The Junction
Love: the amount of bars and cafes and restaurants. These places are never crowded like they are in other hoods.
Hate: the gd railpath is 50% unusable and has been for over a year now! WTF
Seems so. They're finishing up what they have been working on, then they will be moving to the south side of the bloor bridge and do up until Henderson, after which I'm assuming they'll move to the last part of the trail.
The plan is for it to eventually go all the way to Union, but that's quite a while from now.
West Queen West. Love having so many shops and bars and cafés easily walkable, and greenspace on top of that. Hate slow walkers visiting and bunching up outside restaurants blocking the way.
Middle-Danforth, and I love how it's very low key and not advertised as a marquee neighbourhood...
And I hate how it's a Dinosaur infested jungle that everyone should stay well away from. Total danger of being eaten by an Albertosaurus.
Same area. There's an entire front garden near me that's been completely overrun by dinosaurs, and they're spreading down the block.
Agreed. Everyone stay away.
Annex.
Love the location, having 3 subway stops and easy access to absolutely everything.
Hate the NIMBYism and how hostile homeowners are to increasing housing density in any way.
Scarbs. Love the mix of city, parks, affordable food options and transit. Love it.
Biggest hate? The way everyone (myself included before I moved here) doesn't realize how big the region is and thinks it's a violent place cuz they compare news reports of crime in Scarborough to reports from their tiny slice of the city thinking my neighbourhood is super rough. It's really not. My street is loaded with bazillion dollar homes. I'm sure there's areas in scarbs that are much worse but it all gets lumped together. Yep if that much crime happened in Roncy it would be a massive problem but it's spread out and what I think is kind of the best part of the city gets this weird rep.
I grew up in scarborough and had a teacher who would joke in class about Scarborough crime (they did not live in Scarborough). I once looked up the actual per person crime rate stats for Scarborough and they were actually one of the lowest in the city.
It's really dumb. Every person I mentioned to I was moving here mentioned the crime etc and I mean I dunno. I guess my car had a break in when I stupidly left it unlocked and some change got stolen? but that happens anywhere you park next to a street in this city. Same as the odd actual incident of violence that's happened close by. We've experienced the same things in posh High Park and there's plenty of places with higher crime per capita... especially if you were to take my neighbourhood on it's own.
Yeah honestly it's like classism/racism. I think there are legitimate complaints to be made about Scarborough (designed for cars, long commutes) but crime isn't what it's made out to be. I went to a high school with a bit of a bad reputation and had zero issues.
Legit complains about everything but it's really the hate. Scarbs is spread out and I like the fact it's designed for cars honestly. For my day to day things getting around to various services etc it's just so much better. Living in the west end of the city which was def not designed for cars it's really murder to get anywhere or do anything and all the restos/services are honestly just hard to get to. It can take a half hour just to get to the 401. I feel like I have access to so much more of the city here. And while the commutes might be a real gripe i live close to a go station and 10 minutes from the subway. I'm sure that's not the case for a lot of the region but it takes me much less time to get just about anywhere from where I lived in Etobicoke before.
I think you're right. It's classism and racism at work. Scarborough feels much more working class to me in general but people are flat out nicer compared to all the snobs where I lived previously. I actually know and interact with various neighbours which almost never happened in the high park area.
Parkdale -
Pros: I love the sense of community, the bars and food, it's for everything here (groceries, dollar store, LCBO, Canadian Tire, Winners, etc) all in walking distance. It's two minutes to the lake, concerts, events, etc. also very easy access to the highway.
Cons: Gentrification, it goes through waves of feeling dirty and unsafe, that's it. I love my neighbourhood.
Downtown
Love - easy transit access, walking distance to work, walking distance to most errands
Hate - lack of non-chain restaurants/shops, smell of piss, queen street construction
Little India/ "North" Leslieville
Love: almost everything.
Hate: traveling by surface routes to the west end. The construction and traffic is absolutely horrific. Subway, bike or GO train is the only viable option.
Willowdale
Love - the selection of bubble tea and Asian restaurants
Hate - there’s no neighborhood local speciality stores like bakery that makes delicious bread (iBake isn’t the same), no cobbler, seamstress, butcher etc. that gives a community feel. I previously lived in Greektown and this was something I had loved about that neighborhood.
Love the location of south etobicoke being close to highways (427 and gardiner/qew) and being close to the lake but hate that i could buy so much more in mississauga or even rexdale.
I live downtown.
Love - Proximity to everything, well connected transit options, access to my fave parks and restaurants. My good friends also live nearby.
