Turns Out...

...the Centre of the Universe is smaller than I thought:

Toronto has a downtown fixation

"The 2010 Toronto municipal election revealed a house divided against itself. An unbroken line separates the 31 suburban wards in which Mayor Rob Ford received the most votes and the 13 central-city wards that supported his main opponent, George Smitherman.

Inside that line — as the conventional narrative goes — live the educated, the cosmopolitan, the progressive, the hip. Outside that line live, well, we're not sure. People like Ford, perhaps. The less educated, the less sophisticated, the conservative, the tragically unhip.

The preceding characterization is, of course, an insulting and inaccurate simplification. There are well educated, free-thinking people living in all parts of the city. Of the 13 wards where 40 per cent or more of adults have a completed university education, seven are inside the Ford-Smitherman line and six are outside. An impressive 51.2 per cent of the adult residents of Ward 23 (Willowdale) have a university certificate, diploma or degree.

The comparable figure for central-city Ward 18 (Davenport) is 24.4 per cent. Yet in Ward 23 Ford outpolled Smitherman and third-place finisher Joe Pantalone combined, while in Ward 18 Smitherman handily defeated Ford, with Pantalone a close third.

The notion that Toronto is an unnatural amalgamation of discrete communities breaks down for another compelling reason. The insularity and ignorance of the other side, that would exemplify both groups if they lived in two different worlds, are found only among Toronto's downtown residents, not its suburban ones.

Suburbanites work and play downtown; shop and eat downtown; attend concerts, musicals, and art exhibitions downtown; go to Jays, Leafs, and Raptors games downtown.

It doesn't work the other way around, and this strikes at the heart of the issue. Downtown residents don't go to the suburbs in near the same numbers, often don't know the suburbs, and by and large don't care to discover them. "

Three guesses where the CBC is located.