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Downtown or not downtown?

Which of the following are in downtown Toronto?

  • The Annex

    Votes: 33 61.1%
  • The Beaches

    Votes: 2 3.7%
  • Cabbagetown

    Votes: 39 72.2%
  • Casa Loma

    Votes: 5 9.3%
  • Christie Pits

    Votes: 6 11.1%
  • Church and Wellesley

    Votes: 48 88.9%
  • Exhibition Place

    Votes: 9 16.7%
  • The Grange

    Votes: 40 74.1%
  • Harbourfront

    Votes: 42 77.8%
  • High Park

    Votes: 4 7.4%
  • Kensington Market

    Votes: 41 75.9%
  • Leslieville

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Rosedale

    Votes: 4 7.4%
  • Trinity Bellwoods Park

    Votes: 13 24.1%
  • University of Toronto St. George campus

    Votes: 45 83.3%
  • Yonge and Eglinton

    Votes: 2 3.7%
  • Yonge and St. Clair

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Yorkville

    Votes: 37 68.5%
  • None of the above

    Votes: 4 7.4%

  • Total voters
    54
What about the rationale behind whether or not downtown extends to the actual lake and Harbourfront versus ending at Front street?
 
One viewpoint here http://www.torontoneighbourhoods.net/neighbourhoods/downtown

Down%20town%201_700.png
 
1) I love this thread. I wish the poll ranked the results by popularity rather than alphabetically, to see which neighborhoods are more or less likley to be considered downtown.
2) Regent Park is misspelled in the above map!
 
1) I love this thread. I wish the poll ranked the results by popularity rather than alphabetically, to see which neighborhoods are more or less likley to be considered downtown.

With 20 votes in:

Church and Wellesley 17
Grange Park 16
U of T 15
Harbourfront 14
Cabbagetown 13
Kensington Market 13
Yorkville 11
The Annex 10
Trinity Bellwoods Park 3
 
Reading from the results: it looks like about half agree with the "Bathurst to Don" definition.

Only a small number are "purists."

One point of contention seems to be between "south of Bloor" and another that stretches up to Yorkville but not as far east or west.
 
I think many of us do consider Bloor Street to be the northern boundary of what constitutes "downtown".

To the east, the Don Valley River would be a good line to draw.

To the south, the Harbourfront.

It's only that western boundary where many of us debate. Thinking back 15-20 years ago, I would say "Bathurst". Today, I'd most definitely be willing to stretch it further. These days, I consider Trinity-Bellwoods to be downtown. I'd even go as far to include Little Portugal, thereby making my western boundary to be the train tracks running southeast until you hit Liberty Village, which I would now include as downtown as well, on down to Exhibition Place.
 
I think many of us do consider Bloor Street to be the northern boundary of what constitutes "downtown".

To the east, the Don Valley River would be a good line to draw.

To the south, the Harbourfront.

It's only that western boundary where many of us debate. Thinking back 15-20 years ago, I would say "Bathurst". Today, I'd most definitely be willing to stretch it further. These days, I consider Trinity-Bellwoods to be downtown. I'd even go as far to include Little Portugal, thereby making my western boundary to be the train tracks running southeast until you hit Liberty Village, which I would now include as downtown as well, on down to Exhibition Place.

Some include Yorkville and less often the Annex, others don't.

But there's obviously a lot of overlap about what's downtown. More contentious is midtown? Some would say Yorkville, others would say Yonge and Eglinton.
 
I grew up with the conception (or at least was typically told) of downtown ending at Bloor, Midtown ending at Eglinton.

Midtown can include Rosedale, Davisville in the east and Forest Hill, Casa Loma in the west etc.
 
Once you get past Eglinton and into the northernmost reaches of the former city of Toronto (North Toronto), and then North York, it becomes less clear what you want to call it. Some people want to update the term "Uptown" which became the current Midtown so there can be an "Uptown" that goes along Yonge all the way to the end of the 416 (usually North York centre gets pulled into the discussion).
 
I grew up with the conception (or at least was typically told) of downtown ending at Bloor, Midtown ending at Eglinton.

Midtown can include Rosedale, Davisville in the east and Forest Hill, Casa Loma in the west etc.

To me, the old city north of St. Clair is North Toronto.

Is Midtown a section like the east and west ends, or a secondary downtown?
 
Come to think of it, what does "downtown" mean? Is it a fixed geographic area? The central business district? Where the skyscrapers, shopping and theatres are?

In Manhattan for instance, it's a fixed geography - downtown means Lower Manhattan (and it's also a directional - so going to Central Park from the Bronx is going downtown and the reverse is going uptown). So you have residential areas that aren't CBD-ish, like the Lower East Side included. Midtown Manhattan meanwhile, isn't "downtown" but very much functions as NYC's "downtown."
 
Tourists to NYC still often mistakenly call Midtown Manhattan "downtown Manhattan" though.

A fixed definition of downtown bounded geographically is probably going to be more well known or established among long time residents of a city. Those with less of a tie or history to the old city/inner city, probably including suburbanites who come into the city once in a while, are likely to be more loose with the definition or just assume downtown is roughly where all the skyscrapers and shopping and stuff tourists do are.
 
A fixed "south of Bloor" definition would include Kensington Market and Cabbagetown but not Yorkville, while a "skyscrapers" one would be the opposite.

Historically the area centered along Yonge between College and Davenport was thought of as the city's Midtown or Uptown and College to Front downtown. In some ways it's akin to Chicago's Loop and Near North Side, but it's really hard to find a good "break" between the southern and northern area (except maybe U of T/Queen's Park?)
 
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