In Toronto, I'm not sure if Spadina counts as a downtown street. If it doesn't, then most of the major east-west commercial streets that intersect with it create very vibrant intersections:
- Spadina & King
- Spadina & Queen
- Spadina & Dundas
- Spadina & College
Then there are the major streets that intersect Queen, so:
- Queen & Bathurst
- Queen & Ossington
- Queen & Broadview
There are a few more in the general area of town south of Dupont and east of High Park.
But here are a few dark horse mentions, since they're in faraway neighbourhoods that don't get a lot of love:
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Yonge and Broadway. This is just north of the Yonge and Eglinton intersection, and a lot more human in scale. "Broadway" is a very insignificant cross-street, but I always thought that this intersection was like the informal heart of the Yonge/Eglinton area.
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Yonge and Spring Garden. OK, I don't know if this one counts, because it's not very walkable - and if you walk two blocks east or west, it's very suburban (streets that don't have sidewalks on both sides). But the North York centre strip is full of street-facing hole-in-the-wall Asian restaurants that generate a lot of nighttime vibrancy.
It's not really Brooklyn-ish, but I would put the North York Centre strip of Yonge St. toe to toe against any neighbourhood in LA except for downtown LA itself. This area is also completely underrated by most urbanite Torontonians themselves, except maybe those who are foodies.