English Speaking Nannies

If you recruit in Saman? you can get both!

I am sure that you can find what you are looking for in santo Domingo or Santiago or Puerto Plata. Lots of young girls here can do that...

HB

Where will you be living?

In my many trips to the DR I have never seen a professional service that provides English speaking nannies. Since I hadn't been looking it may be available.

I prefer the NE Coast and there are many English speaking people there. You may want to contact Bushbaby who is a brit living in Puerto Plata. He has been a world of help to me for my dealings in the DR.

Regards and good luck!

Re: Living among the locals

NoMoreSnow said:

My children ... will want to play with the local kids ... For this reason we are not looking for a "gated" community.

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Gated communities do have local kids. It is safer and cleaner. The caliber of the families the local kids come from in a gated community tend to be higher as their families tend to be educated. For the most part, the local kids in a gated community will be a better influence on your children than those outside the gated community. Do you want your kids hanging out mostly with kids from higher class families or lower class?

These communities are gated for a reason. Security and to keep out the riff-raff out, not to keep the residents in. That is a good thing. Many of the families living in gated communities are Dominican or have at least one Dominican parent. There is also a wide mix of people from all over the world.

If they could afford it, I think most Dominicans would jump at the chance to live in one of those well-to-do gated communities.

Public resources vs. Private

NoMoreSnow said:

... living in Canada, I am not as "class conscious", as here it is possible for BOTH rich and poor people to live in the same communities, and access the same resources, in terms of schools, recreation, transportation, housing etc...

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Really? In the USA, local property values determine the quality of local education, recreation, other resources, etc. The wealthy communities generally get the best while the poorer communities get the worst. Each community sort of runs their own kingdom of schools, fire rescue, police service, recreation centers, and even transportation services. People from the poorer communities generally don't have the option to enroll in the public schools or call on the resources, etc. outside of their immediate local districts.

In the DR it?s a little different. Having the option of living in a gated community in the DR implies a certain minimum wealth in itself, and in the DR, those with similar wealth, whether or not they live inside a gated community, tend to opt to pay for private resources like schools, school bus service, security, even trash collection, mail, backup electricity generators and water). Not so much for class reasons, but for the quality of the above compared to the public offerings.

Nice thing about Canada......

I live in a very expensive house and the neighbour to my immediate right has one even larger and more expensive than mine. (altho' my pool is indoors and hers is outdoors so only usable in the summer). To my immediate left is a duplex that would sell for a third of what mine would and directly across the street is a semi that would sell for 2/3 of the price of the duplex.
Our children all attend the same school, the same recreational facilities,same playground,same sports teams ,same beach etc.
Local property taxes are determined by two things.....the amount the city needs for services and education and the market value of the property. Needless to say my right side neighbour and I pay much more than my leftside and front neighbours pay. The schools and services are provided with what they need to provide the same education and service to everyone in the community.
Does this mean I am subsidizing my poorer neighbours?? You bet, however that is MY choice. I could live in a more modest house and pay less in taxes!

Integrated or segregated?

So is your neighborhood the norm? Is it typical in Canada to have the rich and poor live in the same communities, and access the same resources, in terms of schools, recreation, transportation, housing, or is it like the USA, where that would be the exception rather than the rule. Which is it, generally segregated or generally integrated?

Interesting question Jim........

In my city there are definite areas that could be called "better" areas as far as housing is concerned (and just as many "better houses" scattered throughout the city in "lesser" areas), however as far as schools, services,recreation, transportation etc goes it is generally integrated.
Based on my observations of cities I've travelled to throughout middle and western Canada (not all that familiar east of Montreal) I would say the rule in Canada is generally integrated unlike the US.
That is one of the major differences between the two countries.
One of the first things my sister-in-law noticed the first time they drove up from New York state (she's also lived in several other states including North Carolina, New Mexico, Michigan to name three) to visit us ( a six hundred+ mile journey) was the lack of "trailer" parks and slum areas in the cities. Also how clean our highways and public restrooms were.
So.......anything else you'd like to know?

Re: Integrated or segregated?

Jim Hinsch said:

So is your neighborhood the norm? Is it typical in Canada to have the rich and poor live in the same communities, and access the same resources, in terms of schools, recreation, transportation, housing, or is it like the USA, where that would be the exception rather than the rule. Which is it, generally segregated or generally integrated?

