best place to buy kids bikes vancouver image
T. T
I am a single mother of 3 young children and find myself wanting to move back out west. I currently live in Ontario and have for the last 7 years. A friend of mine suggested that I try Whistler. After a lot of research online, I find that I still can't come to a decision. Just so you can better understand, I will say that I do not ski, nor am I a mountian biker. I do however want to raise my children in a place filled with these types of activities.
If anyone could give me any kind of advice on this idea of mine I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,
T.T.
Answer
If you have a career or profession where you make $100,000 plus a year, and/or other income as well, then you might be able to afford to live in Whistler, if you have a good size down payment for a home there. Housing is scarce, especially rentals. You will be best off if you can buy, but it is very very expensive.
If that level of income is not you, then I would recommend trying out Squamish, which is halfway between whistler and Vancouver, or Vancouver itself.
Consider Vancouver area ... there are three mountains within 20 minutes of downtown that offer skiing, snowboarding and such in the winter, and mountain biking and hiking in the summer. You can find semi-reasonable rentals in Burnaby, and East Vancouver (the area just west of Burnaby around the PNE). You don't want East Vancouver between Nanaimo and Main, just FYI).
IMO, your kids would actually have more opportunities in the Vancouver area, and life will be more affordable.
If you have a career or profession where you make $100,000 plus a year, and/or other income as well, then you might be able to afford to live in Whistler, if you have a good size down payment for a home there. Housing is scarce, especially rentals. You will be best off if you can buy, but it is very very expensive.
If that level of income is not you, then I would recommend trying out Squamish, which is halfway between whistler and Vancouver, or Vancouver itself.
Consider Vancouver area ... there are three mountains within 20 minutes of downtown that offer skiing, snowboarding and such in the winter, and mountain biking and hiking in the summer. You can find semi-reasonable rentals in Burnaby, and East Vancouver (the area just west of Burnaby around the PNE). You don't want East Vancouver between Nanaimo and Main, just FYI).
IMO, your kids would actually have more opportunities in the Vancouver area, and life will be more affordable.
best family neighbourhood near burnaby?
Bender
I am thinking of making the move to British Columbia from Ontario. I would be working in hi tech in Burnaby and want to know of a family orientated and safe neighbourhood with good schools.
Answer
I lived in Burnaby for 10 years and moved out of my parents' house to Port Moody recently - both cities are awesome and PoMo is a 15min drive from where I was in Bby. Anyway I lived in the neighbourhood in the Winston/Government St area - right by the Costco on Brighton by the Production Way/University Skytrain Station (like the subway in TO, you will come to know it well if you travel transit!) anyway it was a great neighbourhood and full of kids with an elementary school on Government St within walking distance from virtually everywhere there, with a great park (with a water park area!) one block down. If you stay long enough for your kids to grow up, the highschool is also within walking distance (maybe 15mins walking) and you can drive to Lougheed Mall and the grocery store there in 5mins, or walk there in 30-40 (if you're an exercise enthusiast!) If you're religious at all there is a church about 10mins (walking) away and also 15min walk to an awesome dog park situated in a wildlife reserve with EXCELLENT walking trails, and a 15 min walk the other way (or take the long way from the lake a the wildlife reserve and get there in maybe 30-40) will take you to a small horse boarding stable with a riding ring, if you have any interest in horses!
Never heard of any crime or break ins, although a bike did get stolen from our backyard which made no sense because it was literally rusted in our bushes... and they left their scooter so does that even count as theft? Haha.
Hmm what else. Oh the fire department is right by the costco which again is only a 5-10min walk if that matters... And the skytrain ("subway" I mentioned earlier can be walked to in 5-15mins depending on which area of the neighbourhood you live in.
Anyway I loved living there it was close to everything. I guess you could call it North/Central Burnaby? Never knew what to call it.
North Burnaby is also relatively nice but the closer you get to hastings (heading in the vancouver direction at least) in my opinion gets less nice, the houses are older and there are more homeless people you may encounter, though probably not in the neighbourhoods. I just personally find nothing attractive about many of the areas in North burnaby, mostly because it's more housing and not as close to everything as where I lived but to each their own.
South Burnaby is pretty crappy to be honest. I would never want to live there. Very ghetto though not sure about crime and all that but I have never enjoyed myself any time I've had to go there, and when my boyfriend and I looked at some places there to buy we were totally disgusted.
Central Burnaby as far as I know is pretty nice and we considered a place there before settling in Port Moody which I must tell you is amazing and I have heard only good things from everyone living here and in surrounding areas - Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Anmore <-- a very rich neighbourhood by the way and not THAT far from Burnaby, prob a 20-30min drive depending on how far up you live so if you have money put Anmore on your list of places to look at. Anmore as well as Coquitlam, PoCo and PoMo are all very tight-knit communities and everyone knows eachother and goes to the same schools (which are abundant in these areas!) and the same vets and the same walking trails, dog parks, beaches/lakes, etc.
