basketball and since the courts have been installed, the numbers of players weeknights is incredible-two full courts, perhaps 60-70 guys. but it's been great watching the evolution of participants-at first mostly moss park regent kids now morphing into a combo of students, condo dwellers and the moss park/regent kids. it's a great equalizer, and while people are not 'making friends for life' or anything, it attracts all types of hoopsters who want a good workout, good game, a great open space with nice courts... i'll swing by 5 nights a week on my way home from work to check who's there and determine if i'll play. one of those quietly unassuming things that make a city work

john innes is an aging facility but has all the goods (track, weight room pool, billards) to stay in shape. i play ball there on sundays in the winter and it's free sunday afternoons. always a good run

just a bit of a narrative here about how much of a home i consider the park to be, with an incredible diversity of people using it for all types of things (gardening, bball, soccer, baseball, smoking dope, wall ball, etc. by the way, for you photo enthusiasts, if you havent been in john innes, they have a great collection of photos of the park/rec facility spanning across the ages-check it out
 
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