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Downtown or not downtown?

Which of the following are in downtown Toronto?

  • The Annex

    Votes: 33 61.1%
  • The Beaches

    Votes: 2 3.7%
  • Cabbagetown

    Votes: 39 72.2%
  • Casa Loma

    Votes: 5 9.3%
  • Christie Pits

    Votes: 6 11.1%
  • Church and Wellesley

    Votes: 48 88.9%
  • Exhibition Place

    Votes: 9 16.7%
  • The Grange

    Votes: 40 74.1%
  • Harbourfront

    Votes: 42 77.8%
  • High Park

    Votes: 4 7.4%
  • Kensington Market

    Votes: 41 75.9%
  • Leslieville

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Rosedale

    Votes: 4 7.4%
  • Trinity Bellwoods Park

    Votes: 13 24.1%
  • University of Toronto St. George campus

    Votes: 45 83.3%
  • Yonge and Eglinton

    Votes: 2 3.7%
  • Yonge and St. Clair

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Yorkville

    Votes: 37 68.5%
  • None of the above

    Votes: 4 7.4%

  • Total voters
    54
I suspect we'll do better than the average resident of this metropolis. A lot of 905ers refer to anything in the pre-amalgamation City of Toronto as downtown. But even among those who with good knowledge of urban geography, I find there's disagreement between some who only consider the CBD "downtown" and those who consider an area bound by the Don Valley, Lake Ontario, Bathurst and the northern edge of the Annex and Yorkville as downtown.

Even among the latter group, there's further disagreement in terms of whether the Annex and Yorkville are downtown or if downtown ends at Bloor Street. Some would also say that downtown ends at Dufferin Street as opposed to Bathurst in the west.
 
Need an option for none of the above. I consider Downtown to be Front to Gerard, Jarvis to University.
 
Even among the latter group, there's further disagreement in terms of whether the Annex and Yorkville are downtown or if downtown ends at Bloor Street. Some would also say that downtown ends at Dufferin Street as opposed to Bathurst in the west.

To me it definitely ends at or before Bloor. Areas adjacent to Yonge north of Bloor are pretty residential and suburban in essence.

Need an option for none of the above. I consider Downtown to be Front to Gerard, Jarvis to University.

Gerard is a bit extreme Maybe College. And maybe McCaul or Beverley instead of University to the West. I agree with Front Street being the southern boundary.
 
For those using the roughly College-Front-University-Jarvis definiton (which were the official boundaries of downtown in the 1960s), do you see the area directly north of it running from College to Davenport as "midtown"? To use a Chicago analogy, if the former is our Loop the latter is our Near North Side.
 
It's verging on the cut-off but I think Trinity Bellwoods Park is well deserving of being considered downtown. Yorkville is also undeniably downtown

Also, not that I necessarily consider Regent Park to be downtown but it is interesting how Cabbagetown and neighbourhoods even more eastwards like Leslieville and The Beaches are options on this poll but Regent Park isn't. Does its notorious reputation seriously make it feel like a black hole? FWIW I gave Cabbagetown my vote but the latter two are way too far to be considered downtown
 
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It's verging on the cut-off but I think Trinity Bellwoods Park is well deserving of being considered downtown. Yorkville is also undeniably downtown

Also, not that I necessarily consider Regent Park to be downtown but it is interesting how Cabbagetown and neighbourhoods even more eastwards like Leslieville and The Beaches are options on this poll but Regent Park isn't. Does its notorious reputation seriously make it feel like a black hole? FWIW I gave Cabbagetown my vote but the latter two are way too far to be considered downtown

Wanted to have a pretty big geographical spread and give the option to those who insist any Old City of Toronto area is "downtown." I don't know if anyone would here, let alone be brave enough to argue that yes the Beaches is downtown!
 
I live west of Spadina, near Kensington Market, which is part of the official "downtown" (Bathurst to Don) definition. I feel I'm on the edge of downtown but not quite downtown, but not quite the west end either.

The Bathurst to Don is more of a "greater downtown" definiton IMO. In the 1970s this was the area contained i nthe Central Area plan.
 
With College-Front-University-Jarvis as the starting point, how much further to take it, using a main shopping/business/entertainment/institutional area" definition. Going north from there it does include Yorkville and south pretty much to the lake. It also stretches further west the further south you are, maybe as far as Spadina in some points (i.e. King and Queen West but not the Annex).

Areas like the Annex, Kensington Market and Cabbagetown strike me more as defined neighborhoods than just downtown.

But for simplicity's sake, the Bathurst to Don definiton works as a sort of extended or greater downtown with simplified boundaries. Sure you can nitpick over why the Annex and Cabbagetown are included and Trinity Bellwoods are not. But these areas don't really fit in the west end or north Toronto or east end either, so they're sort of central if not quite downtown.

Toronto doesn't really have a well defined downtown like say Chicago or Vancouver with "harder" boundaries. Which is why there is often a very smooth transition from downtown to neighborhood, particularly going west.
 
More people think the Annex is downtown than Yorkville?

I selected Yorkville as downtown, but the Annex as not downtown. Cumberland and Yorkville (and the Reference Library) are spillovers of downtown north of Bloor.

As for the Annex, that's everything north of Bloor (and in common practice, including the Bloor Street strip) between Avenue Road and Bathurst. It's too much a grey area to declare "downtown"
 

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