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Just spent a week in downtown Toronto at a large research conference and on approaching from the south I noticed dozens of highrise apartment (condo?) buildings, and assumed they were still under construction because they look like empty concrete skeletons with no walls. Then I realize they are covered almost entirely with glass and I can see furniture and lights inside and oh my god people actually live in there   I wonder what it costs to live inside a building that looks like one of those abandoned skyscrapers in North Korea.
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Jun 8, 2015 14:45
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| # ? May 12, 2024 02:42 |
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ANIME AKBAR posted:Just spent a week in downtown Toronto at a large research conference and on approaching from the south I noticed dozens of highrise apartment (condo?) buildings, and assumed they were still under construction because they look like empty concrete skeletons with no walls. Then I realize they are covered almost entirely with glass and I can see furniture and lights inside and oh my god people actually live in there I had a friend who lived in one of those buildings. He had a really nice view of the water/airfield/CN tower. The unit was a decent size and he didn't seem to have any complaints. The only (big) negative is how it's possible to live right downtown and be so far from everything.
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Jun 8, 2015 15:40
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A studio apartment in a new build condo in the lakeshore area is around $1,400/month rent. 1 bedroom+den goes for around $1,600 rent, and would cost around $1,500/month to own including mortgage, maintenance fees, taxes and maintenance. Edit: Rent-controlled student ghetto studios, for comparison, are $900-$1,100/month rent. $500 for illegal 12-in-a-basement Chinatown rooms. The views from the towers are amazing and most of the buildings are within a 5 minute walk to Union Station. Good loving luck getting cheap groceries or walking anywhere interesting though - the Gardiner has thoroughly cut off the harbour from the rest of Toronto. And if you're one of the poor sods who paid $500,000 for an apartment next to the sugar refinery, hope you like a 15 minute walk to transit + food desert + the continuous stench of rotting sugar! The goons in this thread have a pathological fear of windows, it seems. Decoy Badger fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jun 8, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 16:07
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Happy page 420 gunes.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:09
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Windows and sunlight make it really hard to j/o.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:09
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Ceciltron posted:Windows and sunlight make it really hard to j/o. Not if you like an audience.
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Jun 8, 2015 16:37
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ANIME AKBAR posted:Just spent a week in downtown Toronto at a large research conference and on approaching from the south I noticed dozens of highrise apartment (condo?) buildings, and assumed they were still under construction because they look like empty concrete skeletons with no walls. Then I realize they are covered almost entirely with glass and I can see furniture and lights inside and oh my god people actually live in there The best part of these apartments that if you have the time you can play "spot how many are empty" from the CN tower deck.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:18
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The last time I was in Toronto was the 90's and our hotel was right on the water. Nice view, hotel had some shops and restaurants and there were a few other hotels with little shopping plazas in the bottom, but otherwise we felt incredibly cut off from the rest of the city and it was a long walk under a highway and railway to even begin to get to the city proper. Are all these condo towers and their podiums actually extending the street-grid and creating a cohesive walkable extension of downtown on the other side of the tracks, or is it just a bunch of totally isolated condo towers ie "vertical suburbia" ?
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Jun 8, 2015 17:38
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For the most part the waterfront has been improved drastically. It used to be a wasteland with no pedestrians. On the whole I think it's been positive for the city, but that's not to say that a lot of people haven't over paid drastically for sub par construction.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:45
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Baronjutter posted:The last time I was in Toronto was the 90's and our hotel was right on the water. Nice view, hotel had some shops and restaurants and there were a few other hotels with little shopping plazas in the bottom, but otherwise we felt incredibly cut off from the rest of the city and it was a long walk under a highway and railway to even begin to get to the city proper. Are all these condo towers and their podiums actually extending the street-grid and creating a cohesive walkable extension of downtown on the other side of the tracks, or is it just a bunch of totally isolated condo towers ie "vertical suburbia" ? It's a checkerboard, some areas are quite nice, but, for example, living in an area called City Centre means you are at least a half an hour walk to anything other than King West, which is the bougiest overpriced area in Toronto. Anything near Queen's Quay or generally south of the Gardiner is much, much worse.
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Jun 8, 2015 17:49
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Baronjutter posted:The last time I was in Toronto was the 90's and our hotel was right on the water. Nice view, hotel had some shops and restaurants and there were a few other hotels with little shopping plazas in the bottom, but otherwise we felt incredibly cut off from the rest of the city and it was a long walk under a highway and railway to even begin to get to the city proper. Are all these condo towers and their podiums actually extending the street-grid and creating a cohesive walkable extension of downtown on the other side of the tracks, or is it just a bunch of totally isolated condo towers ie "vertical suburbia" ?
