Oakvillian

Yonge and Bay are parallel, but the banks' offices are mostly right downtown, a handful of blocks at most from Union station, very walkable.
Yes. Bear in mind too that financing or leasing a car can be a good way to build a Canadian credit score.
30-40 mins to downtown won't get you very far out into the burbs. I used to commute on the GO daily from Oakville to the TD Centre downtown, I'd plan for a little less than an hour door to door. If you start from right next to the station you'd be OK, but factor in a drive/bus from home to station and your journey time goes up appreciably.

Given your comments above, I'd say within striking distance of Port Credit/Clarkson/Oakville/Bronte GO stations would be your best starting point.

Bleepedy Bloops

Best thing to do is come over and stay with your relatives, then start casing out different areas when you have the time. It's also a good way to get familiar with the way people drive in this town.

lmartin999

Although I have no great love for the TTC I disagree with this. Thinking that you cannot function without a car (ideally a large gas guzzling monster, and preferably two) is one of the biggest problems with Toronto. It might be convenient but I don't deem it a pre-requisite to having a strong start in living here (especially with what the OP is likely to pay in insurance). Last thing TO needs is more 905ers driving in.

marimac

Sorry, I heard Bay St and assumed financial district (which turns out to be correct).

fledermaus

not to worry. I'd ignore me if I were you, I know nothing.

wheatsheaf

No doubt Toronto and the GTA in general could do with less vehicles for various reasons. The OP may however, find it necessary. For one thing, there will be lots to carry in the process of first establishing oneself. IMO also, it is much easier to get a good handle on the whole GTA if one is mobile, and a lot less time will be wasted hanging about for buses etc.

curiously enough I know of a Canadian couple that EMIGRATED to London England, because of the better public transport there, whilst they felt having a car in Toronto is a necessity.

London Mike

Someone mentioned Leaside in this thread as an area inside TO to consider. I've seen this are pop up a few times (and High Park and Beaches of course ...). I thought it was horrendously expensive but maybe I'm wrong. Are there cross streets to look at for more affordable rental housing here? Thx

dbd33

There are lots of apartments around Bayview and Eglinton, a woman we employed for a pittance lived on the NE corner. There are also some low cost buildings to the south, on, and west of Laird. That's not really Leaside, I suppose, but close.

sharkus

High Park and The Beaches can be horrifically expensive. We used to rent a condo near Palace Pier (Lakeshore and Park Lawn area) and so we looked at places around the area, and that includes High Park and it is very expensive indeed, at least $400 plus, and that would be an older place that might need a bit of work. If you want something that you need to nothing to from the word go, it'll obviously add to the price.

We also looked around the Mimico area and found places for about 350k, thing is, they were older places and thus they may have been three bedroom, but they were small bedrooms and typically no garage. Again, it looked like 400+ was what we'd need to invest to get something that met our expectations, which were fairly simple to be honest.

The factor for us here was stay close to the city and save a chunk on transit costs and put that chunk into the house budget, or move outside of the city and get something that matched what we wanted, was within our budget and pay a chunk for transit.

In the end we decided on the latter and started to look outside TO, eventually deciding on Oakville, which is where we now live, and we're rather happy

I work from home for the moment and my wife takes the GO into TO for work, it's a little tedious for her, but it's not too bad. I used to travel into London during rush hour and can say that the GO is far better set up for commuting that South Eastern ever was.

Cyan

90 mins each way door to door would be more realistic. I used to commute to that area from Mississauga.

If you have family in Brampton then I think the location issue is settled, with a possible alternative of north Mississauga.

How have you been keeping your PR status valid given that it's been 2 years since you got it and I presume you are still outside Canada ?

sharkus

Good point about Brampton to downtown. If driving then It'd probably be 410 south, 401 east, 472 south, Gardiner east. *shudder*. That'll be just lovely during rush hour! Ok, you could take the non highway route there, but it'd still be busy.

Another good point about PR too. I did wonder that myself. The OP mentioned they'd been out for 2 years, don't you have to be resident in Canada for a full 2 years out of every 5 to maintain PR?

lmartin999

And the TTC is like the tube used to be in perhaps 1965 - though I doubt it was even this primitive then.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to arrive at YYZ as an international visitor and then discover what is involved in getting downtown on transit (both in terms of how you travel and the truly bizarre system - worse at the moment - of using tokens, tickets and transfers).

Souvy

Why does that make YYZ much different from most other international airports?

lmartin999

It doesn't have a subway. There is no equivalent of an Oystercard, nor even at the airport the facility to buy a daily or weekly pass. No faciilty for paying with a credit or debit card. You need exactly $2.75 in change (unless you want to overpay) to take the bus.

dbd33

I do that run often, it's 90 minutes from the top of the 410 to MLG.