The Upper West Side is apparently a hot brand in Canada, and now developers are using our cushy lifestyle to sell suburban-style real estate.
“How delightfully posh!” says the brochure for the new subdivision called “Manhattan Upper West Side” in the Ontario city of Barrie.
The development includes three 48-unit buildings called The Rockefeller, The Bloomingdale and The Empire — all buildings in the heart of the real Upper West Side, sort of.
The developers paint a picture of a neighborhood where people stroll through the woods, take their dogs for long walks and…play checkers?
“Just like in Central Park right in the heart of New York City, residents of the new Upper West Side by Pratt Homes will be able to sit outside and enjoy a game of chess or checkers. What a great way to challenge your mind and enjoy a beautiful day.”
So who wants to meet me downstairs to play some checkers?
Click here to learn more about the development and check out the full brochure here (pdf).
But — where are the homeless shelters?
And where will the Duane Reade be? Three buildings, must have at least three Duane Reades.
And — what about the banks? I don’t see them on the map anywhere. If this is truly patterned on the *real* Manhattan Upper West Side, they’ll need *plenty* of banks to manage the wealth of the bankers exclusively able to afford living there.
By the way — why is it that every single person pictured in the brochure is white? (Ah, Canada…..)
Excellent, Cato … BUT please note: the Canadian national anthem is “O Canada” … not Ah Canada, (nor is it: Eh! Canada; nor Awrrr, Canada; nor Arrghhh, Canada; nor ……..)
Besides not having Duane Reades nor Chase Banks, the Canadian “UWS” will also be missing:
1. Kvetchers and Komplainers Kvetching and Komplaining About Whatever It Is Somebody Else Likes Just To Prove Their Superiority;
2. Nostalgists Searching For The Lost UWS Of Their Lost (and Imagined) Youth;
3. Haters of Any New Building Over Five Floors in Height;
4. to quote Yul Brynner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!”
very Funny Cato and S.
Bishop – you should go to Dubai, there are almost exact replicas of the Chrysler buildings – 3 of them in a row..
its freaky…..
Driving past suburbs outside Beijing a few years ago, I was stuck by the names of some gated communities, including Riverside Drive and Central Park West.
That’s pretty amazing. And I just have to say, if developers in other countries are explicitly trying to mimic our little neighborhood, we must have it pretty good.
I even hear that now they’re planning a whole *neighborhood* in London named after our SoHo!!
Hate to break it to you Cato… Soho was originally in London. Established in the 1600’s. There are a number of areas in NYC that are named from places in Europe.
No! Really? That *can’t* be! You’re making that up! I don’t believe you!
Cato and S, so funny!!!!
So they think of the UWS in terms we find odd.
This is in a land where they have a restaurant chain called Boston Pizza, after all…
https://bostonpizza.com/en
Seriously, I have no idea why “Boston” and “pizza” goes in the same sentence like that…
Nice find! I wonder if they might get their mail routed to the wrong place by accident?
Definitely not the same real estate prices:
$298,990.00 for a 3 bedroom condo. https://www.pratthomes.ca/manhattan-upper-west-side/price-list/