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Two very comparable cities--both wealthy, large, master-planned suburbs with large high-tech, pharma, and biomedical industries. Both are edge cities, both have large Asian communities, both have stellar educational systems, both are located in very liberal provincial/state governments, both have very high cost of living, both are very dense and compact (as far as suburbs go).
Rate Markham vs. Irvine on anything, but especially these criteria:
1. Cost of living: I believe real estate in Irvine is even more expensive, per square foot, than real estate in Markham. Also, California has the highest income taxes AND gas prices outside of Hawaii, when it comes to the US. The property taxes in California, though, are lower than the US average, at 1.1-1.4%.
2. Economy: With the possible exception of Alberta, Canada is obviously more sluggish than the US, economically, but while California is better-than-average, economically, in the US, most of the growth is concentrated in Silicon Valley and San Fran. Los Angeles is lagging behind. How's Toronto/Markham doing?
3. Urban planning: The entire land area of Irvine is owned and developed by the Irvine Company. The Irvine Company has an entire master plan for the entire city of Irvine, which includes setting aside 40% of the land area as parks and wilderness areas. Markham looks like no slouch when it comes to conservation of open space, though.
4. Density: Suburbs in Canada just seem denser than their US counterparts. BUT Los Angeles' urbanized area, which includes Irvine, is actually the densest urbanized area in the US, even denser than New York, thanks to the fact that Los Angeles has some of the densest suburbs in the US. Irvine is no exception. There may not be a lot of residential high rises, but look on Google Maps and you'll see tons of apartment complexes and houses with virtually no lot crammed into every square inch of flat land. Irvine also has a good deal of office high-rises.
5. Diversity: Markham has a large Chinese population, I'll give you that, but Irvine is no slouch either, with a rapidly growing Asian population that is now 45-50% of the population, and on top of that, a large Middle Eastern population (Middle Easterners identify as "White" in the US). Also, the largest Asian group in Irvine is Chinese, at 17% of the population.
6. Education: I guess Irvine takes the edge, with a highly-ranked research university. But what about K-12? Canada far outperforms the US on standardized tests like the PISA, especially in Math and Science. But then again, Irvine's schools are within the top 5% of schools in the US, if not higher.
8. Politics: Canada is more liberal than the US, but then again, California is one of the most liberal states in the US. Hillary won decisively in Irvine. The current governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is far more liberal than the current premier of Ontario, Doug Ford.
9. Crime: Canada is safer than the US, but then again, Irvine is the safest city of its size in the US, when it comes to violent crime.
10. Traffic: As per INRIX, Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the US and Canada, period. But is traffic in Markham bad? Because Irvine is actually one of the best places in Los Angeles metro area, traffic-wise.
11. Weather/Scenery: Ha ha, no contest. Irvine has no snow. Irvine automatically wins. Irvine is right next to mountains and the beach, too.
Why don’t you move back to Irvine since it’s your dream city ??
It sounds like Markham could rival Irvine in quality of life. Would like to hear more people chiming in about Markham. Seriously. I would like to visit Markham.
I got dim sum in Richmond Hill once, which borders Markham. Everything seems newly built, and at a much higher density in than Irvine. Interestingly, almost all the signs were in Chinese as well, including things like banks. Cool area.
I got dim sum in Richmond Hill once, which borders Markham. Everything seems newly built, and at a much higher density in than Irvine. Interestingly, almost all the signs were in Chinese as well, including things like banks. Cool area.
Looking at Google Maps, Richmond Hill and Markham look like very well-planned, upscale areas indeed. And they seem to be quite dense and compact for a suburb. However, I really don't see that much high-density development in Richmond Hill, hardly any high-rise apartments at all. Irvine does actually have a few high-rise apartments, and more high-rise office buildings (up to 21 stories). Also, Richmond Hill has a population density of around 5,000/sq mile, whereas Irvine has a population density of around 4,000, BUT when Irvine is fully built out the population density will be around 5,000, AND 40% of Irvine's area will be permanently preserved as wilderness and parks, so the actual population density of Irvine's built-up area is actually more like 8000-9000 sq. mile. It seems like Richmond Hill is already mostly built-up, with far less preserved open space, and therefore won't get any denser than it is right now. Unless Richmond Hill is another version of Richmond or Burnaby, near Vancouver, I don't see how it's denser than Irvine. Correct me if I'm wrong, but going off of Google Maps I see that even the single family homes in Irvine are far more closely packed on smaller lots than they are in Richmond Hill/Markham.
Of course Markham and Richmond Hill beat Irvine when it comes to the Chinese presence--Irvine has only a 17% Chinese population, while Markham hovers at around 40%. I am always wowed at how clean heavily Chinese areas in Canada are compared to, say, the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles, which is rather run down. (And I'm Chinese myself--not being racist here!)
OP, I think Houston would be good for you. Big Asian presence. Cheap. Check out Sugar Land.
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