"The suburbs are a nightmare — a total planning disaster. People move in because they're affordable, and then they can't do anything. They're in the car all the time. You get this big house, but studies show that the rate of heart attack increases with the length of time you are stuck in traffic."
Dr. Kim Connelly, cardiologist, is talking about Australia, but no matter what continent, he is not a fan of suburbs. In Canada on a research grant from the Australian government, he has his studded tires on, but the tires are on his bike. This 36 year old physician cycles through all four seasons from his home in on Helena Street in west-end Toronto to the two hospitals, St. Michael's and Sunnybrook, where he's researching heart disease and diabetes.
When he and his wife Amanda chose their home, a three-storey detached, they needed a place that had space enough for their three children and was close to a good school. But a prime factor was the timing for Dr. Connely's trip to work.
"I believe in practising what I preach," he says. "I cycle for the health benefits, and if you have to spend too much time, you tend not to do it. Twenty or thirty minutes gives me a decent ride every day."
The home is an easy walk to the subway, supermarket, pharmacy, drycleaner and a host of small restaurants. There's also a park nearby. Would Dr. Connelly be willing to live in a suburb?
"No I wouldn't."
He's not alone in his thinking. A recent study, Neighbourhood Environments, and Resources for Healthy Living: a Focus on Diabetes in Toronto, by Ontario's Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and St. Michael's Hospital, points up a link between diabetes and neighbourhoods where opportunities for physical activity are limited.
"Your neighbourhood may be making you sick," says Dr, Gillian Booth, co-lead author of the study and an endocrinologist with St. Michael's. She notes that one in two Canadians is now overweight, a factor in diabetes and other diseases, including heart disease.
"Regularly walking briskly five times a week is a great health benefit," she says. "Living in an activity-friendly neighbourhood, one where you can walk to different activities is now shown to be an advantage in avoiding disease. In some of the suburbs, there are no sidewalks, let alone any grocery stores or community centres or schools within walking distance. Often, access to public transportation is limited too."
But there are some strong lures to the suburban lifestyle, like a large, often luxurious home.
28-year-old Kristy Koo, mother of four-month-old baby Ethan, loves the hardwood floors, double-sided fireplace, soaker tub in the master bathroom and granite kitchen countertops of the four-bedroom home she and her husband Raymond purchased for $325,000 three years ago in the Mississauga suburb of Meadowvale. But the location means driving — and lots of it. "We have two cars, she says. "We tend to drive everywhere. We shop at Erin Mills shopping centre or perhaps Square One. With the car, I have a lot of flexibility."
Mississauga real estate agent Tom Lebour says a home in a subdivision such as Ms. Koo's can be purchased for around $400,000, a price point that appeals to couples with young families. "In the older sections of the suburbs like Port Credit or Clarkson, there are areas with shops and cafes and nearby amenities. But young couples with families can't afford 2,000 square foot homes with four bedrooms in those areas," he says. "That type of home would be more in the range of $700,000. Subdivisions have great amenities, hockey rinks and community centres, schools and libraries, but you do have to drive to them. The drive might only be ten or fifteen minutes. A lot of buyers are very comfortable in subdivisions."
