Residents in Playter Estates have easy access to the shopping on Danforth. There are boutique shops, speciality food shops, bakeries, cafes and restaurants. This area is also known as Greektown, so many of the restaurants and cafes serve Greek food. Also in this neighbourhood is the Carrot Common, a unique plaza with a number of stores that are centred around health foods, for example the Big Carrot, which people travel across the city for.

For recreational activities, residents can enjoy Riverdale Park East, which is one of Toronto’s largest parks. It has plenty of public facilities, including tennis courts, large fields, a pool, an ice rink and a running track. There is also easy access to the Don Valley Ravine, which has a lovely trail that runs alongside the Don River, connecting to the Martin Goodman Trail, which will bring you to the waterfront. There is also the Pape/Danforth Public Library, which hosts a number of programs for children.

Playter Estates is named after the Playter family who immigrated to the area from Pennsylvania in the 1790’s. They owned and settled on the land, and the Playter Homestead at 28 Playter Crescent is still owned by the Playter family. Around the estate, the majority of the land was farmland until about 1912, when a real neighbourhood began to develop.