toronto - what to do.

Volunteering update: 50+ deliveries later, I've been getting frustrated with Good Neighbours due to the high number of more affluent people using the service. I wouldn't care except that not all requests are being met. The worst case is today; I'm delivering to a somewhat famous person who surely doesn't need *our* help. (Before anyone asks: not an ilxor, lol) Looking to switch over the People's Pantry, which will mean donating food etc but seems likelier by design to more urgently address needs.

Margaret Atwood has fallen on hard times of late

those Handmaid's Tale royalty checks don't cover house #4

The boarding-up going on in advance of tomorrow's march in Toronto--are all these warnings legitimate or more deliberately planted confusion? What went on today looked peaceful.

There's one in London tomorrow. I seriously considered going--bought my first masks this morning--but I've just got too much COVID anxiety. They're expecting about 1,000 people. The health person there said anyone who goes should quarantine for 14 days after. I haven't had to do anything remotely like that yet, and I'm not sure if mentally I could; walking around town has kept me sane. But if I went and didn't, I'd be coming back to St. Marys, a town with two active cases, and would be a possible hazard for the next two weeks. Not an easy call, but I'm going to pass.

Toronto is just such a huge city that *any* large event will have a number of shitheels in attendance.
I just really hope they stay in line tomorrow.

I have no good reason not to attend

after a couple months or so of pondering, then action, I have decided to take an apartment with a friend of mine, very central, quite cheap (by toronto standards) and most importantly the landlord appears to be a mensch which is a huge deal

relatedly: if you live in a major canadian city, are a renter, and are even pondering moving right now? you should do it or at least look into it seriously. this is the closest thing to a renter's market we might ever get in places like TO.

Montreal's gotten considerably worse over the past few years but it's still a renter's paradise compared to Toronto and Vancouver. It's only a matter of time before they all even out, I suppose.

vancouver market still looks pretty shitty based on a quick look at craiglist. my wife and I are lucky in that we have a nice and cheap-for-vancouver (but very small) place in a mixed-income housing part of a condo building and we will be paying the same rent for the rest of our lives if we like

One of my best friends has lived at the same TO apartment for about a decade, and it was a steal even at the time, so she's understandably held onto it for dear life. Then she got a wonderful dog, but it got upset when she would leave for work, and the neighbors complained relentlessly about it. So ultimately she decided the best option was to give the dog to her brother; she didn't feel she could risk losing out on the pad. Fucking heartbreaking shit.

Related: I've been sending pieces to a friend in Toronto who's been dragging his heels on moving out of the city (like me, a retired teacher), all of them about the supposed post-pandemic exodus out of big cities. I'm trying to get him to leave before housing outside of the city gets expensive. To your situation, if people are leaving cities--and I'm sure for every article I find there's another that says the opposite--that would surely keep rents down, no?

People are def fleeing the cities....personally I prefer to be where I can watch things collapse in real time. The big city is where the action is baby!!

I think the main thing helping rental markets now must be airbnbs becoming untenable and suites returning to the long-term rental market.

moving out of the city in BC isn't that attractive because everywhere is expensive

I'm always flabbergasted when Toronto friends talk about their rent.

for the record, and because I am a big fan of sharing this sort of data, it's a large 3br I will be sharing with two other ppl and the total rent is 2400

(I would start a "wage transparency" thread but I think it might kill ILX)

my rent is $1400 for a 500 sq feet one bedroom apartment and that's "cheap"

that's very close in terms of size and rent to my previous TO apartment (in the basement of a house)

That’s... inhumane.

Then again, spending almost two years in the UK has lowered my rent expectations to a depressing extent.

Where are you, Simon?

I moved here in Feb and I pay 1780 for a "junior one bedroom" (basically a studio) in Corktown, a bougie condo so I'm part of the problem I know

I'm currently in Corso Italia but I'm moving right to the heart of the beast, on Bloor near Bathurst.

and yes that sounds on the good end of average for that sort of condo in this town. But yknow as I think I mentioned a friend of mine in a similar place was nearing the end of her lease and threatened to bounce, and she was able to get a rent decrease out of it...something to consider down the line

I hate moving (and I'm honestly fine with my space, I don't own a lot of shit, or at least I didn't bring a lot of my shit with me here from Calgary) but my job also pays shit so hmm, I would like to pay less for rent but also I am mostly conflict-avoidant so I don't know how to negotiate a rent decrease

Bloor and Bathurst! I used to live on Albany. Broke my lease when the landlords junkie brother in law moved in downstairs.

yikes

At least you're not moving at the height of the pandemic (or so I hope) like I did

I can only surmise (I have a lot of friends in TO) that people who are nice/interesting/creatives (the people I know there) are paying 60% of their income on rent? Is that correct? The people I'm referring to aren't people in the arts industry but people who happen to be in the arts and also happen to be tending bars or serving tables. And that was pre-covid.

