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

smably said:
Toronto Life has a piece on how almost all the buzzed-about restaurants are west of Yonge: http://torontolife.com/food/restaurants-dish/toronto-more-restaurants-west-east-end/

Of course, as many of the comments point out, opening a restaurant in the east end also means you'll probably be ignored by TL and the like, who seem to think Toronto ends at the Don.
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How do they have a conversation about restaurants at Queen & Broadview and not mention Ruby Watchco? Or Tabule, which was packed during our visit just before Labour Day. I'd say that the writer must have went for a walk on Queen at 10-11pm-ish? Or at least after the butchers/bakers/fishmongers/fromagerie and Ed's Real Scoop had all closed?
 
I wondered about that too. His description of the street being empty in the evening didn't jibe with my experience as a former resident of Queen and Broadview. Queen wasn't packed at night like, say, King St W, but it certainly wasn't dead like he describes it.
 
smably said:
I wondered about that too. His description of the street being empty in the evening didn't jibe with my experience as a former resident of Queen and Broadview. Queen wasn't packed at night like, say, King St W, but it certainly wasn't dead like he describes it.
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Yeah, the other thing on that front was no mention of the Opera House. Not my crowd, but any time there was a popular band the lineups around the corner were massive, and since they reno'd their little burger joint, I assume that's still the case.
 
It is. The lineups are still there and the burger joint looks great. Haven't chanced it though - I'm always over at Lucky Star, chowing down on Shanghai noodles.
 
smably said:
Of course, as many of the comments point out, opening a restaurant in the east end also means you'll probably be ignored by TL and the like, who seem to think Toronto ends at the Don.
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I would go as far as to say that most of that crowd thinks Toronto ends at University Avenue :rolleyes:
 
Ramako said:
I've heard that - historically - neighbourhoods on the east sides of cities in North America and Europe tended to develop to be less well-off and attractive than those in the west as the odours from industry and garbage in the central city would generally carry eastward due to prevailing winds. No idea if this ever applied to Toronto.
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CDL.TO said:
Yes, it holds true in a lot of North American and European cities. The north and/or west side tends to be more affluent while the south and/or east side tends to be less so.

There are lots and lots of exceptions, but it's a noticeable theme.
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Oddly, the association almost seems to be a microcosm of what holds on a global scale -- think of "West" vs. "East" in the Cold war, Western and Eastern Europe, Western civilization vs. Eastern, the Global South standing for the developing world and the North standing for the developed.

In these cases, the "West" and "North" denotes a positive, well-off image, while "South" and "East" a negative, poorer one. Coincidence?
 
WislaHD said:
The 'new' Midtown and North Toronto are the same thing. I guess Deer Park, Moore Park and St. Clair can be considered the southern part of a broader understanding of Midtown seeing as they are in the St. Paul's riding. Summerhill and Rosedale are kind of caught in between.

North York City Centre is now "uptown" I guess, with North York being the rest of the former borough. Where does this leave the real uptown at Bloor-Yonge? Hell if I know. I've begun calling the whole area "Yorkville" (if not "Bloor-Yonge") for simplicity sake.

Truth is, I've seen shops with the name "Uptown" and "Midtown" both at Bloor-Yonge and Eglinton-Yonge. Likewise, I've seen "Uptown" store names in North York. All that this proves is that these names are not set in stone like in other cities.



Depends on your perspective. Speaking to a lot of commuters from the 905 at school, they consider Parkdale and Riverdale alike as "downtown". Scarborough and Etobicoke may as well be the east and west end to them.

If you ask me, their perspective is wrong. ;) But it goes back to how these names are really not set in stone in the first place.
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Have we arrived at the point when Torontonians, like New Yorkers can use uptown and downtown as relative, rather than absolute directions? We don't have the equivalent to New York's subway labels of uptown/northbound and downtown/southbound trains, but some former Metro Torontonian commuters and GTA suburbanites practically treat it that way, much to the disagreement of residents of the old city.
 
wild goose chase said:
Oddly, the association almost seems to be a microcosm of what holds on a global scale -- think of "West" vs. "East" in the Cold war, Western and Eastern Europe, Western civilization vs. Eastern, the Global South standing for the developing world and the North standing for the developed.

In these cases, the "West" and "North" denotes a positive, well-off image, while "South" and "East" a negative, poorer one. Coincidence?
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Your current(?) city, Chicago, has an especially strong north-south divide.
 
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