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Cabbagetown

Skeezix said:
There is no formal boundary. Neighbourhoods in Toronto don't have official boundaries. All a matter of convention and/or opinion.

But, you are absolutely correct - it is a large, dense and diverse area.
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Actually there really are formal numbered neighborhoods with boundaries established by the City. They are viewable on the city map tool. In this case they do conflict somewhat with convention. Neighbourhood 73, Moss Park, includes what is generally called Cabbagetown between Parliament and Sherbourne from Carlton to Shuter.
 
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Jonny5 said:
Actually there really are formal numbered neighborhoods with boundaries established by the City. They are viewable on the city map tool. In this case they do conflict somewhat with convention. Neighbourhood 73, Moss Park, includes what is generally called Cabbagetown between Parliament and Sherbourne from Carlton to Shuter.
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There is nothing really formal about them. The City has neighbourhood mapping which was developed at the staff level for primarily for the purpose of social service planning and delivery, and the "boundaries" were based on Statscan economic data and a number of other criteria (e.g. ensuring that each neighbourhood had roughly the same population, respecting service boundaries of social service agencies, etc.). This is not usually the basis on which most Torontonians discern neighbourhood boundaries.

There are 160 of these neighbourhood areas. The City's website specifically notes that "Choices about neighbourhood boundaries were made to make the data in the profiles useful to as many users as possible, and are not intended to be statements or judgments about where a neighbourhood starts or ends". It's this mapping that was included in the City's open data system. They can be, and are, adjusted by staff for planning and service delivery reasons or to better reflect criteria.

These boundaries often do not correspond to actual neighbourhoods, and often overlap (what many people normally consider to be Cabbagetown is split between "Cabbagetown-South St. James Town " (71) and, as you note, "Moss Park" (73)). They have never been declared to be formal or official neighbourhood boundaries, nor has Council ever endorsed or approved them. They are very helpful and informative, and arguably offer up one view as to Toronto's boundaries, but they are not determinative anymore than anything else.
 
The City list is based on census tracts and they say:

Neighbourhoods are built from Statistics Canada Census Tracts. Census tracts include several city blocks and have on average about 4,000 people. Most service agencies have service areas that are defined by main streets, former municipal boundaries, or natural boundaries such as rivers. These service areas include several census tracts. It is not uncommon for service areas of community agencies to overlap. Choices about neighbourhood boundaries were made to make the data in the profiles useful to as many users as possible, and are not intended to be statements or judgments about where a neighbourhood starts or ends. The boundaries for these neighbourhoods were developed using the following criteria: See: http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=cf8a42f18beb2410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
 
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The City neighbourhoods are taken from census tracts. They say:
Neighbourhoods are built from Statistics Canada Census Tracts. Census tracts include several city blocks and have on average about 4,000 people. Most service agencies have service areas that are defined by main streets, former municipal boundaries, or natural boundaries such as rivers. These service areas include several census tracts. It is not uncommon for service areas of community agencies to overlap. Choices about neighbourhood boundaries were made to make the data in the profiles useful to as many users as possible, and are not intended to be statements or judgments about where a neighbourhood starts or ends. The boundaries for these neighbourhoods were developed using the following criteria:
1.originally based on an Urban Development Services Residential Communities map, based on planning areas in former municipalities, and existing Public Health neighbourhood planning areas;
2.no neighbourhood be comprised of a single census tract;
3.minimum neighbourhood population of at least 7,000 to 10,000;
4.where census tracts were combined to meet criteria 2 or 3 above, they were joined with the most similar adjacent area according to the percentage of the population living in low income households;
5.respecting existing boundaries such as service boundaries of community agencies, natural boundaries (rivers), and man-made boundaries (streets, highways, etc.);
6.maintaining neighbourhood areas small enough for service organizations to combine them to fit within their service area; and
7.the final number of neighbourhood areas be manageable for the purposes of data presentation and reporting. See:
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=cf8a42f18beb2410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
 
Jonny5 said:
Actually there really are formal numbered neighborhoods with boundaries established by the City. They are viewable on the city map tool. In this case they do conflict somewhat with convention. Neighbourhood 73, Moss Park, includes what is generally called Cabbagetown between Parliament and Sherbourne from Carlton to Shuter.
Click to expand...

People who live in Cabbagetown proper (ie, East of Parliament) will be only to happy to tell you that West of Parliament is Almost Cabbagetown, Not Quite Cabbagetown, or the S.O.B. (Seaton, Ontario, Berkeley).
 
If you put a dozen people in a room, it's not unlikely that you would end up with a dozen different opinions as to the boundaries of a neighbourhood.

Are there any other examples in Toronto like Cabbagetown, where a neighbourhood name that once applied to one area shifted over time to apply to another area? (other than Midtown and Uptown)
 
Skeezix said:
If you put a dozen people in a room, it's not unlikely that you would end up with a dozen different opinions as to the boundaries of a neighbourhood.

Are there any other examples in Toronto like Cabbagetown, where a neighbourhood name that once applied to one area shifted over time to apply to another area? (other than Midtown and Uptown)
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This is very common in many cities. If a neighbourhood becomes 'popular' its name tends to be 'appropriated' by adjacent area. In Montreal "The Plateau" expanded greatly as it became trendy. In Toronto "Moss Park" has shrunk as it became seedier and I think "Regent Park" is probably expanding now it is looking up.
 
Good examples. The Beach(es) is probably the best example in Toronto, with developers, realtors and aspirational residents expanding the boundaries east, west and north, with term "Upper Beaches" subject perhaps to the most abuse.

I was actually thinking more of examples where the name of the area actually shifted completely, such as Cabbagetown. Midtown and Uptown are the only ones that come to mind.
 
Other old names have disappeared, like Rose Hill, and some are nearly gone, like Deer Park, now both generically Yonge & St. Clair.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
Major housing projects tend to be needed to wipe out an old name.
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Just occurs to me that the downtown Chinatown is a good example of that. Development of the new city hall hastened the move west to Spadina. There are numerous examples of demographic shifts involving specific ethnic groups (e.g. Jewish Torontonians moving north along Bathurst), while the old neighbourhood evolved (e.g. Kensington, Little Italy), but in Chinatown's case the neighbourhood itself practically packed up and moved.
 
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