Toronto Living Advice

MarkJD

Howdy all,

With a little luck i may be in a position to have a job lined up before I travel over to Canada. It is in the same company i am in now with offices in Toronto. Before now we had been spending a good bit of time researching Vancouver as we have friends there and that was the plan but as the weeks have gone and we have progressed through the IEC etc i have gone with the mindset that i would much rather go somewhere where i have the security of a job and income guaranteed before we went over. Would take the initial pressure of a big move and neither of us having work for an undetermined amount of time.

With the above said im looking for some advice on Toronto as a whole. The offices are based in Gordon Baker Road, North York, Ontario which is north of downtown.

1) What would be some of the better places to live? (We would prefer to go for a 2/3 bed condo / house but will settle for an apartment if the location is better) - Currently checking out places like Hillcrest Village, Thornhill, Markham & Newtownbrock. Would welcome any better suggestions

2) What is North York / York like as a whole to live in? Iv heard mixed things about rough areas in the east of the area from reading online

3) What are the above areas and North York as a whole like for Public Transport? Is it a nightmare to get to the city if we needed to or wanted to?

4) Is there much going on out that way? Shopping / Cinemas / Bars / Sports etc

If anyone can give any sort of reference to what it may be like in comparison to Dublin it may give me a good idea if that makes sense. Neither of us have ever lived outside Dublin.

Thanks for any help / advice.

Sunshine87

Hi Mark,

i will respond in more detail later but can i ask why you picked Markham? its a really nice area but it is not in Toronto per say, it is in the GTA area. its a commuter area so if you want to be in the hub of downtown or in near distance then you will be pretty far out, and the transit system is not the same as downtown (i actually work in Markham area and live downtown so its a fair trek but i am used to it)

unless you are buying a car then you will be grand as highway 404 runs through Markham so you could get downtown in 20 mins (without traffic)


other nice areas are yonge and eglinton (and davisville, yonge an st clair) these are in the midtown area. rosedale too but that is a very expensive area. there are lots of nice areas but cant list them off the top of my head!

if you want to be near downtown you will probably need to consider your distance and the length if time you are willing to commute.

Sunshine87

sorry i just reread your post, you will be mainly commuting uptown.

MarkJD

Sunshine87 wrote: »

Hi Mark,

i will respond in more detail later but can i ask why you picked Markham? its a really nice area but it is not in Toronto per say, it is in the GTA area. its a commuter area so if you want to be in the hub of downtown or in near distance then you will be pretty far out, and the transit system is not the same as downtown (i actually work in Markham area and live downtown so its a fair trek but i am used to it)

unless you are buying a car then you will be grand as highway 404 runs through Markham so you could get downtown in 20 mins (without traffic)


other nice areas are yonge and eglinton (and davisville, yonge an st clair) these are in the midtown area. rosedale too but that is a very expensive area. there are lots of nice areas but cant list them off the top of my head!

if you want to be near downtown you will probably need to consider your distance and the length if time you are willing to commute.

Sunshine87 wrote: »

sorry i just reread your post, you will be mainly commuting uptown.

Hey Sunshine,

Yea no worries. The Job will be based in North York and from google maps it looks like it would only be about 15km from Markham so it seems like a good option. Id like to bend your ear a bit more on Markham if thats ok? Might send you a few PMs.

Ill most definately be getting a car and im at that stage where i want to start getting settled, will only be married and want to get a nice place. Definately still want to have good social activities available and around us like Sports, Cinemas, Restaraunts and Bars which Markham seems to have.

Is there any particular reason you chose to live down town and make the commute? You still like the hustle and bustle of the city or would you consider Markham too quiet?

Agro Head

I personally wouldn't live in Markham. The satellite towns are largely soulless in my opinion. Maybe I'm missing something but they don't look like they have a whole lot going for them.

If you could pick up a place closer to downtown, on a public transport route to where you work, I'm sure it'd work out better.

MarkJD

Agro Head wrote: »

I personally wouldn't live in Markham. The satellite towns are largely soulless in my opinion. Maybe I'm missing something but they don't look like they have a whole lot going for them.

If you could pick up a place closer to downtown, on a public transport route to where you work, I'm sure it'd work out better.

Have you lived far outside downtown before? From my perspective i guess it comes down to what you are looking for. We are looking for somewhere closer to home where we might be getting a bit more bang for our buck in terms of rent. $1700 might get us a small 1/2 bed in the heart of downtown and then have a 1hr+ commute to work everyday but have all the happenings of the city and nightlife at your disposal or on the flip side have somewhere further out where you can get to work in 20-30 mins max and have a much nicer 2/3 with a possible garden for the same money. Sure you dont have the mad nightlife or all the city life options but it comes down to what you want at this stage.

Im leaning more towards the nicer place / closer to work... Be interested to hear other peoples perspectives if they lived outside downtown? Did they hate it / love it and for what reasons etc.

retalivity

North York is lovely, although I am biased as it's Toronto's second Koreatown.
There are plenty of bars/restaurants/shops around Yonge & Finch, although afaik it is a bit of an expensive area to live in (although not as expensive as downtown)

MarkJD

Thanks ill check out those areas. They seem a little bit further south so closer to Downtown.

retalivity

also, the yellow subway lines last stop is finch, you can jump on the subway there and be downtown in about half an hr.

Agro Head

MarkJD wrote: »

Have you lived far outside downtown before? From my perspective i guess it comes down to what you are looking for. We are looking for somewhere closer to home where we might be getting a bit more bang for our buck in terms of rent. $1700 might get us a small 1/2 bed in the heart of downtown and then have a 1hr+ commute to work everyday but have all the happenings of the city and nightlife at your disposal or on the flip side have somewhere further out where you can get to work in 20-30 mins max and have a much nicer 2/3 with a possible garden for the same money. Sure you dont have the mad nightlife or all the city life options but it comes down to what you want at this stage.

Im leaning more towards the nicer place / closer to work... Be interested to hear other peoples perspectives if they lived outside downtown? Did they hate it / love it and for what reasons etc.

lol wrote you out a massive reply and I timed out. Message gone. If I can a chance later I'll type it up again.

MarkJD

No worries thanks

Had my interview on Thursday so hopefully know within a week or so then i can make a decision but good to know what u had to say

crazyderk

Hey OP,

Did you ever make it to North York, I think I'm in a similar position to you now and just looking to see what your experiences are.