Photo: Danforth Mosaic BIA — **Photo:** Danforth Mosaic BIA

The local business improvement area has rebranded a stretch of Danforth Ave. between Donlands and Woodbine as "The Danny."

The neighbourhood is in need of its own separate identity, according to the Danforth Mosaic BIA, to distinguish it from the established Danforth that Toronto knows very well — the stretch also known as Greektown that essentially ends at Pape.

The Danny is a name that's been surfacing in east end circles for some time and, according to the Toronto Star, beat out runners-up such as Danforth East and Little Ethiopia.

The Danforth Mosaic BIA recently made the moniker official with street signage and a snazzy new website thedanny.ca with a mission that reads: "In a world of the mass-produced, the bland and the me-too chains, we are all looking for things that are real and authentic. We’re The Danny, and we’re the real thing."

Question is: Will the name catch on with locals?

On the one side, you've got the BIA looking out for the interests of some 500 business that operate along the 2.9 km strip. On the other, you've got residents reluctant to embrace something as bold as a neighbourhood name change.

Perhaps there's middle ground. As one Facebook user commented on the BIA's page. "I shop on the Danny but live in the Danforth East community. It seems to me that the commercial retail strip can have its own branding without taking away whatever name each of us chooses to call our community. And who knows in time, maybe it will catch on?"

What are your thoughts? Is the name trying too hard to be authentic? Let us know in the comments.