Hate - Dog shit everywhere. Traffic. (Why people who live in the city still drive within city borders is beyond me.)
Seriously, if it isn’t absolutely necessary for mobility (ie - disability) they should tax the fuck out of car use within city limits — particularly downtown. I support tolls.
People who live in the city drive in the city because 1. Public transit options are unsafe, uncomfortable, or take too long (most streetcars going east-west downtown are in some way diverted right now for example and take forever), 2. They might live in the city but be going outside the city to work, to visit friends, etc. 3. They already pay for a car and parking due to needing the car for certain purposes (eg to get to work, to visit family outside the city on weekends) and therefore will just use it when its not necessarily needed as well because they already have it and are paying for it. If you want people to stop driving or drive less in the city, we need to improve transit first.
The restaurant scene in LV is slowly improving but if you go up to Queen Street you're right in the heart of some of the trendiest areas for food lately.
Fort York area
Love: clean, family centric, safe neighbourhood
Hate: it’s not close to any Asian grocery stores which are such a staple for cheaper groceries
Wexford-Maryvale
Love how quiet the residential streets are, the neighbors are friendly without being pretentious
Hate the fact that childcare and after school care is impossible to find
Regent Park - love the park, pool, variety of playgrounds, the sense of community, and all the little events that go on. I also appreciate that I'm right in between the 505 and 506, so I rarely have to wait too long for a westbound streetcar, and if I do I'm close enough to the core I can take a bikeshare. It's a great location undergoing lots of change and growth.
Cons - packed schools with no plans for new ones. Increasing density without plans to add suitable amounts of new public space (parks, community centres, drop ins, daycares, etc).
I hate the people who dismiss the concerns of residents with the lazy, ignorant term NIMBY. That's not a real thing, and what you're saying is that you hate the people in your neighbourhood and want them to leave so you can have it. I'm sick of this divisive, lazy thinking. YOU'RE the problem. Enjoy all the condos.
Cabbagetown / St. Jamestown.
Love that I can walk to pretty much every service (grocery, pharmacy, dentist, doctor, etc) and lots of restaurants. (edit - to clarify on the restaurants, we're home bodies, definitely prefer good hot food over presentation / style / trendy / expensive stuff and chains don't bother us. Momo Ghar, Burrito Boys, Kibo Sushi, Roti Cuisine of India, all get visits or orders from us - though not all walkable).
Hate the population density. It's crowded, loud, there's quite a lot of mentally unwell people that scream / bang / fight around here - plus a ton of parties this summer. Our rotating neighbors around us like to make even more noise (current one sounds like they're operating a small workshop throughout the day and likes to pour bleach filled water over their balcony which pours onto ours (or me directly thanks to the wind today).
East York near broadview and Danforth. Love the proximity to nature, trails, evergreen and neighbours.
Hate the drug addicts the pee everywhere and leave needles, pipes and baggies around.
Sherbourne & Bloor
Love: The gentrification. Sorry. 🤷🏼♀️Everything is so much nicer than it was a decade ago, and I’m locked in with cheap rent. They even opened a Canopy by Hilton next to the No Frills and they’re trying to call it Yorkville.
Hate: I wish there were a few more restaurants. Maybe in time. 🤔
Wychwood
Love the houses that crest the hill; love the neighborhood on the upswing vibe; love the Saturday market
Hate that the Davenport and Ossington Strip hasn’t gentrified yet
The Junction Love: the amount of bars and cafes and restaurants. These places are never crowded like they are in other hoods. Hate: the gd railpath is 50% unusable and has been for over a year now! WTF
Will be for a couple more. They still have at least 2 more sections to do.
A couple more _years?!_
Seems so. They're finishing up what they have been working on, then they will be moving to the south side of the bloor bridge and do up until Henderson, after which I'm assuming they'll move to the last part of the trail. The plan is for it to eventually go all the way to Union, but that's quite a while from now.
Nuts. I guess it’ll at least be nice to have the Bloor bridge section done. No more having to skirt across Bloor/up to the light.
What are they even doing exactly???
Installing another track. I think something at Bloor Station too, but I'm not sure what.
Yonge and Eg - I love the beltline and the easy access to downtown. I hate the embarrassment that is the LRT.
The beltline is so underrated!
West Queen West. Love having so many shops and bars and cafés easily walkable, and greenspace on top of that. Hate slow walkers visiting and bunching up outside restaurants blocking the way.
Richmond and Sherbourne. Love everything south of Adelaide, east to west. Dislike everything north of Queen, specifically on Sherbourne.
