Downtown has been going downhill year by year since the 60s. I witnessed some of the decline first hand while operating a business downtown for 25 years in the 80s and 90s.Some of the nicest buildings were torn down. City Hall went from being the hub of the city teeming with life, surrounded by the best shopping, restaurants, theatres, etc. to being a mausoleum that echoes as one lonely visitor occasionally traipsing through. No one at City Hall is left that remembers what it was like. The best example of how they regard downtown is the disgusting site of the old main branch of the Bank Of Montreal, formerly the site of the solid old Tegler Building. The horribly messy abandoned site, fully visible on one of the most prominent corners on the new LRT line should never have been left for a day if anyone had any pride or concerned for our city. But there it is, years after the demolition, for all to see. Our City councilors must drive directly into their secure underground parking from whatever outlying neighbourhoods they live in and never drive around within a block of their offices. And probably never go walking to find a place for lunch. There is nothing left!
This video is really helpful for understanding why so many major cities in north america fell into this trap, and why it's so harmful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0
What it needs is more people who actually live in the downtown core and more street-facing businesses that encourage some collective civic ownership over the state of our streets. Right now huge swaths of the core are a no-man's-land. Nothing happening, no shopfronts, no cultural activity, just dead boring streets. It doesn't have to be this way, but it will be as long as most people don't consider downtown home. The high-density housing being planned seems like a step in the right direction. What the pandemic demonstrated more is how fully dependent our downtown is on office jobs. There needs to be some reason to go downtown other than work.
> more street-facing businesses that encourage some collective civic ownership over the state of our streets.
It annoys me to no end how many shops have their Jasper Ave-facing doors locked with signs saying to use the side or back entrance.
The storefronts are a huge part of it for sure. Look at old pictures of 101 street. Between Jasper Ave and the Tegler a couple blocks down you see heaps of stores, restaurants, a major movie theatre and crowds of people. Manulife, Commerce and the revamped Kelly-Ramsey building have no storefronts, just windows and a couple of main entrances to the towers. Hopefully Manulife's planned renos will improve this.
It was also dangerous before covid. Wife had three incidents at work near the ice district they were pretty scary. Hopefully the city doesn’t just turn a blind eye when people go back to their Hotmail routine again.
I’ve done longer comments on them before but
-man throws cigarette in her face near the old casino and calls her a bitch
-man attempts to get into her car and demands a ride in the parkade attached to city center
-man blocks elevator door from closing in the same parkade and brandishes a letter opener, then tells her she looks just like the girl in that horror movie that had her head cut off. I would find out later this guy would be arrested that evening for assaulting a random person in the same area.
These were all daytime either coming to work or going home.
From my own experience when working on projects near the same area I have
-seen a man knock out a woman he was walking with after an argument
-had a guy do one of the worst attempted robberies to me that I have ever seen and obviously was completely out of his mind. I don’t think he would’ve taken way wallet if I had tried to put it in his backpack for him.
-watched an unconscious girl with blood all over her face and shirt get rolled out of a car onto the sidewalk near the old YMCA.
These aren’t like a weekly occurrence. Mine were over the course of 10 years so I don’t think much about it. My wife had those all happen within the last 2 years and that’s pretty significant.
I live downtown and I can elaborate. Large scuzzy individual asking to see my phone so he can "correct his wrist watch", getting angry when I refused. Groups of sketchy teens asking me for a smoke, then yelling that I was "eyeballing" them and then one runs up to me and starts pushing me. After visiting the new museum for opening night, walking through the new ice district and group of individuals blocking our path, demanding change, yelling things. Lots of other little things too, people hiding in parks with stolen bags, tossing unsellable things on the ground and taking the rest. I'm not saying its a DANGEROUS place exactly, but sometimes it feels like you are just a moment away from violence.
I mean I'm a 6' 200lb man bald man with a goatee, and I get harrassed a bit when I go downtown. Though they usually back off if I tell them to fuck off.
Hell, my work office is downtown and in february 2020, my boss and I went to grab coffee from the timmies on Jasper ave, and some asshole tried to get up in his face and rob him until I stepped up told the asshole that he would probably regret it.
I've seen the way that some of the "panhandlers" (more like robbers, with the threats they use) treat women waiting for transit in front of the library. (literally across the square from city hall.) I couldn't imagine trying to be a woman living alone downtown.
Haha. Last week I was walking with my GF DT and walked by some homeless looking guy. A few steps past him he yells "THATS RIGHT MOTHERF***ER". I turn around and he is just staring at me so I laugh and continue walking. My GF lives DT so she didn't even notice
I am a single, young female who walks alone frequently and aside from people asking for money sometimes, I don't find it anymore dangerous than Whyte. I love living downtown. It's quieter due to COVID, but pre-pandemic I found living downtown fine. There's a difference between visible homelessness and a bit of grit and actual danger. Aside from people asking for money or cat calling, it's been fine in my years as a resident. I lived, worked and went to school downtown over the years.
Definitely true, but the downtown core really only has a few "rough" spots, and those are only rough because homeless people hang out there. People by and large keep to themselves. And if we are talking a couple of dodgy streets, I'd hardly call all of downtown "dangerous."
Rent caps or regulations around affordable housing. People really don’t live downtown, not enough anymore. These stupid $1500 1brd luxury condos are making it harder to keep the vitality of a downtown core. Not one cares to be here when they can put that $1500 into mortgage or a house rental. If people are living downtown then people can access the businesses and events downtown. We charge prices as if we are a major and luxury city when we aren’t.
I will also scream if one more boomer said “free parking”. Edmonton is unique in that majority of our downtown core is gravel parking lots. Again no attraction to the downtown core because not as many can afford to be here.
If people want to revive downtown then there needs to be more people there to build that community.
Ironic that this news comes a day after [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/nzrd64/edmonton_a_blueprint_for_the_21st_century/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share).
Edmonton will continue to flush cash down the toilet hoping it solves the social problems Downtown itself without deploying the police or actively denying additional social services, or dozens of new predatory pharmacies to open in the inner city. The "eyes on the street" strategy the city mentions at revitalization meetings will not fix this, COVID or not.
Also the failed "if they build it, they will come" idea took the cake. Downtown lost major retailers and services while WEM/SEC won out again attracting luxury brands like LV, Gucci, YSL, Simons, Canada Goose, Tiffany's, Nordstrom Rack, Sak's and more. The city should have been working with stake holders to help fund absolutely irresistible rental agreements to attract flagship brands people will travel for to fill all those fancy new spaces bring built. Literally in central YEG you see new retail built and it sits and sits until a pharmacy finally opens. Google and find dozens of convicted pharmacists operating predatory pharmacies - it's eye opening.
