Gatineau VS Ottawa questions (2014, houses, neighborhoods)

[MightyQ]

Thanks Acajack!

[kyle12321]

hi

i haven't read all the posts yet, but i think ottawa wins hands down

aylmer use to rule; i grew up there and it use to be nothing but forests and quaint houses. when almalgamation came around it turned to crap, everything got torn down and suburbs shot up everywhere. it sucked. there are maybe 4-5 smaller aylmer neighborhoods that are still untouched, like wychwood, but the vast bulk of it is characterless suburb.

hull is a hole as far as i'm concerned. i went to highschool/cegep there and it's just disgusting. the gatineau hills are absolutely beautiful - i'm not contesting that, but you can drive there in 10-15 minutes from pretty much anywhere, including downtown ottawa

have you ever walked behind parliament and looked across the river at hull? it's like looking at something out of a charles dickens novel when london was covered in soot.

chelsea and wakefield are great, and i agree that those places have real sense of community. it's wonderful to go to the black sheep or cafe 1760 or whatever and just see how every resident there knows each other. plus jumping off the wakefield bridge rules.

french/english animosity really isn't too much of a problem. sure there's tension, and i've seen it escalate to violence a handful of times (particularly among the elderly for some reason), but for the most part it's not going to be a problem. just try and learn both languages - there isn't a single drawback to being bilingual.

ottawa suburbs are a mess, too - i'd rather shoot myself than live in nepean or kanata or orleans. orleans especially is getting pretty violent, especially if you have teenage kids. a lot of miserable little knife-wielding "gangs" that have too much to prove.

the best neighborhoods are in downtown ottawa, if you can afford it. glebe homes start around half a million easy, but even the 'worst' downtown neighborhoods, let's say bell street, some of gladstone, parts of little china, etc etc etc are bound to get gentrified sooner or later and i think it'd be a smart move.

houses immediately across the border drop about $100k in price, and if you can score something in vieux hull you could consider yourself lucky and bike to work downtown ottawa in 10 minutes depending on how much construction there is on the booth street bridge.

the other option is to go to vanier - it's practically downtown but somehow manages to stay the seediest part of ottawa; it's like the hull of ottawa. but houses there are cheap and there's some decent treed neighborhoods that aren't 15 feet away from like 75 strip clubs.

so yeah, just based on how friendly/nice neighborhoods are, my recommendations would be get into downtown ottawa (maybe, MAYBE some TINY parts of vanier) and wait it out, OR try and luck out in vieux hull (all of 4 blocks, and your view will probably be hemmed in by portage), OR (more probably) get yourself familiar with chelsea/old chelsea/gatineau hills/wakefield. drive around there and you'll realize that it really takes no time at all to get from downtown to chelsea and back.

thanks

[Zara100]

Hello everyone,
I am contemplating moving to Quebec due to the lower apartment rates, however I need to know the difference for Income Tax, Insurance and Driver's Licence. If anyone would be able to tell me I would be very appreciative.
Zara

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kyle12321

aylmer use to rule; i grew up there and it use to be nothing but forests and quaint houses. when almalgamation came around it turned to crap, everything got torn down and suburbs shot up everywhere. it sucked. there are maybe 4-5 smaller aylmer neighborhoods that are still untouched, like wychwood, but the vast bulk of it is characterless suburb.

Actually, almost all of the developments that have happened in Aylmer since amalgamation had been approved by the old city of Aylmer prior to the merger. They would have happened anyway, merger or not.

The new city simply took the existing land use and urban plans from the five old municipalities and made one big plan out of them.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Zara100

Hello everyone,
I am contemplating moving to Quebec due to the lower apartment rates, however I need to know the difference for Income Tax, Insurance and Driver's Licence. If anyone would be able to tell me I would be very appreciative.
Zara

If you move up this thread backwards you will find that many of the answers to your questions are already there.

For anything else, you can post again here or send me a direct message and I will be pleased to answer.

[GatineauLiving]

Ottawa property taxes to increase to 10%, not gradually, but all at once. Any comments?

