Barrie
 

Just come back from 3 and a half weeks in Ontario, most of which was spent in Barrie again.
We had a great time and enjoyed the lakeshore beach festivals etc. We also spent time researching banks, properties and made many new friends and contacts, some of whom were through chatting in Tim Hortons :)

However, we did check the news most days and continue to do so online and are concerned that there does seem to be a few problems, with drugs, vandalism, occasional shootings and stabbings and even graffiti (although I made contact with a councillor who assures me there's a council initiative planned to deal with it)

What's the feeling of those who've moved over in the last couple of years? Has the city changed? We don't want to relocate only to encounter the same sort of issues we have here in Croydon.

Re: Barrie
 

But it's just like Croydon. A commuter town populated mainly by lower income people, inevitably it'll have the same sorts of issues. It'll be colder though, with more snow.

Re: Barrie
 

I think Dakota44 lives in or near Barrie...why not drop him a PM?

Re: Barrie
 

We were going to settle in Barrie up until our visit 3 weeks ago. We have now brought a house in Wasaga Beach 50kms away. On this visit Barrie just didn't do it for us. We were also there for the dragon boat racing, Barriefair etc. We stay in the Holiday Inn on Fairview.

Chris

Re: Barrie
 

Believe me I've been to Croydon and Barrie within the last year, and Croydon was much grottier. In terms of dubious, shifty looking characters, Croydon wins that category as well.

Barrie tends to attract Toronto commuters whose jobs etc, are in the northern fringes (York Region) but don't want a Toronto priced house.

Re: Barrie
 

Yes, I was surprised by the comparison of Barrie and Croydon: there are some very rich bits of both as well as the more rundown parts.

We found some very unexpected parts to Barrie such as Johnson beach which was great and we had it almost to ourselves many a time.

I'm interested in your choosing Wasaga over Barrie, Chris. It's a lovely part of the world but doesn't it get snarled with traffic/Toronto types up there during the summer?

Paul

Re: Barrie
 

Doesn't Croydon attract London commuters whose jobs etc, are in the southern fringes but don't want a London priced house? I suggest that dormitory towns are much of a muchness regardless of the country of location.

Re: Barrie
 

Well Croydon is in London - a fairer analogy would be commuting from Reigate or Guildford. Trouble is nowhere is cheap in the South, most prices are pretty much of a muchness, ie high, aren't they?. There are cheaper bits of Croydon as in all towns.

Can we stop talking about Croydon - I know too much about it :) I want the residents' view on Barrie.

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Too upmarket. Luton might be nearer the mark in terms of being working class.

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Southend? It even has a beach.

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Do you live in Barrie?

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No.

Re: Barrie
 

No, but I've been there. Several times.

Re: Barrie
 

i don't find it half as depressing as Oakville or any or those other GTA suburbs.

At least Barrie isn't wall to wall housing, with tiny lots.

Just my opinion.

Chris

Re: Barrie
 

That's exactly how I see it. Small houses, sided not bricked, lots of malls, run down central area with strip joints and sex shops. I go to the Costco there sometimes but find visiting Barrie to be a depressing experience.

Re: Barrie
 

My job's in downtown TO so it would make no sense for me to live in Barrie. Even if I worked in the northern reaches of Toronto I suspect I would choose somewhere else to live. I don't know Barrie except by reputation, but dbd's view seems pretty universal, and Rontel himself/herself said that it seems to suffer from much the same outer-suburban "issues" as somewhere like Croydon (or Southend, I maintain).

Rontel, will you be working in Toronto? If I were going to have to deal with Hwy 400 every morning and evening I would want to get home to somewhere pretty spectacular at the end of it. I'm not sure Barrie would tick that box for me. Sure, Oakville's not exactly a Utopia, but my commute is under an hour door-to-door and I can read the paper in the train on the way.

Re: Barrie
 

Or, at least, dramatically different from what I could afford locally. I wouldn't move way out there for the sake of an extra bedroom or bigger lawn.

Re: Barrie
 

I think that Barrie's reputation precedes it. We met up with friends in Richmond Hill last year who asked why we were going to Barrie. When we showed them pictures they were pleasantly surprised.

Yes there were a few s*x shops (we've discussed this before on BE) but the end of Dunlop Street and the area around Vespra is the rundown area as far as I can see.

We met a lot of really nice people (who didn't have lower incomes by the way) - one neighbour where we were staying took us out on his speedboat, I visited radio stations where the djs had actually bothered to reply to my request to meetup.

We'd both be self employed from home so commuting wouldn't be an issue.

Paul

Re: Barrie
 

Well good luck to you. It seems an odd place to go but, if you like it, you like it.

Re: Barrie
 

I don't live there either, and it's years since I visited.

kelly and andrew (kellydrew) settled there about a year ago, from Wigan. Neither seems to post on here anymore, but they might occasionally lurk or check PM.

Try searching on their username to see if anything helpful comes up.

Novo.

Re: Barrie
 

Barrie is booming, affordable housing is certainly a plus, and it also has an excellent hospital.

Several smaller villages are proximal.

Housing is substantially less expensive than TO, and there are job opportunities there, not every one commutes.

Just NW of Barrie is Wasaga Beach, also a very rapidly growing area.

Recreational opportunities abound, and skiing is readily available, plus you are on Lake Simcoe, for the boaters and fishers.

Oakville is closer, but you pay 2 to 3 times the price for the same house.

I am about 1 hour NW of Barrie, on Georgian Bay, would not move to the city again, on a bet, and i lived in Leaside, at the city core.

The Salmon are spawning, you can watch them jump at the Dam.

