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Where is "downtown Toronto"?

kkgg7

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I am aware of several boundaries, particularly on the east and west.

1) Don River and Bathurst
2) Parliament and Bathurst
3) Parliament and Dufferin

I personally consider all to be too big. I walked along Bathurst, and found it to be almost completely residential, which hardly and commercial activities except around Queen and Bloor. Between Bathurst and Spadina, hardly anything either.

Both Don River and Parliament street is too far for downtown. Walk past Yonge St toward the east, there is a some retail on Church st. Both Jarvis and Sherboune are almost exclusively residential, so are Ontario/Berkeley. Further east, it is rather sparadic, a bit here and there. Nothing reminds you of "downtown" for sure.

On the other hand, downtown stretches north of Bloor. Yorkville is more downtown than, say Gerrard/Jarvis, or Dundas/Augusta.

I guess the real downtown is long trapezoid between Church st and Spadina Ave, and between Davenport and Front st?
 
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I would include the area between Front Street and Lake Ontario as well, especially with all the new 200m+ towers going up there.
 
People should just stop worrying about trying to "think" this out. Save your brain cells...it's already figured out, and it doesn't matter if you get it or not...it's a done deal. It's official, and your opinion is not required.

The northern boundary of Downtown is Dupont/Davenprot/Rosedale Valley Road.
The eastern boundary is the Don Valley
The western boundary is Bathurst (north of Queen) and Dufferin (south of Queen)
The southern boundary is Lake Ontario

This may change in the future.

It doesn't matter a bit if you think parts of it are too this or too that.
 
People should just stop worrying about trying to "think" this out. Save your brain cells...it's already figured out, and it doesn't matter if you get it or not...it's a done deal. It's official, and your opinion is not required.

The northern boundary of Downtown is Dupont/Davenprot/Rosedale Valley Road.
The eastern boundary is the Don Valley
The western boundary is Bathurst (north of Queen) and Dufferin (south of Queen)
The southern boundary is Lake Ontario

Really? Where do these "official" boundaries come from? The most usual definition is probably the one that the OP first mentioned -- south of Bloor from Bathurst to the Don (see e.g. the wikipedia article). Although I agree with the OP that Yorkville should be included, and that it really tapers off west of Spadina.

I certainly don't consider Exhibition Place to be downtown (even if it claims to be).

(And of course there's the other extreme -- people from the burbs who use "downtown" to refer to anywhere with sidewalks and storefronts. I recently heard someone who moved to Main & Danforth claim to live downtown!)
 
The boundaries will clearly depend on why you use any description. One often sees real estate ads for buildings "downtown" that are far from what I consider to be 'downtown" - presumably because "downtown" sells better than ?? I doubt there is, or ever will be, a description that everyone will agree on and as Freshcutgrass says "People should just stop worrying about trying to "think" this out."
 
I suspect that even the City is not consistent -- for example, this map shows Bathurst and Dupont as boundaries

Except that is not an example of the City being inconsistent.
 
Except that is not an example of the City being inconsistent.

I guess you mean because it's a map of a particular downtown study area, not an official map of the downtown boundaries? Fair point. But what is your source for the official boundaries you stated? They don't match the ones in this map of the Downtown and Central Waterfront from the city's official plan.
 
Downtown is more of a presence than a location in my mind. I view the Leslieville strip, Ossington, Dundas west, Cabbagetown as representing downtown. The official notion/boundaries of downtown is less interesting, more I think which neighborhood, mostly connected physically (more or less). At some point Rosedale, Leaside, Danforth, Beaches, The Annex are not. Perhaps all neighborhoods should aspire to be downtown neighborhoods, though I'm not certain that's the question being asked.
 
As a born-and-bred North Yorker, "downtown" began where the streetlights went from orange to white, and you hit the first set of streetcar tracks.
 
Downtown is more of a presence than a location in my mind. I view the Leslieville strip, Ossington, Dundas west, Cabbagetown as representing downtown. The official notion/boundaries of downtown is less interesting, more I think which neighborhood, mostly connected physically (more or less). At some point Rosedale, Leaside, Danforth, Beaches, The Annex are not. Perhaps all neighborhoods should aspire to be downtown neighborhoods, though I'm not certain that's the question being asked.

It depends on where you live -- I don't consider myself living downtown, and I wouldn't think of Leslieville or Cabbagetown as downtown, either. To me, downtown = office towers, not single family homes. So, my downtown stops at Spadina, not Bathurst; Dundas, not Bloor; Church or Jarvis, not the Don.
 
When I'm at my dentist at Bayview and Sheppard I'm happy to tell them that I live downtown, but when I'm at home in the Winter Palace in Riverdale I know I'm not - downtown begins across the valley.
 
It depends on where you live -- I don't consider myself living downtown, and I wouldn't think of Leslieville or Cabbagetown as downtown, either. To me, downtown = office towers, not single family homes. So, my downtown stops at Spadina, not Bathurst; Dundas, not Bloor; Church or Jarvis, not the Don.

To me, downtown = office towers + multiple storefronts. It is hard to say College/Yonge is not downtown.
Bathurst/Dundas is exactly like a suburb despite its central location. As to Don River, let's not kid ourselves.
 

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