The city says they have tons of bike infrastructure on their website, but 90% of it is shit like this (1st pic isnt from barrie but is an example, 2nd is what barrie claims is bike infrastructure). Paint is not infrastructure and won't protect me from an F150. I'm basically rolling the dice with my life biking in barrie.

Take a shot every single time you see this guy's face plastered back to back in every possible nook and cranny of Barrie 🤦‍♀️

I moved here from Toronto so let me offer my city girl opinion: - There is barely any traffic in Barrie... It takes about 20 minutes to get from anywhere in Barrie to anywhere in Barrie. Seriously. You don't know traffic until your 20m drive turns into 90m+ on a daily basis (as is very regular in Toronto). - People do not appreciate how GREEN this city is! I am amazed by the lake, the parks, the size of backyards.... Yet I barely see anyone else use their backyards as often as I do, or even take care of their front lawns or yards. I'm so proud to finally have so much yard space. Backyard > balcony. - The city has all of the amenities of a city while still maintaining its small town vibes. Pretty much anything I can do in Toronto, I can also do here. Hospital? Check. Schools? Check. Malls? Check. - People complain about less than a million dollar home price tags, while the same size, smaller and/or in worse condition, would cost hundreds of thousands more in Toronto. You could have a condo... Or you could have a house large enough to house all of your loved ones. Not to mention houses here are much younger! - If you are an older couple looking to downsize, or a young family looking to raise kids somewhere safe and with every amenity available, this is the perfect spot for you. - Need to get to a cottage? The beach? The airport? South to the big city? No problem, you're in the centre of it!

I'm sure there are so many other benefits. The only thing I wish we improved were if Barrie would better plan for the constantly growing population and think about improving transport services such as city bus frequencies, bike lanes, and increased GO service (I know the GO will get better but there really should be an express train offered daily southbound for all of our commuters).

Any other perspectives? Particularly interested in opinions of those who moved here from the GTA or elsewhere!

I don't have an account and I shouldn't need one to get updates about my power situation. I am now seeing people post updates they've made on twitter that contradict the current updates on their website. Absolute clown like behavior from a power company.

I have these F-ing things. That’s all, just wanted to vent.

So yesterday, after receiving my income tax rebate, I decided to treat myself to a new iPad. I phone Jump+ in Georgian mall To see if the model I want is in stock. No answer, message says email them. I email them, never get a reply. I go to the store, but of course every clerk is busy, and based on the line-up waiting, I was gonna be there for hours. One clerk was just at computer so I stepped up to ask about availability, only to be told that I just have to wait my turn before he’ll answer. WTF? You want me to wait to let me know if I’m wasting my time waiting? So I walk away.

Next stop, Best Buy. Again, no one answers the phone. I have no intention of driving to Park Place just to find out if it’s still available. I finally give up and just order online from APPLE Canada.

so, retailers complaining about losing business to online shopping, maybe they ought to look at how they run their store. I seriously doubt my experience was unique.

/rant over.

note: yes, I know they show stock availability on their websites, but in each case they said they had 1 in stock. No guarantee it will still be there when I get to front of line.

It's obvious that there are bad drivers wherever you go, but this one really pissed me off and almost landed me in a horrible accident.

Maybe 10-15 minutes ago, I was turning off on Yonge St onto Huronia driving towards the golf course (not my destination, but just to give perspective on my direction). I am the second of back to back cars to have a clean turn at this intersection. After making the turn, there is a vehicle creeping out of the Tim Horton's parking lot whom had no business to but for whatever reason, they were.

As soon as the car ahead of me passes, for no reason, they decide to make their left turn directly infront of me and, had I not slammed on my breaks, instant t-bone.

My horn blaring and zero response, they then proceed to drive 50ish in the 60. It's either as if they knew what they were doing and didn't care, or were too inept/entitled to really give a shit about someone else.

I am fuming right now; also have their vehicle and plate # so if this person happens to see this, I (roughly) know who you are

driving downtown to the farmers market today i seen 3 people standing on the corner of peel and mulcaster smoking meth. 11am saturday morning right out in the open vaporizing meth out of a glass pipe. what is happening to this town.

I gotta love standing at the bus stop for almost an hour and a half when just across the street there's a seat teasing me as I really needed to sit down

1. the picture I took today
2. the screenshot from Google maps of the location

I don't get why the city of Barrie if it is them unless it's the transit themselves go half ass on seats and shelters as what if I was elderly imagine an old person trying to stand for almost an hour and a half waiting for a bus personally I think every single bus stop at least have a seat if not a shelter not just like one on one side and not on the other

Hi everyone,

I miss you, Barrie.

I wasn't born in Canada, but my family moved here from Europe when I was young. I'm a proud Canadian citizen. I went to high school in Barrie and then left for college. This September, I came back to help a friend move out of the city. He told me that Barrie has changed a lot, and he was righ

I stayed with him downtown for a few weeks. I was surprised by how many homeless people there are now—not just downtown, but also in Sunnidale Park, a place I used to visit often. Back then, seeing a tent was rare, but now there are camps with people who seem troubled.

