It was called Toronto the good.
But we do keep our doors open and no one does anything. The lock on my front door has been broken since 5-6 years ago and we cant afford to fix it (ie the house is a mess anyway and would be thieves would find nothing of value here. All the good stuff is hidden away and difficult to access). So, perhaps in that regard, we are treating it like it's safe.
The van incident happened in 2018. Prior to 2018, Chad was not on my vocabulary. I first heard of the term from that killer's mouth. I was loath to use it. Fast forward to 2019 - now, it's a very common term.
In Toronto, escort / prostitutes are de-facto allowed (ie it's not enforced unless it's minor's or trafficking, but not on morality grounds). For people to say that a place having easy access to prostitutes will solve this problem, it hasn't really done much here. That would be an interesting topic.
But, I digress, the whole world was different before the smartphones and social media, and the early 00s, in general, are fondly remembered as better times compared to today. Toronto would likely be party of that rosey picture. What Western places hasn't gone down since the 00s?
To be fair, each person's experience in Toronto is different.
@European-DJ was able to get laid on his first visit here with an Asian woman who gave him an all expense paid tour of the place. However, for the average guys, such as myself, the experience is different. My mother always thinks that if I was in the USA I'd been married like yesterday rather than just rotting away here. I won't be surprized of here having this type of reputation.