Inner city encompasses much more than downtown and adjacent neighborhoods. Parkdale and Riverdale for instance are clearly inner neighborhoods but they certainly aren't downtown.

It's true that there's a smooth rather than abrupt transition from downtown to inner neighborhoods (i.e. think of say, Queen St. between University Ave. and say, Trinity Bellwoods Park) but I don't think you can conclude from that therefore it's hard to say whether Parkdale is downtown or not.

One thing I like about Winnipeg is the way that you come into downtown via bridges, other than from the west (from the north it is via bridges or underpasses over or under the CPR yards). It provides such a strong sensation of anticipation and arrival, as opposed to Toronto where downtown creeps up on you gradually.

^ Unless you enter downtown Toronto from the East over the Don River.

Never done that. Is there a river over there? I’m a west of Yonge person.

Torontonians seem to really like to stick to either the west or the east sides of their city.

I presume you're joking. If not, that's pretty sad......... :rolleyes:

Well I tried. I lived at 55 Maitland for a few months in 1992 ... it was awful and I couldn’t wait to get back.

I think the east/west divide is more played up than real in Toronto. It's not like Montreal or Vancouver in that there's a big socioeconomic/cultural line.

Yonge St. may divide the streets east and west but few would describe Rosedale for example as being on the "east side."

The Don River, if anything, is more of a dividing line.

Most people in Vancouver refer to anything on the downtown peninsula as downtown, even though a big chunk is residential and it should be just the few blocks facing Burrard Inlet around Howe st:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4179/3...46d8359a_h.jpg

Vanhattan!

Well, people have attempted to pass Vancouver off as the Bronx at least once.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_in_the_Bronx

So a few doors east of Yonge Street disqualifies half the city? I would agree that the Don Valley represents a psychological barrier for people but your rationale is bizarre.

Yup I agree. Technically Eau Claire, East Village, etc are separate communities than the 'central business district', but I think of them as all part of 'downtown'

The Beltline has a completely different feel to me being that it's probably 90% residential vs downtown being 90% office (yes I'm just making up these percentages). That said once the East Village is fully built out it might have enough of an identity that it will then feel separate from downtown.

For those curious, the "Beltline" is the rectangular area directly below the downtown and about the same size.

Calgary as well, particularly from the North and South

(of course streetview is very wide angle, in person downtown looks far bigger than these shots)

https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.02724...7i13312!8i6656


https://www.google.ca/maps/@51.05635...7i13312!8i6656

One thing I enjoy is to just sit on a bench on the south side of Crescent Road to the north of Calgary's downtown on a warm summer evening and just kind lose myself in the view of all the towers before me. One can hear the hum of downtown which adds to the experiance.

Official downtown Toronto (aka "TOCore") divided into subdistricts:

https://www.blogto.com/city/2018/04/...oronto-canada/

Grrr ... that has me in the Annex when I am in fact in the old village of Yorkville, which did not end at Avenue Road. This is NOT the Annex, historically or psychologically.

Officially, the Annex runs from Avenue Rd. to Bathurst. But yeah, culturally and psychologically the dividing line seems to be Bedford or St. George.

Mayor John Tory officially is an Annex resident, but in the more "Yorkville-ish" part.

In the public nomenclature, Calgary's downtown is everything from the Elbow River on the South and East, 17th Avenue for most of the southern border (west of 5 Street SW), the Bow River for the entire northern border, and 14 Street for the western border. I feel like some people might consider Kensington part of "downtown" as well, but it surely is not. Can't really think of any other area that would be partially considered downtown by some... maybe Inglewood.

Usually our other inner neighbourhoods like Inglewood, Kensington, Bridgeland, Marda Loop, etc are just referred to as their own name, while the neighbourhoods in the aforementioned downtown areas are almost always referred to as "downtown".

Officially, however, the city of Calgary only includes CBD, West Village, East Village, Eau Claire, and Chinatown as the downtown. This then excludes the vast majority of public perception which includes Beltline, Mission, and Cliff Bungalow as downtown as well.


Edit:
Oh I see this has already been talked about :P Well I mean, the percentages don't really matter to be honest. Those percentages, while likely not far from the truth, will change over time. Calgary is experiencing an incredible urban renaissance right now, and the fact is that we will not be seeing another office tower go up for another decade or more. With all of the residential proposals and construction projects underway, the traditionally defined downtown core will feel a lot more in tune with what you feel in the Beltline by 2030. We already have 6 office towers being converted to residential, and of course that trend will only continue as office vacancy stays high.