Re: Barrie
 

Ahem. Leaside, while doubtless nice enough, is quintessentially suburban. It's hardly "at the city core".

Re: Barrie
 

hi steve's oh here
we are going to wasaga beach
but you really dont need to use the main strip of the beach if you dont want to. if you get a local map from a realtor and you look at it you can clearly see the back roads take you every were.
from the super store you can go straight out to stayner to why 26 or go to con 12 and that will take you to the other side of the beach to elmvale. (following it to the end pass christmas tree creak, turtle pass, wolves crossing, and over the bridge than when you have to turn you go left to elmvale or right to barrie why 26.
you can also take sunnydale road pass wasaga sands to con 12 or power line road so you dont have to take the main road ie if you were in berrie or toronto you will learn the roads. if you dont know ask someone anyone will tell you the back way if not ask me i grew up there stayner, collingwood, and yes i can fine the best bars in berrie and the trash bars in barrie and also know how to get through base Borden to go to alliston the short way.
but if you ask you will get where your going.

Re: Barrie
 

dbd33, Bayview and Eglinton is in the suburbs, I think not, that is why it is listed as Central Toronto.(C11)

Lawrence Park, Rosedale, North Toronto, suburbs, since when??

The city centre has moved well North of Queen and Yonge, that is why Y and E is called the New Down Town.

Re: Barrie
 

Speaking of Stayner, new plans will effectively DOUBLE the size of the town.

This area is exploding , way too many people moving here, the roads are not equipped for the Traffic, and since we vote Conservative, the Liberals ignore us.

Re: Barrie
 

I'd say downtown is pretty much lake to Bloor, Spadina to Parliament. Everything north of Bloor is pretty suburban, even if developers call it "New Down Town" or whatever. Leaside and Lawrence Park especially so. Leaside is even reached from downtown by driving up a four lane limited access highway, it's not like you can walk there. It's even past the metroland bungalows of Don Mills. Lawrence Park is too remote for me to be able to locate but wasn't it developed all at one to accomodate overspill from somewhere else? Classic 'burb.

All that said, these 'burbs are not horrible, just dull. Very much Hyacinth Bucket territory.

Re: Barrie
 

Somewhere above Oakvillian compared Barrie to Southend. I don't think that quite holds. Wasaga Beach as Newquay works better; a place full of drunken yobs in the summer, abandoned in winter. "Exploding" is something we might hope for it.

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Well i am glad you don't have to live there DBD, some of us may like it but then as you said above maybe all of the GTA is for the Hyacinths of this world

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I must admit to an affection for muscle cars, big hair and spandex. Wasaga in summer is like the set of Grease and that's fun in small doses. If you don't take the kids.

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Hmmm well i feel i have just walked on to the set of grumpy old men

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That's Thornbury, innit?

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But you have been warned. Wasaga Beach?? Why?

It's awful, awful, awful, and about to become worse.

Re: Barrie
 

1st i have for most of my life lived in the suburbs of a major city being london, i do not want to live in the constant urban sprawl that is now toronto

2nd my wife is from collingwood, i have family in stayner

3rd i have bought on a quiet back street of wasaga beach which unlike what some of the posters is not full of people in spandex, monster cars blah de blah de blah. If i do not want to drive through the beach to get anywhere i do not have to, there are quiet back roads which take you around the main strip

4th if i choose to live in a place that is maybe not to everyone liking then maybe people should accept that decsion rather being rude and dismissive

5th i am an electrician by trade, as has been made a big deal of there is a lump of building work going on in the georgian triangle, which amazingly enough is good for electricians

6th There is a number of other people that are on BE which are moving to the beach so maybe we are not all wrong

Would you like me to go on???

Re: Barrie
 

Well this thread was supposed to be about Barrie. ;)

Re: Barrie
 

well i think where you live is where you like so why tell other people where they live is not what you like. if you want to live in barrie im sure you'll find lots of things you like about it. i like barrie for shopping they have a lot of stores that are good and you dont have to go to the big city (and risk running into bdb) thats a good thing. but im going to live in the town i like and when family come to visit in the summer they might like to see lots of people but than again i only have to deal about running into bdb in spring n fall as this would only be the time of year he could leave his home as a fear of people has him in toronto.

but i dont under stand is why you havent learnt the lingo yet unless no one will talk to you

but barrie is nice but if your not sure have a look around at other places you will find whats right for you when its time you might not think so but you will

Re: Barrie
 

Hi Paul

Are you planning on being a dj there? My cousin is a dj in ontario and has worked in a lot if places in there if you need any advice I could pass you his details, if it helps.


All the best
Danny

Re: Barrie
 

Hon, I'm a hick. I live in the country. I don't care for the suburban sprawl y'all have up in Barrie and Wasaga (soon to be one, I suppose).

Re: Barrie
 

I have lived in the Georgian Triangle for 10 years, it is pleasant, healthy, has all the amenities we need, and the open spaces and clean air devoid of loud music, is free.

Growth is a concern, but any of you who have read Boom, Bust etc know the Boomers are retiring, and they are moving here, because it is safe, clean, and has 6 hospitals in the area.

We are doing it for our kids, because country property will be totally out of todays generations' ability to buy.

I am surprised that we, like others, in our twilight years, are living in a house much, much larger than we left, we transferred equity, we did not free it up.

Re: Barrie
 

No arguments about the general area. But Wasaga Beach itself is a microcosm of 1950's Blackpool.

Re: Barrie
 

I am not a Beach Fan but we know a lot of people who live there, and love it, some just moved, some there for awhile.

Lest we forget, the Beach is about 30 minutes from Blue and from Barrie.

I would compare Wasaga to Torquay.