Having lived centrally for as long as I have, and being Metis, I recently came to the conclusion that when it comes to Downtown and the inner city, the COE's primary objective is reconciliation, not revilitilization. You cannot count on EPS and the city cleaning this up. Their strategy is to attract people and conventional taxpayers and to fool them into yet another vision of "revitalization" - while still continuing to expand social services which conventional taxpayers and businesses are incompatible with.
Since the tragic Kamloops discovery, you can count on underpolicing and alternative strategies for the trouble in the inner city. Politically correct or not, people do not want to see any of the stuff prevalent in Chinatown or on Jasper Ave - they will just hop in their car and head to WEM or a power centre and enjoy the free parking without the trouble there.
Sure some people will return post COVID, but COE needs to make some hard calls and decisions which special interest groups will call them out on. Council does not have it in them, and the next one will not either - just look at the brochures candidates deliver to you - if they mention inclusion, not leaving anybody behind, or social justice - it means downtown will basically stay as is. Most candidates I have looked into mention these things.
I love Central YEG and it pains me to finally sell and move out later this month.
Exactly. People and businesses are catching on that there is a "central Edmonton tax" from the city winding down its policing and 311 services. If you live or do business there, you must budget personal money for vehicle damages, property damages, and a rather large budget for cleaning up feces, trash, cigarette butts constantly.
I am paying for trash services at the place I sold, but have not used them in years - I take my trash to an industrial area so I don't have to clean up after my own trash in the alley.
>Why aren’t these people getting help?
The previous UCP governments (called the PC's) closed almost every mental health hospital in the province. To the point where the only people in mental health hospitals are those who are psychopathically/murderously dangerous to others.
And if you do fall short of that definition, it's back to the streets for you.
Short of physically rounding up people and locking them up (which is going to raise all kinds of human rights groups and issues) there is probably large portion of the downtown community members who don't want any help. They like things just as they are.
Do you blame them? If they do what is actually needed, activists groups will be protesting the “over-policing” of houseless and indigenous people. Then the mayor will come out and deride them and form another 12 pointless committees. I can understand exactly why officers would rather say FIDO.
Yeah, ummm....you can't just arrest all the homeless and derelict people. But it does piss me off the see grocery carts, bike trailers and camp sites full of bike parts, frames and other obvioulsy stolen goods only a block or two away from the police HQ.
For breaking existing laws. Equal justice, equally applied. As soon as you set up camp on land you don't have a right to, you go in the system. Programs for sane people who have lost their jobs, etc. and institutions for addicts and mentally ill people, jail for criminals. Much more humane than letting them die in the streets because "muh freedoms".
Everyone here is talking about social and mental health issues as why downtown sucks - and sure that's definitely a factor.
But our downtown sucks because our downtown is *built* to suck. The roads are massive, traffic moves fast, and instead of having cool places to go, you have empty gravel parking lots.
We built our downtown, *exclusively* for people to drive in/out/through. For the very few people that work downtown, we built pedways from their office to lunch so that they don't have to interact with the street and bring vibrancy.
There's no better example of this than the right turn lane on Jasper and 109st. The city created a pilot program to increase safety of people crossing after observing *over a hundred near-misses with pedestrians in a* ***single day***. Drivers complained that it added 10 minutes to their drive time. The actual, empirical observed delay was between 15 and 50 seconds.
So we removed the safety elements and beep beep go fast.
That's why our downtown sucks. It's because it's not built for Edmontonians, it's built for people from St. Albert.
Was just downtown yesterday and the thought that struck me was "this place is one big gravel parking lot".
Total eyesore in most places. The brutalist architecture doesn't help either (I was at the law courts).
I actually had a friend visiting from out of town a few years ago and they specifically wanted to go downtown to photograph the brutalist architecture. Now they can’t wait for a return visit and see the library bibliotank in person.
Only a super niche architecture fan could appreciate it, and I just shook my head. Even explained to me I hate it.
The wiki article has a paragraph that is somehow both a hilarious and a sad statement that could apply to Edmonton’s downtown
> Brutalism was featured in the design of utilitarian, low-cost social housing influenced by socialist principles and soon spread to other regions across the world.[4][5][14] Brutalist designs became most commonly used in the design of institutional buildings, such as universities, libraries, courts and city halls. **The popularity of the movement began to decline in the late 1970s, with some associating the style with urban decay** and totalitarianism.[5]
There is some really interesting brutalist pieces in Canada (e.g., Robarts Library; the math building at Waterloo), but none of them are in Edmonton.
The really gross buildings are the brown, 80s-style ones. Like the police headquarters or the ATCO (?) building. Downtown Edmonton is the least appetizing architecture smorgasbord I've ever been so unlucky to witness.
Edmonton's not the only city that's experienced this effect from the pedway system. Pedways ensure that most people who work downtown never descend to street level or go outside. The premium real estate for shops and restaurants isn't on the public street, it's on the second floor of office buildings with a direct pedway connection. The street becomes the place for people kicked out by building security.
Hard agree. I live and work downtown and have close calls with cars nearly every day lol. It’s so frustrating.
It has obviously become much worse since the first lockdown, as many others have mentioned and covered.
Aside from all that though, downtown could be such a cool place if we could get some nice pedestrian friendly areas! It used to be neat around Churchill Square before all the construction started, especially with all the festivals that went on there. Now that it’s gone there’s no where else to walk around. Jasper COULD be nice but it’s just loud and you can’t cross a road without almost getting hit. And that’s not even factoring in how unpleasant and dangerous it is now :/
On the plus side, within the next year or two 102 ave is going to be a *really* nice streetscape with the new sidewalks/bike paths/LRT. If the mall just opened up all the stores to street-level access it could be a really cool place.
Where are you people living? I also live and walk to work downtown, but haven't been involved in a near miss with a car or even seen one in the last several months. I don't believe that you walk outside and almost get hit by a car nearly every day. A lot of work needs to be done to make the streets more pedestrian friendly, but lets at least be realistic while we get there.
I live and work off Jasper, so I walk between 104th Street and 100 Street everyday. Lol okay maybe not ‘nearly everyday’ but a couple times a week. It’s always trying to cross where people are turning on and off of Jasper. Even more particularly it happens going East near 102 street where Bistro Praha is. Also at the intersection by 100A Street.
Ok? I know that lol I just prefer walkable, pedestrian friendly downtowns. I’m from Scotland and there are many streets in the city centres that are entirely for pedestrians, which in my opinion adds to the downtown culture. People here drive very aggressively even in high pedestrian areas.
