The burbs are detrimental to one’s health. Living in Toronto is better for your health but bad for your budget.

All of Toronto is getting older, but it’s tougher to age in the suburbs

By MAY WARREN
Toronto Star, Staff Reporter
Sept. 5, 2018

In her apartment building at Bay and Bloor, Adina Lebo has neighbours that include a young couple and a 94-year-old woman.

Adina Lebo is hoping to “age in place” — something experts say is easier to do in Toronto’s downtown neighbourhoods than in the suburbs. (JIM RANKIN / TORONTO STAR)

The older woman needs a hand with her groceries. The couple needs someone to check in on their cats when they’re away.

“We all help each other,” said Lebo, who’s in her late 60s. “It’s way better for the health of everybody to have people of all ages around.”

It’s the kind of arrangement Lebo wants to keep as she “ages in place” downtown, hoping to stay in her community, where she can easily get to coffee shops, grocery stores and a movie theatre.

As part of an occasional series, the Star is taking a look at the old fault lines of amalgamation and re-examining where the city is divided, and united.

Toronto, like Canada, is getting older, but the city’s suburbs are ageing faster than downtown. The problem, experts say, is that the suburbs, especially the former municipalities of Scarborough and Etobicoke, have largely been designed around driving, and can be more difficult places to age in place.

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