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that's true. but do people walk from Yonge/Eglinton to downtown? No either. Outside downtown, walkable neighbourhoods in Toronto are small, sparadic and far apart too. We are better in the sense our downtown is bigger and more livable though. Outside downtown, not so much.
WEHO and SM are different two cities from the city of Los Angeles. Within LA, you can still take transit to many places if you want. Most people just don't like it since even a 21 year old student most likely owns a car. How many 21 student can afford driving here?
I would much prefer driving to Finch/Midland to try some good restaurants or York University to visit my friend than taking the TTC for 1-1.5 hours, unfortunately cost of driving is too high even to worth having a car.
The two different cities argument doesn't wash in this case since walking over an imaginary line or not does not make an area more or less walkable.
As for walking from Yonge/Eglinton to downtown, yes I've done it, albeit in warmish weather.
Transit in LA? As my friends say, it's for poor people and the help. Sad but mainly true. It's getting better there but they are also fighting a very strong car culture.
The car is king in LA since it's a status symbol and really a necessity.
To clarify in addition to what movingwiththewind wrote -- the withholding issues you quote are for RRSP distributions to non-residents, not contributions. If you have a SIN (i.e. Canadian SSN) and have a Canadian job, you will be allowed to contribute to an RRSP, and those contributions will yield a tax deduction (i.e. will be deducted in the calculation of taxable income), regardless of whether or not you are considered a Canadian resident for tax purposes. Your tax status will only become relevant when you actually withdraw the money.
Regarding double taxation etc. -- the US and Canada obviously have a tax treaty in effect. At the federal level, income is taxed where it is earned. This means all your earnings from a 'regular' Canadian job (i.e. a job where you mostly work in the same place and do not constantly move all around the US and Canada for extended periods of time) will be taxed on the Canadian tax return, and exactly $0 from that job will be taxed on your 1040. However, that tax treaty does not automatically extend to states and provinces. Therefore, if you are still considered a California resident for tax purposes (in addition to Ontario, where your regular home will be), you may still need to pay CA taxes on Canadian income, but you would get a foreign tax credit when calculating Canada (federal/Ontario) taxes payable. I don't know the California tax code but I doubt you will still be considered a California resident after your move.
Finding a CA/CPA that has some experience with Canada/US taxes will greatly simplify your job and won't cost a lot. If your employer regularly hires US residents he can probably suggest you one.
You're correct. The OP will NOT be considered a California resident for tax return purposes after they move and will not have to file California state tax returns.
However, they still may be required to file as non-residents if they have a California source income after leaving, like rental property, sale of property and so on.
The two different cities argument doesn't wash in this case since walking over an imaginary line or not does not make an area more or less walkable.
As for walking from Yonge/Eglinton to downtown, yes I've done it, albeit in warmish weather.
Transit in LA? As my friends say, it's for poor people and the help. Sad but mainly true. It's getting better there but they are also fighting a very strong car culture.
The car is king in LA since it's a status symbol and really a necessity.
Walking from Y/E is 6km away from Yonge/Dundas, taking one hour and 15 minutes, hardly a walkable distance. Westwood is 6.5km from Santa Monica, hardly much farther. Try walk from North York Centre to Y/E?
Transit is for the poor, why is it sad? Why do you have to impose on people that transit is good, and car is inferior? Try buying grocery on transit this weekend.
Los Angeles choose to love cars. Nothing wrong about it. At least most people can afford it, can't say the same for Torontonians where insurance alone will cost you $300 a month. The car might be a nececity in LA, but it is almost a luxury thing to have in Toronto - and let's not kid ourselves, we are not Paris or Manhattan, most Torontonians need cars.
LA has 140km of rapid transit, Toronto has 68km. You are argue how better and more useful our system is, but they have more, even on a per person basis, and they are expanding faster than Toronto too.
Walking from Y/E is 6km away from Yonge/Dundas, taking one hour and 15 minutes, hardly a walkable distance. Westwood is 6.5km from Santa Monica, hardly much farther. Try walk from North York Centre to Y/E?
Transit is for the poor, why is it sad? Why do you have to impose on people that transit is good, and car is inferior? Try buying grocery on transit this weekend.
Los Angeles choose to love cars. Nothing wrong about it. At least most people can afford it, can't say the same for Torontonians where insurance alone will cost you $300 a month. The car might be a nececity in LA, but it is almost a luxury thing to have in Toronto - and let's not kid ourselves, we are not Paris or Manhattan, most Torontonians need cars.
