Because the burbs are booming
Three ’hoods that refuse to be outshone by downtown
The cultural cradle
Scarborough has recently hatched a bevy of artistic talent, including R&B star Savannah Ré and Ontario poet laureate Randell Adjei. But no one has repped the east end quite like author Catherine Hernandez, whose moving novel Scarborough was adapted into an indie hit that wowed TIFF last fall. The stunningly shot coming-of-age story follows three kids grappling with neglect and abuse, and it sticks with you for weeks after you watch it.
The tech hotbed
Toronto and Waterloo are already tech meccas. Brampton is up next. Roughly 10 per cent of the city holds a STEM degree, and many of those whizzes are working at local tech offices—Amazon, Canon, robotics firm MDA—or sprouting their own ideas through two new start-up incubators: BHive, which is geared to foreign-born entrepreneurs, and the Ryerson Venture Zone, which has helped two dozen companies get off the ground.
The little Las Vegas
The massive casino that opened in Pickering last summer was just an amuse-bouche, the first taste of a forthcoming 40-acre adult entertainment playground called Durham Live. When complete, the multiplex will be a destination for weekend getaways and bachelor parties, featuring 150,000 square feet of retail space, a massive outdoor amphitheatre, several restaurants, a golf course, and a luxury hotel and spa.
More Reasons to Love Toronto…
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