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Jun 8, 2015 17:50
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So many if the condos south of the Gardiner are such a long trek away from any of the amenities you'd want in a proper neighborhood that people need to drive/cab it to anywhere worth going. Taking the TTC is a nightmare because they can't seem to get a streetcar down that route without having to short turn it leaving you stranded in the middle of condo wasteland for a half an hour.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:13
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How is urban planning so poo poo in Toronto? You've got tons of loving hipster assholes. Don't any of them aspire to be Jane Jacobs
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Jun 8, 2015 18:24
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Cultural Imperial posted:How is urban planning so poo poo in Toronto? You've got tons of loving hipster assholes. Don't any of them aspire to be Jane Jacobs The way I understand it is that Toronto isn't just the downtown proper, it's a giant sprawling mess of like 3-4 different municipalities. Everyone has their own say, so of course the outliers vote for things to screw over the downtown. I like living here but yeah planning is a complete mess. Our transit is hilarious, everyone has their own agenda and none of it is what's best for the city.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:32
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 Toronto pre-1998 amalgamation in red This is why Toronto is currently a mess. Imagine the interest groups of these outlying regions mucking up capital projects in the downtown, such as the super urgently needed scarborough subway extension 
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Jun 8, 2015 18:40
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Toronto is going to eat itself alive and I'm so glad I got out of there. The entire golden horseshoe wouldn't be missed if it were suddenly swept into the lake.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:43
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You moved to WINNIPEG.
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Jun 8, 2015 20:23
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Cultural Imperial posted:How is urban planning so poo poo in Toronto? You've got tons of loving hipster assholes. Don't any of them aspire to be Jane Jacobs Yeah, seriously. All those loving glass towers spanning a soccer field for some reason, surrounded by highways and not much else on either side.
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Jun 8, 2015 20:30
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Kafka Esq. posted:You moved to WINNIPEG. I unironically like it better here. The golden horseshoe sucks rear end.
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Jun 8, 2015 21:17
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Which Canadian cities would you say have actually better future prospects than Toronto?
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Jun 8, 2015 22:03
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Brannock posted:Which Canadian cities would you say have actually better future prospects than Toronto? All of them, if we can somehow find a way to raze the GTA. The economic success of Toronto comes at a high cost. Commutes that take forever. Forgoing a lot of community events because the crowds are so big, the lines so log and the prices so high that you'd just as soon not bother. Housing that's completely unaffordable. We moved to Winnipeg partially because the GTA seems to suck up the entire Ontario economy and the whole province ends up stuck on the TTC GO Gardiner or a 400 freeway for hours on end each day. We just couldn't deal with it anymore.
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Jun 8, 2015 22:33
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Is this your first summer in Winnipeg? 
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Jun 8, 2015 23:18
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Cultural Imperial posted:Is this your first summer in Winnipeg? 
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Jun 8, 2015 23:41
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I think I would rather live out of a car than move to Winnipeg.
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Jun 9, 2015 00:00
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Cultural Imperial posted:Is this your first summer in Winnipeg? people could argue that GTA and Vancouver have far worse bloodsuckers.
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Jun 9, 2015 00:49
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etalian posted:people could argue that GTA and Vancouver have far worse bloodsuckers. Extry!! Extry!! Chinese-Vampires The Cause of Runnaway Housing Prices! Locals "Hopping" Mad Over These Occult Orientals!
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Jun 9, 2015 01:02
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Helsing posted:I think I would rather live out of a car than move to Winnipeg. Your loss man.
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Jun 9, 2015 01:15
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I mean, it would have to be a pretty nice car.
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Jun 9, 2015 01:44
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Third summer in Winnipeg. Yes the mosquitos suck. On the other hand, I've yet to see a reasonable house I couldn't afford, an event I would rather skip because of the crowds or a place I couldn't get to in a reasonable amount of time. The GTA thinks much too highly of itself.
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Jun 9, 2015 01:48
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EvilJoven posted:the GTA seems to suck up the entire Ontario economy Are you one of those people who thinks there's a net influx of tax dollars to the GTA from the rest of the province? 
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Jun 9, 2015 01:55
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As an actual Torontonian I object to being lumped in with the hellscape that is "the GTA".
