Toronto’s Top-Ranked Neighbourhoods for Big City Slickers

By Josh Sherman | 2 minute read

 Check Wahi analyzed data from Local Logic, a location intelligence platform, to rank GTA neighbourhoods in Toronto, York, Peel, Durham, and Halton regions in 11 categories based on lifestyle, needs, goals and interests. Wahi’s 2023 Where to Live rankings consider neighbourhood attributes such as nearby schools, transit quality, park spaces, access to restaurants and shopping, and more.

Where to Live: Toronto

If you’re looking for a big-city lifestyle, downtown Toronto is the place to be. The core of North American’s fourth-largest metropolis contains all the top-ranked neighbourhoods for big city slickers for the entire Greater Toronto Region. These are communities that have nightlife scenes, are vibrant, feature tons of cafes and restaurants, and are pedestrian and transit-friendly. In the top-ranked neighbourhoods for big city slickers, everything is within walking distance. They are real live-work-play neighbourhoods. They’re also rich in cultural significance and history, as these centrally located neighbourhoods are among the entire city’s most established. Note that these Toronto-centric selections don’t mean that there aren’t urban centres worth checking out beyond the 6ix. It’s just that only neighbourhoods in Toronto met all the criteria thresholds for the big city slicker category. 
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1. Bay Street Corridor 

Bounded by Yonge Street to the east, University Avenue to the West, Yorkville to the north, and the Financial District to the south, you won’t find a Toronto neighbourhood with more big-city appeal than the Bay Street Corridor. For starters, the neighbourhood is so much more than Bay Street proper. It includes some of North America’s best shopping, world-class dining — including one of Canada’s best restaurants — and many transit connections by bus, subway, and streetcar, to name a few of the Bay Street Corridor’s qualities. (It was also Wahi’s number one runner up for nightlife and the top-ranked neighbourhood for foodies, too.) Check out:

• Financial District: Follow the money to the Financial District, Toronto’s central business district. Condos, skyscraping office towers, major transit lines — this neighbourhood epitomizes big-city living.
• CF Toronto Eaton Centre: With more than 2,100,000 square feet of retail space, the Eaton Centre is Canada’s third-largest mall.
• Yonge-Dundas Square: Opposite the Eaton Centre, this public square sometimes draws comparisons with New York City’s Times Square and sometimes serves as a performance venue.

2. Alexandra Park

With a thriving bar scene, nearby world-class attractions like the Art Gallery of Ontario, and exceptional transit, some of the best of big-city living is here. Alexandra Park is smack dab in the middle of several of Toronto’s most famous neighbourhoods. Chinatown dips south into the community. Kensington Market is just to the north. And Queen West forms Alexandra Park’s most southern border, which stretches between Spadina Avenue and Bathurst Street and provides even more eclectic retail and dining. Cultural amenities and institutions abound, such as the Theatre Passe Muraille, a venue for experimental theatrical work, and the 6.7-acre Alexandra Park. 

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3. University of Toronto – St. George Campus

Don’t let the verdant pathways of St. George Campus deceive you: This neighbourhood is teeming with life and big-city amenities. It borders the Bay Street Corridor and extends from Bloor Street West to the north, University Avenue to the east, College Street to the south, and Spadina Avenue to the west. Because the University of Toronto campus occupies large swaths of the community, inventory is limited. But the proximity of the campus and the student life it brings only contributes to the area’s vibrancy.