Barrie Haters Unite!

Wow, I'm almost speechless... not only does this blog live on, it's getting more and more page views and comments as time goes on. In some twisted, sadistic way, that makes me happy! :) More and more "Barrie haters" are coming out of the woodwork. I knew I wasn't the only one who disliked Barrie. So many of you have written lately, with most of you agreeing that Barrie is not such a great city (to say the least). You've got all kinds of reasons. Some are the same as mine, some are a lot different. But at least we all share one thing in common - our feelings about how much BARRIE SUCKS!

It's been almost a year and half since I left Barrie, and it's been WONDERFUL! I feel like such a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I only wish my parents would leave Barrie. I keep in touch with a few people I met in Barrie, and almost all of them have moved away! A few months ago, I came for a visit to see my parents and I felt a knot forming in stomach even before I got back to that horrid city. Needless to say, I did not enjoy being there and could not wait to leave!

So to all of you who didn't like Barrie and left, congratulations! I know what a wonderful feeling it is to leave a city you hate, namely Barrie. You've no doubt found happiness and satisfaction somewhere else, as I have. And to those of you who regret ever setting foot in Barrie and can't wait to leave... I wish you good luck in making the break as soon as possible. Do it, you'll be glad you did. And if you happen to like Barrie, well then good for you! You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Lastly, I'm really happy this blog has been available as a resource to people who currently live in Barrie, have lived in Barrie or were/are actually considering moving there. Many of you have read the pages of this blog and some of you have posted a reply. For that I thank you. And if it helped to just "vent" your frustrations about Barrie, I'm glad, and happy that you were able to do it here.

OK, so Barrie is not for eveyone, let's agree on that at least!

It's been over a year since I put up this blog. I've changed so much since then. Soon after I made this blog, I moved far away. In that time, this blog has been featured on a radio station, ready by many, and received quite a few comments - both pro and against Barrie. You may have seen me come across as a very bitter person. And I was. Living in Barrie was just not the right thing for me to do and I got more and more miserable by the day. I had the choice of making the best of it, or moving away. I chose the latter. A change of scenery was the easiest way for me to start thinking positively.

I don't want to dwell on it, because I've moved on and don't want to complain anymore, but this update needs to be written. Some people have found Barrie to be the answer to their dreams. For me, it was one of my worst nightmares! It was so nice to finally leave Barrie. I can only hope my parents decide to move away too. I know they're not totally in love with the city, but they don't dislike it as much as I do. We aren't even from Barrie, so there's no reason to stay.

So to all who took offence to my opinions, Peace. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. This is way more of a controversial subject than I could have ever imagined. In the past year, I've learned to relax and not be so hateful. The Secret (recommended to me by friends and strangers alike) was just the beginning. I knew all that stuff before, but Barrie was not the right environment for me to act upon it. Even my writing style has changed over the past year. I don't take back anything I said about Barrie, and I'm glad I got that opportunity to vent. But, now that I've said it, I've moved on and won't complain about Barrie. Life is too short to quibble about such things.

Let's just say that Barrie is not for everyone. Over the past year, people have posted both positive and negative comments about the city. I'm leaving this blog up so that others may read it. For some, it may reinforce their love of the city, or make them want to move to Barrie, or reconsider it. For others, it may be a feeling of relief to know that there are others who share their dislike of the city. You can't force someone to like a place.

Peace. (wherever you may be living, be it in Barrie or elsewhere)! :)

Barrie: home of cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers

It seems many places are getting crazy weather lately. However, most of them are just flukes. Barrie's strategic location gets cold, snowy winters and hot humid summers. Spring is virtually non-existent. From about October to May, it's cold and, for the most part, trees, plants, grass, crops, etc, don't grow much. That's about half the year. For two of three of those months, it's bitterly cold. Don't forget, Barrie is in a snow belt.

An hour down the road in Toronto, it can be a few degrees warmer and free of snow most of the winter. Then we get a brief transition from winter to summer. Soon it's hot and humid with dangerous insects that prefer this area. Out of the whole year, there's maybe a month or two that I personally find neither too hot and humid nor too cold and snowy.

Usually by April, the spring thaw is underway, snow disappears and the grass starts to grow. But, this is Barrie. In Barrie, April snow falls (not showers) bring May flowers. A couple of times this month, we've had a nice, light blanket of snow, while in Toronto, not a flake to be found!

