Culture in Toronto - Neighbourhoods

Neighbourhoods

Toronto bills itself "the city of neighbourhoods" because of their continuing strength and vitality within the metropolis. The city has over 240 distinct neighbourhoods within its boundaries; residential communities express a character distinct from commercial skyscrapers, and Victorian- and Edwardian-era residential buildings can be found in enclaves such as Rosedale, Forest Hill, Cabbagetown, The Annex, the Bridle Path and Moore Park.

Before 1998, Toronto proper was a much smaller municipality and formed part of the regional district of Metropolitan Toronto. When the city amalgamated that year, Toronto absorbed the former municipalities of York, East York, North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough. Each of these former municipalities still maintains a certain distinctness, and residents still use the names of these municipalities. The area known as Toronto before the amalgamation is sometimes called the Central District or simply "Downtown".

The "old" City of Toronto is the business centre and is, by far, the most populous and dense part of the city. The "inner ring" suburbs of York and East York are older, middle-income and ethnically diverse areas. Much of the housing stock in these areas consists of old pre-war single-family houses, such as the uniquely Torontonian bay-and-gable housing style, and post-war high-rises. Many of the neighbourhoods in these areas were built up as streetcar suburbs and contain many dense and mixed-use streets. They share many characteristics with sections of the "old" city that are outside of the downtown core. The "outer ring" suburbs of Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York are much more suburban but are developing urban centres of their own, such as North York Centre around Mel Lastman Square.