Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87
I'm half-joking, but what makes Oakville and Burlington "good" while Oshawa is "the opposite"? From an outside perspective the differences are not very obvious, other than a bit more focus on the lakefront in Halton. They seem like (materially) similar places. Obviously their reputations are quite different though.
edit: saw Niwell's post after
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I think one difference is in how they developed.
I believe that Oakville and Burlington both grew from post-War of 1812 villages with small ports that served farmers and grist and lumber mills, but when they hit their growth spurts after WW2 it was largely due to suburbanization and the QEW providing great access for a variety of industries that relied heavily on trucking. A lot of people with money and upper-level jobs in Hamilton ended up settling in Burlington, and I would think it was similar for Oakville re: some of Toronto's wealthy. Neither suburb had the kinds of income disparities you see in larger places, at least not to the same degree, and that continues today... they do have their rougher edges but nowhere near to the ones in "blue collar" cities like Hamilton.
Oshawa began as more of an industrial town, but later on didn't have enough economic diversity to help weather the changes in the auto sector, so it's been going through a lot of hardship since the 1980s and '90s. And I agree with hipster duck's point about it being like two cities -- the suburbanization wave has been strong and created one version of Oshawa, but the other has not revitalized and hasn't seen the gentrification and investment that's been occurring in other cities that grew from heavy industry.
It's a lot more complex than that and I probably don't have the history completely correct, but that's how I see those cities.