[Roots_Energize]

I think there was a good chunk of people who voted for Ford that didnt really know who ford is as a person, uninformed people played a huge role.

 

[Eug]

I don't entirely disagree with 'some' of his/her? points, but my experience with many immigrants I've known - in both talking to them, their parents and their extended 'clan' is that much of the allure has much to do not so much with a 'known' idea of the suburban lifestyle (as the author points out that many didn't come from anything resembling suburbia and therefore never really 'lived' the lifestyle), but more as a romantic vision of the american dream as manifested in suburbia...

I think a lot of people burbs despise obnoxious urbanite condescension like the above.

 

[Roots_Energize]

Honestly why would you wanna live in m5v or boutique condos if your moving here with a family of 3 kids from India? If your coming to Canada from lets say Poland, Jamaica, or China raising a family , rocp condos dont look appealing at all, bringing your baby out to play on bay st doesnt sound that nice. Craming your family into expensive 500 to 900 square feet condos is unrealistic. How many affordable 3 bedroom condos do you know of that have been built in the downtown core in the last 10 years?

 

[Tewder]

Too true, and who can afford a house in the city any more?? Thankfully there are many places in the burbs that are becoming less suburban.

 

[thepatrickblack]

Ford is to blame, and voters are to blame, but also to blame are the mayor’s losing opponents, who obviously did not do a very good job explaining their own platforms, or picking his apart.

In an election, it's buyer beware. Ford and his opponents said/did the things they thought would get them elected. It's the voters job to carefully consider what is true, what is not, and who is credible.

 

[canmark]

BlogTO: Can we mend the downtown/suburban divide?

The Ethnic Aisle, a blog that muses on GTA issues through the prism of ethnicity, hosted its first ever live event Monday night, facilitating chit chat about Toronto's nuanced suburban/urban divide. Held at the 519 Community Centre, roughly 40 citizens of various stripes showed up for the meeting, which was essentially a giant, friendly, free flowing conversation...

 

[Eug]

Honestly why would you wanna live in m5v or boutique condos if your moving here with a family of 3 kids from India? If your coming to Canada from lets say Poland, Jamaica, or China raising a family , rocp condos dont look appealing at all, bringing your baby out to play on bay st doesnt sound that nice. Craming your family into expensive 500 to 900 square feet condos is unrealistic. How many affordable 3 bedroom condos do you know of that have been built in the downtown core in the last 10 years?

Indeed. It's bizarre that so many people who happen to like living downtown think everyone else must think like them or else are just stupid or misguided or whatever.

For the record I lived in a downtown condo, but moved out because I got sick of the size norms and the noise, and the fact that I had to have connected neighbours. I still like downtown. As they say... It's a very nice place to visit, but I don't necessarily want to live there.

There are pluses and minuses to all sorts of living.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Indeed. It's bizarre that so many people who happen to like living downtown think everyone else must think like them or else are just stupid or misguided or whatever.

For the record I lived in a downtown condo, but moved out because I got sick of the size norms and the noise, and the fact that I had to have connected neighbours. I still like downtown. As they say... It's a very nice place to visit, but I don't necessarily want to live there.

There are pluses and minuses to all sorts of living.

One can always move to one of the old suburbs, like: Yorkville, Brockville, Parkdale, Swansea, Forest Hill, Leaside, North Toronto, West Toronto, etc.

 

[TrickyRicky]

Eug,

I would point out that a few of your posts here sound similar to the posts you were criticising. Also, I suspect that the distribution of personality types is uniform over geographic areas and populations.

 

[js97]

One can always move to one of the old suburbs, like: Yorkville, Brockville, Parkdale, Swansea, Forest Hill, Leaside, North Toronto, West Toronto, etc.

it's about 750k+ to live comfortably in most of the neighbourhoods (you'll need a bit more in some of the other areas)

Interesting enough, most of those are not 'pro' Ford

Anyother liberal but smitherman would have probably beaten Ford.

 

[paraone]

Too true, and who can afford a house in the city any more?? Thankfully there are many places in the burbs that are becoming less suburban.

I think that is the common misconception, when my wife and I had purchased our last house in Leslieville, the price tag almost made us choke. After we sat down and calculated it out, with the savings in mortgage, but the extra cost of having two cars, two insurance policies, the extra gas to and from work, then the extra gas for anywhere else we need to get on the weekend, the monetary difference was so slight, that it wasn't worth it, at least to us as we really enjoy living in the city. I understand it's not for everyone, but for us, there was a negligible difference. Then we also thought about 10 years from now when our kids are teenagers and off doing their own thing, then we will really appreciate having the city at our door, and not have to be shuttling our kids all over hells half acre.

