Sorry, Toronto. The seat at the cool kids’ table was given to another city in Ontario further west along the Queen Elizabeth Way.
TimeOut just published its annual list featuring the 40 coolest neighbourhoods worldwide, establishing the ranking off their panel of editors’ evaluations of each neighbourhood. Each community is ranked on a range of criteria, including food, livability and nightlife.
This year, the only Ontario neighbourhood to make the list was downtown St. Catharines. The neighbourhood placed ninth, ranking higher than areas like West Town in Chicago (18th) and the Financial District in New York (28th). The only other Canadian city to make the list was Mount Pleasant in Vancouver, which came in 35th.
“It’s a pretty great feeling, I’m not going to lie,” St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe said in an interview with CTV News.
“We know lists like these are subjective, but I think it speaks to the fact that a lot of really fantastic entrepreneurs have poured a lot of their heart and soul into the downtown and that puts us on a level with other communities that I don’t think people necessarily knew about.”
TimeOut applauded downtown St. Catharines for its mix of local businesses, proximity to some of the “best” wineries, and waterfront charm. It also pointed to the heritage buildings that line the “Brooklyn-esque” St. Paul Street, Montebello Park (the brainchild of the same designer who created New York’s Central Park) and its historical connections to the Underground Railroad.
While Siscoe found the comparison to Brooklyn, New York “interesting,” the mayor gushed over the downtown core, crediting its character and charm to the advent of the Downtown Creative Cluster Master Plan, which launched more than 15 years ago.
“The whole idea was to sort of recognize that arts, culture, creativity, independent businesses, those were the things that were the future of the downtown,” Siscoe said. “It’s been the most successful plan we’ve worked through, it got us through the COVID years and now we’re seeing the results of that hard work.”
City councillor Robin McPherson, who is one of two councillors who serve Ward 4 of which the downtown core is part of, said she was absolutely thrilled to see the neighbourhood featured on the list among cities like Glasgow, Greece and Rome.
“Just excited to see our downtown and to see someone who’s not from here acknowledge and kind of see the amazingness that I know we have,” McPherson said.
The U.K.-based magazine also provided a guide on how to spend the perfect day in downtown St. Catharines, highlighting a range of local spots from where to eat and where to shop, and advised on the best time of year to visit. Some of those businesses included restaurants like Oddbird, It’s About Thyme and the Michelin-recommended Fat Rabbit. The guide also recommends sifting through vinyl at Mindbomb Records, combing through vintage finds at Auds N Ends Boutique and Nac Studio Shop and ending the day with a frosty pint at Merchant Ale House or Trust Beer Bar.
The travel guide named more than a dozen local businesses, and McPherson said it is nice to see them get the credit that they deserve and “probably don’t get enough of.”
“I’m sure it was hard for them to fit in all of those restaurants because there’s a whole lot of other ones that I would have included,” the councillor said.
Ontario’s newly-minted tourism minister Zee Hamid echoed the councillor’s statements, telling CTV News in an email that seeing downtown St. Catharines recognized in this list is just “another example of why Ontario is such a special place to visit.”
The ranking has caused some division online, however.
One thread on Reddit has already garnered dozens of comments.
Some of the commentors acknowledged the local businesses featured but others questioned whether TimeOut has visited the city or if the post was written by artificial intelligence.
For his part, Siscoe hopes this recent recognition will encourage people who are curious about the city to come by for a visit.
“I think, even in Niagara, we have folks that have an impression in their head of something that may have existed 10 or 15 years ago, but isn’t what the downtown of today looks like,” Siscoe said. “We just encourage people to come and experience it.”
These are the 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world in 2026:
- Jongno, 3-ga, Seoul, Korea
- L’Ocean District, Rabat, Morocco
- Neos Kosmos, Athens, Greece
- Chinatown, Los Angeles, U.S.
- Govanhill, Glasgow, Scotland
- Kitakagaya, Osaka, Japan
- Chapinero Alto, Bogota, Colombia
- Koenji, Tokyo, Japan
- Downtown, St. Catharines, Canada
- Esquilino, Rome, Italy
- Russafa, Valencia, Spain
- Tan Din, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Sao Bento, Lisbon, Portugal
- Talat Noi, Bangkok, Thailand
- Slakthusområdet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Humayunpur, Delhi, India
- Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- West Town, Chicago, U.S.
- Rákóczi tér, Budapest, Hungary
- Jalan Besar, Singapore
- Crooswijk, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Chacagiales, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Bandra West, Mumbai, India
- Cathedral Quarter, Belfast, Ireland
- Republica, Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Changning, Shanghai, China
- Oost, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Financial District, New York, U.S.
- New Farm, Brisbane, Australia
- Quarter d’Aligre, Paris, France
- Kalk Bay, Cape Town, South Africa
- North Hobart, Hobart, Australia
- Newington Green, London, England
- Yulin, Chengdu, China
- Mount Pleasant, Vancouver, Canada
- Centro Historico, Lima, Peru
- Boavista, Porto, Portugal
- Starstreet Precinct, Hong Kong
- South Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
- Distillery District, Lexington, U.S.