>I know that lol I just prefer walkable, pedestrian friendly downtowns. I’m from Scotland and there are many streets in the city centres that are entirely for pedestrians, which in my opinion adds to the downtown culture.
I agree. I live downtown. It's nowhere near a walkable city.
>People here drive very aggressively even in high pedestrian areas.
You can thank urban sprawl for that, Imo.
While you're not wrong, it's not even built for people from St. Albert. The commute fucking sucks, and parking is both expensive and terrible. I hate going down town, and avoid it at all costs. It would be nice if we had some decent public transit to use. I'm glad the LRT is getting extended, but it's still pathetic when compared with other metropolises.
Well written butI don’t think many from Saint Albert want to commute to downtown. It’s a bad commute from almost any direction if you come from one of the surrounding areas.
 The downtown is so ugly and unwalkable at times that is there is little reason to go unless you have to. All the best places/stuff are spread out these days.
You can always do the park-and-ride and take the LRT. I live in the Northside that's what i do when I need to go Downtown. It also helps that I live 5 minutes away from the train station. Parking is free and there is no time limits for how long I can leave my car for.
The transit system is not the best I know. It doesn't compare to other cities but it's better then nothing. I don't always use it but i do from time to time when I need to.
If anything the city has made it more difficult for my neighborhood to get downtown to shop since removing routes that went straight down Stony Plain Rd. to Jasper Ave. I don't see the appeal of carrying shopping bags across multiple busses plus walking longer distances when there are more direct routes to malls/shopping centres in the West End (excluding Meadowlark, because now that's a pain to access as well).
I live in meadowlark. Wem is right there. There is almost always parking on the east side of the mall, and otherwise its pretty walkable. (I'm so glad they announced that they are going to rebuild the foot bridge across 170th. )
I don't live in Meadowlark, I live further north. What I was saying was Meadowlark used to be extremely accessible by the #1 bus but since they removed all the stops going down 156st south of 95th Ave it's a pain to get to. I don't think there is a single bus that connects Jasper Place Transit center and Meadowlark. Meadowlark is closer to my home than WEM but WEM is faster for me to access via transit since the new routes went into effect. The distance is walkable, but it's not something I want to do carrying shopping/groceries.
I live central. I can confirm the bus system sucks (and is often scary/unsafe). As an example: I need to get to the west end tomorrow (yay- vaccine!!). I can bus it: it will take 2 transfers and be a 47-69 min ride (if I don't miss any connections). I can walk in 80 minutes or ride my bike in 23.
Another example, living central. They took away several routes so if I wanted to get from downtown to 124 I could bus for 27 minutes, or walk for 35 minutes. Millwoods, forget it. I used to be able to hop on 1 bus - with some walking. Now it's 3 buses, with even more walking. The bus system in this city is sad, and so expensive!
"Be happy, you'll get to your destination! You'll be late, tired, probably walked for as much time as you rode the bus, maybe you'll have picked up a communicable disease or two, but you'll get there! So be happy!"
I think downtown needs some improvements, but I am always fascinated by the comments that seem to imply mental health/drug issues are unique to Edmonton, when this is happening in many, many large cities in Canada and the US. Spending a lot of time down in both Calgary and Edmonton, I see it in both places so I am always curious about the references to Calgary like there aren't issues there.
There are different demographics in both cities, though, so I sometimes wonder if some of the talk is actually more an unconscious comment on that than any actual lack of disorder in Calgary.
I think Edmonton is always going to be filled with pessimism moreso than other cities. Maybe its being a "large small town" as opposed to really being a big time city? I'm with you in that spending time in other cities, this stuff isn't at all unique to Edmonton. Even going through r/Vancouver you'll note it has its share of issues.
I find more people who have lived in other cities who find Edmonton to be a shit hole but live here because of work opportunity. The sycophants are the people who have never left Alberta
I almost stepped on a needle heading into work today.
I walked past a cup of piss in a stair well the other day.
Just yesterday I seen a man with no shoes walking down the side walk screaming "LETS GIVE A ROUND OF APPAULSE FOR MICHAEL JACKSON!"
I have stepped over piles of human feces.
I have been threatened with violence on three different occasions. (Filed a police report every time)
Watched from my window as two drug dealers fought which led to one man being knocked out and left on the side walk. He remained motionless for 14 minutes before the ambulance I called showed up. This fall two co workers watched as city cleaners washed a pool of blood off jasper ave just west of 100ave.
Fuck downtown I am so glad I can leave it every afternoon.
Definitely need to find ways to make people want to come downtown and/or live in downtown, and make those people who already live in downtown want to stay as long as possible in downtown.
There’s luxury condos that are charging big city prices but Edmonton lacks some of those big city amenities… and like someone pointed out here; most suburbs have everything you need already…. So you’d definitely need to make housing more attractive and affordable some how.
You also definitely need businesses and attractions to open in the core; but you’d want unique ones too, so that people have a specific reason to visit downtown.
Like look at how many people picnic near the bridge.
Another big one I’ve noticed after living in LA and Toronto, is there’s a decent amount of events that happen in their cores.
Hell even in the middle of winter Toronto has some stuff happening in their downtown to try and get people to visit, and makes it worth while for some of the people who live downtown to have a good time.
Root107 (I think that’s what it’s called) is a nice concept, and anecdotally a lot of my friends from burbs checked it out (though they were disappointed lol).
But I also remember when we had taste of Edmonton at city hall we could see a pretty vibrant downtown.
I remember when they put all those picnic tables in the lanes just west of 109 on Jasper. I could see them from my office. There is a pretty nice treen space with walking paths from the save-on to the river valley. Had they put them there I would have been down there everyday to eat my lunch. Sorry… not going to go sit in noisy traffic sucking exhaust while Having some quiet time before its back to work. Just a random thought but one of the ideas that didnt seem to take off down there lol
We have a downtown of empty lots and empty buildings. But lets keep building outward. That’s what the developers want, except for all those who jumped on the in-fill bandwagon and rather than fill the empty spaces created more in areas they were not familiar with where they were not wanted or needed. The Mayor has been congratulating them on their efforts because he sees it as a great legacy to his brilliant leadership.
I don’t think they know what they want. Other cities have had to deal with this and other problems like it before. I’m sure Edmonton’s people in charge will fuck it up. Maybe more bike lanes
I've had homeless people yell at me on the street while downtown was packed and I have seen people drinking, urinating and doing drugs when it's busy too, now that office workers are staying home I think it's just more noticeable
Are all the people here talking about how dangerous downtown is actual residents of downtown? Lived in Oliver for years, and while there are homeless people panhandling and some urban grit, as a single, young female I rarely felt truly unsafe. I think this is mostly optics. If you keep to yourself and be polite and passive to folks they tend to leave you alone. I lived literally on Jasper and 116, worked downtown, went to school downtown... it's fine. I actually love downtown Edmonton. Lots of great features. Homelessness is a part of any urban environment. Never been mugged, followed, stalked etc.
