House Hunting In Toronto Team™
Franca Capano, Rick McGuigan & Robert Holbrook -
HomeLife/Cimerman Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage -
© 2002 -
The city of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada, is called "the city of neighbourhoods" because of the strength and vitality of its many communities. The city has upwards of 240 distinct neighbourhoods within its boundaries. Before 1998, Toronto was a much smaller municipality and formed part of Metropolitan Toronto. When the city amalgamated that year, Toronto grew to encompass the former municipalities of York, East York, North York, Etobicoke, and Scarborough. Each of these former municipalities still maintains, to a certain degree, its own distinct identity, and the names of these municipalities are still used by their residents. The area known as Toronto before the amalgamation is sometimes called the "old" City of Toronto, "Toronto proper", the Central District or simply "Downtown".
The "former" City of Toronto is, by far, the most populous and dense part of the city. It is also the business and administrative centre of the city.
The "inner ring" suburbs of York and East York are older, predominantly middle-
The "outer ring" suburbs of Etobicoke, Scarborough, and North York are much more suburban in nature (although these boroughs are developing urban centres of their own, such as North York Centre around Mel Lastman Square).
Toronto Neighbourhoods
Toronto -
With a population of 2.6 million, Toronto is the 5th largest city in North America.
Its residents include more than 100 different ethnic groups and speak almost as many
languages making Toronto a unique mosaic. Toronto is a leader in many other ways.
It is Canada's corporate capital, with more nationally and internationally top-
Old Toronto Downtown Toronto is the heart of this urban core, with Yonge Street running almost directly in the middle of this district.
York
York is formerly a separate city, the second smallest of the six former municipalities, yet it is one of the most ethnically diverse.
North York
North York is home to Parc Downsview Park, Canada's first national urban park, Downsview Airport and the North York Performing Arts Centre.
East York
East York was formerly a semi-
Etobicoke
Etobicoke is largely composed of industrial factories and suburban homes. The area
is home to Sherway Gardens, Woodbine Race-
Scarborough
Scarborough has characteristics of a suburb of old Toronto, but retains much of its own character and flavour.
New neighbourhoods
By the 1980s almost all the open areas within the limits of Metro Toronto had been
developed, with most of the growth in brand new developments occurring in the belt
around Toronto known as the 905. This same era saw the rapid deindustrialization
of Toronto, as almost all the factories and warehouses that had once dominated the
waterfront disappeared. This created wide expanses for new developments and new neighbourhoods.
A number of new communities have developed and are developing in these post-
With the disappearance of open spaces in the city of Toronto and the revitalization of the downtown there has been considerable condominium construction creating residential communities in areas that were once almost wholly commercial.