Orillia
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Barrie
London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Moscow, and Barrie.
What?
How does Barrie fit into a list of world class international cities? Well,
it hosted Canada’s Live 8 concert at Molson Park, when Toronto couldn’t handle
the last minute capacity due to other festivals and events. And Barrie was
sufficiently far enough that putting “Toronto” down on the list would have
been misleading. So there you have it – Barrie is now officially a world
metropolis.
Ok, this is going to be quick and easy
since this is the last community profile I have left to do and I’ve done more
than 100. In addition, Barrie is large, not northern, and very suburban,
so it has everything you really need – you don’t need me to tell you where
to eat, where to stay, etc. And this site is kinda focused on the stuff north
of North Bay, so Barrie doesn't totally fit in to this site's focus or mould.
Barrie is a subruban area of about 150 000 maybe at most 175 000 people that has the potential to be the next Mississauga. For some of the geographically challenged, Barrie is considered the start of northern Ontario. But for everyone else on the planet, it’s completely clear that Barrie is in southern Ontario. So they’re at a bit of a crossroads. Barrie is also where Yonge Street ends and the real Highway 11 begins on its route across Ontario.
Barrie used to be a farming, industrial, and brewery town. But they develop much of the land and Molson’s closed up its operations so now Barrie is a regional centre and a suburb for those who work in Toronto’s suburbs and who are willing to do the commute. This means that while it used to have more in common with towns like Sarnia or Stratford, some might say it now has more in common with Brampton. Barrie is Canada’s fastest growing city, at a whopping 25 percent between 2000 and 2005.
Highway
400 to Toronto is congested, busy, and used above capacity. This is especially
true during cottage season and on long weekends. So be warned. While they
say it only takes 50 minutes to go from Toronto to Barrie it’s usually about
an hour and a half. While the government has introduced legislation to keep
a belt of land between Toronto and Barrie essentially undeveloped, it is very
likely that sprawl will simply hop this area, called the "greenbelt",
and continue to develop it on both sides.
Barrie also gained international notoriety
for having one of Canada’s largest drug busts. Someone had converted
part of the old Molson’s brewery into a secret pot operation and it apparently
flourished until getting busted. Everyone was really surprised.
To me, a product of the southern Ontario
suburbs, Barrie isn’t particularly different...it is a lot like home. With
its population it is large enough to give you some stuff to do. The Barrie
Colts are the local junior hockey team. There are two ski hills in the area
(Blue Mountain and Horseshoe Valley), and there are many beaches on Lake Simcoe.
Barrie has a nice waterfront along Kempenfelt Bay, with boating, swimming,
and other recreational opportunities. There are many cottages nearby as Lake
Simcoe is a cottagy area. For
those who like Art there is the Maclaren Art Centre and the annual Kempenfelt
Arts Festival.
The Downtown offers good waterfront access and a few nice walks along Lake Simcoe. And there is a Pita Pit. Any town with a Pita Pit gets points from me. Barrie has made an effort to keep its downtown alive despite the box stores and these new outdoor mall plaza things that are being built on the outskirts of every suburban city these days. Like any other city of this size, there are the usual indoor attractions, including miniputt, movies, and bowling.
I've received a fair amount of emails (okay, six) complaining that I painted Barrie as dry and uneventful. This isn't the case, it's just that Barrie doesn't fit into the mould (e.g. rural, or northern, or isolated, or tiny, or non-existent) that apply to most of the towns on this site. So if anyone is from Barrie and thinks this doesn’t do the town justice, I’m sorry that was never my intention. Please add to this – send me an email with your thoughts and tips: info (at) highway11 (dot) ca
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Links: Scenic Barrie and a live webcam
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some time in Barrie? Have a story to share?
Post your experiences in Barrie below.