not2old

made my day did that

BristolUK

I visited Canada in 1975 and we stayed in a lakeside cabin in NS for part of the trip. We dipped in the lake for morning shower.

There was an outhouse. This one looks in better shape.

Using the torch to find your way there through the trees after dark was no fun.



I remember it was a long drop below.

HGerchikov

Outhouse humour aside you make a good point. However because I am always going somewhere different it doesn't feel like a commute. Having said that I have been working with people buying in Ancaster this past couple of weeks, its a beautiful place but not easy to get to from Oakville at 6pm on a weeknight, that has been trying, but it did serve to remind me how happy I am not to have to deal with that on a daily basis. If I am working downtown, I will go on the GO train and subway, its so much easier than trying to find places to park.

dbd33

On Sunday morning there are horses and carts. They're slow but I tend not to go to the office on Sunday mornings. Of course, it's not the office in Toronto that I'm talking about; the market is 90 minutes from here so the office would be 100 or so (on a Saturday morning).

HGerchikov

anyhoo, in an effort to get this thread back on track. To the OP, there are areas of Oakville that would meet your criteria, you could walk to the main street for shopping and coffee shops (although Oakville's main street is more of a stroll and browse kind of a place rather than a pick up your family groceries place). There are parks for dog walking and safe streets for bike riding, however that area is expensive. Once you move away from that part you do get into more 'house after house' type neighbourhoods that you describe. Although many of these have trails running through them (you don't always see these from the road but they make for some lovely walks) and local shopping plazas that often have a coffee shop, but its not the same as a traditional high street.
I don't know anything about the options to the East of Toronto. The other place to the West with a considerably shorter commute that springs to mind is Bloor West Village. It has as traditional a High Street as you are likely to find, a large park not far away but the houses are generally older and quite close together on relatively narrow streets.

not2old

On that point, my first post response to the OP was to show places other than the east-west corridor commute either along the lakeshore, or the 401 from Milton to Scarborough, Pickering or the other way round.

That's why I threw in Newmarket (and why not include Ancaster, Stouffville, Bradford or Barrie), all for the reason folks in this part of the country seem to accept a one-hour commute [on a good day] as the norm in either direction

You may find folks who live in the Beaches or the Eastern burbs who work not just in Toronto, commute to one of Oshawa, Oakville, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, even Newmarket.... its one of the daft things of living in Canada.

Just saying...

dbd33

If the job is in central Toronto and the OP intends to live beyond the end of the subway then I think only the Lakeshore corridor is a viable commute by public transit. There are GO train routes to other places but there are very few trains so you need a tightly regimented workplace to be able to use them.

Ms. Gerchikov's comments on Bloor West Village apply to the Beach (and the Danforth) as well. The good streets have lovely old houses not very far apart with drafty windows and leaky basements. The bad ones are in a squalid housing project built recently on a former race track where, as is usual for Canada, the streets are named for the thing bulldozed in order to throw it up. Northern Dancer is the name of one such street. The Beach has the added snag of being an anglo-Irish ghetto, you may as well move to West Hendon.

Leslieville is an old working class neighbourhood so the houses were once tiny but have been yuppified by bringing the karzi indoors and adding decks on every floor. It's common for houses there to have the bathroom tacked on behind the kitchen. I liked living there because it's the end of the line for many trams, going farther means catching specific ones, but mainly because it was cheap. It aint cheap no more.

not2old is right about the number of reverse commuters. I read somewhere that as many people commute out as in. From the Beach I mostly worked out of town so that meant lots of trips to the airport (difficult) but I also commuted to someplace up the DVP past the 401 (very slow), Ottawa (ok once you get to the 401), Guelph (awful most of the way, nearly impossible coming back when there was a sporting thing at the SkyDome), High Park (awful, a very smelly drive) and downtown. I would not live in the Beach if I didn't work there or downtown.

not2old

The OP may find the interactive map of Toronto useful

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/co...0071d60f89RCRD

as well as other related information

toronto.ca | Official website for the City of Toronto

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/co...0071d60f89RCRD

the blairs

Hey there,

Thanks for the thoughts :thumb up:

We have decided to look further afield to Aurora and Newmarket. A 1hr commute is fine (husband has managed that and further just fine in the past).

Any thoughts on these areas?

Linz x

I'm getting rather excited now! 6 weeks till we move!

Pizzawheel

Check out SW Scarborough neighbourhoods close to the lake. Specifically:

Birchcliff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_Cliff
Cliffside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffside,_Toronto
Cliffcrrest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffcrest

All commutable. all reasonably close to amenities but much more quiet suburban than the beaches, a high proportion of anglos + irish in the area, and best of all fantastic value because of the Scarborough stigma.

not2old

Newmarket in post #4 above

Aurora

Profile & Quick Facts

Demographics & Income

Our Shops | Aurora Shopping Centre

GOTransit.com - Stations and stops

Aurora | Local House Rentals in Ontario | Kijiji Classifieds

JamesM

There is a Go Train that is near Danfoth and Main or 'Upper Beaches" as it is now known.

If you can afford a house just south of Kingston Rd but at the top of the hill it would only be 5 to 10 minutes to scurry over on foot.

Other than that the OP really is down to living near the lake in either Oakville, Burlington or Port Credit.

West is best and all that.........

Pizzawheel

West is the same but more expensive- there fixed it for you

The three "cliff" neighbourhoods are all accessible to GO via Scarborough GO, one stop further out from the Danforth, though from Birchcliff you'd be more likely to bus up to Vic Park Subway. I do, anyhow.

Pizzawheel

Plus most importantly there are a number of good pubs in the area. yes, a number, plural.

Many a BE poster would be glad of one decent option!

not2old

just for the curry & chips