 

[Roots_Energize]

I think that is the common misconception, when my wife and I had purchased our last house in Leslieville, the price tag almost made us choke. After we sat down and calculated it out, with the savings in mortgage, but the extra cost of having two cars, two insurance policies, the extra gas to and from work, then the extra gas for anywhere else we need to get on the weekend, the monetary difference was so slight, that it wasn't worth it, at least to us as we really enjoy living in the city. I understand it's not for everyone, but for us, there was a negligible difference. Then we also thought about 10 years from now when our kids are teenagers and off doing their own thing, then we will really appreciate having the city at our door, and not have to be shuttling our kids all over hells half acre.

With 100 thousand people moving to the gta every year 500 thousand people moving here every 5 years theres simply no room in those residential areas to fit everyone. and when people coming from other countries move here they most likely dont know much about the city and its neighbourhoods. I think the best thing we can do is to create pedestrian and transit friendly areas outside the old city of Toronto, the plans for Mississauga North york, Vaughn , and Markham are a good start.

 

[Roots_Energize]

One can always move to one of the old suburbs, like: Yorkville, Brockville, Parkdale, Swansea, Forest Hill, Leaside, North Toronto, West Toronto, etc.

Really if the gta gets 100 thousand people moving here a year and everyone was trying to move to those residential communities you mention then you better believe those housing prices would sky rocket, wow , try 5 million and up for a house?

 

[Eug]

One can always move to one of the old suburbs, like: Yorkville, Brockville, Parkdale, Swansea, Forest Hill, Leaside, North Toronto, West Toronto, etc.

I still live in the 416, but for the size and quality of house I wanted, it would have been roughly 2X - 3X the price in Forest Hill, and I live in a nice area.

I think that is the common misconception, when my wife and I had purchased our last house in Leslieville, the price tag almost made us choke. After we sat down and calculated it out, with the savings in mortgage, but the extra cost of having two cars, two insurance policies, the extra gas to and from work, then the extra gas for anywhere else we need to get on the weekend, the monetary difference was so slight, that it wasn't worth it, at least to us as we really enjoy living in the city. I understand it's not for everyone, but for us, there was a negligible difference.

In our case, we'd have two cars regardless of where we lived, unless we lived right smack downtown (where we didn't want to live). Gas costs are not a major expense. I drive a Prius, and the GF drives a Yaris (infrequently). Actually, even if we lived downtown - if you consider King West downtown - we'd probably still have two cars. It's really inconvenient to get to work by public transit as neither of us actually work downtown, and our relatives don't live downtown either.

As for Leslieville, that's actually relatively inexpensive by Toronto standards. Or at least, not high priced by Toronto standards. Move to one of the other areas mentioned, where the lots are bigger, and the homes on average more upscale, and you'll really choke on the price.

Then we also thought about 10 years from now when our kids are teenagers and off doing their own thing, then we will really appreciate having the city at our door, and not have to be shuttling our kids all over hells half acre.

You can always move after your kids move out. In fact, many of my neighbours when I lived downtown were semi-retired, with adult kids that had moved out. In fact, it seemed the common demographic in my area was young single, young couples, young couples with a new baby, or else childless couples of any age, or older couples with grown kids.

The demographic of couples with school age kids was completely absent in my complex and the neighbouring areas.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I think that is the common misconception, when my wife and I had purchased our last house in Leslieville, the price tag almost made us choke. After we sat down and calculated it out, with the savings in mortgage, but the extra cost of having two cars, two insurance policies, the extra gas to and from work, then the extra gas for anywhere else we need to get on the weekend, the monetary difference was so slight, that it wasn't worth it, at least to us as we really enjoy living in the city. I understand it's not for everyone, but for us, there was a negligible difference. Then we also thought about 10 years from now when our kids are teenagers and off doing their own thing, then we will really appreciate having the city at our door, and not have to be shuttling our kids all over hells half acre.

That's exactly what my wife and I said in 1998 when we bought our five bedroom semi in Cabbagetown. Even back then the prices were high. Now that we have young kids we wouldn't want to live anywhere else, and when the kids are gone in a decade or so we'll have a great house within walking distance of downtown. We work outside the core so both have cars, plus my motocycle - so it was good when the Miller tax on car registration was cancelled. Anyway, I love living downtown. A condo wouldn't do it for me, but my house is perfect for the kids.