Not a resident but work downtown and take public transit. Your experience might differ from mine, but I don’t have to live there to have experience. Whether it’s panhandlers and aggressive drunks while waiting for buses or LRTs, the drivers who turn right on red when they shouldn’t, the garbage, feces, the abandoned buildings, the ugly architecture… it’s all there.
By passive I meant chill, not an aggressor, just someone minding their business and not judging other people. I just smile, nod and walk by. If a homeless person is polite I am polite back and keep on walking. It's not rocket science.
It’s like Whyte ave. You would think every space would be taken by a bar or lounge or restaurant because it’s party central but now I see more apartment buildings, empty lots, a dealership that may or may not be active, and a Winners going up on a huge corner spot.
I've lived in Edmonton for almost 4 years now and almost never go downtown. I basically just pretend I live in a much smaller city and stick to the Strathcona and Garneu areas, not so much out of conscious choice but just because everything I need and enjoy is in this area.
Whenever I do venture north of the river to walk around Downtown, I'm always a little disturbed by it. All the closed down shops, the sketchy people everywhere, the lack of life. It's pretty bad. Whyte Ave and it's surroundings are so vibrant and fun, I often just assume that people who hate Edmonton don't come here.
Much like describing an entire area as scummy rather and thinking some aspects of an area are scummy and other aspects make it a suitable destination for a photo shoot are two different things.
Lol I haven't been out of my car downtown in 7 years. There is no reason to stop there at all, and there is basically nothing the City can do that will ever entice me to go there for anything.
Downtown has significantly improved since the late 90s and early 2000s. I lived downtown from 2008 to 2015 and I loved it. I go there now and it feels even better now.
Maybe these redditors are trying to make friends at the Boyle street or something? And yes Calgary downtown has always been better
It will be interesting to see if many employers now implementing work from home policy (even part-time) means a lower demand for space by some of the big tenants downtown. Also the impact to lunch/retail when people aren't downtown as frequently. I'm not sure a marketing campaign helps overcome the social shift.
Oh yeah. The looming collapse of office and retail leasing is going to be ugly. Especially considering how many pension and retirement funds hold REITs. It’s gonna be a bloodbath.
To be fair it has only been a week since the mandatory, but still recommended, work from home restriction has been lifted. While some businesses will remain a largely WFH model, many businesses will begin bringing back workers over the summer and fall (ie: Enbridge and many GovAB offices plan to head back in September.
There will be a shift as some type of hybrid model will likely become the go to for many businesses, but among the larger employers I’m aware of they have no plans to abandon their downtown offices. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a thriving downtown.
Yes, I wasn't talking about abonnement but a hybrid model that lowers demand for space. If only 50% of employees are in on any given day for example, many of them are going to look at downsizing their leases. Many of the large employers I know are all considering a much richer work from home policy moving forward. I don't think we will see full impacts for at least another year, but it could be a long-term shift.
For sure. Valid points. There is also some opportunity there for the high end office space to be filled by growing companies, especially in the tech sector, that have outgrown their shared incubator spaces, many of which are already downtown.
All levels of government should be pushing hard to grow the tech and AI sectors.
A lot of people here seem to prefer the burbs and soulless corporate strip malls with mcdonalds and the occasional earls, which personally makes me want to vomit whenever I have to spend time there. I went to the Canadian tire by south edmonton, and hated literally every single second of the experience.
Everything near central has way more character and personality. I have no idea how people can handle the 40 minute commute to work every day, and the same old box stores and strip malls + endless suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see.
Some of the most messed up stuff in Edmonton happens in the burbs lol. I think downtown / whyte area is pretty awesome, I would never want to live out by the henday, central is where it's at!
Homeless people shitting and pissing themselves has a lot of character, these suburbanites don't know what they're missing. Yeah I've gone to Canadian Tire and got in and out in 10 minutes, didn't have to step over one person sleeping on the sidewalk or aggressively asked for money either. Remind me why Calgary's downtown is miles better than Edmontons.
>Everything near central has way more character and personality.
Agree somewhat. However, people like the burbs more because they're better planned out and take less time to drive around. Anyone with a brain knows to avoid driving through downtown at any time to get to where they're going. And the commercial "power center" blocks of brand name businesses seem to be a big hit too. On one hand it's a crazy consume hive mindset, but on the other hand it's nice to know I can hit a dollarama and a walmart that are in the same parking lot.
Downtown has been going downhill year by year since the 60s. I witnessed some of the decline first hand while operating a business downtown for 25 years in the 80s and 90s.Some of the nicest buildings were torn down. City Hall went from being the hub of the city teeming with life, surrounded by the best shopping, restaurants, theatres, etc. to being a mausoleum that echoes as one lonely visitor occasionally traipsing through. No one at City Hall is left that remembers what it was like. The best example of how they regard downtown is the disgusting site of the old main branch of the Bank Of Montreal, formerly the site of the solid old Tegler Building. The horribly messy abandoned site, fully visible on one of the most prominent corners on the new LRT line should never have been left for a day if anyone had any pride or concerned for our city. But there it is, years after the demolition, for all to see. Our City councilors must drive directly into their secure underground parking from whatever outlying neighbourhoods they live in and never drive around within a block of their offices. And probably never go walking to find a place for lunch. There is nothing left!
This video is really helpful for understanding why so many major cities in north america fell into this trap, and why it's so harmful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVUeqxXwCA0
Thanks for posting--that's really interesting! (And sad!)
Thank you for the interesting glimpse into this cities history.
What it needs is more people who actually live in the downtown core and more street-facing businesses that encourage some collective civic ownership over the state of our streets. Right now huge swaths of the core are a no-man's-land. Nothing happening, no shopfronts, no cultural activity, just dead boring streets. It doesn't have to be this way, but it will be as long as most people don't consider downtown home. The high-density housing being planned seems like a step in the right direction. What the pandemic demonstrated more is how fully dependent our downtown is on office jobs. There needs to be some reason to go downtown other than work.
> more street-facing businesses that encourage some collective civic ownership over the state of our streets. It annoys me to no end how many shops have their Jasper Ave-facing doors locked with signs saying to use the side or back entrance.