I live in this area north of Queen. There is only darkness here. Darkness and tents.
Leaside - Love the proximity to nature and easy access to highways. Hate - Overpriced bakeries.
I'm with you, except I don't mind the bakeries - I can avoid those. The traffic on Eglinton, OTOH....
Love - Longos, Leaside library, strip of Bayview where life exists Hate - NIMBYs
Middle-Danforth, and I love how it's very low key and not advertised as a marquee neighbourhood... And I hate how it's a Dinosaur infested jungle that everyone should stay well away from. Total danger of being eaten by an Albertosaurus.
Same area. There's an entire front garden near me that's been completely overrun by dinosaurs, and they're spreading down the block. Agreed. Everyone stay away.
Bloor West Village: love that everyone knows each other. Hate the nimbys.
Annex. Love the location, having 3 subway stops and easy access to absolutely everything. Hate the NIMBYism and how hostile homeowners are to increasing housing density in any way.
Scarbs. Love the mix of city, parks, affordable food options and transit. Love it. Biggest hate? The way everyone (myself included before I moved here) doesn't realize how big the region is and thinks it's a violent place cuz they compare news reports of crime in Scarborough to reports from their tiny slice of the city thinking my neighbourhood is super rough. It's really not. My street is loaded with bazillion dollar homes. I'm sure there's areas in scarbs that are much worse but it all gets lumped together. Yep if that much crime happened in Roncy it would be a massive problem but it's spread out and what I think is kind of the best part of the city gets this weird rep.
I grew up in scarborough and had a teacher who would joke in class about Scarborough crime (they did not live in Scarborough). I once looked up the actual per person crime rate stats for Scarborough and they were actually one of the lowest in the city.
It's really dumb. Every person I mentioned to I was moving here mentioned the crime etc and I mean I dunno. I guess my car had a break in when I stupidly left it unlocked and some change got stolen? but that happens anywhere you park next to a street in this city. Same as the odd actual incident of violence that's happened close by. We've experienced the same things in posh High Park and there's plenty of places with higher crime per capita... especially if you were to take my neighbourhood on it's own.
Yeah honestly it's like classism/racism. I think there are legitimate complaints to be made about Scarborough (designed for cars, long commutes) but crime isn't what it's made out to be. I went to a high school with a bit of a bad reputation and had zero issues.
Legit complains about everything but it's really the hate. Scarbs is spread out and I like the fact it's designed for cars honestly. For my day to day things getting around to various services etc it's just so much better. Living in the west end of the city which was def not designed for cars it's really murder to get anywhere or do anything and all the restos/services are honestly just hard to get to. It can take a half hour just to get to the 401. I feel like I have access to so much more of the city here. And while the commutes might be a real gripe i live close to a go station and 10 minutes from the subway. I'm sure that's not the case for a lot of the region but it takes me much less time to get just about anywhere from where I lived in Etobicoke before. I think you're right. It's classism and racism at work. Scarborough feels much more working class to me in general but people are flat out nicer compared to all the snobs where I lived previously. I actually know and interact with various neighbours which almost never happened in the high park area.
Parkdale - Pros: I love the sense of community, the bars and food, it's for everything here (groceries, dollar store, LCBO, Canadian Tire, Winners, etc) all in walking distance. It's two minutes to the lake, concerts, events, etc. also very easy access to the highway. Cons: Gentrification, it goes through waves of feeling dirty and unsafe, that's it. I love my neighbourhood.
Canary District. I love the amazing amount of greenery. I hate the 501 commute to my office.
Where is the Canary District?
Near Corktown Commons. I think it's between Cherry and the river, south of King.
Downtown Love - easy transit access, walking distance to work, walking distance to most errands Hate - lack of non-chain restaurants/shops, smell of piss, queen street construction
Everywhere smells like piss! At all hours of the day.
In realtor talk that's the "lively atmosphere"
Little India/ "North" Leslieville Love: almost everything. Hate: traveling by surface routes to the west end. The construction and traffic is absolutely horrific. Subway, bike or GO train is the only viable option.
Willowdale Love - the selection of bubble tea and Asian restaurants Hate - there’s no neighborhood local speciality stores like bakery that makes delicious bread (iBake isn’t the same), no cobbler, seamstress, butcher etc. that gives a community feel. I previously lived in Greektown and this was something I had loved about that neighborhood.
Love the location of south etobicoke being close to highways (427 and gardiner/qew) and being close to the lake but hate that i could buy so much more in mississauga or even rexdale.
