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PetalToTheMetal

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Oct 21, 2013
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I have a friend who offered me a place to stay and live in Toronto. I'm pretty unhappy with where I am(in life and geographically), so I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Anyone here been to or live in Toronto, or just Canada in general? How was your experience? Opinions? Thanks :D
 
Um, it's fine I guess. What kind of answer are you expecting? You haven't even mentioned what you do for a living. It's a bit warmer than Chicago, that's probably the only meaningful difference.
 
toronto is sweet. its the canadian version of NYC. its a global hub metropolis so its great for everything. winter kinda sucks
 
oh I just remembered, public transit in the city is pretty shitty, habitually underfunded and relies heavily on outdated equipment. To make matters worse (this is an angle most of the public doesn't know about) the city has a lot of outstanding orders for new vehicles that will be delayed for years because the manufacturer took a gamble on going with a global supply chain and the plan is backfiring. So yeah, at the rate of growth this city might start looking something like Detroit in a few short years because who the fuck is really going to stay in a city they can't get around in?
 
PetalToTheMetal said:
I have a friend who offered me a place to stay and live in Toronto. I'm pretty unhappy with where I am(in life and geographically), so I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Anyone here been to or live in Toronto, or just Canada in general? How was your experience? Opinions? Thanks :D
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what is the source of your unhappiness? if you don't address the root, you may find you're just as unhappy but in a new place (and poorer because of moving costs).

alasdair
 
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Toronto is super expensive yet super awesome. I am from there and moved to the US 15 years ago for a lower cost of living.
 
I definitely understand moving to another city and getting rid of depression. I was depressed most of my childhood and a bit through university/college. When I moved to an actual city, I was able to be myself and get out of that depression.
Toronto is a pretty good city. Canada is awesome in general. There are more exciting cities in the US and Vancouver or Montreal may be nicer than Toronto but it's good.
 
Very cool city. Haven't been in winter so not sure how I would take the cold but it's definitely got a lot going for it.
 
harmacologist said:
its the canadian version of NYC.
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its as big as pittsburgh... but anyways it seemed like a pretty clean and safe city, although it has been ten years since ive been there so who knows... but in the end it is canada... but like everyone else said if you dont deal with the root of your depression it will only be a matter of time before it shows up again
 
It's been about a decade since i lived there but i'll give my opinion on it anyway. Downtown along Queen street is fucking awesome and there is a really good club scene there. The rest of the city is kind of boring and drab and yes believe it or not there are ghetto's in Toronto as well. Scarborough where i lived for maybe a year is a shitty fuckin ghetto. Nothing to do but listen to the gun shots and sit out in the backyard watching your beer cans pile up. I was walking home from the local bar after only moving to Scarborough from North York the week before and i must have jumped a good 2 feet in the air when i heard 3 shots go off. But since you live in the US that shit won't bother you and Toronto is nowhere near cities like Edmonton in terms of violence. Some Canadians will say such and such a hood is dangerous but the most dangerous thing i ever encountered in Toronto where the shitty drivers. I would suggest getting a spot downtown along king street or somewhere if you can cause that is the best place in the city imo atleast. everything is within walking distance and you can just hop on a street car or subway to get anywhere.

It's kind of a try hard NYC that lacks any culture but it is a decent spot all the same. Native Torontonians can come off as stuck up but thankfully most of the people that live there aren't from there. Toronto is also damn cold in winter. Not as bad as Ottawa but then again neither is fuckin Moscow but it's damn cold. In the summer the heat and humidity and smog will test your endurance cause it get's really fucking hot in the summer to the point of it being unbearable sometimes.

I would rank it as the second best city i have lived in after St.John's
 
Keep in mind everything is more expensive in Canada too, cost of living, rent, food, everything. Forget about buying a house in Toronto, Vancouver, etc... the market is just retarded. You can still find some decent housing in places like Calgary (and we get chinooks in the winter that make winter more bearable, Edmonton doesn't get them) and Edmonton, but again, most people pay more in rent than people do in mortgage payments. Wages are higher here than in the States, but when you factor in the cost of living, it doesn't really matter. I was born in TO, have been back a couple times, but have never liked that city. I find it dirty, congested and expensive.

A new start is nice, but if you don't fix the problem, all the moving in the world isn't going to help you.
 
Rent is not bad when you consider the sheer amount of options for other things you need in life. Want to save on food costs? There are discount supermarkets in as many locations as the major supermarkets. Want to save on clothing? There's a chain called Winners that is practically everywhere and carries brand names at outlet-mall prices. People routinely gripe about how much they think we pay for internet and mobile service, what they fail to grasp is that we can get almost everything unbundled and pay less than U.S. customers pay for lower tiers of service. Despite the bitching and moaning we're already the top country in the world for reliable 4G internet. It's even affordable to own a car, as long as you get a good insurer and get a car that's cheap on maint. there are no overly ridiculous taxes or costs.

So yeah, rent might be $300/mo. more than in a place like Montreal, but when you consider the fact that every possible tier of any service or good you need is available within 10km of you wherever you are in the GTA, I think that the amount of time and money saved overall on non-rent things probably adds up to that $300 in the end.
 
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