Who would have thought of winter injuries happening in April. My father managed to have a nasty fall due to the snow in April. Had it not been for the snow, he probably wouldn't be in pain and using a cane or crutches. Last winter, he took a nasty fall and fractured his hip. Due to the prolonged winter in Barrie, be prepared for more winter injuries, accidents, money spent on winter tires, winter clothes, boots, snowblowers, etc.

PS: As I write this, the East Coast, and even Eastern Ontario are suffering a winter storm to various levels of severity. I feel your pain. We get that sort of thing on a regular basis here in Barrie and Central Ontario.

Canada's Worst Driver show should come to Barrie

You may have heard about the hit TV show "Canada's Worst Driver" on the Discovery Channel. They're looking for new nominations. If they come to Barrie, Ontario they will no doubt find more than enough people in a matter of minutes.

Personally, I'd rather driver in New York City. I find that more relaxing that driving in Barrie. Barrie drivers are the most inconsiderate I have ever seen. For example, yesterday I was driving on Highway 90 west, approaching Tiffin. A beat up old pick up truck slowly pulled out into traffic from a driveway, narrowly missing the car in front me. He braked, and instead of waiting for me to pass, decided to slowly pull out in front. I guess he figured I had plenty of time to put the brakes on so he could take his time. Maybe that hunk of junk wasn't capable of accelerating that fast. He only got up to 60 km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone.

The he turned onto Tiffin (without signaling). I was going that way too. Then he was doing about 45 km/hr in a 60 zone before eventually sauntering along into the driveway of another place (I think it was a body shop or junk yard, how appropriate).

Then, as I was getting back up to speed, a Buick Le Sabre pulled out of another driveway and eventually got up to about 55 km/hr. Again, the driver figured I could slow down to let him in. Both times, there were NO other vehicles behind me!

He turned off at Ferndale Road. Then at the next intersection, another pick-up truck (from a construction company) slowed down for his red light, then pulled out into traffic, again making me slow down to let let him in. Red lights mean stop, not slow down! At least if you make a rolling stop and pull into traffic, get up to speed and don't make others have to slow down for you, especially when there are no other vehicles behind the one you just cut off!

This was all in just a matter of about two minutes. Normally it would take about 20 or 30 minutes to see such displays of incompetent driving in Barrie. And no, I'm not an aggressive, road rageous driver. I have a flawless driving and insurance record, and drive respectfully and carefully.

Oro Medonte, just north of Barrie, new preferred dumping ground for dead bodies

If you came or are thinking of coming to Barrie for fresh clean air and no big-city crime, think again! Yes, Oro Medonte, just north of Barrie is fast becoming the new dumping ground for dead bodies. Yesterday a charred body was found in a burt out truck in Oro Medonte, not far from where a body was found a few weeks ago, or another body was found in a snowbank by a snowplow driver a few weeks before that. Along with all the big city amenities and population growth comes the big city crime!

The Top 10 Reasons Why Barrie Sucks!

Here's an incredible Top 10 list of why Barrie sucks, from one of my friends here in Barrie. She's just as fed up with Barrie as I am, but for different reasons. It's made me realize even more that Barrie is not the place for me either. She's given me permission to use this list, but I've opted to protect her and her husband's identity.

Enjoy!


Hi Peter,

I just read your blog and I love it! You've said most of how I feel about this wretched place. I heard you might be leaving Barrie and I envy you. D***** and I are still in the planning stages of our get away, which will probably take us to Toronto.

Now, here are some more things to love about Barrie:

1. The total and utter lack of class. Where else but the deepest backwoods, would you be able to go into a town and see people go to the store in their pajamas and socks, or even just barefoot. Yes, that's right, no shoes. I've actually witnessed this several times. People will remove shoes as they cross a parking lot before going into a store. In some cultures, mainly all over Asia, people will remove their shoes before entering a dwelling. It seems Barrie folk are misguided about that concept and replicate it for stores. Perhaps it is a bizarre Barrie ritual for the initiated few hardcore Barrians.
   
   
2. A cultural Sahara of sorts. Now, my knowledge of deserts is limited and admittedly I've never been in the Sahara. That said, the hallmark of a desert is its lack of stuff. When one considers culture at any level, Barrie has that significant lack of it. There are no live shows, theatre plays, musical events. No bar bands, although entertaining, are not always what you crave for. A nice play, a symphony of the more classical type would be cool once in a while, if I had the choice. How about some foreign films to purge out the formulaic-factory-made Hollywood shite we are usually subjected to and that could give the average Barrieite a window on the world. I guess for our Barrie cookie-cutter-house dweller it is good enough. He don't need none of that culture stuff to go with his 24 of Canadian. Sadly instead, one needs to either go to Toronto, 120 Km south and then back or 45mins away to Orillia for a show at Casino Rama. Yes, they actually have all sorts of live acts worth the drive. Barrie, having a larger population base, does not.
   
