Is the west side of Toronto more prominent than the east side?

[Midtown Urbanist]

It would be interesting what the plans for the Don River, east Portlands, East Bayfront and ultimately the Unilever site will do for the perception of the east-end in the future.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

It would be interesting what the plans for the Don River, east Portlands, East Bayfront and ultimately the Unilever site will do for the perception of the east-end in the future.

IMHO Unilever/Streetcar is going to be a massive, Canary Wharf-style change. It'll match South Core in build-out, but with its own GO stop/subway stop. I can absolutely see 10,000 Torontonians never having to go down to the financial core, but rather living/working/recreating just east of the Don.

 

[salsa]

Why living in the east beats the west

Why living in the west beats the east

Which side do you prefer?

 

[Jonny5]

Why living in the east beats the west

Why living in the west beats the east

Which side do you prefer?

Whatever's closer to work. Both sides have equal amounts of generic global trend culture affectations for one to pretend one lives in a world class neighbourhood. All that matters is reducing time on the gross TTC to a minimum.

 

[TrickyRicky]

You can argue about life-style preference all day. But in terms of prominence it's not even remotely close as to be worth arguing about. It would be nice if some of the development areas generate real employment growth in the East end. The East end is largely a bedroom community for people employed in the West end or who commute up the DVP corridor for work. Having more employment options at least East of Yonge if not in the East end itself would be a great asset to the community and city in general.

I like Riverdale's enthusiasm for the Unilever lands. I envision in the future that there should be two satellite downtown transportation / employment districts flanking the Central business district core to the west and East along the rail corridor. In the West end I think this will grow up at Bloor and Dundas. From a transportation stand-point I think Bloor Dundas has the greatest potential as a downtown satellite business district since it is locate on the Pearson to Union line, the Bloor-Danforth Subway Line, and the Milton / Georgetown Go line that may also accommodate Smart track.

 

[junctionist]

Bloor and Dundas doesn't have the land available for easy development. The main streets are surrounded by stable neighbourhoods of detached houses.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Why living in the east beats the west

Why living in the west beats the east

Which side do you prefer?

Prominence (the topic of this thread) does not equal preference.

 

[M.R.Victor]

One East End neighborhood that really shines, in my opinion, is The Beach. I think part of the reason is that it offers and excellent stock of older, mid-rise rental apartments right along Queen, and an overall greater variety of housing options than the remainder of the East End. Of course, Woodbine beach is a major draw, and the Jazz Festival really puts the neighborhood on the map. Riverdale along Broadview is another excellent area.

Aside from those two, however, I feel that each of the remaining individual neighborhoods make poor cousins to their western counterparts. East Chinatown vs west Chinatown, Danforth vs Bloor, Little India vs Little Portugal, etc. That is, of course, not to say that they aren't worthwhile on their own, or that they do not contribute to Toronto's great variety and vibrancy. It's just that in the context of this thread, along the imaginary Yonge Street divide, this is how I would personally allocate preference and perceived prominence.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Junctionist, you couldn't replicate the CBD at Bloor and Dundas but there are a lot of surface parking lots, vacant lots, and marginal strip-plazas at that location. Easily enough land for a dozen or so developments that could transform it into something like one of the Yonge nodes at St. Clair or Eglington.

 

[King of Kensington]

East siders are funnier apparently

http://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...ast_or_west_comedians_gear_up_for_battle.html

 

[howl]

Bloor and Dundas doesn't have the land available for easy development. The main streets are surrounded by stable neighbourhoods of detached houses.

Actually, looking at a Googlemaps I would disagree. The huge Loblaws site south of the high school is ripe for redevelopment. I'd even suggest the high school should be rebuilt on the southern part of that site so a significant high-rise development can be located along the Bloor frontage.

In addition there is land north of the Crossways building between Dundas and the railway line which is currently under-utilized. Every block along the north side of Bloor, between Dundas and Keele could potentially see major redevelopment and many of the low-rise apartments along the south side of that same stretch could also be redeveloped with mid-rise mixed-use development. On the east side of the tracks there is already a lot of re-development and there could be substantially more, particularly to the south of Bloor, around Perth and Sterling; and north next to the tracks at the west ends of Ernest, Wallace, Macaulay and Ruskin

 

[junctionist]

Re the original question: having U of T, Queen's Park, the Financial District and the Exhibition Grounds all west of Yonge Street gives the west side that certain je ne sais quoi. The west side is power, culture and leisure. When you live on the west side, you can't imagine living any other way.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Re the original question: having U of T, Queen's Park, the Financial District and the Exhibition Grounds all west of Yonge Street gives the west side that certain je ne sais quoi. The west side is power, culture and leisure. When you live on the west side, you can't imagine living any other way.

That's a bit of a weird take -- I wouldn't put any of those places, except the far-off-grid most of the year Exhibition Grounds, on the 'west side'. For me those are central downtown. The west side begins, IMHO, at University/Spadina. I'll agree with your last statement, though -- I couldn't imagine living on the west side, as an eastsider. Variety is the spice and all that.

 

[King of Kensington]

University to Jarvis is more of a neutral zone.

 

[wopchop]

University to Jarvis is more of a neutral zone.

Where East and West collide!