wolfchild

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...lin-telus.html

cooker

The cryptic title doesn't help.

Artkansas 

Google chooses an urban location to attract Gen Y employees so they don't have to commute as far.

DX-MAN

(screw it...my point was being missed, likely because I couldn't quite express it the way I wanted to. Whatever.)

Bluish Green

Thanks for posting that article, it was a good read. Good on Google for their approach to location and livability.

I-Like-To-Bike

Up and comers EMBRACING what "The Greatest Generation" learned to ENDURE? Sounds fascinating.
What was that embraceable "thing" that is REALLY THE PROPER WAY TO LIVE - Poverty, destitution, joblessness or fighting a World War?

I don't doubt that your concept of speaking your mind about the REALLY THE PROPER WAY TO LIVE to your peers causes you some hassles.

Roody

I have lived and worked in cities for almost all of the past 50 years. I never saw it as a hassle or something to be endured. It's just a great way for me to live, and now more than half of the world's people choose to live in cities.

DX-MAN

You really just CHOOSE to be contrary, don't you? Like picking fights/arguments to rile people up?

You're back on my ignore list, puke.

I-Like-To-Bike

Ignoring criticism is one method for avoiding the hassle of justifying indefensible/wacky self righteous pronouncements about REALLY THE PROPER WAY TO LIVE.

Roody

I think it would be nice for everybody to put away the capital letters and stay on the topic.

Jared.

On the local news the week before this news clip was aired/printed there was a similar story of other employers in downtown Toronto who were actually paying their employees to walk/bike to work. $1.50-$2.00 each way.

I couldn't find a print version of the story, so I didn't post it, but it was interesting that this story followed it up.

I-Like-To-Bike

Excellent idea, but might inhibit the issuance of flowery rhetoric and gross generalizations.

cooker

I wonder if these youngsters will stay in those downtown condo towers when they have kids. We've also seen massive downtown building of street-level townhouse complexes, and it will be interesting to see if they become the new norm for urban professional family life, or whether young families will still move to slightly larger suburban single homes. Of course, even if they do, they may seek walkable communities with commuter rail.

cooker

wolfchild, you're a suburban bike commuter. How does your situation compare or contrast to the people in the article?

wolfchild

The suburbs are changing very fast. I believe we are in a transition process of becoming a big dense city. The suburb of mississauga is not the same today as it was 25 years ago.

I just find those type of articles interesting to read, that all. Since this is an LCF forum I thought other people might find it interesting too... I wish more employers and companies were as bike-friendly as the ones in the article. It amazes me that most companies here will provide a designated smoking areas but they won't provide a designated bike parking space.
A lot of companies will build these shelters for smokers but they won't provide a secure bike locking fascilities.

Roody

Why would they stay in condo towers when there are city housing choices that are more appropriate for young families with children? Most cities have thousands of big old houses that are perfect for families, as well as new and old town houses and duplexes. I myself grew up in a big inner city house. Of course if cities want to retain these young families, they're going to have to improve both public and private schools. That will be the main issue for most parents.

wolfchild

The average price for a resale detached house in Toronto is about $700 000-$800 000 dollars. You have to make a lot of money to be able to afford to buy a house downtown.

wolfchild

How can you predict as to how many kids these youngsters are gona have in the future. Not all couples have 3-4 kids...And if they can afford to buy a $400 000 condo, if they choose to raise a family they can always sell it or rent it out and move into a house.

I-Like-To-Bike

Doesn't matter how many, as long as any are or will become school age.

Roody is correct, quality of schools is the main issue. An issue so often ignored when discussing desirable neighborhoods/housing by some who have no interest and/or knowledge of the importance of this issue to most families raising children. Especially if they have the financial wherewithal to have options.

Pobble.808

And even if many of them do leave for suburbia when they become parents, it's very possible that they'll be replaced downtown by the next wave of "youngsters," many of whom would be suburb-raised cultural refugees. These revitalized downtown areas fill a need, for empty nesters as well as young adults, so it seems unlikely that they'll be abandoned any time soon.

I-Like-To-Bike

It's possible.

Or the bubble can burst. Likely if the surrounding neighborhoods continue to deteriorate rather than gentrify and the associated school situation remains deplorable.

Jared.

My wife and I plan to right now. We do not have children yet, and only plan on having two. Purchasing a home in the city will not be an option for us.

If we were to purchase a home, it would most likely be in Hamilton, a smaller city that would still allow us to utilize public transit to work. Although prices there are now rising because young families are moving from Toronto to there, due to affordability.

Also it should be noted that my wife and I aren't "youngsters", just speaking from a "youngish" professional point of view.

cooker

A lot younger than me. Are your jobs/careers transferable to Hamilton, or would you take the train to Toronto?

bragi

From what I've been seeing, the inner-city bubble isn't a bubble at all. Close-in neighborhoods surrounding downtown cores are not deteriorating; they're getting ridiculously expensive, because people have noticed (for a while now) that walkable communities and short commutes make for a pretty nice life, while a life of long, traffic-clogged commutes to and from sterile expanses of tract housing pretty much sucks. (Tiny in-city single-family houses in Seattle sell for >800K; big ones sell for a lot more.) I think we're gradually returning to the norm that existed before cars: small towns are nice, inner urban cores are even nicer if you can afford it, and outlying suburbs around those urban cores are often becoming new slums.

As a teacher, my observation is that many middle-class parents who can still afford to raise children in-city have the means and enough knowledge of the system to ensure that their children are well educated. They either put their kids in private school, or make sure they end up in a good program within the public schools. It's the traditional inner-city public school student populations (i.e, poor) that end up getting screwed.

cooker

That's more of a 1950s mindset. With rising gas prices, the real life experiences suburbanites are having with ever longer and more gridlocked commutes, and the movement of polluting factories out of the city, the inner city has become much more attractive, and it's looking like an enduring, long-term trend, not a fad.

But who knows? There can always be unexpected future changes. If more and more jobs become virtual, and can be done anywhere, its hard to predict where the majority will want to live.