With the forecast beginning to creep into the twenites (finally) I thought it might be time to celebrate one of my favourite Canadian pastimes -patio life! Last month, downtown Newmarket cheered the opening of Joia on Main and it’s quite honestly - massive patio. It adds to the already long list of patios in the downtown core including Cachet, Hungry Brew Hops, Maid in Mexico, Little Brew Hops, Ground Burger Bar and more. So I got to wondering, are all Newmarketonians as blessed? Can we all pop out of our homes on Saturday afternoon and quickly find ourselves a cold beverage and a good bite. And my friends- with the help of some super talented people (read: GIS experts) I was able to find out that indeed- many of you are closer than you think to patio living. It turns out that at least 40% of us in this great community, can, in less than 10 minutes WALK! to a patio. I think that’s both crazy and amazing. Don’t believe me? My friends in GIS made us a map to prove it.

Those living in the areas of Main Street or Davis Drive or working on Leslie or Yonge definitely have unfettered access to these after five hot spots. The downtown is full of patios and likely can claim the title for highest number of patio spaces per capita in the community. However, the Yonge and Davis also has a strong showing. One place I hadn’t thought of before as a bit of a patio district was the Leslie Street and the employment areas. It turns out that if you have a job in manufacturing in Newmarket - a sunny lunch or post work hangout on the patio isn’t out of the question.

So what does this mean? For me, it means it’s time to shed the long held idea that Newmarket is a car-only community or that everyone has to go somewhere else to get a great urban experience. In Newmarket, urban is in and it’s a quick walk from home. See you on the patio!