finding a decent one bedroom apartment on the subway line is totally do-able. craigslist is always good, but also check out classifieds in local papers such as NOW toronto (http://toronto.nowtoronto.com/online/classifieds/index), where you find a lot more cheaper private landlords. The areas people have already mentioned are nice, like the annex, kensington, queen west... If you're willing to go a bit west of the downtown area there are lots of nice and convenient neighbourhoods like roncesvalles. I used to live at Roncescvalles and Howard Park which is a 5 minute walk to the subway (dundas west station), and had two streetcars that run downtown right on the corner (King streetcar and Dundas streetcar). You can plan to get in the city quick or with no transfering. It's a very friendly neighbourhood, lots of green space and places to hang out, community run not for profit movie theatre, grocery stores a plenty, plus less than 20 minutes to u of t. I much prefer living west of yonge but I also have friends who live along the danforth in greektown and love it. Toronto's a really great city and there are no really bad areas that you need to avoid. There's a bit of a rougher area south of bloor east of yonge but really nowhere i feel scared to walk alone at night or anything...