   
3. Festivals. Yes, in many a place street festivals happen. Amazingly, Barrie has never seen one. There are no artists that take over the streets and dazzle us with their talents. Montreal, Quebec, Edinburgh Scotland, Angers France... to only name a few places who all boast excellent street festivals.
   
   
4. Promenade days and Kempenfest don't count. The first involves the local Barrie drinking holes putting out patio furniture in a now-pedestrian street. Wow. Bars that have a patio. Very novel and different for here or if you've never set foot anywhere in the world. In Barrie, it's so cool and outrageous we needed to give that concept a name: Promenade days. In the rest of the world, it's just a bar with a patio. Kempenfest is a crafts show. The same crafts, every year. The same booths at exactly the same location, selling the same stuff. It's like that movie Groundhog Day. You just keep on reliving the same thing over and over and over again. The only difference is that you're no wiser for having relived it because there is no lesson to be learned. Perhaps the only thing that does sink in after a while, is how much Barrie sucks!
   
   
5. Notorious for all the wrong reasons. Yes, our internationally famed and nationally respected David Suzuki speaks of Barrie. In his report on urban sprawl, he cites Barrie's example as what "NOT TO DO" when it comes to unchecked urban sprawl. Yes, the $ is mighty here. It really got a lot of flex during the recession in the early 90's. If you still had cash, then you could get away with anything in terms of development. And so a trend was born. Over the next 15 years promoters would be developing the most hideous neighborhoods regardless of ecological impact and sustainability, not to mention zero planned infrastructure. This would become the home of many commuters. Cheaper than Toronto, they turned Barrie into a motel or a dorm room. Hey, they just crash here, they don't really care about the place that much. And that's why Barrie doesn't advance or progress.
   
   
6. 15 years after the recession and nothing new. The recession was particularly bad for Barrie most of its industry packed up and went to Toronto or further South to Mexico, thanks to a free-trade deal of sorts back then. Since then, however, one might imagine our city would have strived to attract businesses and industry back by
   bending over backwards. Hell no! there's been no recovery here! We still have no industry to speak of. The jobs are dismally blue collar and minimum wage, but I'm sure you've heard that before. We do have plenty of fast foods to work at though! So what does our city council discuss? Well, one of the main issues that's I've seen come back to bless our local headlines : What should the fine be if your neighbor's cat craps in your yard? But I'm just a simpleton, what do I know about real issues?
   
   
7. Develop what? De-ve-lop-ment. Not just a fancy word for some parts of the world, we could use some of that here too. Now, just a quick geography lesson: Barrie is North of Toronto, South of Sudbury and North Bay, and has countless smaller communities around it like Newmarket, Bradford, Alliston, Orillia, Collingwood, Penetang etc... We have 1 college and no university. In fact, you can either go to Lakehead or Laurentian, way North, or to U of T or York, way South. Is it not time the "fastest-growing city" in Canada did something to implant a university in Barrie? We have a hefty population base for it and neighboring towns that would appreciate it too? So why is no one trying to get an institution of higher learning here? With universities comes research, usually subsidized by close-by businesses. I guess we just don't want to start that kind of chain reaction. Learning, developing, work, what next? Yes, let's just leave that to a town like Bradford who's actively looking at bringing in a university to its neighborhood. As for those who think Georgian college is already "working with a university", here's a little secret: all the colleges pretty much do that these days.
   
   
8. Infrastructure? What for? Well for the thousands of poor sobs that commute daily to real and better paying jobs AWAY from Barrie. Bringing back the GO Train. Wow, this has been like pulling teeth! You'd think we needed to import a large ethnic population from some economically-depressed part of the globe to make it happen. But no, we still can't do it eventhough the tracks are in place! Yes, that's right our city hall/council/pompous useless people who get paid the big buck can't even get a service to COME BACK to town.
   
   
9. A reputation we just can't live down. A look of pity and a lack of comprehension.
   Time and time again, I have seen, heard and felt the attitude from other people as soon as you mention you live in Barrie. Not a pretty or positive experience. They question why Barrie? What's there for you? Immediately followed by "You own a house there don't you?" Well, think about it! That's the only reason why people live here. Otherwise, it's considered like the "Trailer-Park-Boys-Area" and frankly, I consider it : the Armpit of Ontario.
   
