Wellbeing Toronto, recently launched as an extension of the official City of Toronto website, lets Toronto residents and prospective Toronto homebuyers compare neighbourhoods based on a number of different variables – including crime, civic participation, demographics, housing, economy, health, education and environment.
So, soon-to-be homebuyers who aren’t familiar enough with the city to know exactly where they want to set up shop can determine how many people from their home country live in one neighbourhood compared to another, the number of car accidents in other neighbourhoods or even the number of welfare recipients in a given chunk of Toronto.
Depending on your situation, each of these criteria can have a different level of importance to help you best-rank your future neighbourhood.
While the president of the Toronto Real Estate Board, Bill Johnston, simply said, “wow” when told of the features, the executive director of Toronto’s social development, finance and administration division told the Toronto Star that, “It will allow you to ask whatever question you need to ask. It’s not about producing a single list… it’s about creating a capacity to understand what’s happening in Toronto in all different ways,” he said.
Johnston did add that there could be some negative consequences depending on the popularity of such an application that provides that much information.
“It’s sort of the law of unintended consequences,” he told the Star. “By providing relevant, up-to-date, accurate information, it may have a negative effect on some neighbourhoods.”
The Wellbeing Toronto website is available here.
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