Sorry to ask from an outsiders pov, but it seems pretty crazy.

lol 60% I wish

only way I could afford this is that I saved up a shit ton before the move and also I'm incredibly stingy

wow, that's mad.

I'm stingy too.

I don't call it that tho :)

60%? But why?

That 3br sounds great Simon!!
We had a ten year steal apartment - $1100/month 2br in st Clair west. Landlord eventually sold the building and offered us $7K to leave. We left. The new owners fixed it up and put it on the market for $2500. Now they’ve put the triplex up for sale again. We bought a tiny East York bungalow and will be paying that off til retirement. But it’s detached and we have a good sized yard for our many (2) poorly behaved dogs at least.

I'm near St Clair West now and I really like the area. But my roomie and I also figured, if you're gonna live downtown, go all the way lol

honestly the rent is low enough I'm trying to convince her to let us make the third room a guest room. I'm afraid of getting a stranger or anyone just a little bit annoying in there and then having to quarantine with them lol

I’d be tempted too, at that price!

not to give away our exact location but we're above non-food shops (with another floor of apts between us as a buffer) which is a first for me - of course, who knows if any of those businesses will be around by the end of the year. thankfully my roomie and I both sleep like rocks.

the other option was the top two floors of a townhouse near christie and dupont which was, I think, 2550 or so plus utilities. it was nice but I didn't like the idea of negotiating noise and temperature with the people below.

We lived in Toronto for most of the 2000s before moving back to the UK. We had an amazing (if venerable and mouse-infested) split level 2.5 bedroom house on Kensington Ave for something ridiculous like $1400 a month. Plus a lovely landlord who lived on the ground floor.

If civilisation doesn't collapse entirely, we're thinking about moving back in 6-7 years time before our kid hits high school age. Hopefully TO will still seem cheap compared to London.

living right in the Market must have been insane! that's an awesome deal, though. another friend of mine lives in a strange shared apartment there for a couple hundred a month and she'll probably stay until the building inevitably gets sold and/or demolished.

basically a certain segment of TO residents, me included, are trying to recreate Montreal living conditions lol

i pay 725 with 3 roommates in a 3br in east van, were trying to take advantage of renters market and find a bigger/nicer place to all move into but so far no luck

Finefinemusic – I'm in East York too! in a semi i bought about 6 years ago.

to the convo about what % of our income goes to housing, before i lost my job it was taking up roughly 30% of our HH income. now - who knows?!

So the crane that fell yesterday was like 5 minutes from my place and is on the route I take to the streetcar every day so 2020 is def trying to kill me

oh jeez! I saw that. terrifying.

what are ilxors' fav stores in toronto? i've been to quite a few so far (another story, she said boom, a good read, seekers, balfour, BMV) and other than BMV (which is comprehensive but not well-curated) i've not been impressed. i would've thought that canada's anglophone metropolis and literary hub would have a huge second-hand market and lots of demand for cool new stuff, but so far nothing's on the same level as the word or s&w welch in montreal or macleod's or pulp fiction or massy in vancouver. hoping there's some obvious great ones i've missed, pls fill me in!

*BOOK stores

I've been out of the city for two-plus years, so I haven't kept up, but things were deteriorating well before COVID. You might be a few decades late. There were book and record stores everywhere in the '80s.

Since a lot of the stores you mention are on Roncesvalles, it shouldn't be too far to get to Dundas St. West of Keele. There used to be a bunch of bookstores there but I haven't been there in a while; also, I would guess they have about the same selection as the Toronto places you mention. I'm not an expert though and am not familiar with the Montreal and Vancouver stores.
There are huge amounts of used books in Value Village-type outlets around town, but certainly not well-curated!

Dundas St. West of Keele

thanks, just took a look on google maps and added a couple promising-looking places to my list