Why does Toronto have more "street-based" neighbourhoods than other Canadian cities?

[Docere]

The boundaries of the Annex have been generally accepted for about a century. But oddly the city's Annex goes as far east as Yonge and includes Yorkville.

[Docere]

More evidence of long-time place-based identity can be found in the names of several Toronto and Montreal federal ridings (e.g. Rosedale, Parkdale and Beaches included in the names of Toronto ridings, Notre Dame de Grace and Hochelaga in Montreal). Of course these are the two largest cities with 18-24 ridings so you can't just have "North, Centre, East" and so on.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Mr Tall Forehead

Winnipeg's older neighbourhoods are generally named after they've been called for the past century (River Heights, Wolseley, Crescentwood, etc.) or what municipality/city they originally were before 1972 amalgamation (St. Vital, Charleswood, Tuxedo, Transcona, etc). The newer neighbourhoods are just named whatever handle the developers gave them (Linden Woods, Sage Creek, Amber Trails, etc). There's no real street based neighbourhood names here, except maybe West Broadway.

And the famed North End.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Docere

The boundaries of the Annex have been generally accepted for about a century. But oddly the city's Annex goes as far east as Yonge and includes Yorkville.

...which really misses the on-the-ground reality. The Annex and Yorkville are very different neighborhoods, even if there's a bit of a transition zone around Bedford Rd.

Sometimes the Annex is said to go as far south as Harbord or College. Some time ago realtors started saying bay and gable homes on Robert and Major were in the "South Annex."

The Harbord area and the Annex do share a commercial spine along Bloor (Bloor Annex BIA) but they are different neighborhoods historically and in form. The Annex proper (north of Bloor) was annexed by the city and was initially aimed at the well-to-do. Harbord Village/South Annex was more working class though it gentrified over the past few decades.