wtf? Hornsby is a shithole isn't it? At least it was when I lived in the hills ~10 years ago. you have to drive most places, the Westfield is a nightmare that ate the old arcades and small businesses, basically nothing to do except shop, crap food.
Its redeeming characteristics were being close to Eastwood and Epping for some actual stuff going on. Also trains into the city were clean.
Idk what this list is though, the northern beaches is also peak, cultureless, suburban hell.
@naevaTheRat Hornsby definitely isn't bad by any stretch — I used to live there.
But.
If you made a list of the five top places in Australia to live, Hornsby probably wouldn't be on the list either.
Just sydney in general is a bit how's it going but like compared to chatswood, paramatta, the inner west etc which are similar in terms of degree of builtuppedness Hornsby is worse in all metrics except maybe quality of schools?
you can't get around, there's no culture, no sense of community, no... anything. It's the beige blandness that appeals only to bougie people afraid of anything unexpected that think the height of living is ordering your life out of a catalogue.
@naevaTheRat There are many upsides to Hornsby.
The Westfield has most major chains you'd want, including a David Jones and a cinema.
There are some good local restaurants.
For a satellite city/outer suburb/exburb, the area around the Hornsby CBD is surprisingly dense. Three-storey blocks of flats and apartment buildings, for the most part.
Very multicultural these days.
Walking distance to national parks.
Multiple train lines to most of northern Sydney, as well as the Central Coast, Newcastle, and beyond.
You can comfortably live without a car there.
I've had the misfortune of visiting the local hospital. It's clean and modern.
Good public and private schools.
It's close to the Macquarie Park business precinct, as well as the university.
It's reasonably affordable (at least by Sydney standards).
But.
There's little in the way of live music. Or arts and culture.
It's a long way from many of the places you'd want to visit in Sydney.
No local beaches.
While there are good restaurants there, it doesn't hold a candle to somewhere like Newtown, or Surry Hills, or Church Street in Parramatta.
So it's a good place.
But it's a long, long way off top five place in all of Australia.
I think if you shop at Davey Jones and even considers private schools you're the sort of bougie bland person that horrifies me so haha.
@ajsadauskas @naevaTheRat none of the restaurants are vegetarian friendly. I can attest from personal experience haha
@ajsadauskas @sydney It has the best banh mi by quite a margin. Maybe that's it.
@greg @sydney You mean the one near the station that does the freshly grilled pork banh mi?
Also, there's a few other good things about the place as well: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112405402308405600
Having lived in Sydney and Brisbane. No. Brisbane wins. Sorry.