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no "class conscious" Canadians? tell that to Toronto city councillors who are in the midst of a battle over the opening of a homeless shelter on 'the danforth'. the residents and business people feel it is not the appropriate neighbourhood for "that kind of people". go to any planning meeting at any city hall across the country and you will find NIMBY alive and well.

jim, anyone who would claim that the rich in Canada are generally integrated need only do a Revenue Canada search relating postal codes to income levels to find out how wrong they are. the problem is that most people have a hard time determining the difference between rich and upper-middle class. in addition, gated communities are almost non-existent in Canada. Toronto's bridle path, rosedale, and forest hill are all "open" even though they are "the" rich neighbourhoods in the city. but you won't find any kids from those neighbourhoods in the public school system, you just need to check the income level of families who attend st. jamestown or regent park's (the equivalent of your "projects") public schools.

i live in a town of 40,000 north of Toronto. 2 gated neighbourhoods (unheard of 15 years ago), and 2 "estate" enclaves have been built since i moved here. town council made no provision for schools or for busing when these developments were built. they knew the kids would be in private school--there are 3 of them within a 15 drive.

transportation? they wouldn't be caught dead on a town bus, they drive everywhere. recreation centres? they belong to the local golf clubs with their pools, fitness clubs, and tennis courts. the local hockey teams, baseball and soccer teams are generally populated by middle class citizens.

mob

That's what I always thought. I lived half my life along the Canadian border and I'm no stranger to Canada.

NOMORESNOW and MOMMC seem to disagree. NOMORESNOW is not used to segregation and MOMMC feels integration is the norm in Canada with regard to the prior subject matter.

Well.....I wonder how much of Mo's comments

are due to the influx of so many immigrants in recent years. I notice he's talking about Toronto and I believe the new developments taking place around Canada's Wonderland theme park and Barrie.
Yes there is a distinction between the so-called "filthy" rich and upper middle class. Not many of our communities have ultra rich families but there are a lot of upper middle class (yeah I know.....I happen to be one of those but you'd never know it!! hehehe). My neighbour is one of the ultra rich guys - you know multi-millionaire with property and investments up his ying yang in Canada,US and Italy!! Am I jealous.....Nope!! Like I said my pool is indoors and his is outside.....I'm swimming in mine while he's waiting for summer to use his.
Mo is refering to those old world neighbourhoods that you find in Toronto and Montreal and maybe Vancouver. Where-ever there are "old World" wealth in large urban centers you'll always find a few of those......It's just that there aren't that many large urban "old World" centers in Canada. The "new gated" communities north of Toronto are a first for Canada and I'm sure have something to do with the recent immigrations of uneducated,unskilled, refugee immigrants to Toronto. The face and character of that cityhas changed dramatically in the past 25 yrs.

Re: Well.....I wonder how much of Mo's comments

MommC said:

The "new gated" communities north of Toronto are a first for Canada

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actually they are not, they appeared in BC before they ever showed up in Ontario.

mob

ps --more to respond with but no time now.

Ok.....

My understanding of the gated communities in BC was that they were retirement communities for older people (adult only) and that the "gated" component was a security measure since the community was geared to retired folks.......
Of course Vancouver is one of the other major centers that has also seen a disproportionate number of immigrants in the last 25 years or so with a large % of Asian's that have brought with them the triad and drug problems.
Any idea of how many of these gated communities exist in Canada? Where are they located? and what proportion of the population do they hold?

Edited because I got off topic

Re: Ok.....

MommC said:

Terry....I may not be typical but then again I don't try to convince people that segregated and gated communities are the norm in Canada either. You need to get out of the big cities and discover more of the country you live in. It may surperise you what you learn. While there are several large centres in the country the majority of the populace lives in the smaller communities.

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mc, i have taken the liberty of moving your comment into the thread to which it applies.

now go back (you too snow-cone) and re-read the messages in this thread. i never said that gated neighbourhoods were the norm, i indicated that they were appearing. i did however indicate that class consciousness is the norm and gave facts to back up my position. you responded with nothing more than useless and incorrect speculation and innuendo.

you may be right that the majority of the populace lives in the smaller communities, but the majority of the rich live in the large centres. do the Revenue Canada search that i suggested.

mob

Ok Mo.....

not having much experience with doing REvCan searchs do you have a UR: to point me too.
I'm also not all that familiar with the demographics of the large urban areas (other than spending a lot of time in Toronto and knowing my way around there fairly well) however in my small city roughly 10% of the populace can be considered rich. It's interesting to note that with the exception of two areas around the lake the richer neighbourhoods (by appearances) are populated by two income professional fanmilies (you know teacher married to nurse or pharmacist married to professor etc.) Believe my the debt to net worth ratio in these areas is very high.
5% of the truly "rich" live on the lakes. The other 5% are scattered in ordinary neighbourhoods. .01% of those have sent their children to private schools in Toronto and overseas, the rest are integrated in the community they live in.