You can get an interesting view of the air show from anywhere in the Western Beaches (walking distance from my place!). The best view is from as close to the CNE grounds as you can get. You coud even pay to get into the CNE and receive the best view!
Niggle, the King and Spadina area is kind of a border area. It’s just south of the Fashion District (once the home of sweatshops, clothing manufacturers, and furriers; a few still hold on) and Chinatown. It is just west of the Entertainment District, and just north of Harbourfront.
Nearby, just off Spadina north of Front Street, is Clarence Square, which I find rather sad: the park that fills the square remains, but the row houses that used to surround it are almost all gone, and across the parking lots that replaced them glow the neon lights of the Entertainment District. One row of townhouses remains, standing awkwardly along the north side of the square.
The square is part of the remains of an 1840s plan to develop the area. Several such squares and connecting avenues were built, and a promenade and parks were planned along Front Street (which at that time was next to the shore of the lake). Then in the 1850s, the railways came through, cut the area off from the lake, and surrounded it with nineteenth-century red-brick industry.
Further west on King, over towards is an area of these nineteenth-century warehouses that is rapidly gentrifying; I believe this is known as the Liberty District or Liberty Triangle, after a street in the area. During the tech boom they were trying to attract all kinds of ‘New Economy’ outfits to the area; I’m not sure how effective that was, or what it’s like now.
Looking at a map, I see that Wellington is the street that connects Clarence Square to Victoria Square, the other surviving square from this plan. Brant Place is on the south side of King, a block west of Spadina. Right in the middle of the area.
You will not need a car unless your job requires it. You’ll be almost downtown, and it’ll be easy to get anywhere: although the King streetcar can be mindbogglingly-slow during rush hour, the Spadina streetcar runs on a reserved right-of-way out of traffic, and connects to the Spadina subway station at one and and Union Station at the other).
If you can afford it, there are plenty of condos for sale or rent in the area, including the vast Cityplace development which is slowly remaking the Railway Lands. If you can’t afford it, there are affordable (for Toronto) older apartments for rent further west along Queen. Just watch out: some of the areas between Dufferin and Roncesvalles can be a little rough.