There is also New Wesminster which is a very old city and has older features and various types of neighbourhoods (good/bad/ugly/etc) but they are working on cleaning up some of the "bad" areas by building new condos and giving the places a face lift to bring in younger families. My boyfriend;s family moved there when he was 10 so he grew up there and really liked it but he lived in a good neighbourhood but personally I dont think I'd really want to live there.
Basically I think you are making a good decision considering the Burnaby area and like I said there are cities surrounding it close enough that you could consider calling home too.
Sorry to make this so long but I hope I was informative enough to help you decide something.
Whatever you do don't move to vancouver despite what everyone says it sucks. I dunno though if you live in toronto or anything and like it maybe you'd like it. Just my personal opinion... I find absolutely NOTHING appealing about vancouver or even the downtown area. I avoid it as much as I can. There are some nice places though and I bet anyone reading this will freak out at my comments towards vancouver but again just my opinion.
Hope I helped! Welcome to BC in advance! Everyone loves it here!
I lived in Burnaby for 10 years and moved out of my parents' house to Port Moody recently - both cities are awesome and PoMo is a 15min drive from where I was in Bby. Anyway I lived in the neighbourhood in the Winston/Government St area - right by the Costco on Brighton by the Production Way/University Skytrain Station (like the subway in TO, you will come to know it well if you travel transit!) anyway it was a great neighbourhood and full of kids with an elementary school on Government St within walking distance from virtually everywhere there, with a great park (with a water park area!) one block down. If you stay long enough for your kids to grow up, the highschool is also within walking distance (maybe 15mins walking) and you can drive to Lougheed Mall and the grocery store there in 5mins, or walk there in 30-40 (if you're an exercise enthusiast!) If you're religious at all there is a church about 10mins (walking) away and also 15min walk to an awesome dog park situated in a wildlife reserve with EXCELLENT walking trails, and a 15 min walk the other way (or take the long way from the lake a the wildlife reserve and get there in maybe 30-40) will take you to a small horse boarding stable with a riding ring, if you have any interest in horses!
Never heard of any crime or break ins, although a bike did get stolen from our backyard which made no sense because it was literally rusted in our bushes... and they left their scooter so does that even count as theft? Haha.
Hmm what else. Oh the fire department is right by the costco which again is only a 5-10min walk if that matters... And the skytrain ("subway" I mentioned earlier can be walked to in 5-15mins depending on which area of the neighbourhood you live in.
Anyway I loved living there it was close to everything. I guess you could call it North/Central Burnaby? Never knew what to call it.
North Burnaby is also relatively nice but the closer you get to hastings (heading in the vancouver direction at least) in my opinion gets less nice, the houses are older and there are more homeless people you may encounter, though probably not in the neighbourhoods. I just personally find nothing attractive about many of the areas in North burnaby, mostly because it's more housing and not as close to everything as where I lived but to each their own.
South Burnaby is pretty crappy to be honest. I would never want to live there. Very ghetto though not sure about crime and all that but I have never enjoyed myself any time I've had to go there, and when my boyfriend and I looked at some places there to buy we were totally disgusted.
Central Burnaby as far as I know is pretty nice and we considered a place there before settling in Port Moody which I must tell you is amazing and I have heard only good things from everyone living here and in surrounding areas - Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Anmore <-- a very rich neighbourhood by the way and not THAT far from Burnaby, prob a 20-30min drive depending on how far up you live so if you have money put Anmore on your list of places to look at. Anmore as well as Coquitlam, PoCo and PoMo are all very tight-knit communities and everyone knows eachother and goes to the same schools (which are abundant in these areas!) and the same vets and the same walking trails, dog parks, beaches/lakes, etc.
There is also New Wesminster which is a very old city and has older features and various types of neighbourhoods (good/bad/ugly/etc) but they are working on cleaning up some of the "bad" areas by building new condos and giving the places a face lift to bring in younger families. My boyfriend;s family moved there when he was 10 so he grew up there and really liked it but he lived in a good neighbourhood but personally I dont think I'd really want to live there.
Basically I think you are making a good decision considering the Burnaby area and like I said there are cities surrounding it close enough that you could consider calling home too.
Sorry to make this so long but I hope I was informative enough to help you decide something.
Whatever you do don't move to vancouver despite what everyone says it sucks. I dunno though if you live in toronto or anything and like it maybe you'd like it. Just my personal opinion... I find absolutely NOTHING appealing about vancouver or even the downtown area. I avoid it as much as I can. There are some nice places though and I bet anyone reading this will freak out at my comments towards vancouver but again just my opinion.
Hope I helped! Welcome to BC in advance! Everyone loves it here!
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