Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

We are off to Toronto in October for a recce trip. :thumbsup:

Our plan is to see a couple of areas each visit and try to see them all over the next 2 years finally whittling it down to an area where we may like to live.

The problem I have is that I havn't a clue what any areas are like??:confused:

If you were to ask about the surrounding areas of Edinburgh then no probs but I have no idea at all about the suburbs of Toronto

so........
If you have any info with regards to family life (our kids are 8 and 11), schools, parks, shopping, crime, nice/not so nice areas etc...on the following areas

Oakville
Mississauga
Brampton
Burlington
Milton
Vaughan
Markham
Pickering
Richmond Hill
Ajax

then please share

Thanks
The Blairs :)

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

They're all much of a muchness, if you were blindfolded and driven to a suburb you wouldn't know which one it was except if it was Markham or Brampton and you could hear people speak. Given that I don't think any of the places listed is very special this is what I know:

Oakville - affluent core surrounded by identikit tract housing

Mississauga - nice south of the QEW, like Oakville but cheaper, wasteland of tract housing north of QEW (except Streetsville)

Brampton - mainly Indian population

Burlington - never noticed it, just more Mississauga/Oakville sprawl, I suppose.

Milton - massive development currently, mix of light industry and dense packed cheap houses

Vaughan - truly horrible expanse of flat former farmland now covered in tract housing and a giant mall. Vaughan, seen from highway 400, might be the most depressing sight in Canada (and I've been to the tar ponds).

Markham - Chinese

Pickering - indistinguishable from Mississauga (noQEW) even the malls are physically identical

Richmond Hill - covered extensively on other threads, I don't think I've ever been there.

Ajax - looks the same as the others but I'd guess this is a depressed area due to the motor industry's woes, maybe there are bargains to be had.

Note that there is quality public transit along the lakeshore, if you live elsewhere and have to go into Toronto you'll likely have to drive.

Have you given any thought to living in Toronto rather than in the surrounding wasteland?

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

All the towns/suburbs on your list provide good family living. All have good schools/shopping/recreational facilities. All have experienced growth in recent years so each has many new(er) style homes of varying sizes. Obviously where you plan to work will influence where you live. Your list covers a very large swath of land with varying levels of public transport. If that is important to you then you should be looking at some towns/cities rather than others. I just read dbd33's post and as I said in your other thread, he is not an afficionado of things urban. You will see for yourself when you're on your reccie.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

But I am. I like parts of Toronto, love NYC, love London. I just don't like the featureless sprawl between the town and the countryside. Mississauga (noQEW) for example is a place where I wouldn't take my kids to birthday parties because for miles it all looks the same and, without landmarks, I'd waste all day trying to get out of the housing projects.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

I think we are really looking for something within commuting to Toronto for Husbands job.

We thought of the suburbs because we thought it would be safer then actual Toronto for the kids.

I understand the distaste for identikit housing and lack of personal space however, with 2 children 1 who is nearing teenage years and will no doubt soon be wanting freedom :blink: I feel that it is best for them to be brought up in an area where they can play outside with friends and still be safe also when the time comes I would prefer not to drive them everywhere and they will be encouraged to make their own way on public transport - this would prove difficult if we were on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

When the kids eventually fly the nest the time will come to move further afield and live in an area where my house is the only one that will look like my house !

The Blairs :)

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

These were my reasons for my living in Toronto and not the suburbs. Toronto has 24 public transit on major routes whereas, in the suburbs, the car is king. Living in the sprawl implies driving your children to their first dates, then giving them the car keys so they can go out and experiment with bars and booze. In town my children were able to have jobs they could reach on the bus, particpate in sports they got to by streetcar, generally be independent from an early age without my having to worry about cops at the door.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

As Auld Yin correctly said, you'll see for yourself on your reccie trip and soon decide if the GTA is for you. Personally, I think it's hideous but I'm not a fan of industrial or built up areas, I'm a country bumpkin at heart!

Only thing I would say is that you may well find you still have to drive kids everywhere if you live in the suburbs - having spent time in various of the suburbs you mentioned, public transport was not great. OK for commuting straight in to Toronto central, but not so good for getting anywhere else.

So be prepared to still be taxi driver!

:)

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

Is there an area in Toronto that you could reccomend ?

Hmm, Might need to buy that orange light after all then !!


The walks etc along the lakeshore (oakville) look so nice it would be nice to live close to this sort of thing
The Blairs :)

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

At least if you do, you could start charging! :lol:

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

I generally agree with the opinions expressed here:

http://www.boldts.net/Toronto.shtml

We were happy living in the Beach, High Park is the other obvious choice.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

Have a look at the Meadowvale, Old Meadowvale Village and Streetsville areas of Mississauga....basically the north-west areas, with nearby access to Go Train stations as well as 401. I live here and have no complaints.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

Stations, yes. Trains, no.

A glance here:

http://www.gotransit.com/

shows that it's only along the lakeshore that there's anything more than minimal commuter service.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

I agree largely with dbd's assessment. (I say largely only because much of the development in Milton and Vaughn happened after I moved away from the area, and I don't know much about Ajax).

If you live in any of the above areas you'll be doing a lot of driving. All of them have plenty of schools, shopping, housing. AFAIK all would be safe, secure places to raise a family. But if you want to be less car-centric and more transit oriented you'll have to look closer in. I grew up in the neighborhood known as Don Mills. It was a perfectly fine area. Other decent closer-in neighborhoods well-served by transit are The Beach and Leaside. I find Rexdale to be grimy and ugly, and there are a few absolute no-go spots (Malvern, Jane/Finch, St. James Town).

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

Now that the poster who gushed relentlessly about Leaside has moved on I can agree that it's very nice. Also Yonge/Davisville, Swansea and even Yonge/Sheppard though the latter is little farther out than ideal.

Re: Input needed on GTA suburbs please
 

Oh indeed. In an ideal world....

But back in reality, two problems arise. One is that the houses near the lake in Oakville are stupidly, ridiculously, fabulously expensive (and it seems to be the rule that the more hideous the architecture the more expensive the house...). The other is that outside of the public parks, the lakeshore is privately owned, with no public right of way. Obviously, if one can afford a lakefront property that becomes everyone else's problem rather than one's own, but that's a fairly big "if" for us mere mortals! :(