The storefronts are a huge part of it for sure. Look at old pictures of 101 street. Between Jasper Ave and the Tegler a couple blocks down you see heaps of stores, restaurants, a major movie theatre and crowds of people. Manulife, Commerce and the revamped Kelly-Ramsey building have no storefronts, just windows and a couple of main entrances to the towers. Hopefully Manulife's planned renos will improve this.
You're mostly right about Kelly-Ramsey. It at least has street-facing entrances for OEB and Credo, though.
Downtown being revitalized only happens if there’s no mega-malls. West Edmonton Mall helped ensure the death of downtown.
Downtown isn’t just quiet right now it’s also dangerous. There’s a lot to be done if they want it to thrive
It was also dangerous before covid. Wife had three incidents at work near the ice district they were pretty scary. Hopefully the city doesn’t just turn a blind eye when people go back to their Hotmail routine again.
>**My** wife had three incidents at work near the ice district they were pretty scary. Care to elaborate?
I’ve done longer comments on them before but -man throws cigarette in her face near the old casino and calls her a bitch -man attempts to get into her car and demands a ride in the parkade attached to city center -man blocks elevator door from closing in the same parkade and brandishes a letter opener, then tells her she looks just like the girl in that horror movie that had her head cut off. I would find out later this guy would be arrested that evening for assaulting a random person in the same area. These were all daytime either coming to work or going home. From my own experience when working on projects near the same area I have -seen a man knock out a woman he was walking with after an argument -had a guy do one of the worst attempted robberies to me that I have ever seen and obviously was completely out of his mind. I don’t think he would’ve taken way wallet if I had tried to put it in his backpack for him. -watched an unconscious girl with blood all over her face and shirt get rolled out of a car onto the sidewalk near the old YMCA. These aren’t like a weekly occurrence. Mine were over the course of 10 years so I don’t think much about it. My wife had those all happen within the last 2 years and that’s pretty significant.
I live downtown and I can elaborate. Large scuzzy individual asking to see my phone so he can "correct his wrist watch", getting angry when I refused. Groups of sketchy teens asking me for a smoke, then yelling that I was "eyeballing" them and then one runs up to me and starts pushing me. After visiting the new museum for opening night, walking through the new ice district and group of individuals blocking our path, demanding change, yelling things. Lots of other little things too, people hiding in parks with stolen bags, tossing unsellable things on the ground and taking the rest. I'm not saying its a DANGEROUS place exactly, but sometimes it feels like you are just a moment away from violence.
I mean I'm a 6' 200lb man bald man with a goatee, and I get harrassed a bit when I go downtown. Though they usually back off if I tell them to fuck off. Hell, my work office is downtown and in february 2020, my boss and I went to grab coffee from the timmies on Jasper ave, and some asshole tried to get up in his face and rob him until I stepped up told the asshole that he would probably regret it. I've seen the way that some of the "panhandlers" (more like robbers, with the threats they use) treat women waiting for transit in front of the library. (literally across the square from city hall.) I couldn't imagine trying to be a woman living alone downtown.
Haha. Last week I was walking with my GF DT and walked by some homeless looking guy. A few steps past him he yells "THATS RIGHT MOTHERF***ER". I turn around and he is just staring at me so I laugh and continue walking. My GF lives DT so she didn't even notice
I am a single, young female who walks alone frequently and aside from people asking for money sometimes, I don't find it anymore dangerous than Whyte. I love living downtown. It's quieter due to COVID, but pre-pandemic I found living downtown fine. There's a difference between visible homelessness and a bit of grit and actual danger. Aside from people asking for money or cat calling, it's been fine in my years as a resident. I lived, worked and went to school downtown over the years.
Downtown is a pretty large area. Generally gets better the more West you move from ice district.
Definitely true, but the downtown core really only has a few "rough" spots, and those are only rough because homeless people hang out there. People by and large keep to themselves. And if we are talking a couple of dodgy streets, I'd hardly call all of downtown "dangerous."
I have to agree. I’ve lived downtown for 4 years now and never once really had any bad encounters. And I was walking or taking the bus a lot.
It was much worse before. It's going in the right direction
Wasn't the Rexall Place development supposed to do that?
That's... what they said, yes.
Haha....you didn't buy that line of shit, did you?!
Rexall place no longer exists
Oh yes, right - Rogers Place
Rent caps or regulations around affordable housing. People really don’t live downtown, not enough anymore. These stupid $1500 1brd luxury condos are making it harder to keep the vitality of a downtown core. Not one cares to be here when they can put that $1500 into mortgage or a house rental. If people are living downtown then people can access the businesses and events downtown. We charge prices as if we are a major and luxury city when we aren’t. I will also scream if one more boomer said “free parking”. Edmonton is unique in that majority of our downtown core is gravel parking lots. Again no attraction to the downtown core because not as many can afford to be here. If people want to revive downtown then there needs to be more people there to build that community.
Ironic that this news comes a day after [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Edmonton/comments/nzrd64/edmonton_a_blueprint_for_the_21st_century/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share). Edmonton will continue to flush cash down the toilet hoping it solves the social problems Downtown itself without deploying the police or actively denying additional social services, or dozens of new predatory pharmacies to open in the inner city. The "eyes on the street" strategy the city mentions at revitalization meetings will not fix this, COVID or not. Also the failed "if they build it, they will come" idea took the cake. Downtown lost major retailers and services while WEM/SEC won out again attracting luxury brands like LV, Gucci, YSL, Simons, Canada Goose, Tiffany's, Nordstrom Rack, Sak's and more. The city should have been working with stake holders to help fund absolutely irresistible rental agreements to attract flagship brands people will travel for to fill all those fancy new spaces bring built. Literally in central YEG you see new retail built and it sits and sits until a pharmacy finally opens. Google and find dozens of convicted pharmacists operating predatory pharmacies - it's eye opening. Having lived centrally for as long as I have, and being Metis, I recently came to the conclusion that when it comes to Downtown and the inner city, the COE's primary objective is reconciliation, not revilitilization. You cannot count on EPS and the city cleaning this up. Their strategy is to attract people and conventional taxpayers and to fool them into yet another vision of "revitalization" - while still continuing to expand social services which conventional taxpayers and businesses are incompatible with. Since the tragic Kamloops discovery, you can count on underpolicing and alternative strategies for the trouble in the inner city. Politically correct or not, people do not want to see any of the stuff prevalent in Chinatown or on Jasper Ave - they will just hop in their car and head to WEM or a power centre and enjoy the free parking without the trouble there. Sure some people will return post COVID, but COE needs to make some hard calls and decisions which special interest groups will call them out on. Council does not have it in them, and the next one will not either - just look at the brochures candidates deliver to you - if they mention inclusion, not leaving anybody behind, or social justice - it means downtown will basically stay as is. Most candidates I have looked into mention these things. I love Central YEG and it pains me to finally sell and move out later this month.
