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 agree with this.
When we refer Y/E as midtown, and Yonge/ sheppard-Finch as uptown, do we realize that these "towns" are not really towns per se, but just a very skinny strip along Yonge st? Like King of Kensington mentioned, in the so called midtown, 3 minutes into east or west of Yonge/Davisville, you are essetially in the burbs more like High Park than a vibrant city. Does a single commercial street makes it
"midtown".
On the other hand, south of Queen St, vibrant street life extends from Parliament all the way to Dufferin st. Between Queen and Bloor, probably between Jarvis and a bit east of Bathurst. North of Bloor st, more like between Avenue and Yonge. It gets more and more skinny the northern you go.
So does a narrow 400M largely quiet residential strip wrapping around Yonge st constitute a midtown or uptown? I don't think so.
For myself, downtown is roughly south of Queen St between Sherbourne and Strachan-ish. This can go as far as Dundas st between Spadina and Church.
This is where most of the "actions" happen: the tourists traps, department stores, office buildings, tons of restaurants etc.
North of Queen st (or Dundas St between Spadina/Church), retail declines and you see more and more old condos and apartments. There are much less large retail or office buildings. So I would say this is our midtown until Yorkville between Spadina and Yonge. There is basically very little east of Church st.
As to uptown, who cares. Anything north of Yorkville is uptown. What's the difference between Y/E and Y/Sheppard anyway. They are just semi-suburbs with a couple of busy streets with retail (Yonge, part of Mount Pleasant, Eglinton etc). To me, they are all residential, and if one doesn't leave there, you hardly ever need to go there for anything.