You could also be a property owner closer to downtown. You wouldn't be able to put a football field in the backyard, but if you can buy a house in the exurbs you could buy a smaller unit in the city.
Correct.
But I don't choose to.
If you are commuting a longer distance then you have less spare time to shop.
To an extent true, but:
Counterargument: I am able to work on GO train. It's also extra nap time. I also catch up on my emails and smartphone app/blogging/gaming time which I would otherwise waste at home (less time spent with others). 1 hour on GOtrain is far more productive than even 30 minutes behind a steering wheel (and it would actually take far longer than that to drive). One arrives at home less frazzled by rush hour auto rage, which mentally benefits the whole household, raising quality of life. Be noted, that it now finally is much easier to find a seat on Lakeshore trains ever since they made the trains 30day. And nowadays, Lakeshore really spikes the frequency of trains during peak:
There now a whopping 6 Lakeshore West trains in one 45-minute period during 5pm-6pm (the 5:00, 5:10, 5:18, 5:25, 5:37, 5:43) if one train is standing room only and I don't feel like standing, the next train definitely has a seat for me because I'm early for the next train coming in a few minutes. Lakeshore GO peak is way more comfortable than TTC peak (same can't be said for other GO lines when you crush into an overcrowded Milton or Kingston train). And if the train is express, my commute can often be faster than a High Park resident trying to commute downtown during peak.
In this case you are trading off housing prices for time spent in a commute, subsidized by highway construction and parking minimums in zoning bylaws. You get more space, but a longer commute and fewer amenities. How does this increase GDP over being in a townhome closer to downtown?
The property cost ratio is huge -- very huge. It actually costs twice as much to buy a 2-bedroom downtown Toronto condo (at third to quarter square footage), than to own my 4-bedroom detached in Hamilton. Do I want to be condo-poor or have an actual house and more disposable income in Hamilton? Three-figure (under $999/month) mortgages are still possible in Hamilton (yes, true: we looked at a $199K tiny bungalow in 2014 that looked far nicer than a slum Toronto apartment and only 20 minutes walk away from a gentrified area, 15 minute
walk of the new Hamilton GO station, and 30 minute walk from downtown Hamilton. That's still within reach of lots of amenities. Alas, it was too small for us; even if more spacious than a 2-bedroom condo), but it goes to show there has been large differences in pricing along the Lakeshore GO corridor! This causes me to never decide to get property locally, and I may have even moved back to Ottawa (my hometown) or out of the province, as an example, had GO not existed. The differentials are still massive still to this day, even if Hamilton's rising house prices are closing the affordability gap quickly.
I would dispute the amenity part. I am only 30 minute walk of
Hamilton downtown (e.g. My 4 bedroom detached is much closer to Hamilton downtown than Toronto Danforth Greektown is to Toronto downtown). That's a 4 minute drive or a 10 minute bike ride. Several restaurants within five block radius, including high-rated-urbanspoon diners that have sitdown meals cheaper than a McDonalds takeout. Two supermarkets within 1km walking distance, a new Tim Horton's Museum, etc. I actually gain a few amenities, such as nature (City of Waterfalls), and great views from the top of escarpment within walking distance, and a large Gage Park, very close to three airports (Hamilton International only 10 minute drive, Buffalo Airport only an hour to hour-half drive, Pearson only 35 minute drive mostly on 407) with more vacation opportunities newly opened to me. There are certainly the ugly industrial parts if I walk 20 minutes north towards the waterfront, but only a 5 minute walk south to a beautiful forested escarpment wilderness bike path on the Escarpment Trail whereupon I can reach a few pretty spots by bike. (The beauty contrast is startling, google "
city of waterfalls" -- Hamilton is in all results on the
entire first page). It's like walking from something uglier than yesterday's Regent Park or rundown Dundas Street, to something prettier than the best parts of Don Valley (the views are better than the lookout on Broadview in Riverdale area in that big park) -- plus a pretty Rosedale-style housing district in between -- I can even just about barely see the CN tower from up there when the air is sufficiently clear -- there's lots of contrast between various parts of Hamilton, so you cannot judge Hamilton amenity by standing in a random location that ends up ugly. Surprisingly, within 15 minute drive is a Playdium Lite game arcade (a smaller version of the one in Oakville) at a very popular up-to-date bowling alley, to little gems such as the popular waterfront restaurant on the "pretty" western waterfront, so I don't feel amenity-poor.
For the amount of time spent trying to commute during peak from Liberty village to a downtown or Bloor office tower, I'm already home from downtown Toronto to my swimming pool in Hamilton! (If selectively catching one of the express GO trains that takes 55 minutes to Aldershot just minutes drive from home, or just barely over an hour to Hamilton downtown, since I work within a short walk of Union). Over time, the Lakeshore upgrades added several more express GOtrain that zooms all the way to Oakville before stopping... There are many TTC commutes longer than my GOtrain commute. Sure, an argument can be made that we need to build more subways downtown Toronto (I agree), though upgrading the whole GO network into a bonafide surface subway (GO RER) is pretty cost effective compared to that. It's arguably a far easier GDP win (okay "cost effective GDP bandaid to the current Toronto sprawl situation") to upgrade GO than to try to build another subway.
Cost of living is lower: so the government is benefiting from you spending more, but you're spending less? Salaries are higher downtown: Again, if you lived closer to downtown you would have the same salary
But I did. I rented in Riverdale area and spent less than I do now. Hamilton mortgages are lower than Toronto rents, even when accounting for utilities. Perhaps the higher rent benefitted a landlord that paid more taxes, but that's not money spent on home renovations and upgrades (where I benefit a lot more businesses and employees in Hamilton, improving GDP). I have spent
far more on shopping ever becoming a homeowner, full stop.
There's no doubt that this arrangement benefits Hamilton, they get to become a bedroom community for Toronto and have this sprawl subsidized by the province. But how does displacing homeownership from the GTA to Hamilton benefit the province?
I'm not. I would probably never have become a homeowner in GTA in this current era, as the cheapest 2-bedroom houses (minimum size we needed) were almost double what I could afford. If the city focussed on keeping costs lower in Toronto, this would not have happened, but the economics are so distorted.
Look at the numbers. Toronto is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in.
In all these cases, all that is being subsidized is sprawl and the displacement of economic activity from Toronto to the suburbs.
This is true, but the GTHA is structurally stuck with this; it's something created by the circumstances. The distortions of Toronto sprawl makes having GO service a very good GDP win today (or "good GDP bandaid" if you prefer).
The planners don't have the luxury in starting from scratch, and it's hard to densify faster (imagine trying to develop 10x faster than the current condo boom) than the timeline of a major GO upgrade. Because of the structural sprawl, we need GO to help speed up denisification (Hamilton is now finally starting to densify again, one condo tower builder in Hamilton put a picture of GO train on their condo advertisement at their building site -- an obvious nod to condo existence justified by the GO train; their condo application seemed to make that abundantly clear too) Also, unlike Oakville and other parking-lot-powered GO stations, the new JamesNorth GO station is being designed as a more pedestrian-friendly walkable major transit hub for Hamilton.
Not that I'm against GO service. I'd rather have transport-dependant sprawl than auto-dependant sprawl. And allowing more people access to the core means that there's a bigger supply of labour for businesses in Toronto (otherwise growth would be choked off). But, given an alternative between a denser urban form or province-subsidized sprawl, it's definitely more efficient from a provincial standpoint to have a denser city.
No disagreement there.