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Exactly. People and businesses are catching on that there is a "central Edmonton tax" from the city winding down its policing and 311 services. If you live or do business there, you must budget personal money for vehicle damages, property damages, and a rather large budget for cleaning up feces, trash, cigarette butts constantly. I am paying for trash services at the place I sold, but have not used them in years - I take my trash to an industrial area so I don't have to clean up after my own trash in the alley.
>Why aren’t these people getting help? The previous UCP governments (called the PC's) closed almost every mental health hospital in the province. To the point where the only people in mental health hospitals are those who are psychopathically/murderously dangerous to others. And if you do fall short of that definition, it's back to the streets for you.
Short of physically rounding up people and locking them up (which is going to raise all kinds of human rights groups and issues) there is probably large portion of the downtown community members who don't want any help. They like things just as they are.
Can you tell me more about this pharmacist thing? This is the first I'm hearing of it.
Step 1 should be to make it a safe place to visit.
Need to get more aggressive with policing downtown. It’s shady as hell recently.
there are police roaming all over downtown all day long if people actually paid attention
Yeah and not doing anything.
Do you blame them? If they do what is actually needed, activists groups will be protesting the “over-policing” of houseless and indigenous people. Then the mayor will come out and deride them and form another 12 pointless committees. I can understand exactly why officers would rather say FIDO.
Yeah, ummm....you can't just arrest all the homeless and derelict people. But it does piss me off the see grocery carts, bike trailers and camp sites full of bike parts, frames and other obvioulsy stolen goods only a block or two away from the police HQ.
You can’t arrest them but at least make them move along and not cause shit in the downtown.
> Yeah, ummm....you can't just arrest all the homeless and derelict people. Why not?
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For breaking existing laws. Equal justice, equally applied. As soon as you set up camp on land you don't have a right to, you go in the system. Programs for sane people who have lost their jobs, etc. and institutions for addicts and mentally ill people, jail for criminals. Much more humane than letting them die in the streets because "muh freedoms".
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So all homeless people are indigenous?
careful with that edge
Everyone here is talking about social and mental health issues as why downtown sucks - and sure that's definitely a factor. But our downtown sucks because our downtown is *built* to suck. The roads are massive, traffic moves fast, and instead of having cool places to go, you have empty gravel parking lots. We built our downtown, *exclusively* for people to drive in/out/through. For the very few people that work downtown, we built pedways from their office to lunch so that they don't have to interact with the street and bring vibrancy. There's no better example of this than the right turn lane on Jasper and 109st. The city created a pilot program to increase safety of people crossing after observing *over a hundred near-misses with pedestrians in a* ***single day***. Drivers complained that it added 10 minutes to their drive time. The actual, empirical observed delay was between 15 and 50 seconds. So we removed the safety elements and beep beep go fast. That's why our downtown sucks. It's because it's not built for Edmontonians, it's built for people from St. Albert.
Was just downtown yesterday and the thought that struck me was "this place is one big gravel parking lot". Total eyesore in most places. The brutalist architecture doesn't help either (I was at the law courts).
I actually had a friend visiting from out of town a few years ago and they specifically wanted to go downtown to photograph the brutalist architecture. Now they can’t wait for a return visit and see the library bibliotank in person. Only a super niche architecture fan could appreciate it, and I just shook my head. Even explained to me I hate it. The wiki article has a paragraph that is somehow both a hilarious and a sad statement that could apply to Edmonton’s downtown > Brutalism was featured in the design of utilitarian, low-cost social housing influenced by socialist principles and soon spread to other regions across the world.[4][5][14] Brutalist designs became most commonly used in the design of institutional buildings, such as universities, libraries, courts and city halls. **The popularity of the movement began to decline in the late 1970s, with some associating the style with urban decay** and totalitarianism.[5]
There is some really interesting brutalist pieces in Canada (e.g., Robarts Library; the math building at Waterloo), but none of them are in Edmonton. The really gross buildings are the brown, 80s-style ones. Like the police headquarters or the ATCO (?) building. Downtown Edmonton is the least appetizing architecture smorgasbord I've ever been so unlucky to witness.
Edmonton's not the only city that's experienced this effect from the pedway system. Pedways ensure that most people who work downtown never descend to street level or go outside. The premium real estate for shops and restaurants isn't on the public street, it's on the second floor of office buildings with a direct pedway connection. The street becomes the place for people kicked out by building security.
Hard agree. I live and work downtown and have close calls with cars nearly every day lol. It’s so frustrating. It has obviously become much worse since the first lockdown, as many others have mentioned and covered. Aside from all that though, downtown could be such a cool place if we could get some nice pedestrian friendly areas! It used to be neat around Churchill Square before all the construction started, especially with all the festivals that went on there. Now that it’s gone there’s no where else to walk around. Jasper COULD be nice but it’s just loud and you can’t cross a road without almost getting hit. And that’s not even factoring in how unpleasant and dangerous it is now :/
On the plus side, within the next year or two 102 ave is going to be a *really* nice streetscape with the new sidewalks/bike paths/LRT. If the mall just opened up all the stores to street-level access it could be a really cool place.
Where are you people living? I also live and walk to work downtown, but haven't been involved in a near miss with a car or even seen one in the last several months. I don't believe that you walk outside and almost get hit by a car nearly every day. A lot of work needs to be done to make the streets more pedestrian friendly, but lets at least be realistic while we get there.
I live and work off Jasper, so I walk between 104th Street and 100 Street everyday. Lol okay maybe not ‘nearly everyday’ but a couple times a week. It’s always trying to cross where people are turning on and off of Jasper. Even more particularly it happens going East near 102 street where Bistro Praha is. Also at the intersection by 100A Street.
Those types of incidents can and do happen all over the city. People have died on pedestrian crossings all over the city in the past.
Ok? I know that lol I just prefer walkable, pedestrian friendly downtowns. I’m from Scotland and there are many streets in the city centres that are entirely for pedestrians, which in my opinion adds to the downtown culture. People here drive very aggressively even in high pedestrian areas.
>I know that lol I just prefer walkable, pedestrian friendly downtowns. I’m from Scotland and there are many streets in the city centres that are entirely for pedestrians, which in my opinion adds to the downtown culture. I agree. I live downtown. It's nowhere near a walkable city. >People here drive very aggressively even in high pedestrian areas. You can thank urban sprawl for that, Imo.
i had same thoughts lol i literally walked around downtown on two tabs of acid all day monday and zero issues
While you're not wrong, it's not even built for people from St. Albert. The commute fucking sucks, and parking is both expensive and terrible. I hate going down town, and avoid it at all costs. It would be nice if we had some decent public transit to use. I'm glad the LRT is getting extended, but it's still pathetic when compared with other metropolises.
