Queen/Bathurst area...whats your opinion or experience in regards to the area?

[just1time]

I am looking to move downtown and want to avoid condo living if i can.
I have focused my search on the townhouses in Liberty village which i think is a great area with lots of potential. But i cannot help but notice the nice little complex of townhouses at Carr st. at the Queen/Bathurst area. The cream-painted townhouses.

Anyone have any info on that area? do you think it will be like King West after a while?
Would you live around the Queen/Bathurst area? Is it a nice neighbourhood? rich or poor? ghetto or stylish? potential or waste? safe or dangerous?
Any thoughts concerns, opionions or ideas?
If anyone has specific info/experiences with the townhouses, thatw ould also be appreciated.


Thanks alot
just1time

 

[UserNameToronto]

Anyone have any info on that area? do you think it will be like King West after a while?
Would you live around the Queen/Bathurst area? Is it a nice neighbourhood? rich or poor? ghetto or stylish? potential or waste? safe or dangerous?

- hipster central
- sketchy
- resists gentrification
- on 2 streetcar lines
- lots of homeless people
- may look dangerous but isn't really
- should be reasonably cheap
- likley loud
- lots of stuff to do, close to downtown

I'd live there.

 

[Eug]

Not my favourite area due to the mild sketchiness, but I'd live there too if the price was right. ie. It should be cheaper than King/Bathurst. Otherwise, I'd rather just live at King/Bathurst.

BTW, are those freehold townhomes or condo townhomes? Or does that matter to you? There are quite a few townhomes in the King area too.

 

[urbandreamer]

If I could find a way of torching those S(Carr) St townies without going to jail, I would. I loathe their tacky cheap "design." Stay away from them, and buy an old Victorian on the other side of Bathurst, say around Robinson or Palmerston and Queen area.

 

[just1time]

hey

thanks for the reply guys.
i went and looked at 2 townhomes today: 1 in liberty village and the other on Carr st.
Both were pretty nice but the liberty Village vicinity beats the carr st vicinity hands down...
i drove down Queen street and end part of Queen st towards Dufferin seemed pretty nice: not as busy as the Queen/Bathurst area and nice condos and lofts on the rise....

 

[cgguy]

The build and quality of the Liberty Village homes is heads and tales above those at Carr st.

From my understanding there was a good deal of water damage to many of the lower units at Carr which has lead to mold issues for many ground dwelling tenants.

As for location, again, Liberty and Carr can't be compared. The kicker is in the price. A 1000sq+ 2 bedroom at Carr will run you around 325k where a comparable unit at Liberty will fetch upwards of 400k.

 

[whatever]

I looked at the Carr townhomes the last time I bought, but got turned off by the close proximity to Alexandria Park and the questionable condition of the roof on the one unit that I looked at. Didn't really like the way all the rooftop balconies were linked together either, I like my boundaries clearly defined

 

[patrick]

Great place

I work around there, and I love it. There's plenty of interesting characters, but you do get complimentary windshield washes at the Queen and Bathurst intersection

There's lots of good cheap food (check out Ghandi's!). Trinity Bellwoods is also nice. On a sunny day it's packed with tennis players, hippies playing guitars and hackey sack, dog walkers.

The neighbourhood definitely used to be grungier, but I feel pretty safe now.

 

[Eug]

Yeah, the westward migration of Queen Street's mainstream retail to around Spadina-ish, and the increased residential influx further west, has really made the Bathurst and Queen area much less sketchy than it used to be. It's still mildly sketchy though.

Oh and yeah, Gandhi Indian Cuisine is great. Hole in the wall, but with good cheap food. Another place is New York Sub (which doesn't really sell much in the way of subs). I really miss those two places now that I've moved away from the area.

 

[potentialbuyer]

Hello,

I have recently visited a lower unit that appears to have some water damage. Also, this unit is having a hard to selling... should I be reluctant to purchase this unit? The price is great, and I like the layout and location. But fear of mold and damage that can harm my own resale eventually is very concerning.

The build and quality of the Liberty Village homes is heads and tales above those at Carr st.

From my understanding there was a good deal of water damage to many of the lower units at Carr which has lead to mold issues for many ground dwelling tenants.

As for location, again, Liberty and Carr can't be compared. The kicker is in the price. A 1000sq+ 2 bedroom at Carr will run you around 325k where a comparable unit at Liberty will fetch upwards of 400k.

 

[Eug]

I like the area, but...

One thing I've noticed is that traffic downtown is way, way more congested than it used to be when I lived there.

I sold my townhouse and moved out of downtown in 2007 to get more space and more peace and quiet. When I did live there I didn't actually work downtown. I worked north of Eglinton and east of Yonge, in an area with lousy TTC support, so I drove against traffic uptown in the morning, and drove against traffic downtown in the afternoon. I lived near King and Bathurst, so the place things would bog down was about College St. However, it was almost always tolerable.

As of this year, my sis moved from London to waterfront Toronto, very near where I used to live. So, if I go visit her after work, I take the same commute route I used to take when I lived downtown. However, it's now simply intolerable. Downtown is a complete disaster most of the time.

I'm shocked. I knew it would be heavier traffic, but often times now it's just pure gridlock downtown on the main roads. If I hadn't moved in 2007, I would have definitely moved by now.