[Milele]

Hi all, thank you for the useful replies.
My decision to live on the Quebec side is a well-informed one, for fiscal reasons and other issues. But I still have questions related to traffic and commuting.
I have looked at several areas of Gatineau. I find the centre of Hull, eastern Aylmer and Western Gatineau frankly a little bit bland, if not depressing in terms of environment and community life. Chelsea and Wakefield do seem to offer a beautiful environment and a sense of community, but the properties are very expensive. A lot of big mansions with private lakes, and the smaller houses are overpriced. The new development at Chelsea Creek might eventually offer an affordable alternative, but then again, what's the point of going so far to live in yet another surburban estate? I have zeroed in on some parts of Aylmer, which seem quite nice. But I am concerned about commuting. When I was looking at a property in Des Cèdres, I checked the nearest bus stop to Promenade du Portage (where I will be working) and it involved at least 50 minutes of bus and a bus transfer. Traveling by car does not look any more promising. Any advice or comments on this? Some friends recommend northern Hull such as the quartier des Hautes-Plaines, Côte d'Azur, etc., saying that it's much easier to commute, with frequent and fairly short bus rides. The proximity to Gatineau park is attractive, but other than that, it just looks like endless streets of houses and parked cars...

Any views and opinions will be much appreciated!

[GatineauLiving]

I am quite surprised by the 50 minute quote you gave for the bus route. There are plenty of Express buses operating from Aylmer therefore the commute to Promenade du Portage should be shorter. In addition, a great number of Aylmer residents commute by bus to Promenade du Portage so reassuringly you are not on your own, nor the exception. But 50 minutes? I doubt it. Seriously doubt it. Where did you receive the 50 minute information? Recommendation: try taking the express bus for yourself, time it to Promenade du Portage and let us all know how long it took and please be specific as to what time of the day you took the bus.

[GatineauLiving]

An alternative to Aylmer is Val-Tetrau and Manoir des Trembles neighbourhoods that are quite frankly hidden beautiful gems. Depends on your budget. If you cannot afford the best neighbourhoods based on location, curb appeal - environment or house type, then you might need to realistically reframe your needs to meet the realistic budget. For example, the two neighbourhoods I mentioned solve your distance problem to Hull downtown - you can't do better than that without living in Hull propert itself. The houses are beautiful, the trees splendid and you're in close proximity to Alexandre-Tache and the 148 highway leads you directly to Hull-Ottawa at Alexandre Bridge. It resolves your distance concerns, but if your budget does not meet the distance, then you will have to reframe your expectations.

Yes, Haute-Plaine area is more affordable and you still have to contend with the 50 highway...sooo, you'll hit the bottleneck at the end of the highway where it leads off to the 5. Either way, you're still looking at delays like anyone else.

Or try Plateau albeit that prices have really topped off there. Again, your distance problem is solved. What's more important to you?

Countryside areas: well...chelsea - agreed - is overlypriced. Some areas such as Val-des-Monts and Cantley (taking St. Louis street to downtown Hull) are the winners these days on fair market values. If you want to find more affordable prices in the countryside, then these two areas are your answer. But again, you'll have to contend with distance. At least your 20-50 minute drive from these areas will be much more appeasing on your views (nature scenic driving) making the drive all that more pleasant for the same amount of time.

Even on the Ottawa side, you'll probably be using the 417 with bumper to bumper traffic since most areas within a reasonable price range are farther out.

Again, it depends on a lot of factors. What does your budget allow for (don't tell me!), then search homes within your price ranges for each quartier. The answers are in the numbers: Or alternatively, try out Ottawa and compare distances needed to drive given your budget.

At the end of the day, no one area is perfect but you can look for the positive in any area: you make the best with what you have and learn to enjoy the positive aspects of the neighbourhood you can afford within reasonable downside realities that everyone need to contend with.

[Acajack]

50 minutes to Portage by bus from Des Cèdres sounds like a lot to me as well. I was looking on the STO site and most of the routes from the furthest western end of Aylmer can get you to downtown Hull within 35 to 40 minutes.

As for traffic, the conventional wisdom in the Outaouais is that traffic is worse within Gatineau on the east-west arteries than the main north-south route which is Autoroute 5 coming down from Wakefield, Chelsea and Hautes-Plaines.

The main east-west routes are Autoroute 50, boulevard Fournier and Alonzo-Wright coming in from the east, and Alexandre-Taché, Allumettières and St-Raymond from the west.

Autoroute 5 from the north is much less congested, but as Gatineau Living said, just after the Casino and just before the bridge to Ottawa traffic from the 50 merges onto the 5 which makes this stretch very congested. But it is only for a short distance.

Unless you are planning on living right downtown, you won't be saving yourself any traffic chagrin by living in Ottawa and working in downtown Hull (or even downtown Ottawa in fact).

I find that in the summertime and many other periods of the year (Christmas time, spring break, extra days that people often take to ''bridge'' long weekends) that traffic congestion takes a break in Gatineau. This is not so much the case in Ottawa (a much bigger city), where there are almost no periods of the year where you get a break from traffic.