Thorncliffe Park

I live in Thorncliffe Park, it’s right beside Gateway and Flemingdon; it’s close to the science centre. Marc Garneau is also in this place. What makes my neighbourhood liveable is mostly the services; there are a lot of services for newcomers or immigrants and everything is close to each other. There’s lots of green space in this place we call “the valley”, it has a name it’s just that no one calls it by the name. There are rental offices and most people that live and work in the community speak multiple languages. There’s a neighbourhood office that offers a lot of opportunities for volunteer hours and work within the community and a lot of community building activities. Although I will say I was supposed to get between 20-40 volunteer hours from that office but they never responded when I asked for them but shhhh we won’t mention any further.

My neighbourhood is bordered by a ravine? I don’t really know what to call it but it’s like a border of trees and you have to drive through it to reach some other neighbourhoods. There’s also a steep hill that leads to many parks that’s called the valley. It’s not actually called the valley, it's just that no one knows its actual name.

My neighbourhood is known for being the place that most immigrants start their life in, especially immigrants from arab and south asian countries. Most of my classmates while I still went to school there were in ESL, spoke more than one language, and were probably first generation immigrants. Here are some charts

Most of the houses are rental, there are a few rental offices in the area. I don’t think I've actually seen a house that you could own while walking around my neighbourhood. I don’t think they exist, maybe they’re hidden. This is probably because everyone is poor; most people that live here obviously live on rent and a lot of people rely on government funds. I know people in my building can barely find work and job hop sometimes, so they rely on government funding. 

Most people here are working age, they’re mostly first gen immigrants so that’s probably why.

Low income is a norm in Thorncliffe Park. Most residents here are, as previously stated, often first generation immigrants. They arrive here with no money, having to start a new life completely and are often living on government funds. Most families often just have the man work because they have 2-5 kids. Most people I've met have a lot of siblings. Oftentimes in Canada both parents have to work so that the family can live a comfortable life, therefore explaining the low incomes present in every household. The poverty rate is around 45%, which is higher than the average and way too much. Most jobs within the community are low paying jobs, like cashiers and servers, so people travel far to have a proper job; this adds more to the cost of living.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the neighbourhood’s structure itself; I just wish there was a hospital nearby. The closest hospital isn’t closeby at all, and most of the time when people have to go to the hospital in our neighbourhood they’ll be gone for at least a day. Not only will it perhaps open up job opportunities closeby which will reduce the worry for transportation cost, but also there’ll be a hospital close by. I know lots of women who chose to give birth at home because the hospital was that far away.