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Why are Toronto's neighborhoods so small?

K

King of Kensington

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Why does TO have so many 1 or 2 census tract neighborhoods and a Wikipedia page for practically every micro-neighborhood. For example Trinity Bellwoods, Beaonsfield Village, Seaton Village, Dovercourt Park, Regal Heights, Bloor West Village etc.

This seems to be in contrast to Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Montreal etc.

Just a large number of TO-nerds on Wikipedia and David Dunkelman's real estate guide?
 
New York City's boroughs also have small or finely divided neighborhoods too. Also, from what I've heard, cities like Sydney and Melbourne in Australia also have neighborhoods that are labelled as "suburbs", which are also pretty small scale.
 
King of Kensington said:
Why does TO have so many 1 or 2 census tract neighborhoods and a Wikipedia page for practically every micro-neighborhood. For example Trinity Bellwoods, Beaonsfield Village, Seaton Village, Dovercourt Park, Regal Heights, Bloor West Village etc.

This seems to be in contrast to Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, Montreal etc.

Just a large number of TO-nerds on Wikipedia and David Dunkelman's real estate guide?
Click to expand...

A lot of neighbourhoods have an old village, town, or even a small city at their cores that gives them a unique identity to this day. The Junction was once a village that later became the City of West Toronto before its amalgamation with the City of Toronto in 1909. By contrast, some neighbourhoods were originally developed by a single developer and retain that identity. Some are unique because of their social histories, like the city's Chinatowns and other ethnic neighbourhoods past and present. Since Toronto is a relatively young city with many local historians and heritage protection mechanisms, the early settlement history of villages and towns hasn't faded away. Those settlements live on as neighbourhoods.

A neighbourhood's scale should be such that a person can quickly and easily get around the neighbourhood on foot--whether it's for recreation, commerce, or socialization. Toronto has many such areas with unique identities. There are many prolific Toronto-based Wikipedia editors that have written about the city's neighbourhoods. Their work is often an extension of work done by local historians and informed by urban geography.
 
wild goose chase said:
New York City's boroughs also have small or finely divided neighborhoods too. Also, from what I've heard, cities like Sydney and Melbourne in Australia also have neighborhoods that are labelled as "suburbs", which are also pretty small scale.
Click to expand...
Yup, and their national bureau of statistics actually define those "suburbs" themselves unlike here in Canada where we're pretty much left to personally interpret what neighbourhood is what
 
junctionist said:
A lot of neighbourhoods have an old village, town, or even a small city at their cores that gives them a unique identity to this day. The Junction was once a village that later became the City of West Toronto before its amalgamation with the City of Toronto in 1909. By contrast, some neighbourhoods were originally developed by a single developer and retain that identity. Some are unique because of their social histories, like the city's Chinatowns and other ethnic neighbourhoods past and present. Since Toronto is a relatively young city with many local historians and heritage protection mechanisms, the early settlement history of villages and towns hasn't faded away. Those settlements live on as neighbourhoods.

A neighbourhood's scale should be such that a person can quickly and easily get around the neighbourhood on foot--whether it's for recreation, commerce, or socialization. Toronto has many such areas with unique identities. There are many prolific Toronto-based Wikipedia editors that have written about the city's neighbourhoods. Their work is often an extension of work done by local historians and informed by urban geography.
Click to expand...

There are certainly neighborhoods that have existed for many decades: the Annex, the Beaches, Riverdale, Parkdale etc.

But then a lot seem to be BIA creations, like Bloor West Village or Dovercourt Village.

It's interesting if you look at Vancouver the neighborhoods (outside the downtown peninsula) are more or less the same from 50 years ago, and that city has also had a lot of growth and gentrification - Mount Pleasant, Fairview, Kitsilano, West Point Grey, Kerrisdale etc. (and they tend not be areas with populations of around 5,000).
 
junctionist said:
It's not supposed to be. It's a creation of the local BIA, which was the first BIA in the world. The residential areas around Bloor Street belong to different neighbourhoods: Old Mill, Swansea, Runnymede, and High Park.
Click to expand...
A lot are also creations of realtors. It’s like the northern beaches reaching north of Kingston Road.
 
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