Lapsed Canuck

Just wondering what you thought of Mississauga? Anyone live(d) there? We are looking for a good 'starter' place to rent in and get settled with good access to potential jobs in larger cities. Anyone have any opinions on the place? What's it like to live in or visit?

Thanks

dbd33

When we moved to Canada we first lived in Mississauga, in a run down building next to the harbour at Port Credit, it's now been yuppified as the Water something hotel. After that we lived in a building next to the Clarkson GO, nice pool and club, they have a sign outside now referencing www.viewit.ca but I can't immediately see it on the site. The building was good as, being next to the GO train meant easy access to Toronto and there's really nothing very much in Mississauga.

CalgaryBlade

I've visited Mississauga many times and would not want to live there.

If you like motorways and light industrial parks you'll love it.

dbd33

That's a little strong. Mississauga is divided by an east-west highway, the QEW. North of the QEW is, as CalgaryBlade describes, a wasteland. There are houses up there but they were built on farmland so there are no trees, it's all very ugly between the QEW and the 401. However, south of the QEW there are a number of older leafy neighbourhoods with houses that back on to Lake Ontario or the Credit River, Mineola, Lorne Park, Clarkson (south of the Lakeshore) are all nice in the American suburban manner and all are near the GO train so one can get to the shops, schools and restaurants of Toronto.

There's been some encroachment by housing projects, in southern Mississauga, a particularly offensive one being the Watercolours by Mattamy development. We can, however, take comfort in the fact that these developments are mostly built on land long soaked in toxic waste. People who buy these ghastly lawnless buildings will, in time, have children and pets as ugly and ill proportioned as their houses.

Lapsed Canuck

Eek! That's what I thought. Finding it hard to find any sites that give lots of photos and wondered why that might be...

Lapsed Canuck

Thanks dbd. Will have a look out for the nicer neighbourhoods and check out the viewit site. We are still trying to find some middle ground between living outside Toronto in a half decent sized place but not being 'in the city'. Very difficult with the sprawl that is Toronto!

dbd33

No one wants to admit to living in Mississauaga, it's a huge municipality, like Milton Keynes, so you have to look under the names of the former towns and villages.

http://www.portcredit.com/pcsights.htm

http://www.mineola.ca/photo_gallery.htm

http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/res...ges?start=1181

Still, it's a suburb. The primary points of interest in suburbs are always the train stations and freeway ramps.

dbd33

The reason we moved to Port Credit was that we had no money and needed somewhere to live. We took the GO train and saw that, at Port Credit, there were very many apartment buildings. We got off the train and wandered, there were lots of bars and restaurants and lots of "for rent" signs, that's still true today. It was good for us as we had no car and the train was there. It's not a thrilling place, but, again, it's a suburb and, at that time, "cheap" was all important to us.

Do you know where you'll be working ? A reasonable commute is all important in a sprawling city.

Lapsed Canuck

Not sure and that's the problem. My partner wants small town life but I'm used to working for charities in inner city areas so want to keep the option open to commute as I am more likely to find a decent job near a city. But, we're having a baby soon so don't want to have to travel too much as well as having a half decent quality of life. Best of both worlds and potentially impossible!

MikeUK

IMHO Mississauga may not be the prettiest city in Canada, and it may be stuck between two big highways..

But it does have everything you'll need, and even if you can't find it the Go train will take you to somewhere else quickly.
It is the city with the lowest crime rate in all of Canada.
Niagara is around the corner.
The escarpment is a little to the north.
And as a place to start from and take your time to discover the local area, I’d highly recommend it

Many would say I’dnever live there… but nobody say’s you have to stay. It’s one of those places where property always does well so moving on is easy, it’s as convenient to down town Toronto as you’re going to get, you do have access to some of the best facilities in all of Canada on your door step. Easy access to the airport and that means direct flights to most of Europe and nearly all of North America..

Granted the down side is it is in the GTA and that’s home to some of the worst drivers in the western world!!!

CalgaryBlade

What "facilities" might these be?

It sounds to me like the best part about Mississauga is that it's easy to get out of.

dbd33

Any sort of indoor activity is readily acccessible, if one cared for the theatre, for example, living in Mississauga would allow one easy access to Toronto and reasonably easy access to New York. Any sort of outdoor activity that can be conducted on a flat surface is also readily available, Port Credit has a nice yacht club and there's an extensive system of parks and conservation areas for cross-country skiing, bicycling and the like.

Mississauga is ugly and it doesn't have mountains but places that are scenic and do have mountains lack culture so the trade off depends in part on whether or not one is an outdoor person and, if so, how important it is to be able to slide down things.

CWEMM02

Why not try Caledon north of Mississauga or Orangeville. These places are a little further away. I wouldn't live in most places in Mississauga, and the places I would I couldn't afford. However, there have been lots of good reasons given to start there in the previous posts.

Please keep in mind that over the last 20 years or more, the population on the area has increased greatly. With the preference for suburban living this that sprawl has prevailed over community devlopment in most every city around Toronto. If you want the town feel, then you must live in more expensive areas of Burlingtion, Oakville and Mississauga. If not you must travel greater distances. However, as I said, all these places now look like new towns. I was thinking like Basingstoke in Hants, I haven't been to Milton Keynes.

My brother does something crazy. He lives in Grimsby, here in Niagara, and gets up early (4:45) to drive to the train in Burlington to get to downtown Toronto. His wife wanted a much bigger house and so, since they couldn't afford the house they wanted in Burlington, they are in Grimsby.