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Old Posted Aug 4, 2014, 1:11 AM
Docere Docere is offline
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So are people saying Yonge and Sheppard instantly became "uptown" and Y&E "midtown" in 1998? This makes little sense to me...

North York is too removed to be our "uptown." There's too much suburban territory between it and the city core. From Y&E you go through 1920s/1930s streetcar suburb around Lawrence and then a swath of classic upscale postwar suburbia around York Mills, up and down some big hills and cross over the 401.

Midtown being from Bloor to Lawrence is indeed a huge swath and has too little in common to bring it all classified under one area. The uber-urban Annex/Yorkville and "suburb in the city" Lawrence Park together?

I think from the point of view for tourists etc. I see the benefit of "midtown" being centered around Yonge and Bloor and a lot of it radiates on both sides (i.e. Bloor-Yorkville BIA is on both sides of Bloor) On the other hand, Bloor makes a pretty clear boundary as well and it's true the change isn't particularly drastic at College (except for maybe the change from University Ave to the Queen's Park loop where the shift in "tone" is most evident).

Obviously urban form and character is a matter of degree, but I can see enough in common in bringing Annex and Yorkville with Summerhill and Casa Loma, and thus having midtown go from Bloor to St. Clair (or more accurately, the Belt Line), though obviously the latter areas are more linked to "uptown." North Toronto is a pretty well defined area comprising the old city of Toronto north of the Belt Line.

OTOH, I can see the neighborhoods centered along Yonge and Avenue Rd. north of the CPR tracks (basically "up the hill") as being uptown, and there is enough in common socially/economically and in urban form.
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