[URBAN NOTE] "Guelph a preferred option over Toronto"

[rfmcdonald]

Kathy Flaxman's article in the Toronto Star makes for interesting reading, and believable reading. It's just that me, with my Island roots, see a city with almost the same population as my native province as not an especially small city at all.

A backyard was a must-have for Joanna Cobban when she went house-hunting.

Joanna Cobban loves her drive to work along country roads. She fills her half-hour commute singing along — loudly — with the likes of Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off.” It’s a direct contrast to her days being stuck in city traffic or crowded into the subway. “My commute takes me through farmland, and it is beautiful,” she says.

Cobban, who turns 30 next weekend, last year traded her hectic urban life in The 6 for Guelph, still a city with 120,000 people but smaller. She longed to return after graduating from the University of Guelph. Then, last year, she did and purchased a two-bedroom home where she lives with her dog Casey, a yellow Labrador/golden retriever mix.

Add it all up and Cobban is living in her dream location, in her own home, with the dog she wanted and a good job in her field as a senior business analyst with a major insurance company nearby.

“As a student in Guelph I loved the green spaces and the relatively laid-back atmosphere,” she says. “It’s beautiful, with a lake and great outdoor areas. There are a bunch of farmers’ markets close by and places like St. Jacobs have excellent bakeries. I have a motorcycle and a bike, and there are a lot of trails and back roads that I plan to explore this summer.”

[. . .]

“I always had the idea that I wanted to return to Guelph,” she says. “I had previously thought I might like to buy a condo. But I knew with Casey I wanted a house with a fenced backyard.”