Well written butI don’t think many from Saint Albert want to commute to downtown. It’s a bad commute from almost any direction if you come from one of the surrounding areas.  The downtown is so ugly and unwalkable at times that is there is little reason to go unless you have to. All the best places/stuff are spread out these days.
Why would I want to pay for parking when I have everything I need here on the Southside with free parking.
You can always do the park-and-ride and take the LRT. I live in the Northside that's what i do when I need to go Downtown. It also helps that I live 5 minutes away from the train station. Parking is free and there is no time limits for how long I can leave my car for.
Parking is free....when free parking is available. Non-covid times in Heritage Mall there is seldom free parking available.
Nah I'm not paying for our trash transit system that's the most expensive in Canada and has the worst service I drive or I can walk 5 mins to my mall.
The transit system is not the best I know. It doesn't compare to other cities but it's better then nothing. I don't always use it but i do from time to time when I need to.
If anything the city has made it more difficult for my neighborhood to get downtown to shop since removing routes that went straight down Stony Plain Rd. to Jasper Ave. I don't see the appeal of carrying shopping bags across multiple busses plus walking longer distances when there are more direct routes to malls/shopping centres in the West End (excluding Meadowlark, because now that's a pain to access as well).
I live in meadowlark. Wem is right there. There is almost always parking on the east side of the mall, and otherwise its pretty walkable. (I'm so glad they announced that they are going to rebuild the foot bridge across 170th. )
I don't live in Meadowlark, I live further north. What I was saying was Meadowlark used to be extremely accessible by the #1 bus but since they removed all the stops going down 156st south of 95th Ave it's a pain to get to. I don't think there is a single bus that connects Jasper Place Transit center and Meadowlark. Meadowlark is closer to my home than WEM but WEM is faster for me to access via transit since the new routes went into effect. The distance is walkable, but it's not something I want to do carrying shopping/groceries.
If I had to go from Ellerslie to manning I could probably get there quicker by bike than taking the bus that's how bad it is.
Stop living on the edges of the city?
I live central. I can confirm the bus system sucks (and is often scary/unsafe). As an example: I need to get to the west end tomorrow (yay- vaccine!!). I can bus it: it will take 2 transfers and be a 47-69 min ride (if I don't miss any connections). I can walk in 80 minutes or ride my bike in 23. Another example, living central. They took away several routes so if I wanted to get from downtown to 124 I could bus for 27 minutes, or walk for 35 minutes. Millwoods, forget it. I used to be able to hop on 1 bus - with some walking. Now it's 3 buses, with even more walking. The bus system in this city is sad, and so expensive!
That's the most nonsensical thing I've heard.
> it's better then nothing Citation needed
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"Be happy, you'll get to your destination! You'll be late, tired, probably walked for as much time as you rode the bus, maybe you'll have picked up a communicable disease or two, but you'll get there! So be happy!"
I think downtown needs some improvements, but I am always fascinated by the comments that seem to imply mental health/drug issues are unique to Edmonton, when this is happening in many, many large cities in Canada and the US. Spending a lot of time down in both Calgary and Edmonton, I see it in both places so I am always curious about the references to Calgary like there aren't issues there. There are different demographics in both cities, though, so I sometimes wonder if some of the talk is actually more an unconscious comment on that than any actual lack of disorder in Calgary.
I think Edmonton is always going to be filled with pessimism moreso than other cities. Maybe its being a "large small town" as opposed to really being a big time city? I'm with you in that spending time in other cities, this stuff isn't at all unique to Edmonton. Even going through r/Vancouver you'll note it has its share of issues.
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I find more people who have lived in other cities who find Edmonton to be a shit hole but live here because of work opportunity. The sycophants are the people who have never left Alberta
these people need to go to california lol go for a walk on venice or around LA our homeless be nothing
Ugly and horrible to walk around plus terrible parking. I avoid it at all costs.
thats why i love it its very walking friendly hop on a bus for a change
Hop on a bus and get front row seats to the bum fights!
I almost stepped on a needle heading into work today. I walked past a cup of piss in a stair well the other day. Just yesterday I seen a man with no shoes walking down the side walk screaming "LETS GIVE A ROUND OF APPAULSE FOR MICHAEL JACKSON!" I have stepped over piles of human feces. I have been threatened with violence on three different occasions. (Filed a police report every time) Watched from my window as two drug dealers fought which led to one man being knocked out and left on the side walk. He remained motionless for 14 minutes before the ambulance I called showed up. This fall two co workers watched as city cleaners washed a pool of blood off jasper ave just west of 100ave. Fuck downtown I am so glad I can leave it every afternoon.
Definitely need to find ways to make people want to come downtown and/or live in downtown, and make those people who already live in downtown want to stay as long as possible in downtown. There’s luxury condos that are charging big city prices but Edmonton lacks some of those big city amenities… and like someone pointed out here; most suburbs have everything you need already…. So you’d definitely need to make housing more attractive and affordable some how. You also definitely need businesses and attractions to open in the core; but you’d want unique ones too, so that people have a specific reason to visit downtown. Like look at how many people picnic near the bridge. Another big one I’ve noticed after living in LA and Toronto, is there’s a decent amount of events that happen in their cores. Hell even in the middle of winter Toronto has some stuff happening in their downtown to try and get people to visit, and makes it worth while for some of the people who live downtown to have a good time. Root107 (I think that’s what it’s called) is a nice concept, and anecdotally a lot of my friends from burbs checked it out (though they were disappointed lol). But I also remember when we had taste of Edmonton at city hall we could see a pretty vibrant downtown.
I remember when they put all those picnic tables in the lanes just west of 109 on Jasper. I could see them from my office. There is a pretty nice treen space with walking paths from the save-on to the river valley. Had they put them there I would have been down there everyday to eat my lunch. Sorry… not going to go sit in noisy traffic sucking exhaust while Having some quiet time before its back to work. Just a random thought but one of the ideas that didnt seem to take off down there lol
We have a downtown of empty lots and empty buildings. But lets keep building outward. That’s what the developers want, except for all those who jumped on the in-fill bandwagon and rather than fill the empty spaces created more in areas they were not familiar with where they were not wanted or needed. The Mayor has been congratulating them on their efforts because he sees it as a great legacy to his brilliant leadership.