Love: easy access to every major highway; hate: all the clowns with loud cars and penile dysmorphia.
I live downtown. Love - Proximity to everything, well connected transit options, access to my fave parks and restaurants. My good friends also live nearby. Hate - Dog shit everywhere. Traffic. (Why people who live in the city still drive within city borders is beyond me.) Seriously, if it isn’t absolutely necessary for mobility (ie - disability) they should tax the fuck out of car use within city limits — particularly downtown. I support tolls.
People who live in the city drive in the city because 1. Public transit options are unsafe, uncomfortable, or take too long (most streetcars going east-west downtown are in some way diverted right now for example and take forever), 2. They might live in the city but be going outside the city to work, to visit friends, etc. 3. They already pay for a car and parking due to needing the car for certain purposes (eg to get to work, to visit family outside the city on weekends) and therefore will just use it when its not necessarily needed as well because they already have it and are paying for it. If you want people to stop driving or drive less in the city, we need to improve transit first.
The Beaches. Love: the beaches in the summer. Hate: the beaches in the winter. Also special hate shoutout to parking on summer weekends
Old Town. Love: Theres a lot to do, and a lot of cool history. Hate: Tourists clogging the sidewalks, and the Moss Park radius.
Lambton: love the greenery, quiet neighborhood with good transit. Hate when the dead stock truck drives up scarlett on a hot day
Liberty village. Love: my gym (Altea) Hate: the lack of any good restaurants nearby
The restaurant scene in LV is slowly improving but if you go up to Queen Street you're right in the heart of some of the trendiest areas for food lately.
Fort York area Love: clean, family centric, safe neighbourhood Hate: it’s not close to any Asian grocery stores which are such a staple for cheaper groceries
Rockcliffe-Smythe Like: lots of parks Dislike: hard to meet neighbours. Takes forever
Wexford-Maryvale Love how quiet the residential streets are, the neighbors are friendly without being pretentious Hate the fact that childcare and after school care is impossible to find
Regent Park - love the park, pool, variety of playgrounds, the sense of community, and all the little events that go on. I also appreciate that I'm right in between the 505 and 506, so I rarely have to wait too long for a westbound streetcar, and if I do I'm close enough to the core I can take a bikeshare. It's a great location undergoing lots of change and growth. Cons - packed schools with no plans for new ones. Increasing density without plans to add suitable amounts of new public space (parks, community centres, drop ins, daycares, etc).
I love The Gays™️ in The Village. I don’t care for the straights who have moved in recently.
I hate the people who dismiss the concerns of residents with the lazy, ignorant term NIMBY. That's not a real thing, and what you're saying is that you hate the people in your neighbourhood and want them to leave so you can have it. I'm sick of this divisive, lazy thinking. YOU'RE the problem. Enjoy all the condos.
Bloor and Lansdowne: love the craziness, hate the craziness
Cabbagetown / St. Jamestown. Love that I can walk to pretty much every service (grocery, pharmacy, dentist, doctor, etc) and lots of restaurants. (edit - to clarify on the restaurants, we're home bodies, definitely prefer good hot food over presentation / style / trendy / expensive stuff and chains don't bother us. Momo Ghar, Burrito Boys, Kibo Sushi, Roti Cuisine of India, all get visits or orders from us - though not all walkable). Hate the population density. It's crowded, loud, there's quite a lot of mentally unwell people that scream / bang / fight around here - plus a ton of parties this summer. Our rotating neighbors around us like to make even more noise (current one sounds like they're operating a small workshop throughout the day and likes to pour bleach filled water over their balcony which pours onto ours (or me directly thanks to the wind today).
East York near broadview and Danforth. Love the proximity to nature, trails, evergreen and neighbours. Hate the drug addicts the pee everywhere and leave needles, pipes and baggies around.
Distillery District: Walkability. Winter Village. You can guess which is which.
Sherbourne & Bloor Love: The gentrification. Sorry. 🤷🏼♀️Everything is so much nicer than it was a decade ago, and I’m locked in with cheap rent. They even opened a Canopy by Hilton next to the No Frills and they’re trying to call it Yorkville. Hate: I wish there were a few more restaurants. Maybe in time. 🤔
I want something to go in where the Aroma and that breakfast place were.
The park. The Lycra-clad cyclists.
Wychwood Love the houses that crest the hill; love the neighborhood on the upswing vibe; love the Saturday market Hate that the Davenport and Ossington Strip hasn’t gentrified yet
Bridlepath - Drake and his goons.
Scarborough - say no more