W. K. Lis said:
The Township of North York was created on June 13, 1922 out of the "rural" part of the Township of York. The Township of East York was created by January 1, 1924 because it was divided from the western section of the Township of York by the City of Toronto. The Township of North York didn't stay "rural" that long.
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In a similar vein you can still see the remnants of former towns and villages that actually grew naturally. You have West Toronto Junction which was centred around Keele and Dundas St. West, and you can tell by the area. It also helps West Toronto had its own streetcar network independent from Toronto's in the form of the Toronto Suburban Railway up until 1923. There was also the Town of Weston which was centred around Weston Road and Lawrence, and once again the area really stands out from its surroundings.
 
Transportfan said:
The thing with Toronto was that the other Metro municipalities were never truly "cities" (despite their later status, which was seen as a joke by many) and none were ever historic settlements in their own right. They were just townships Toronto expanded into, with legit towns within them being absorbed.

In York Region, the urban-rural divide (on top of the suburban-city identity issue) is a thing and the region will likely never have any sense of being one.
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I dunno. Weston was a pretty much stand-alone village wasn't it? I'm not familiar with some of the others but I get the sense that Swansea was the same.

I'm old enough that many of the new municipal boundaries in York don't mean much to me (and, being a non-resident, matters not). To me, Markham is still the town centred on Hwys 7 and 48, Unionville is what is now the 'old town' places like Richmond Hill, Oak Ridges, Mount Albert, etc still have meaning to me if I'm trying to locate something.
 
W. K. Lis said:
The Township of North York was created on June 13, 1922 out of the "rural" part of the Township of York. The Township of East York was created by January 1, 1924 because it was divided from the western section of the Township of York by the City of Toronto. The Township of North York didn't stay "rural" that long.
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But North York was never a true town in the sense that Richmond Hill say, was. It's later "downtown" was built in Willowdale, and Etobicoke's was built in Islington.
 
innsertnamehere said:
US keeps municipalities small as much more (specifically education) is municipally funded. So wealthy suburbs refuse to amalgamate with poorer areas because then they will have to subsidize their education costs.
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Good point, but it is also a matter of local sovereignty, which a bigger issue down there than up here. I have met several small town police officers down there who are with 1, 2 5, etc. member departments, have virtually no funding but, darn it, they are the local cops. The surrounding county sheriffs department might be tolerated but having to call in the state patrol (who, in most cases only have primary traffic jurisdiction along with some other specialized state-level roles) is to be avoided. Out of almost 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, 8,800 are under 10 members.
 
lenaitch said:
I dunno. Weston was a pretty much stand-alone village wasn't it? I'm not familiar with some of the others but I get the sense that Swansea was the same.

I'm old enough that many of the new municipal boundaries in York don't mean much to me (and, being a non-resident, matters not). To me, Markham is still the town centred on Hwys 7 and 48, Unionville is what is now the 'old town' places like Richmond Hill, Oak Ridges, Mount Albert, etc still have meaning to me if I'm trying to locate something.
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Weston was a standalone village, and Swansea was independent but connected to Toronto, but these were absorbed into York and Old Toronto later. York itself never existed as a standalone town, nor did any of the other boroughs, as I mentioned earlier.

Markham is kinda weird in the original village is more of a neighborhood/community than a downtown, more akin to Port Credit in Mississauga (which ironically, given it's size and central waterfront location, actually seems to me more like a downtown for Mississauga (sans MCC) than Markham Village is for Markham). I think the present city is called "Markham" just because the larger township was also named Markham. It's actually more of an amalgamated municipality of near-equal communities like Vaughan or Mississauga.
 
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In Mississauga, Streetsville continues to "exist", along with Port Credit. However, Cooksville and Malton "disappeared". It's "downtown" around the city hall really only exists in name only. Maybe that will change with the Hurontario light rail line.
 
lenaitch said:
I dunno. Weston was a pretty much stand-alone village wasn't it? I'm not familiar with some of the others but I get the sense that Swansea was the same.

I'm old enough that many of the new municipal boundaries in York don't mean much to me (and, being a non-resident, matters not). To me, Markham is still the town centred on Hwys 7 and 48, Unionville is what is now the 'old town' places like Richmond Hill, Oak Ridges, Mount Albert, etc still have meaning to me if I'm trying to locate something.
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Back in the days, people would put Weston, ON on mailing addresses for places in Etobicoke.
 
If anyone cares, the YNSE presentation at this morning's Metrolinx meeting starts at around the 1:20 mark here...
Nothing really new, but they will doing neighbourhood-level virtual open houses in April.

www.metrolinx.com

We Are Metrolinx

Welcome to the largest transportation investment in Ontario’s history.
www.metrolinx.com

EDIT TO ADD:
Looks like they also presented to YR Council this morning. Sounds like they're making the rounds but I haven't watched yet, to hear the questions/discussion.
 
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Steve X said:
Back in the days, people would put Weston, ON on mailing addresses for places in Etobicoke.
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And you always used to see Don MIlls as a postal address. I certainly saw Willowdale as a postal address.

I'm pretty sure at one point, that was the Canada Post guidelines, back around the 1970s or 1980s.
 
nfitz said:
And you always used to see Don MIlls as a postal address. I certainly saw Willowdale as a postal address.

I'm pretty sure at one point, that was the Canada Post guidelines, back around the 1970s or 1980s.
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Certainly back before postal codes in the early '70s. That was back in the day when sorting was done at the actual post office before they centralized it.
 
nfitz said:
And you always used to see Don MIlls as a postal address. I certainly saw Willowdale as a postal address.

I'm pretty sure at one point, that was the Canada Post guidelines, back around the 1970s or 1980s.
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I used to see Islington as a postal address.
 
Leo_Chan said:
Probably because Markham and Vaughan wanted to border Yonge Street.
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Possibly, although the original townships of Vaughan and Markham did border Yonge St. Back in 1971 when York Region was created, places like Thornhill, Oak Ridges, Schomberg, etc. wouldn't have had the population or economic base to be viable, let alone meet the general goal of regionalization to establish fewer, larger lower tier municipalities.
 
My postal address is Thornhill. Just to confirm if anyone is interested.

On a random thought, it’s too bad there wasn’t original plans to bring the line up to Yonge and 16th (where Hillcrest Mall is locates). Was in the area today and it’s getting built up at a good pace. My guess is the small lots have been pieced together by developers and it’s just a matter of time before another condo goes in. The same can be said for Yonge St south of the cemetery to Royal Orchard.

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E687B394-D123-4E03-B1D3-E79CE5B83B0E.jpeg
 
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