Ranking of Toronto neighbourhoods stirs debate
Posted August 15, 2013 1:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new ranking of Toronto’s 140 neighbourhoods has predictably brought out armchair civil engineers who question the validity of the study’s research and methodology.
The Best Places to Live in the City, the cover story in Toronto Life’s September issue, assigns each area a score out of 100 based on house prices, crime, transit, shopping, health and environment, entertainment, community engagement, diversity, schools and employment.
Rosedale-Moore Park — the area between Bloor Street East and Mount Pleasant Cemetery — placed first, while Mount Dennis — which incorporates Eglinton Flats and scored abysmally on schools and employment — was at the bottom.
But in between, the survey’s surprising results prove why using statistics and administrative boundaries to rank neighbourhoods can be futile.
“York University Heights scored higher than the Annex? Are you guys on [drugs]?” commenter Lauren Davidson wrote on the Toronto Life website.
And many others showed contempt for the findings.
“Ha! This is good: the Beach is ranked ahead of the Annex in the entertainment category (score of 81 versus 31 for the Annex), because the Beach has Ribfest and the Jazz Festival in the summer, while the Annex only has theatres, museums, bookstores, live music venues, a university and a college every day of the year,” a user named moleski said.
Here are the Top 10 neighbourhoods:
1. Rosedale-Moore Park
2. Banbury-Don Mills
3. High Park-Swansea
4. Mount Pleasant West
5. High Park North
6. Wexford-Maryvale
7. Mount Pleasant East
8. The Beaches
9. Mimico
10. Casa Loma (Forest Hill)
Bottom 10 neighbourhoods:
131. Ionview
132. Elms-Old Rexdale
133. Brookhaven-Amesbury
134. Oakridge
135. Maple Leaf
136. Clanton Park
137. Rustic
138. Beechborough-Greenbrook
139. Etobicoke West Mall
140. Mount Dennis
