Vanier

Vanier is the west-central community between King Street West and the Highway 401 corridor. The City's map takes it from Thornton Road South and the Whitby line on the west to Oshawa Creek on the east, with Bloor Street West and the 401 as the southern edge, so it takes in Park Road South, Gibb Street, Stevenson Road South, the Oshawa Centre at King and Stevenson, the Civic Recreation Complex and Trent University's campus on Thornton Road. Oshawa GO, at Thornton and Bloor, sits just past the south-west corner in the Stevenson community, and some guides describe Vanier as reaching Simcoe Street South, so read the eastern line as roughly the creek.

The core of Vanier went up between about 1945 and 1965. East of Park Road South, on Gibb, Cromwell, Pacific, Hillside, Burk and Nassau streets, are postwar houses of a storey and a half and brick bungalows on lots of 40 to 50 feet, some with the original detached garage, many with a rear addition. West of Park Road and around Stevenson Road South the lots and houses grow a little: 1960s bungalows and side-splits, 1970s two-storeys and semis on the crescents off Waverly Street South and Laval Street, and a pocket of newer infill near the Civic complex. Apartment towers and walk-ups from the 1960s and 1970s line Park Road South near Gibb and stand behind the Oshawa Centre, and townhouse rows fill some of the gaps beside them. The mall's own lands and the Gibb Street commercial strip are zoned for intensification, so mid-rise proposals near King and Stevenson are a live topic. Expect single driveways, mature maples, and a mix of owner-occupied and rented houses on most streets.

Vanier has the Oshawa Centre Terminal, a main DRT hub where local routes from across the city meet the 901C to Simcoe Street, the 902 King Street bus to Oshawa GO and Bowmanville, the 403 to the GO station via Wentworth, the 409 to Rossland and Stevenson, and the 421 and 423 across the south and east ends. King Street West is also Highway 2, so the 900 PULSE from Whitby, Ajax and Pickering runs along the north edge to downtown. Oshawa GO sits just past the south-west corner where Thornton meets Bloor, five minutes by car or bus from most streets, with all-day Lakeshore East trains. Highway 401 ramps are at Stevenson Road, and at Park Road and Simcoe to the east. The Thornton's Corners station Metrolinx has proposed would go beside Thornton Road South and the future Consumers Drive extension, on Vanier's western flank. Sidewalks are continuous, and the creek bike path forms the east edge.

Vanier's public elementary schools are Village Union on Gibb Street, Waverly on Waverly Street South and College Hill on Laval Street, all DDSB, and most streets reportedly feed R.S. McLaughlin Collegiate to the north for high school, with G.L. Roberts for the southern blocks. The Catholic board, DCDSB, has St. Thomas Aquinas on Pacific Avenue, feeding either Monsignor Paul Dwyer northward or Pereyma southward depending on the address. French-language families are well served: Corpus-Christi, the French Catholic elementary run by MonAvenir, is on Hillside Avenue inside the community, and Viamonde's Antonine-Maillet is a few blocks north in McLaughlin. Each board maps its own attendance areas and reviews them periodically, so check the schools attached to a particular house. Trent University's Durham campus on Thornton Road South is walkable from the west side, and the college and university campus is a direct bus north.

The Civic Recreation Complex at 99 Thornton Road South anchors the west side: outdoor track and turf fields, indoor ice, a fitness centre and the indoor dome, with Trent's campus and the Union Cemetery grounds across King as neighbours. Neighbourhood parks dot the streets, Radio Park and Glen Stewart Park among them, Storie Park sits toward the creek, and the creek bike path follows the east edge from Lakeview Park to the Botanical Gardens. Shopping could not be easier: the Oshawa Centre's department stores, food court and bus terminal, the grocery and pharmacy plazas on Gibb Street and King Street West, the Walmart on Laval Drive and the stores clustered near the Stevenson interchange. Lakeridge Health Oshawa is ten minutes away up Simcoe. The trade-off for all that convenience is traffic: King, Stevenson and Gibb are busy, the mall generates weekend congestion, and the 401 hums along the southern edge.

Vanier suits buyers who rank convenience first: a bungalow or semi near the mall, the GO train and the 401, on a lot sized for a garden and a garage, without paying north-end prices. Retirees who want one-floor living near their doctors and stores, first-time buyers, Trent students' families and investors buying near the campus and the terminal all fit. It is a weaker match for anyone who wants new construction, a quiet street far from arterials, or a uniform, tree-tunnel subdivision; the streets nearest King, Stevenson and the towers are busier and more transient, and the far west near the Civic complex is the newest and calmest.