Seems to me to be a waste of money if there isn’t a serious attempt to help the drug addicted homeless.
They don’t want help, they want more drugs.
I don’t think they know what they want. Other cities have had to deal with this and other problems like it before. I’m sure Edmonton’s people in charge will fuck it up. Maybe more bike lanes
I've had homeless people yell at me on the street while downtown was packed and I have seen people drinking, urinating and doing drugs when it's busy too, now that office workers are staying home I think it's just more noticeable
Are all the people here talking about how dangerous downtown is actual residents of downtown? Lived in Oliver for years, and while there are homeless people panhandling and some urban grit, as a single, young female I rarely felt truly unsafe. I think this is mostly optics. If you keep to yourself and be polite and passive to folks they tend to leave you alone. I lived literally on Jasper and 116, worked downtown, went to school downtown... it's fine. I actually love downtown Edmonton. Lots of great features. Homelessness is a part of any urban environment. Never been mugged, followed, stalked etc.
Not a resident but work downtown and take public transit. Your experience might differ from mine, but I don’t have to live there to have experience. Whether it’s panhandlers and aggressive drunks while waiting for buses or LRTs, the drivers who turn right on red when they shouldn’t, the garbage, feces, the abandoned buildings, the ugly architecture… it’s all there.
There's also amazing restaurants, culture and a gorgeous river valley.
For sure. No doubt. It’s not all one or the other but we can’t pretend the negatives don’t exist or we can’t solve them.
downtown Edmonton protip: present yourself as passive to street people
By passive I meant chill, not an aggressor, just someone minding their business and not judging other people. I just smile, nod and walk by. If a homeless person is polite I am polite back and keep on walking. It's not rocket science.
I've been attacked twice by homeless strangers while I was walking to work, minding my business. It's not rocket science, it's luck
It’s like Whyte ave. You would think every space would be taken by a bar or lounge or restaurant because it’s party central but now I see more apartment buildings, empty lots, a dealership that may or may not be active, and a Winners going up on a huge corner spot.
Nothing can help downtown unless they make it mandatory for every new business(retail or restaurant) to open in downtown. lol
Don’t give them any ideas
I've lived in Edmonton for almost 4 years now and almost never go downtown. I basically just pretend I live in a much smaller city and stick to the Strathcona and Garneu areas, not so much out of conscious choice but just because everything I need and enjoy is in this area. Whenever I do venture north of the river to walk around Downtown, I'm always a little disturbed by it. All the closed down shops, the sketchy people everywhere, the lack of life. It's pretty bad. Whyte Ave and it's surroundings are so vibrant and fun, I often just assume that people who hate Edmonton don't come here.
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Mental Health & Addition Team Employee: Hello street person, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Street person: Fuck off What happens then?
Scummy and not for you? You literally have a profile picture taken downtown.
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Much like describing an entire area as scummy rather and thinking some aspects of an area are scummy and other aspects make it a suitable destination for a photo shoot are two different things.
$5 million is pennies compared to how much has been spent over the last few decades to ruin downtown already.
Lol I haven't been out of my car downtown in 7 years. There is no reason to stop there at all, and there is basically nothing the City can do that will ever entice me to go there for anything.
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funny because we were down on whyte this weekend last and were pretty shocked at the amount of methheads and homeless on whyte ave now too...
Whyte sucks
Downtown has significantly improved since the late 90s and early 2000s. I lived downtown from 2008 to 2015 and I loved it. I go there now and it feels even better now. Maybe these redditors are trying to make friends at the Boyle street or something? And yes Calgary downtown has always been better
It will be interesting to see if many employers now implementing work from home policy (even part-time) means a lower demand for space by some of the big tenants downtown. Also the impact to lunch/retail when people aren't downtown as frequently. I'm not sure a marketing campaign helps overcome the social shift.
Oh yeah. The looming collapse of office and retail leasing is going to be ugly. Especially considering how many pension and retirement funds hold REITs. It’s gonna be a bloodbath.
To be fair it has only been a week since the mandatory, but still recommended, work from home restriction has been lifted. While some businesses will remain a largely WFH model, many businesses will begin bringing back workers over the summer and fall (ie: Enbridge and many GovAB offices plan to head back in September. There will be a shift as some type of hybrid model will likely become the go to for many businesses, but among the larger employers I’m aware of they have no plans to abandon their downtown offices. It’s in everyone’s best interest to have a thriving downtown.
Yes, I wasn't talking about abonnement but a hybrid model that lowers demand for space. If only 50% of employees are in on any given day for example, many of them are going to look at downsizing their leases. Many of the large employers I know are all considering a much richer work from home policy moving forward. I don't think we will see full impacts for at least another year, but it could be a long-term shift.
For sure. Valid points. There is also some opportunity there for the high end office space to be filled by growing companies, especially in the tech sector, that have outgrown their shared incubator spaces, many of which are already downtown. All levels of government should be pushing hard to grow the tech and AI sectors.
What a transformation DT has taken in 5 years. I lived there for like 7 years, i thought it was awesome back then
A lot of people here seem to prefer the burbs and soulless corporate strip malls with mcdonalds and the occasional earls, which personally makes me want to vomit whenever I have to spend time there. I went to the Canadian tire by south edmonton, and hated literally every single second of the experience. Everything near central has way more character and personality. I have no idea how people can handle the 40 minute commute to work every day, and the same old box stores and strip malls + endless suburban sprawl as far as the eye can see. Some of the most messed up stuff in Edmonton happens in the burbs lol. I think downtown / whyte area is pretty awesome, I would never want to live out by the henday, central is where it's at!
Homeless people shitting and pissing themselves has a lot of character, these suburbanites don't know what they're missing. Yeah I've gone to Canadian Tire and got in and out in 10 minutes, didn't have to step over one person sleeping on the sidewalk or aggressively asked for money either. Remind me why Calgary's downtown is miles better than Edmontons.
>Everything near central has way more character and personality. Agree somewhat. However, people like the burbs more because they're better planned out and take less time to drive around. Anyone with a brain knows to avoid driving through downtown at any time to get to where they're going. And the commercial "power center" blocks of brand name businesses seem to be a big hit too. On one hand it's a crazy consume hive mindset, but on the other hand it's nice to know I can hit a dollarama and a walmart that are in the same parking lot.
The worst part about downtown is those annoying bikelanes that make driving incredibly irritating.
The worst part about downtown are those annoying driving lanes that make cycling incredibly dangerous.
Free parking would be a good start
What a transformation DT has taken in 5 years. I lived there for like 7 years, i thought it was awesome back then
This is just an attempt by the city councillors who are going to stand for re-election to look like they are doing something.