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A guy selling t-shirts in Kensington Market says that Rosedale is full of guys who make a living stealing people's money. Is it true? Should I be concerned if I board the subway at Rosedale station?
 
CDL.TO said:
A guy selling t-shirts in Kensington Market says that Rosedale is full of guys who make a living stealing people's money. Is it true? Should I be concerned if I board the subway at Rosedale station?
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The point of this thread was to discuss the dangerous neighbourhoods of Toronto. Seeing as many people have stated Regent Park is dangerous in the past, I figured it was worth bringing up. Little did I know how easily offended the snobs on here get if something is exaggerated ever so slightly.
 
js97 said:
Danger is all relative until you've driven through North Philly (where Temple university is) LOL...


Regent Park back in the late 80's/early 90's was rough, but it's been in the process of cleaning up.

When you guys say north scarborough? do you not mean central scarborough?

I.e. South of 401 and north of Eglinton?

I was just looking at north of sheppered homes between Vic park and Brimpley, some where hitting close to a million!

I don't think dangerous would be the appropriate word to use for any Toronto neighbourhood, Sketchy is probably more appropriate ... lol.
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Yeah, Scarborough north of the 401 is not dangerous. South of the 401, it gets a bit sketchier (and south of Kingston, it gets less sketchy). But Scarborough neighbourhoods are very big and poorly defined, so crime and danger tends to be attributed, unfairly as far as reputation is concerned, to a relatively large area.

Philly gets like 400 murders a year and has a bit over half as many people as Toronto...Toronto crime just doesn't compare to these sorts of American cities.
 
remember where those people got electrocuted by those hydro wells with metal covers? that seems like a very dangerous area.
 
mjl08 said:
I don't have any real reason to be in "bad" neighbourhoods in the city. However, I did once find myself at the 7/11 in Flemingdon Park one April evening at 11:00. Probably the most dangerous I've ever felt within city boundaries.
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11 at night, waiting for a bus for 20 minutes just north of Jane and Eglinton. Definitely one of the most frightening experiences of my life.

jenny_zhang said:
I lived in Scarborough, near the Scarborough town center for a long time and never saw much crime. Isn't Scarborough being crime ridden supposed to be a myth? That's what I always hear....
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I always thought that most of Scarborough was safe. I wouldn't say that all of it is nice, but I haven't heard any horror stories outside of the news. I don't know of many east of McCowan though, so maybe things are worse further east.
 
junctionist said:
Crime in Toronto is concentrated around pockets of poverty often in clusters of certain apartment buildings, surrounded by middle class or wealthy housing which making most of these places seem completely normal. So if you're looking for dangerous and grimy, the most dangerous might seem anti-climactic.
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I wonder if this is a reason for Toronto's low crime rate?

Maybe this is beneficial compared to cities which have all the poverty out in one corner, or in one large geographic slum?
 
Another sketchy area is King and Dufferin, specifically to the west. A friend of mine lives in a townhome condo a block west of the intersection, and every time I walk past that awful retail strip on the north side I feel like I'm on the set of Star Trek.
 
Second_in_pie said:
11 at night, waiting for a bus for 20 minutes just north of Jane and Eglinton. Definitely one of the most frightening experiences of my life.
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What was so frightening about it?

For two years, I took the bus home from work every Friday and Saturday night at midnight from Jane and Finch, and I never saw one incident. Maybe I was too young and naive, but I never felt unsafe.
 
^^ I heard there were a couple shootings in that area, and I was almost expecting to at least get mugged. Didn't help that I just missed the previous bus, and that it was freezing outside.
 
I grew up in Regent in the 80's and 90's. The late 80's to late 90's were particularly bad, but I still have plenty of friends and family down there and they haven't reported too much trouble. Like someone else mentioned, a lot of it is newcomer families, it's always been heavy with families. The poor design of the place made it a perfect hideout for criminals, but generally if you keep your nose clean, you usually avoid trouble.

I now live in Scarborough just south of the Town Centre. Our area has had some petty theft, like if you leave your bike out unsecured, but really, in the 10 years I've lived in my neighbourhood it's been pretty quiet. Just like any area of the city, you have pockets which are quieter and some that are more trouble. I think it's pretty hard and silly to classify a huge chunk of the city as dangerous.
 
By many city standards, even our worse areas are very good - it's all relative. No matter how low the falling crime rates go ... there's always going to be a most dangerous neighbourhood. But really ... I've never seen a Toronto neighbourhood that I wasn't concerned about wandering through at midnight.
 
I've noticed that it's often quite sketchy by a Beer Store or cheque cashing place. Not really dangerous, but sketchy enough to be unpleasant. And often in many areas, just go a few stores down, and that sketchiness fades to a large extent.

I'm disappointed I have to take my empty wine bottles to the Beer Store if I want a refund. I don't enjoy having to navigate around the drunk dude that hangs out at the front of the store, etc.
 
I'm not sure that the whole idea of stigmatizing neighbourhoods as "dangerous" is worth much in Toronto. Compared to many cities in the US, the differences between neighbourhoods are more muted. Sadly, I think people like the idea of "bad neighbourhoods" though because it makes them feel safe if they do not live there. Crime happens to "others" who live in "dangerous areas" and therefore it will not affect you in your nice safe haven.

In Toronto your risk of being a victim of crime depends on many factors before geography. If you are not in a gang, if you are not a drug dealer or drug addict, if you do not carry around a weapon, if you are not a criminal, if do not associate regularly with criminals, if you do not wander the streets in the middle of the night while intoxicated -- and so on -- you will seriously minimize your risk of winding up stabbed or shot. If you engage in these activities -- regardless of what part of the city you are in -- you are more likely to meet violence.

Yes, there are exceptions (Jane Creba) but these exceptions are memorable because they are so rare. Rather than focus on geographical areas, we should focus on wider causes for crime. The very fact that the areas of Toronto where you are most likely to be harassed are near centres that supposedly treat mental illness and drug addiction shows that our current solutions aren't quite working. Labeling neighbourhoods stigmatizes everyone who lives and works there. Even in Toronto's "worst" areas I'm sure that 98% of the residents are hardworking and law-abiding citizens.
 
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