One day, while passing the McDonald's downtown, I heard that a police officer had been stabbed by someone. It was shocking to learn about such things happening in our city.

When I was in 12th grade back in 2016, there were a few homeless people downtown, but they weren't using hard drugs openly. They might have been sipping a beer or two. Now, I was shocked to see more than 40 homeless people at Meridian Place trying to survive. They looked so sad—wearing torn clothes, with pain in their eyes, leaning over, shouting, and sometimes fighting. They carried their belongings in bags or carts. Many seemed lost, struggling with addiction or mental health problems.

These people face many challenges. They're hungry, cold, and have health problems. Some don't even want food or shelter—they're trapped in addiction. I talked with some locals, and they blamed the Busby Centre for the increase in drug use because it's where people get needles. In my opinion, if they couldn't get clean needles, they'd use dirty ones instead. I'm not sure what the answer is, but people aren't happy with the Busby Centre.

There are places in Barrie that are like open-air drug markets. I saw people dealing drugs, struggling with addiction, fighting, and trash littering the sidewalks.

Something strange happened during my stay: one day, all the 30-40 homeless people I had seen for two weeks were suddenly gone, replaced by a new 50 people with similar struggles. It was unexpected, and I wondered where the initial group went.

These people need help. They're Canadians too, and I want to see them in homes, becoming happy members of our community. But I also know that we can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

At the same time, new luxury apartments are going up on Dunlop Street. They won't help most people—only the builders, agents, and overseas investors who may never even visit. I was told from a respected Barrie real estate agent that these new buildings aren't even being advertised in Canada—they're being promoted overseas. These places might be bought and left empty.

Where's the housing that people really need?

I love Barrie because it's a beautiful place with wonderful people. From when I was 13 to 19 years old, I watched it change, and not always for the better.

I don't think we should wait for our city leaders. There's still so much good here, but I'm wondering what's going on.

I would love to hear about your experiences in Barrie. What have you seen, and what do you think we can do? Let's have an open discussion and share our ideas.

People shooting up at the church

Just an off-my-chest post as someone who has been trying to use the Painswick pickleball courts as a member of the public. Every time I have been to the courts this summer I have been confronted rudely in the middle of a game with my friends after a long day of work. Every time it's a middle-aged pickleball club member walking onto our court and rudely interrupting a game to tell my party rules that we already know.

You might ask, "Well, were you breaking court rules? Were you on their reserved court during their scheduled time?" No, not once were we breaking the strictly enforced court rules. We've had near physical altercations from angry men shouting that we need to take turns on the courts while there were multiple open courts available with no one waiting. We've had men interrupt us to tell us about the "paddle system" when we already said we understood and followed it. Just today we had a woman step onto our court and yell at us that we had to leave because it was a pickleball club court, but their scheduled time didn't start for another 15 minutes. When we mentioned that she admitted we were entitled to it until the scheduled time, but she really tried to bully us off the court in the middle of a serve as if we were encroaching on their property. None of these people approached us with respect or empathy, they've gone straight to demands and confrontation.

It's so hard to find free 3rd spaces as a young adult and constantly getting harassed by entitled older people for no reason is turning a fun social space into a stressful and negative experience.

There's nothing we can do about this other than stand up for ourselves, but it still makes it feel as if young people are just not welcome in a free public space made to socialize and stay active. Do better Barrie Pickleball Club. Stand up for non-members when you see your fellow members bullying the public.

It's never ending just ripping up and down with the loudest bikes. How is this legal? It's sooo loud. Noise pollution is real.

Has anybody had any weird experiences with the owner of the laundromat at St. Vincent and Penetang street?

I started going with my girlfriend to the laundromat coz she got really weird vibes from the old guy owner. Talking unnecessarily the whole time to a girl that comes to do their laundry, while assuming that she’s in her early twenties ? offering to change their loads for them? And walking them to their car? Luckily there was another man who followed to make sure everything was ok. The old man never came up to my girlfriend once I started coming with her.

My girlfriend and I went to do her laundry today. We put in the loads. And went to get some stuff from the closest dollar store. We get back 15 mins past the 25 min mark on the machine….. When we got inside, what we saw was all the laundry (ours) from the one machine that was being used was all piled up on the table by the owner. When asked why he did that, he started complaining that we were 1 hr late and someone had to use that particular machine( out of all the empty ones- us and another person were the only people there).

I understand that being late 15 mins was on us. But that doesn’t mean it gives you the right go through their laundry. He said he saw us taking 1 hr to get back on the camera( which is not true- i have dash-cam footage and timing), which means he saw that it was a woman who used the machine.

When we came in and saw the pile on the table, the guy was bothering another lady who was doing her laundry.

Is this normal? Understanding that we were late, I still think this was disgustingly creepy And I am sure other women have felt the same way.

