[Richard White]

Chinatown East has declined so much that most people forget it exists (including myself). I can't speak for everyone, but I think a decent amount of people see Spadina as the one and only true Chinatown.

Is the city of Markham a Chinatown?

Chinatowns in Toronto - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Honestly, Markham is the new Chinatown.

Hell.. even the Walmart at Markville Mall has chinese signage.

 

[urbanclient]

Honestly, Markham is the new Chinatown.

Hell.. even the Walmart at Markville Mall has chinese signage.

It's semantics. To me Chinatown means historic downtown enclave partly caused by racial discrimination, formed by a different demographic of immigration than that of recent decades. Modern commercial districts in Scarborough, Markham, Mississauga etc. weren't created by the same circumstances that led to Spadina, even if Spadina only came to be 60-70 years ago.

If any Chinese enclave or shopping centre is a Chinatown, then the label would apply to many places. Wikipedia points to Leslie and Finch in North York.

Back to the point about Ontario Line naming, Chinatown on Spadina is just as immoveable as the Distillery District. Neither stop would be located in the named area though. 'King West' is the one that's objectionable IMO. Should be King-Bathurst.

 

[max]

Chinatown actually moved west to it's current location. OG Chinatown is actually closer to St. Patrick & Osgoode stations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chinatown,_Toronto

 

[Mihairokov]

And Markham

Markham is the closest thing to China you'll get outside of actually going to China, aside from maybe Richmond lol.

Second Chinatown at Broadview and Gerrard.

Maybe we should rename Gerrard Station to Chinatown East.

Chinatown East has declined so much that most people forget it exists (including myself).

Eh, it's still there, though. Holding on for dear life despite gentrification.

Hell.. even the Walmart at Markville Mall has chinese signage.

Markville is the closest thing you'll get to a mainland Chinese mall in Canada.

Back to the point about Ontario Line naming, Chinatown on Spadina is just as immoveable as the Distillery District. Neither stop would be located in the named area though. 'King West' is the one that's objectionable IMO. Should be King-Bathurst.

I understand the hesitation of Distillery District over simply Distillery, but is there even a distillery there any more? District is referring to the historic area itself.

 

[Northern Light]

I know Queen-Spadina isn't quite Chinatown, but I like that it gives the area significance and hopefully will instill preservation in that neighbourhood as well.

You made me look to see how the City defines it........(I'm using the BIA boundaries)

This in turn made me curious as to whether businesses using Chinese in their signage align with the above. Using streetview, it oddly almost perfect. In the NB direction, the first business to use Chinese characters in signage is the second unit north of Sullivan. While in the southerly direction, the last is Chinatown Centre which runs just south of Sullivan.

This would place 'Chinatown Station' 249M south of Chinatown at its nearest point.

 

[Tuscani01]

I understand the hesitation of Distillery District over simply Distillery, but is there even a distillery there any more? District is referring to the historic area itself.

There's Spirit of York, and they distill on site.

 

[Tuscani01]

You made me look to see how the City defines it........(I'm using the BIA boundaries)



This in turn made me curious as to whether businesses using Chinese in their signage align with the above. Using streetview, it oddly almost perfect. In the NB direction, the first business to use Chinese characters in signage is the second unit north of Sullivan. While in the southerly direction, the last is Chinatown Centre which runs just south of Sullivan.

This would place 'Chinatown Station' 249M south of Chinatown at its nearest point.

There's a more recent map from the city's Chinatown Study:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/92cc-city-planning-chinatown-area-map.pdf

 

[Northern Light]

There's a more recent map from the city's Chinatown Study:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/92cc-city-planning-chinatown-area-map.pdf

Let me bring that forward for the click-averse:

 

[Mihairokov]

There's Spirit of York, and they distill on site.

Give DoFo a few days and it'll be Spirt of York Distillery Station.

 

[nfitz]

This would place 'Chinatown Station' 249M south of Chinatown at its nearest point.

Compare to 750 metres at Pioneer Village and 400 metres at (former) Science Centre stations. Then there's Greenwood station that's 220 metres from Greenwood Avenue. For the longest time.

Museum station was 230 metres from the closest public entrance to the ROM - until they reopened the historic main entrance on Queens Park. Though currently with the long-term Museum station construction it's 220 metres to the historic entrance and 350 metres to the main entrance.

Distillery District station seems unfortunate, rather than just Distillery station. I'm still not sure why Leslieville isn't Riverside, or it's original 1800s name - Riverdale. But at least it's not hyphenated.

Give DoFo a few days and it'll be Spirt of York Distillery Station.

If we do what some city's do, and just come up with completely new names for stations, then the station would be called Rob Ford. Which might fit with the crack issues in that area.

 

[Transit]

link here

@cryogen , the link seems to go to a blank page.

 

[urbanclient]

@cryogen , the link seems to go to a blank page.

Mx probably took it down, here's an archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/2026041...inx/2026-03-23_-_OL_Website_Map_-_English.png

Here's a timeline, interesting that Leslieville was changed, then changed back. There may have been other names and map iterations.

March 2021 (Dates in bottom right of photos):

June 2025:

March/April 2026:

 

[APTA-2048]

Back to the point about Ontario Line naming, Chinatown on Spadina is just as immoveable as the Distillery District. Neither stop would be located in the named area though. 'King West' is the one that's objectionable IMO. Should be King-Bathurst.

It’s weird because King West can refer to the neighbourhood. But at the same time, Metrolinx renamed Eglinton West because they thought it was confusing. The argument could be made that King West is also confusing.

 

[Dan416]

I don't have a seething hate for "King West", but it's very vague and I definitely prefer "King-Bathurst" because it tells you exactly where it is and there is no ambiguity.

"Chinatown" is meh. It's not atrocious, but it's barely in Chinatown. Again, I prefer "Queen-Spadina" better for its precision.

But then, I don't like the idea of using neighborhood names for local transit. I feel like Metrolinx has taken their GO station naming scheme and just applied it to a subway line. And some of their GO station names make zero sense. Old Elm? WTF is that? Who thought that made sense? I just looked up the Wikipedia page and this is what it says "On October 16, 2021, the station was renamed Old Elm GO after an elm tree located on the premises of the new station along Tenth Line". It was literally named after a tree, replacing the neighborhood name. If they have such a hard on for naming stations after neighbourhoods, why'd they change that one from a neighbourhood name to a, um, tree name.

Anyway rant over. Kinda. Can they just dump this naming scheme that they sorta use sort of the time when they feel like it? I think the TTC's station policy was better, for the most part. But Pioneer Village. Ugh. And Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Ugh. Once I start I can't stop. I'm sorry.

 

[nfitz]

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. Ugh. Once I start I can't stop. I'm sorry.

That wasn't TTC. Vaughan insisted, and pushed the issue to the point that Toronto had to back down. I think the planned name was simply Vaughan Centre, not Vaughan Megalopolis Centre.