# Uptowns and High streets instead of Downtowns and Main streets

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uptowns-and-high-streets-instead-of-downtowns-and-main-streets/930278>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 11, 2021, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uptowns-and-high-streets-instead-of-downtowns-and-main-streets/930278 "2021-01-11T18:52:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uptowns-and-high-streets-instead-of-downtowns-and-main-streets/930278/61 "2021-01-18T15:34:39Z")

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> [@Mark\_Finn](#):
>
> Toronto also has a “Main St.”, but it doesn’t seen to delineate anything. It’s only a couple of km long.

I live spitting distance from Main Street. Given its location, I had assumed that it used to be Main Street for East York, but it has always been part of Toronto. Yonge Street is the real main street of Toronto.

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**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uptowns-and-high-streets-instead-of-downtowns-and-main-streets/930278/62 "2021-01-19T12:46:25Z")

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It was actually Main St. for the then independent municipality of East Toronto - annexed in 1908. [East Toronto - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Toronto#:~:text=The%20commercial%20center%20of%20the,designated%20to%20be%20Yonge%20Street).

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**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uptowns-and-high-streets-instead-of-downtowns-and-main-streets/930278/63 "2021-01-19T15:57:14Z")

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There’s also a Main Street on New York’s Roosevelt Island. (One of the first Google results is an article about how [no one likes it](https://ny.curbed.com/2009/10/27/10529434/nobody-likes-roosevelt-islands-main-street), though I gather it’s changed for the better since Cornell built a tech campus on the island’s south end.)

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