Where to live?

[guvner]

I'm going to be going to nursing school next year while my lovely wife, my suga'moma, works in Whitby & Bowmanville between 2 company offices. The schools I plan to apply to are Ryerson, George Brown, Centennial College (near Scarboro Towncenter), Humber College and way out there UOIT/Durham in Oshawa(last choice).
The last 2 schools are not my preferred choices so I'm just going to hope that I don't have to entertain the idea of going to those schools, so keeping Ryerson/GB/Centennial in mind and my wife working where she is working where would be the best place for us to live?

Things to consider:
We will keep one car for my wife to commute with, but with gas we want to keep the commute reasonable.
I don't want to have a frustratingly long commute to school with having to transfer from bus to bus to subway, keeping it simple is what I'm thinking.
We want to live in a safe, clean neighborhood.

Now I know little about the GTA, I live in Kingston now so I have little knowledge of transit and the neighborhoods.

 

[fieras]

For Ryerson/GB there's pretty reasonable flats in the Jarvis & Dundas area... kind of a sketchy neighbourhood but close to everything that matters.

 

[CDL.TO]

To assist us in advising you, can you tell us what it is you're looking for in terms of residence?

- House? Apartment in a house? Apartment building?
- Do you want to be as close as possible to downtown, in a vibrant neighbourhood? Or just somewhere cheap with good access to transit and roads?
- What else are you looking for?

It's a big city. We need some guidance to narrow things down.

Also, I think the answers will differ greatly for Centennial compared to Ryerson or George Brown. Which do you think is most likely?

 

[AKS]

wow whitby, that's really far. To meet in the middle, I would say live near the GO station. There's Guildwood (I hear it's a good community?), rouge hill, etc. If you want to live within the GTA and take TTC (cheaper than GO, but abit slower), the furthest the TTC runs is to scarborough on the east end. Depending on the campus, there's a bus that goes to centennial at scarborough town center or trains to downtown.

 

[guvner]

We would prefer a house or apartment in a house since we have 2 dogs.

Sorry for such a broad question, lets keep it at Centennial for now since I don't know anything about the Scarboro area.

 

[AKS]

I'm going to be going to nursing school next year while my lovely wife, my suga'moma, works in Whitby & Bowmanville between 2 company offices. The schools I plan to apply to are Ryerson, George Brown, Centennial College (near Scarboro Towncenter)

If you attend Centennial College or Downtown I would recommend Scarborough Town Centre area. I think you now the area? There's a bus that goes to Centennial College or trains to downtown. I think Centennial is around 30 min bus I'm not too sure. Train to downtown Ryerson is around 1 hour. The area is relatively safe I think. I lived there for 2 years and haven't noticed much crime except for a homicide at Tim Hortons at 2-3am I've heard about. The housing there is relatively cheap too. My friend moved there not last year. Her apt is around 1200 sq ft and cost around 250k I think.

STC is not bad, there is a big mall there and a lot of cheap grocery stores around like No Frills and Price Chopper. There's also a big Shoppers Drug Mart there. There's also a theatre at the mall as well.

 

[guvner]

So the subway from Scarboro TC to Ryerson is 1hr? really?

 

[AKS]

Well on a good day with no mishap with the LRT or the Train it will take 1 hour at STC. If there are problems it might take more than an hour. The LRT is outside so sometimes there's issues in the winter when tracks are frozen so trains might be delayed. Or if LRT is down, at which point, you can take the bus to Kennedy Station or STC Station. To get to Union Station, you take Train from Kennedy Station to Yonge and Bloor and transfer down south to Union Station.

STC station -> transfer to Kennedy -> transfer at Yonge & Bloor -> Union

Here's the map.

I should mention that it runs late on weekends I think. Especially Sunday. I missed the JLPT test. So becareful when taking weekend classes.

 

[confusion]

I've lived in many parts of the city, and the fun mostly always found downtown. Events are almost always downtown. If you don't want to be riding the subway for hours, and don't want to drive or expensive late night cab rides, I suggest find a place in the downtown core. It's worth the extra $$$. Besides, as someone said earlier, there are plenty of good rent deals east of Yonge. Slightly sketchier area, but seriously, it isn't that bad.

 

[AKS]

But his wife works all the way in Whitby. You gotta consider her too. Traffic downtown is terrible during peak times.

 

[guvner]

LRT=??

If my wife could do the Go that would be great, but I think she will need a car.

 

[AKS]

LRT=??

If my wife could do the Go that would be great, but I think she will need a car.

LRT = Light Rail Transit.

Does your wife work near the Go station in whitby though? Otherwise she would need transit and I don't recommend going through downtown highways during rush hours. There's GO transit at Union if you really want the downtown life.

There's also GO transit at Scarborough Town but not sure of the routes. Also there's a highway 401 that goes to Whitby. STC would be cheaper to live than downtown too. In your case I would recommend STC.

1) Your wife can get to work
2) You can take the TTC
3) It's cheaper
4) There's a neighbourhood there (mall) and cheap grocery stores.

 

[BobBob]

North York Centre might make sense for you. It would be about 30 mins by TTC to get downtown, and about 30 mins by car along the 401 for your wife to get to work. And the area itself has stuff to do.

 

[AKS]

Well, you have to take into account his budget. There's only 1 person bringing in income unless they have a lot saved up. I think the rent is cheaper in scarborough or purchasing a place to live. But to each his own I guess. If he has money to buy or rent there, go ahead.

North York Centre seems a bit far. Sheppard might be closer to 401. And I don't recommend going down Yonge Street to get to 401. I've read horror stories that there's always traffic jams along Yonge Street.

 

[T-Squared]

I commute from T.O to Whitby daily and must say public transit options are limited (and public transit to Bowmanville is almost non-existent..for now until the GO trains extend to Bowmanville centre). If your wife drives a relatively fuel efficient vehicle, monthly cost shouldn't be too bad. I average around 35 to 40 bucks weekly for gas, roughly 60km each day (I know...it ain't fun). But the positive is there's very little traffic going west-east in the morning and east-west after work.

With your wife needing to travel to either Whitby or Bowmanville, I would say she can drive to Whitby within an hour every morning if you choose to live in the centre of Toronto (geographically) for example and travel on the 401.

Hope this helps.