LA has 140km of rapid transit, Toronto has 68km. You are argue how better and more useful our system is, but they have more, even on a per person basis, and they are expanding faster than Toronto too.
Because transit is good. I think most people believe that. Cars, which I do own one, are great for certain things, but with more and more crowded roadways it's faster for me to hop on transit to get to some places.
As for shopping, I live in Yaletown, a very dense neighbourhood with a grocery store half a block away and several more with five minutes walk, so I usually don't need a car to do shopping. Also one of the reasons it is so dense is because of access to transit. I sometimes do hop on the Canada Line and head to Cambie Street and do shopping with no issues at all. Of course if it was a HUGE shopping I would take my car, but the option of transit makes me use it less.
As for people in Los Angeles choosing to love cars, most I know may love their car ( they spend so much time in it ) they don't love the congestion. In fact they HATE it. Their transit is expanding because it's needed. More and more can not afford cars and the roads are full. Toronto is dysfunctional right now when it comes to addressing transit needs. That will change.
As for auto insurance it varies so much depending on a vehicle, so averages is the way to go.
In the LA metro area car insurance rates vary greatly depending where you live. I contacted a friend who lives in LA and for his 2007 Volvo he pays $1,400 per year just slightly more than what I pay in Vancouver.
Now WHAT that covers also varies greatly. So it's too easy to say one is cheaper than the other.
Your numbers on length of rapid transit are way off. That 141 K in LA is their urban rail and subway totals.
Toronto subway is 30.2 K's long but the GO Train, which is an urban rail system is 450 K of track.
"Given that the average cost to insure a car in the GTA is $1,500 per year, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, …"
This article states that the average in California is $1,819 .
In the LA metro area car insurance rates vary greatly depending where you live. I contacted a friend who lives in LA and for his 2007 Volvo he pays $1,400 per year just slightly more than what I pay in Vancouver.
Now WHAT that covers also varies greatly. So it's too easy to say one is cheaper than the other.
I don't know why you refuse to admit car insurance in Toronto is way higher than Los Angeles. I am not talking about Vancouver because it is 1/6 the size of LA, pretty much just a big town, so these two cities are nowhere near being comparable. (Compare Vancouver with Portland OR and you will find how expensive it is)
In LA you can buy auto liability insurance for $550 a year, try that in Toronto. Yes, coverage is different but there is a cheaper option, which is good. $1,400 sounds about right in LA. Just out of curiosity I called and got a phone quote of $180 a month in Toronto from TD (the cheapest among a few), or 55% more expensive than in LA - that's more like how I expected it to be.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natnasci
Your numbers on length of rapid transit are way off. That 141 K in LA is their urban rail and subway totals.
Toronto subway is 30.2 K's long but the GO Train, which is an urban rail system is 450 K of track.
You are making no sense here. the 141km is LA are subways and LRTs. They run almost 24 hours with 10-15 minutes intervals with many stops. LA Metro Home | Maps & Timetables
"All Metro Rail lines run regularly between 5am and midnight, seven days a week. Limited service on particular segments is provided after midnight and before 5am. There is no rail service between 2am and 3:30am. Service operates every 5–10 minutes during the peak period, every 10–15 minutes during middays and during the day on weekends, and every 20 minutes during the evening until the close of service. Exact times vary from route to route."
The GO runs only a few times during morning and afternoon rush hours. It doesn't run on weekends, or holidays, and they don't stop in any sort of urban area, just the suburbs and union station. It is silly even to compared these two. Why can't you being objective when looking at things??
I don't know why you refuse to admit car insurance in Toronto is way higher than Los Angeles. I am not talking about Vancouver because it is 1/6 the size of LA, pretty much just a big town, so these two cities are nowhere near being comparable. (Compare Vancouver with Portland OR and you will find how expensive it is)
In LA you can buy auto liability insurance for $550 a year, try that in Toronto. Yes, coverage is different but there is a cheaper option, which is good. $1,400 sounds about right in LA. Just out of curiosity I called and got a phone quote of $180 a month in Toronto from TD (the cheapest among a few), or 55% more expensive than in LA - that's more like how I expected it to be.