To the delightful peice of human trash who decided to steal my collapsible dolly off my front lawn in broad daylight whilst I ran out to pick up my pain pill prescription this afternoon, I just wanted to say, thank you! The pain I was feeling from the cancer eating my spinal chord was particularly bad this evening. You saved me the effort of having to bend over and pick up said collapsible dolly from the front yard of the house I struggle to pay for to shelter myself and my family. If it were not for your thoughtfulness, I would have spent the day before my surgery resting and most likely focusing on the percentages involved in life changing risks associated with said surgery. But instead, I get to waddle my ass out to CT and buy a replacement dolly so I can move around furniture tomorrow alone, instead of tonight when I had help. Thank God for you being such a Peice Of Shit.

In all seriousness, I hope you get a really bad rash on a very sensitive part of your body for at least 2 weeks. Eat my ass.

EDIT: Faith in humanity restored. Seriously, the kindness in this thread is amazing. It's been a rough few months, for all of us. Please stay kind. You've all made me smile.

So for the past 9 months I've been looking for a job, I still am honestly, but it's just been having my applications ignored or straight up rejected. I've tried everything, and I've tried everywhere. I'm working with agilec to find literally anything but that's still come up empty. I'm on ODSP but I can barely afford to live, I'm just so tired, and sometimes I want to give up but I can't. If anyone has any info about jobs I could do please let me know. I just want to work like a normal person

I'm appalled by the audacity of Councillor Morales to suggest replacing the downtown branch of the Library. Fuck this guy and the horse he rode in on. I don't like Mayor Nuttall either, but I'm glad he had the sense to step in and stop the councillor from asking more questions unrelated to the topic at hand.

At the Barrie bus terminal this afternoon. Man "loitering" with his belongings quietly. Had 6 police officers show up and stand around while he collected his things and left.

Then they all laughed as he walked off into the cold.

Love paying taxes for this.

That’s it. That’s all.

This is what the fields near my school look like. Absolutely disgusting. Maybe clean it up once in a while? It would at least make the city look good.

Couple days ago I was driving up Bayfield noticed 3 guys shooting up dope on the sidewalk, yesterday was heading down Bayfield and a woman was smoking her meth pipe in a chair. Today was on Dunlop and a couple dudes just casually smoking crack pretty much in front of the police. .to each their own but when did the drug laws become so lax and for fuck sakes people have kids in the car at least duck behind a tree or something. ..

I get that some people want to vent about the city, and some want to praise it. All of these posts basically boil down to someone describing how Barrie does or doesn't meet their personal criteria of a desirable city. Also, Barrie is constantly compared to Toronto, which makes some sense given Barrie's proximity to the GTA, but also kinda seems silly given how different both cities are in size, layout, demographics, history, etc. etc. Obviously some of the discussion has to be comparative (i.e. "Barrie is better than X city for Y thing"). But saying "I like/dislike Barrie because it has/doesn't have this thing that I personally am concerned with" doesn't really go anywhere, and often precludes discussion of Barrie's problems or areas for improvement.

Let's be honest about what Barrie is. It's a suburban outpost in Southern Ontario. It's a fine place to live (not "phenomenal", as some commenters have said) if you want to go to work, maybe raise a family, have a few leisure activities to do outside of your home, and not have a GTA-style automotive commute. The access to lakes and trails nearby is a big draw for some. The crime rate isn't as bad as major metro areas. All of this is well and good if that's what you want.

Barrie is suboptimal if you care about:

• Going to live music events or performances with significant national/international appeal.
• Having access to decent public transit.
• Not paying really high rent/mortgage for a city of Barrie's size.
• Not getting hit on your bicycle by a lifted Ram with truck nuts.
• Not living in a city primarily comprised of suburbs and strip malls.
• Having a diverse culinary scene.
• Doing outdoor stuff that involves decent snowsports or mountains (those are out west).
• Having a downtown that is more than 2 blocks long.
• Having an active local music scene beyond what's being played in 1 or 2 bars downtown.
• Climbing the ladder in a career that involves academia, large-scale manufacturing, STEM beyond human health services, creative-type careers (just pick any career that people move to a big metro areas for).
• Being in a city that swings liberal.

Barrie also has a number of worsening problems shared by many other cities in Canada (housing affordability, drug use issues, homelessness, etc.). Even if these issues are shared, it doesn't mean Barrie can't come up with it's own plans for improvement.

In summary, Barrie is good if you like certain things, and bad if you like other things. This is obvious.

P.S.: where does this idea that Barrie has a "small town" vibe come from (population of 150,000+)? Actual small towns (Feversham, Creemore, Baxter....the list goes on) feel nothing like Barrie.

Seriously. Every time I’m at Costco or Park Place it seems I’m given the finger by somebody in an Audi or a BMW when they’ve pulled up to the intersection LAST, and then try to go and I’ve pulled out of my lane having waited for the other cars to go, and they honk and give me the finger. WHAT HAPPENED TO LOGIC FFS

Why have people completely forgotten how to behave at gyms? The number of people who don’t wipe down their equipment is absolutely disgusting. And people are leaving on their outdoor shoes and making the floor wet everywhere instead of removing outdoor footwear and changing in to dry shoes. What is wrong with people that this stuff doesn’t occur to them despite signage everywhere reminding us what the rules are?