To our Canadian friends.. Help needed

[Bijans]

Hi Everybody-

I have a friend who currently resides in Chicago. His company is about open two high end department stores one in Vancouver and one in Toronto. As part of this whole deal he has been offered a position for a year in Vancouver followed by another year in Toronto.
This friend of mine is somewhat conservative, typical American, never really been/lived outside of the U.S but is considering the position. I need your help to answer some of his concerns and questions and I would appreciate any help on this matter. To me this is an opportunity to explore something new but not everybody thinks like me

The place for the Vancouver department store is in the Pacific Center mall. Below are his questions

• What would be areas to avoid?
• What would I expect to pay for rent for a 1 bedroom nice apartment?
• What would I expect to pay for rent for something bigger, like a 2 bedroom condo?
• Are pets allowed in most areas? I have two cats.
• How accessible is public transportation? I was thinking of not taking my car, so I would need to have access to the mall area as well as to and from the airport.
• What are things that are prevalent in Canada that I may not think of living here in the states, whether its food cost, entertainment cost, taxes etc

Toronto location would be in either the Eaton Centre or Yorkdale Centre areas. We are opening a store in both locations, so I could live in whichever area works the best as long as public transportation is available to areas.

• What would be areas to avoid?
• What would I expect to pay for rent for a 1 bedroom nice apartment?
• What would I expect to pay for rent for something bigger, like a 2 bedroom condo?
• Are pets allowed in most areas? I have two cats.
• How accessible is public transportation? I was thinking of not taking my car, so I would need to have access to the mall area as well as to and from the airport.
• What are things that are prevalent in Canada that I may not think of living here in the states, whether its food cost, entertainment cost, taxes etc

I really appreciate your input on this.

Thank you,

Bijan

 

[Real Madrid]

Sorry Bijan jan I cant help . but I'm sure many others would be able to ..

 

[Payandeh Iran]

Here you go
Toronto:

• What would be areas to avoid?
• What would I expect to pay for rent for a 1 bedroom nice apartment?
  Depends on definition of nice and if he needs a rental apt or condo. Anything between 1000-2500
• What would I expect to pay for rent for something bigger, like a 2 bedroom condo?
  1300-3000
• Are pets allowed in most areas? I have two cats.
  I believe so.
• How accessible is public transportation? I was thinking of not taking my car, so I would need to have access to the mall area as well as to and from the airport.
  Public transit (at least in DT Toronto) is pretty good (comparing to north american cities) and by summer 2015 thee will be an express train connecting airport to downtown.
• What are things that are prevalent in Canada that I may not think of living here in the states, whether its food cost, entertainment cost, taxes etc
  
  Generally speaking expect a 20% higher cost of living compared to Chicago

 

[bache_irooni]

First thing to note is that Eaton’s Centre is located in the heart of downtown Toronto while Yorkdale is not. So the main difference to begin with:
Eaton’s Centre area:
- More expensive to reside in
- Transporation via subway is easy while with a car will be harder (more traffic and less accessible to highway compared to yorkdale)
- Much nicer area to live in since it is filled with a lot of malls, restaurants and nice views of Toronto are close by

The answer to all the above questions will vary depending on whether he moves to Eaton’s area or yorkdale but I’ll try to break it up a bit.

Downtown:
Areas to avoid:
- Most area east of Yonge and late at night (they will look shady anyways so they won’t be hard to miss)
Rent for a 1 bedroom apartment:
- Condos will be much more expensive, but living in downtown rental apartments you may see a lot of shady people. 1 bedroom Condos will vary from 1400 to 2000 while rental apartments will be over 950 (the low limit is hard to find) 2 bedrooms add 400-500 dollars to the above prices
Pets allowed in most areas?
- Yes, but not all
How accessible is public transportation?
- Pretty accessible for areas that are subway friendly. With a bus it’ll be hard to live in downtown and travel to areas that require taking the bus instead of the subway cause of the extreme cold in winters. But again, parking is expensive in downtown too; something to consider.
What are things that are prevalent in Canada?
- It really depends what the standards are. From my understanding, Canada is pretty similar to US. Food stores everywhere (markets or restaurants or fast foods), taxes are 13%, Car insurance super expensive (average around $160/month on a clean record without insurance, with a reliable 4 door car). Ask anything specific and I’ll be happy to answer.



Yorokdale area:
Areas to avoid:
- If you work in yorkdale, you will probably want to live closer to yonge, and take either public transportation / highway to Yorkdale. (a 5-10 minute ride with a car). Areas around yorkdale are not unsafe, but they’re not as safe as north York bordered around York mills to steeles and Bathurst to leslie
-
Rent for a 1 bedroom apartment:
- Again condos are more expensive. Rentals should be good enough within the area bounded by the street I mentioned above. 1 bedroom Condos will vary from 1200 to 1800 while rental apartments will be over 850 (the low limit is hard to find) 2 bedrooms add 200-400 dollars to the above prices
Pets allowed in most areas?
- Yes, but not all
How accessible is public transportation?
- Pretty accessible by bus. Living close to subway stations is key if you don’t have a car otherwise it can be pretty hectic. Unfortunately the subway line runs on Yonge and on sheppard towards east.

PM me or ask here any questions you may have and I’ll answer if I know the answer or point you to the right direction. good luck

P.S. at the end, if I had a choice and afforded to live in both places, I would choose downtown as it has a calmer and different culture. Living in north York is good if you wanna feel close to living in Iran

 

[Bache Tehroon]

Bache Irooni covered it pretty well for Toronto.

Overall though, Bijanjan, you could tell your friend that public transportation in Toronto is pretty shitty (even compared to Chicago which is crappy itself). He'll probably feel the need to have a car as this city is a joke when it comes to accessibility via public transport. The gridlock is also a serious bummer.

Weather and price-wise, both cities are fairly similar although he probably won't like the 13% tax tacked on every single purchase (from candies to cars and houses!).

The Yorkdale area is specially ugly during rush-hour traffic (no matter if you're on the bus or in a car). Downtown living has its own ups and downs but around the Eaton Center it's quite lively almost 24/7 365 days a years. Very lively compared to most North American cities (probably only 2nd to NYC).

 

[Payandeh Iran]

I'm glad bach ironi mentioned yorkdale being out of downtown. I was thinking all the time of yorkville which is in downtown Toronto.

 

[Hooshmand]

Just avoid Vancouver: Probably the worst city I've been to, Rude people, boring place not many shops and shopping centres, full of retired old people, plenty of big black Bears and they could be any where, and finally everything is expensive from rent to cigarettes and food , will never ever go back there again..