27 replies to this topic

[Sarah55]

Hi, my daughter is planning on attending Uvic this upcoming semester, and is interested in renting a basement suite in the Glanford and Mckenzie area.  I just wanted to get your thoughts on the area, in terms of safety, and is it a decent area in general compared to other areas, say, the Royal Jubilee/Shelbourne area (I think she saw a suite in the same price range in that area as well)?  She is planning to stay there long term (5+ years).  She's also trying to convince me to purchase a place there for her, btw.  Victoria is a beautiful place!  Thanks so much.  

[Mike K.]

McKenzie/Glanford is suburban, auto-oriented single family dwelling land. Jubilee is connected with multiple transit routes, within walking distance of lots of amenities and downtown Victoria, and a much more urban environment. Your daughter will have to decide which of those two she prefers. Neither is a bad area of town.

[Bingo]

Hi, my daughter is planning on attending Uvic this upcoming semester, and is interested in renting a basement suite in the Glanford and Mckenzie area.  I just wanted to get your thoughts on the area, in terms of safety, and is it a decent area in general compared to other areas, say, the Royal Jubilee/Shelbourne area (I think she saw a suite in the same price range in that area as well)?  She is planning to stay there long term (5+ years).  She's also trying to convince me to purchase a place there for her, btw.  Victoria is a beautiful place!  Thanks so much.  

 

Try the UVIC Off Campus Housing website.

http://housing.uvic.ca/ads/

[lanforod]

McKenzie/Glanford is suburban, auto-oriented single family dwelling land. Jubilee is connected with multiple transit routes, within walking distance of lots of amenities and downtown Victoria, and a much more urban environment. Your daughter will have to decide which of those two she prefers. Neither is a bad area of town.

Plenty of transit by Mckenzie and glanford too, and fairly easy to get around by bike from there. It's a nice enough area but that seems very specific. Why not broadmead, royal oak or Gordon head, or hillside etc etc?

[Mike K.]

Well, let's be honest. One bus route is not plenty of transit. Come evening time the frequency of the service starts to drop and on the weekends it's not great, either.

 

A young woman would likely be happier in a more urban setting like Jubilee unless she's looking for a suburban home on purpose.

[Bingo]

I agree. The more options for bus routes to UVIC and downtown the better, especially if you don't have your own transportation.

Nothing wrong with the Jubilee area.

[Rob Randall]

There's nothing really wrong with that area and if your life revolves around a car as it is a central location although traffic in that area can be a tangle.

I may be biased but I think Gordon Head is the best place for UVic students. You can be a five minute bike ride from either the ocean, Mt. Doug hiking, shopping or the campus. And there are tons of suites available.

[Mike K.]

Snore!

[Sarah55]

Thanks for your replies and resources.. . more concerned about safety than anything, but I guess, in general, there are low crime rates in both areas.  She does have a vehicle, so d/t wouldn't be an issue either way.  

[Mike K.]

Well, I mean crime is crime. Lots of break-ins and thefts from vehicles occur in the region regardless of where you live.

Where are you guys from?

[Sparky]

Where are our manners? Welcome to vibrantvictoria Sara55.

 

Your daughter is about to embark on a journey at a very good university. There are students from all over the word attending there. Our daughter graduated this year and it was one of the proudest moments of our lives to see her take the stage after all those years of hard work.

 

First of all she will receive a bus pass as part of her tuition and she will find that very useful. Like Mike, I am interested to know where she is moving from.

[jklymak]

Victoria is a town that you don't have to drive in if you don't want to. And for students that is very convenient and a safety factor. It's liberating to go home from a nice evening out and not have to worry if the car driver had a beer too many.

[nagel]

I live close to Glanford and while I bike everywhere I can, it can be fairly difficult to bike west to east from this area because everything gets pinched to McKenzie at the Pat Bay, which is a death trip.  If she doesn't have a car and wants to bike, it's much safer to go down to the Goose to the Switch bridge, back up to the Lochside to the Blenkinsop greenway, along Mt Doug X road and meander to Uvic.  Takes a lot longer but you probably won't die that way.