   
10. Discrimination. Last but not least, I've recently experienced something novel: regional discrimination. Despite the thousands of Barrieites who try to earn a buck in Toronto and put on their best game face to go to work in the GTA everyday, it seems we Barrie dwellers still need to prove ourselves to the Toronto folks. Looking for that job in the GTA with a Barrie address on a resume can be detrimental to your best efforts. For 6 months I had absolutely no luck. Then, 2007 rolled around and I took on the resolution to put a fake Toronto address on the old resume. My phone started ringing the following day. From the 5 resumes I had time to send, I got 4 interviews, and 2 job offers within 15 days. Coincidence, I think not.

So there you have it Peter, my view on why Barrie sucks badly. Take it, read it, do whatever you want with my little rant, which by the way was very satisfying!

Take care for now.

Bitter in Barrie

Some people actually LIKE Barrie?

Yes, as hard I find it to believe, some people actually like Barrie. To be honest, I knew that from the beginning. But, I also know many people who dislike Barrie as well as some people who just put up with it. They may like some aspects, and not others, but maybe not enough to move. Moving is expensive and emotional. In my case, it will be worth it.

There has been quite a flurry of activity on my blog already. A morning show on one of the local radio stations even picked it up and talked about it on the air.

I've met a few nice people here, but for me, there have been far more negative people and situations that far outweigh anything positive. I know I'm not the only one either. And it's not that I only associate with negative people. I meet all kinds of people, am very open minded, patient and look for good qualities.

But, after almost eight years in Barrie, it's safe to say that I'm not a good fit for this place. Of all the places I've lived in, this is by far the worst. I've lived in the Vancouver area and Montreal area.

Some people hate the rain in Vancouver. It's not the greatest kind of weather, but the trade-off is a very gentle and temperate winter, which I really like. The people are generally fantastic. I do want to go back to the west coast, but am considering the Okananagan Valley this time. A bit more snow (about 10 inches annually - I can live with that), but even less rain than Barrie.

I've lived in the Montreal area and loved it. Very much a European flair - more so in some areas than others (and even more in Quebec City, though I only visited there). I loved the French... speaking it, reading it, working in it... it was great. Again, I found most of the people there great. It was a different way of living and I loved it. The only part I didn't like was that there's still a winter. Just about as long as it is in Barrie, though not as severe in Montreal or the suburbs (West Island). No snow squalls or Lake Effect snow! It just seemed easier to tolerate.

What I liked about those two places, many people hated! But, I'd go back to either of those places in a heartbeat. There's a saying, "you can never please all of the of the people all of the time." This is very true. If you're a person who likes winter, then Barrie is a great place. Heck, Timmins or Winnipeg might be even better!

But, if you're in Toronto or the GTA and are considering a move to Barrie, but aren't very fond of winter, then you may not like Barrie - even though the houses are cheaper, etc. Toronto gets by with a fraction of what Barrie gets. This is a snowbelt area. Your car will rust more, it's colder here, the driving conditions get nasty (all season tires on your Honda Accord just won't cut it). I'm not trying to bash anyone, but it seems that the first car into the guardrail on Hwy 400 each winter is a Honda Accord!

Although not totally necessary, for almost as long as I've lived in Barrie, I've had a four wheel drive SUV with winter tires to make driving easier. This winter we had many days including seven days in a row of severe winter weather alerts asking people to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary. How can this be pleasant? I hope you like shovelling snow and cleaning snow or ice off your car on a regular basis too. Don't forget to plug in that block heater!

Once winter is over, we have spring. But don't forget, Barrie is in Tornado Alley. In 1985, a tornado hit Barrie and caused considerable damage. It seems that every spring we keep getting more and more tornado alerts for this area from Environment Canada. If I wanted to live in fear of tornadoes, Kansas would be nicer place (and yes, I've spent some time there, for real)!

If you're lucky enough to make a decent living in Barrie or like commuting to Toronto, then that's great. Maybe you're the right personality type for Barrie. I'm not. The purpose of this blog is to inform people about both sides of the coin - namely "the other side." To be honest, I'm not looking for Pro-Barrie comments here (but I know some people will leave them anyways just to try and prove me wrong). That's not the purpose of this blog. There are plenty of other websites and glossy brochures that do a fine job of that. There was, however, lack of an objective or opposing view. I felt strongly enough that people (especially potential new residents) needed to stop looking at Barrie through rose coloured glasses and know that Barrie many not be as perfect as some people make it out to be.

As long as I'm here, I'll keep telling people my opinion of the city, while others who like this place will continue to praise it.