Here is yet another one of the cities I did a phototour of during my very long road trip on my scooter that took me to Bruce County, Owen Sound, Grey County, Dufferin County, Simcoe County, Barrie, and Northern GTA Communities of Newmarket and Aurora.

This is Barrie, Ontario, beach city on Lake Simcoe/Kempenfelt Bay, located a mere 90 km north of downtown Toronto, and is the county seat of Simcoe County. Barrie's downtown is very surprising urban, busy, and loaded with restaurants, shops, and services, and even a hotel downtown (Queen's). Bustling with people and is right on the waterfront. Many tourists/beach goers from Simcoe County, northern GTA, and Toronto frequently visit here. Barrie's population is 120,000 and growing VERY FAST, because of its proximity to the GTA and nearby access to GO Buses and Trains. Barrie is the gateway to cottage country. I took all these pictures on a beautiful sunny day in early July of this year. Many seem to overlook that Barrie has a real (and very nice) downtown because of all the suburban sprawl going on in Barrie, but downtown Barrie is awesome. I thought Owen Sound was nice, but Barrie is even nicer!

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A little tacky with the aluminum siding...
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City Hall
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MacLaren Art Centre
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Ironic location for a HOOTERS!
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Skyline/Kempenfelt Bay views
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Philthy McNasty's, eh. Sounds as appetizing as the GARBAGE PLATE in Rochester, NY...
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Abandoned/vacant gov building
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Coming soon... Bradford, Aurora, Newmarket

Good phototour!!! :) :) :)

I like how the condo towers incorporated plenty of storefront shops- good on them! Really makes for a better street to walk along, and even more necessary in a downtown area...

Good work jaybird.

Barrie is definitely improving over the last few years.

I like this condo development
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Not too tall and got retail at the base.

I think I heard that Barrie is the fastest growing community in Canada.

Barrie's downtown area is very nice indeed.

It wouldn't surprise me if Barrie is the fastest growing community in Canada, because the population jumped from 1996 to 2001 from 79,000 to 103,000 all because of its proximity to Toronto and access to the GO buses and trains. Last time I was in Barrie, the population read 100,000, now it reads 120,000. Not only that, but amazingly, Barrie seems quite beautiful and clean looking when I drove through it... probably because most of the city has been developed in the last 10-20 years. Barrie is growing INSANELY fast.

Thanks for the phototour, this pics bring me back a lot of memories, i used to live right next to the library and my school was in the downtown area as well, Barrie rules

I'll post some more pics later :rock:

Greetings from Mexico

Barrie is on some sort of surge in poulation I remeber when brantford was the same population as barrie years ago....now barrie is much larger and way more beautiful....I love this province

Great pictures, thanks for sharing. :)

How much longer before Barrie and GTA run into each other?

hmmm , would have been nice to see more shots of downtown or at least high rises but all in all very nice.

So thats the city that knocked Thunder Bay out of it's spot on the population list... wow, it's purdy. :)

Especially those condos. Very nice.

I like Barrie. Their mall is nicer than mine.

Barrie is indeed the fastest growing city over 100,000. (for the under 100K category, Fort McMurray takes the cake. But last I heard, Fort Mac's expected to hit 100,000 in as little as 5-6 years - and it's right now at over 60,000. I kid you not.) So, I might not be surprised to see Barrie go over 250K soon.

How far apart are the urbanized areas of GTA and Barrie by now? And how long might it be before they merge, like ScraperDude was asking?

For such a fast growing city, Barrie does look like a nice city.

I'd imagine the Philthy McNasty's is a bar and not strictly a restaurant? BTW, there is a bar called Filthy McNasty's (spelled with an "F") in Edmonton as well.

Barrie is 90 km north of downtown Toronto and less than that from places like Newmarket, Richmond Hill, etc.

Philthy McNasty's sounds about as appetizing and dirty as "The Garbage Plate" in Rochester, NY. But yes, it is a BAR AND GRILL!

Barrie is indeed the fastest growing city over 100,000. (for the under 100K category, Fort McMurray takes the cake. But last I heard, Fort Mac's expected to hit 100,000 in as little as 5-6 years - and it's right now at over 60,000. I kid you not.) So, I might not be surprised to see Barrie go over 250K soon.

How far apart are the urbanized areas of GTA and Barrie by now? And how long might it be before they merge, like ScraperDude was asking?

For such a fast growing city, Barrie does look like a nice city.

I'd imagine the Philthy McNasty's is a bar and not strictly a restaurant? BTW, there is a bar called Filthy McNasty's (spelled with an "F") in Edmonton as well.


Yeah , Fort McMurray is on a surge of their own....It's all about mining down there

My pics of Barrie

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/9494/arbolines0185zs.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/322/calle16oj.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

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http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/6025/fro5up.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

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Good old Barrie, it has been a long time since I actually went through the whole town so it is nice to see these pictures. I pass through Barrie all the time on the 400 but rarely ever stop there any more. There has been tons of development though I see there in the past several years, its a growing town.

Nice looking town. :)

Barrie is lookin' awful nice :) It is grown ALOT since i lived there.