[SamCB]

You might notice many of the posters here take a pro-downtown stance. I will try to answer your question without that bias.

Jubilee/Shelbourne isn't a bad part of town, but being near the downtown hospital you get some interesting mental health patients around the area frequently. A few years back someone lit themself on fire in the jubilee parking lot off Richmond. Obviously not a common occurrence, but that type of weird incident is much, much less likely to happen up at Glanford.

Glanford is a boring but safe choice for a young girl to live. I would think most locals would say Glanford is perceived as a safer place than Jubilee. If safety is your main criteria, Glanford is your winner.

I lived in east Fernwood/ jubilee during my time at uvic and I loved it. Perfectly situated between downtown and uvic. A wonderful place to live. There really are no bad neighbourhoods in victoria except maybe esquimalt or the gorge strip.

[AllseeingEye]

You might notice many of the posters here take a pro-downtown stance. I will try to answer your question without that bias.

Jubilee/Shelbourne isn't a bad part of town, but being near the downtown hospital you get some interesting mental health patients around the area frequently. A few years back someone lit themself on fire in the jubilee parking lot off Richmond. Obviously not a common occurrence, but that type of weird incident is much, much less likely to happen up at Glanford.

Glanford is a boring but safe choice for a young girl to live. I would think most locals would say Glanford is perceived as a safer place than Jubilee. If safety is your main criteria, Glanford is your winner.

I lived in east Fernwood/ jubilee during my time at uvic and I loved it. Perfectly situated between downtown and uvic. A wonderful place to live. There really are no bad neighbourhoods in victoria except maybe esquimalt or the gorge strip.

Wow generalize much? You had me until I got to this and I am now dumber for having read it. Just so you know Einstein I am 55 and grew up in Gordon Head, lived for years at Mt Tolmie/Oak Bay/UVic border and then owned in Fairfield and after getting married moved to the Selkirk neighborhood in Esquimalt/Gorge - which I would stack up against any of the others no problem. Yours is a candidate for stupid comment of the year....phhhhhhht. 

 

Back to your question Sarah: bottom line especially since your daughter has a car either of Jubilee or Glanford is fine; the latter is a transit corridor hence there is more traffic and she'll have to run the McKenzie gauntlet each day. If walkability to shops/grocery shopping/restaurants is a consideration I would definitely be biased in favor of the Jubilee area.

[jklymak]

You and your daughter may find this site useful: https://www.walkscor.../CA-BC/Victoria

[SamCB]

ASE, you are clearly a booster if you don't agree that esquimalt and the gorge are sketchier neighbourhoods than Fairfield and gordon head. And just so your worshipful knows a bit about Einstein, I currently live in esquimalt and I see the poverty firsthand every day. But don't take my word for it - you could ask almost anyone in the CRD and they'd share the same opinion. Esquimalt is the ghetto of the CRD. That is the majority opinion. Misrepresent all you want - you hold the minority view.

[Sparky]

Ok folks, take it outside.

[Bingo]

Everyone on this forum will have a bias towards a particular part of the city, as far as safety is concerned.

 I have lived in Victoria all of my life and I feel safe here,

and there are others that won't feel safe wherever they live.

[Mike K.]

Geez, Sam, the guy who set himself on fire a decade ago was my friend's brother. His choice to do what he did where be did it had nothing to do with the Eric Martin Pavilion. In fact it was on the opposite end of the hospital where the parkade is. Life happens. A guy killed his whole family in Oak Bay, didn't he? Does that make Oak Bay a sketchy place to live?

Jubilee is a busy urban neighbourhood. No worse and no better than any other urban neighbourhood.

I had an office near Glanford and McKenzie and I thought the location was awful. Poor transit with a heavily auto oriented environment. To each his own, but the only reason I'd recommend for a student to live there is if they had employment nearby, family nearby, or got a great deal on a very nice home.