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Jun 9, 2015 01:59
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Although the traffic was pretty bad while entering Toronto, I was surprised at how uncongested is was once you actually got downtown (I'm talking around Front st near the convention center). Especially since half the roads look like they've been carpet bombed. But the pedestrian traffic at 8am on weekdays was surreal. Literally thousands of black suits and blouses marching from Union station nonstop.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:13
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Commuting to Union Station in the morning on the subway is probably the closest experience I've had to being in a cattle car. It's still better than living somewhere where I might have to drive to get around though.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:15
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tagesschau posted:Are you one of those people who thinks there's a net influx of tax dollars to the GTA from the rest of the province? Not in the slightest. What I mean is that it's harder and harder to find work in Ontario anywhere but the GTA. Economies of scale are starting to whittle down employment in smaller cities and concentrating them in to select urban centers, mostly in the golden horseshoe. So people from all over the province are having their jobs move to or be swallowed up by companies based in the GTA. Those who do stay outside the GTA see their clientele dry up as the rest chase after employment and have less money to do anything. Now people from as far as London and Peterborough either spend hours each day driving back and forth or just end up living in the city during the week and only see their families on weekends. In the end, more and more work ends up in Toronto, or worse, the outlying areas and suddenly half the loving province is living in some god forsaken overpriced suburb or lovely condo building and hauling their rear end to some office park off Winston Churchil or Hurontario or the 404 somewhere between the 401 and 427 every day just so they can scrape a career together. Basically, we left so we could escape the sheer gravity of the region.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:18
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I really like living in Kitchener. I moved here from Quebec in 2008 and I really like being able to drive to work with no traffic. Well, the people here call what we have traffic, but it's really cute for them to think that. It adds maybe 5 minutes to a 15 minute trip. Home prices are a lot more in line with peoples salaries and this might sound strange, but the property taxes are reasonably high. They're not relying on development charges to buy votes with low property taxes and I appreciate that.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:25
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My wife went to UW and we spent a ton of time in KW. It's super nice. Unfortunately, neither of us could find jobs there that wouldn't require us to drive down the 401 every day. The amount of traffic heading down that road every day suggests that a lot of other people can't, either.
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Jun 9, 2015 02:29
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lol get the gently caress outta here. KW is a loving shithole
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Jun 9, 2015 04:03
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there's nothing great about GTA
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Jun 9, 2015 04:21
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I agree, if you're not living as a carioca in Rio, you're essentially not even alive.
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Jun 9, 2015 04:38
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Brannock posted:Which Canadian cities would you say have actually better future prospects than Toronto? Loaded question. If you are looking at which city would be the most habitable or least decrepit should we return to 1970's level stagnation then the answer is the cities with the newest infrastructure and capable of adapting to 10 years of population growth (about 1%/y, give or take). So in this regard, Calgary as the city was upsized to support 8 million by 2025. Worst ? St. Johns. The Irving family is a loving mess and I would wager they go the way of Seagram before 2020. This is reflected in the municipal bond spreads. We could also throw Quebec city and Charlotte Town on the list just to enrage the Frenchmen (Quebecois? ). For largest wealth effect, I would go with those best approximating the tourist traps. So your choices are Vancouver, Victoria. For Govt. pork, should a Liberal or progressive govt. pivot Canada back towards big "G" government, then Ottawa & Hull. Only those two. Expect another round of late 90's biotech & tech spending and Ontario incentive grants. For "blue collar" jobs, insert comedy Hamilton, Oshawa or Montreal option here. None of those jobs will return to Canada without substantial tax loss investing by Ontario to compete with Poland and Mexico/Brazil. Toronto, I suspect will reflect Chicago or The City (London) in 10 years. Why do I say this ? Well, you can tell quite a bit about a city's financial outlook based on the industry you promote and subsidize. TO right now has something like 80% merchant services, and of which, 38% of all "core" TO businesses operate as a headquarters. This sounds really swanky until you figure out that none of these head offices actually have much for a "middle class" office staff, or housing need. Nor do they actually reinvest anything into local merchants aside from vanity districts & infotainment. All of which need high margins to keep the clientele. Chicago and London thought this was an excellent development plan, until they figured out these business enclaves tend to self segregate. Leading to large sectors of speculative property, and very little domestic trade. With or without a BoC rate hike, you will have large section of the former Garden Way/DVP which looked great in 2015, but by 2025 will look like Scarbrough. Most of the major property will go non-occupied by offshore title holders, that will basically make first floor sublet merchants a failed venture. Defaults on shadow-titles will impair City Hall with a large tax deficit, since the GTA budget's entire municipal planning program out to 2030 is on the backside of luxury condos/entertainment district taxation. Limited investment in the suburbs in the GTA will eventually force the bedroom communities to spilt off, and issue their own muni's again, likely as absentee ABCP. Think the EU project, but with Ajax.
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Jun 9, 2015 08:26
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