What are Toronto's toughest neighborhoods today?

[CDL.TO]

As someone who also takes part in the classic "Toronto Sun in the lunchroom", I have a theory that if they removed their editorial content, about 97% of their readers wouldn't notice. The reason for buying the Sun seems to be for three simple reasons: sports coverage, ease of reading, and human interest stories.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I have been searching for the intersection of Victoria Park and Wilson for a long time, still have not found it.

There is, however, a Winston Park and Wilson.

Don't forget Victoria Park & Winston!

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

I got mugged in the Annex the other week. True story.

 

[Erik T]

Pardon me, I should have checked a map!! I assumed two major, perpendicular arteries like Vic Park and Wilson met. I feel a little silly, but I swear I practically never go north of Bloor for any reason. I don't spend much time east of Leslie, either. Anyhow, I wasn't trying to be cute with the Vic Park - Wilson idea, it was simply a mistake. I stand by my main beef about the media's stigma-by-simplification of Jane and Finch.

 

[ShonTron]

Don't worry too much about it. But there is a whole world north of Bloor, some of which is worth checking out.

Though pro-expressway James Alcock (who proposes such funny ideas a a Scarborough Bluff expressway and a 12-lane downtown viaduct) would solve the problem. He proposes renaming Wilson, York Mills and Ellesmere (and presumably Walsh and Parkwoods Village Drive) into one long Wyme Avenue.

 

[Pep'rJack]

I got mugged in the Annex the other week. True story.

That's quite rare - please do tell.

 

[interchange42]

Pep'rJack - I'm hoping to learn the harrowing tale too, so I'm glancing at a Sun here at the office everyday at lunch, expecting to read it in the Letters to the Editor.

If the Sun doesn't publish SNF's trauma though, we'll have to hope that he will fill us in here directly.

42

 

[E/SNorthYork]

All Toronto neighbourhoods that used to be problematic aren't anymore. Nowhere near it. I grew up spending most of my time in Alexandra Park. NOBODY who didn't live in the area was cutting through Vanauley Walk when I was growing up. Guys used to stand on the corner in groups of +20 selling drugs. Kids were used as lookouts (6 up). The drug trade in downtown Toronto used to be in your face (along with the homeless people, drug addicts and panhandlers). Parts of Parkdale was saturated with prostitutes and the mentally ill. South Regent Park was more rambunctious than North Regent. I never spent too much time in Jane and Finch, but it's not the intersection itself that's dangerous, but rather inside the 4 main public housing units and through their narrow pathways and dead end corners where all the BS happens. Driftwood Court, Shoreham Court, Grassways and Grandravine.

Btw, Albion road/Wilson/York Mills/Ellesmere are all the same stretch of road. Depends on which part of the city you're in.

 

[christiesplits]

All Toronto neighbourhoods that used to be problematic aren't anymore. Nowhere near it. I grew up spending most of my time in Alexandra Park.

Good choice. The most 'alert' I've been in Toronto is walking through the labyrinthine pathways and streets of mid century housing projects. Alexandra Park is the first one that comes to mind - it feels like you're trapped in an extremely narrow concrete maze.

 

[E/SNorthYork]

it feels like you're trapped in an extremely narrow concrete maze.

What an apt way to describe it, literally and figuratively. Believe me, sometimes it felt that way, but the neighbourhood knows what it means to be a community. There are people 20-30 years removed from the P.O and still go to community functions. Everyone felt like family there.