You are making no sense here. the 141km is LA are subways and LRTs. They run almost 24 hours with 10-15 minutes intervals with many stops. LA Metro Home | Maps & Timetables
"All Metro Rail lines run regularly between 5am and midnight, seven days a week. Limited service on particular segments is provided after midnight and before 5am. There is no rail service between 2am and 3:30am. Service operates every 5–10 minutes during the peak period, every 10–15 minutes during middays and during the day on weekends, and every 20 minutes during the evening until the close of service. Exact times vary from route to route."
The GO runs only a few times during morning and afternoon rush hours. It doesn't run on weekends, or holidays, and they don't stop in any sort of urban area, just the suburbs and union station. It is silly even to compared these two. Why can't you being objective when looking at things??
what straws?? Your stubbornness is really out of control.
Vancouver and LA are completely not comparable, do you not agree? It is like comparing GTA with Winnipeg, of course the later is cheaper. You imagine Vancouver is a fair peer of Los Angeles? Metros with 12M and 2M are not comparable, end of story.
Toronto's auto premium is at least 50% higher than LA is my personal experiences. I will stand by that any day.
And the transit system, it is you who made the stupid mistake of equaling Toronto's GO train with LA's Light rail. Get your facts straight first.
I visit LA on a yearly basis (love it) because of family, but I'm a little bit lost in this argument. Every single last person I know there owns a car because they claim they couldn't survive in the city without it, then complain how bad the traffic is. In fact, I don't know anyone who habitually takes public transit in LA. Conversely, everyone I know here takes the TTC as they think it would be counter-intuitive to own a car while living in Toronto proper. The TTC has *always* been the automatic default for getting around Toronto for most people I know while in LA it seems like most people consider their car the default. Anyway, considering that the argument is that parts of LA are walkable and the transit system *does* get people around, where does this disparity in the public transport perception of both cities come from? Just curious...
I visit LA on a yearly basis (love it) because of family, but I'm a little bit lost in this argument. Every single last person I know there owns a car because they claim they couldn't survive in the city without it, then complain how bad the traffic is. In fact, I don't know anyone who habitually takes public transit in LA. Conversely, everyone I know here takes the TTC as they think it would be counter-intuitive to own a car while living in Toronto proper. The TTC has *always* been the automatic default for getting around Toronto for most people I know while in LA it seems like most people consider their car the default. Anyway, considering that the argument is that parts of LA are walkable and the transit system *does* get people around, where does this disparity in the public transport perception of both cities come from? Just curious...
the disparity comes from people who insist taking the car is inferior.
yeah, transit may be much more popular in Toronto, but is traffic anywhere better than Los Angeles, when Toronto is effectively half of LA's size? Not at all. Are we pretending that by having a more extensive public transit our traffic is better here?
TTC might be the default way of traveling in Toronto, but does it mean it is as comfortable, easy, and efficient as driving? No. In Paris, London, and NYC one can argue that it makes absolutely no sense to own and drive a car, but in Toronto, it is completely different. We have 2.5 subway lines, a bunch of slow moving too often break-down streetcars and buses, do you really think such a "transit system" makes cars obsolete?
Yes, within the city proper, one can get to pretty much everywhere using transit, but is it the same kind of convenience as in NYC and London? For the same distance, it takes much longer, and once out of four times I take the subway, I hear "we are experiencing delays" somewhere. True, you can take TTC from Bathurst/Queen to get to Finch/Warden for $3, but how much times does it take and how many tranfers one has to make?
Just because the TTC takes us everyone doesn't mean it provides the same convenience as real transit paradises or the same comfort of driving (expecially in today's weather).
Addtionally, I repeated many times the fact TTC has high ridership and becomes the default mode of transport largely because it is much more expensive to drive.
what straws?? Your stubbornness is really out of control.
Vancouver and LA are completely not comparable, do you not agree? It is like comparing GTA with Winnipeg, of course the later is cheaper. You imagine Vancouver is a fair peer of Los Angeles? Metros with 12M and 2M are not comparable, end of story.
Toronto's auto premium is at least 50% higher than LA is my personal experiences. I will stand by that any day.
And the transit system, it is you who made the stupid mistake of equaling Toronto's GO train with LA's Light rail. Get your facts straight first.
Anybody that would try to compare Vancouver with Los Angeles is insane. Vancouver has a higher cost of living, low incomes, and terrible weather. I have lived in both cities.
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Metros with 12M and 2M are not comparable, end of story. 
