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Hey all, I'm an American who's got a daughter who's been accepted to the University of Toronto, Woodsworth college, starting this fall. She's out of the country on a study abroad trip, so it's falling on me to research housing.
I know nothing about Toronto or the surrounding areas.
What little I've been able to find, is saying that downtown Toronto is not that great for crime and other reasons. Some googling has found folks suggesting towns a little more north, up the 404 or 48, or maybe Mississauga?
Once I have a better handle on where to start looking, I'll schedule a trip up there, but right now I wouldn't even know where to begin.
What would you suggest? What of the surrounding areas would be most appealing, considering:
1) ideally a less-than-30-minute commute,
2) a garage or carport for dealing with Toronto winters,
3) a single residence (i.e., not a shared room or dorm room, but an individual apartment or condo or townhouse or single-family house)
4) a neat, clean, safe neighborhood/town
5) as reasonably affordable as possible...
Wow - I am totally shocked that you have read that downtown Toronto is a bad place for crime! Can I ask what you are looking at as "downtown"? You could be including extremely diverse neighborhoods in here.
I went to UofT for undergrad and law school, and while I never did live on or near campus, I absolutely wished I did, because commuting was heinous. I would never recommend it for a student unless it was a situation where they could save a lot of money by living with their parents in the suburbs, which of course wouldn't be your daughter's situation. If she's living on her own there is absolutely no reason for her to not live in the city!
I would absolutely look into the areas around the school - the Annex in particular has a huge student population. There are a lot of apartments in homes around there, where you rent out an entire floor of a Victorian or something similar. Her school is right near the Bloor subway line, so she basically could live anywhere along there, depending on how long of a subway ride she'd like to take every day. Alternatively, she could live along the Spadina streetcar line, or the St George subway line. There are some quieter, more residential parts along the St George line as you go north, but I think a college student might find them a little dry!
Anyway, hope that's helpful. Toronto is a great city and your daughter should enjoy it very much!
Woodsworth College offers a student residence where students share an apartment but each have their own bedrooms for space and privacy.......that would be my first choice for a student without friends or family connections in Toronto.
Failing that, the closer she lives to the Bloor-St. George area the better. Thousands of U of T students live in the area without incident -- the shorter the commute, the better.
Downtown Toronto is one of the most livable, if not the most, area in the GTA. It is safe, clean, and with all the urban amenities one would need within walking distance. You can't find many large cities on this continent where a 20 year old girl can feel completely safe walking along on most of the downtown streets at 2am.
Up in the "north" it is all suburban, where you probably need to drive constantly just to buy daily necessities such as a bottle of milk or some toilet tissue. Public transit? forget about it.
Thanks for all the replies! I have to say it's confusing, I'm hearing conflicting things... some say Toronto is the lowest-crime city in north america, others say it's getting pretty bad, and the further you can stay out of downtown, the better off you are. Some recommend Scarborough, others say to avoid it like the plague. So confusing...
That last one, with the street stabbings, is happening less than six miles from the school campus.
I had sent her some articles that show how Toronto is such a low-crime place, but admittedly most of those were rankings from 2008 articles, which were probably based on 2006 data. But these articles he sent back are all from the last week or so! So I hope you can understand how it would make a guy a little nervous... are the subjects of these articles all taking place within contained known "bad areas" or ? because from an outsider's perspective, it does give pause for concern.
Okay, on the responses: I agree that being on the bus line or subway is best, at least that way if you're stuck with a commute, you can be doing something else (studying, etc) during it. From what I've heard of the traffic, I don't think daily driving is going to be the most practical/sensible route to take.
I'll pass the recommendations for Bloor/St. George and The Annex on up the chain and see how the response comes back. There are some excellent suggestions here and I thank everyone for responding!
Woodsworth College offers a student residence where students share an apartment but each have their own bedrooms for space and privacy.......that would be my first choice for a student without friends or family connections in Toronto.
In general that is a great suggestion, but in our particular situation we need to get her a private residence.
Quote:
Failing that, the closer she lives to the Bloor-St. George area the better. Thousands of U of T students live in the area without incident -- the shorter the commute, the better.
Sounds good -- can you recommend some general street boundaries to stay within?
I don't mean to be rude about your daughter's friend's dad, but many people who don't actually live in cities tend to have kind of vivid imaginations about what actually goes on in them. A lot of them think that the only safe places ever are in the suburbs and smaller towns, and that, in my view, is silly. I'd be much more inclined to take advice from someone you know who actually lives in Toronto! It's a large city and there are a ton of diverse neighborhoods. But then again, I live in New York City, and so I sometimes have difficulty understanding people's concerns about larger cities. I don't think they are necessarily less safe than anywhere else as long as you know what neighborhood you're in and use your common sense.
I am utterly confused about your point that the stabbings in the last article happened near the school campus. Your daughter's school campus is right around St George station. These stabbings happened way, way in the east end.
But even if they were to happen closer to the UofT campus, it's a city of millions of people and of course there is some violent crime. There is no escaping that reality. But that is hardly a reason to avoid "downtown," unless of course you have something specific in mind when you say that (like, Regent Park? yes, not super great area. Rosedale? One of the ritziest parts of the city!). For the Bloor-St. George area, I wouldn't say that there are any "street boundaries" to be aware of. It's a very nice area, with some of the most upscale boutiques in the country, and beautiful heritage homes.
I agreed.
If you stay close to Bloor Street anywhere between Bathurst St. to St. George that is where most U students will want to be, but it might be too much distraction, way too many “happening thing to do” and not enough study. If you come to Toronto just walk from Bloor St./Bathurst St.to Bloor St./St.George St to see for yourself.
Goolge map 341 Bloor Street W. Address and do a street view to see for yourself, be prepare to pay $1000-$1200/months.
The areas in the articles is nowhere near UofT. Honestly, crime is the last thing you should be worry about.
Last edited by LeafsFan85; 05-11-2010 at 02:00 PM..
There's no where in this world you can go where there's absolutely no violence at all. As HU said, there's millions of people in the city. If you begin to nitpick regarding a couple teens getting stabbed whom were most likely drug dealers/gang-bangers looking for trouble I'd suggest to take a breather and relax. There's nothing to be worried about.
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