along Shuter heading east several more blocks can be places you don't want to hang around..up and down Yonge even..like any large city of 2-3 million people the downtown core has it's places where crimes of all sorts happen..drugs, prostitution, gangs, robberies, murder..Toronto is safer than many cities but it has its troubles. The areas away from the downtown core in the suburbs also see crime.
Homeless people are asking for money outside of Massey, along the streets and in the subway stations. During the summer it's worse as Toronto attracts transients from all over the country.
In the courts right now is a case of a young girl murdered on Boxing Day a couple of years ago. Two gangs had an altercation/words in the Eaton Centre shopping mall on Yonge where Massey is and shortly after they ran into each other out on Yonge St. Someone fired a gun and this young innocent person out shopping was killed. Another case is a young man in a very affluent area killing his neighbour, hiding her body, then moving it where it was eventually found.(link below)
Toronto has it all like Newark, LA, New York, Dallas, New Orleans etc. just not in the quantities like other places...but it is still very disturbing to have even this amount.
you can check Toronto news at:
http://www.thestar.com/default and
http://www.torontosun.com/
tv station:
http://www.citynews.ca/