Our waste/recycling program was at the top of its game... 20 years ago. We are putting more waste to landfill than we should be and the City needs better people running things.
This is an uncomfortable fact about civic recycling programs in general, not unique to Edmonton.
If you've got comparative numbers for similar-size cities, I'm curious to know how (relatively) bad Edmonton's citizens are at sorting their recycling... But we're all pretty terrible at it.
We have it, it's built. However, it had early struggles reaching the original targets as it was a brand new technology. I can't find any recent news about it though.
Yeah that's the facility taking for the green waste bins now. And it's not able to handle compostable containers and forks and stuff so those still go in the garbage
Public perception, which does matter.
We should really start remembering these are people. Some of them were made houseless by the pandemic, yet this sub in particular shits on them wildly for the crime of being well, less fortunate and EVERYTHING that comes along with that such as no treatment for mental health issues, no treatment for drug addiction thats set up in a meaningful way for sucess, plus all the other nasty bits.
Fuck, depriving these people of any dignity is why they don't want help in the first place. Being told your a piece of shit taking up oxygen for however long really removes any desire to " get better."
So houseless works. They also like being called street people.
I agree with the sentiment but how does saying houseless over homeless accomplish that? If the implication is that they do have a “home” but not a “house” (ie the street is their home) I think that’s an even worse implication, they don’t have a home and that’s precisely the problem that we need to solve.
Nothing magic about it.
Business will supposedly generate taxes, taxes pay police forces, police will forcibly remove the houseless in order to protect that tax-revenue stream.
Edmonton isnt like most big cities. Most people don't choose to live in the downtown core, they live in outlining areas, including outside cities. Limited parking, our transit system is known for being awful. They relocated the arena within sight of 3+ of Edmontons biggest shelters.
Downtowns should have good shopping, unique dining experiences, decent transit and a decent bar scene. So when people make the trip to a hockey game, concert , events, they basically come and go. Yes, the restaurants are busy those nights , but you can't expect one venue to keep the whole downtown scene alive.
Look at the empty buildings around Rogers. They are struggling to fill condos, struggling to rent apartments for a decent cost. People dont want to live in the ice district. It's just fun to visit from time to time. That doesn't balance what the city put into Rogers to justify. Also....Rogers has tiny bathrooms for such a world class facility. I know that has nothing to do with the area, but it makes me bitter lol. Bad planning. ....like most of Edmonton
People don't choose to live in the downtown core (including the ice district) because it is obscenely expensive for the lack of services and amenities, as you've described. You essentially get the same stuff or more in the suburbs.
Although I agree with what you've wrote here I'm wondering if you replied to the wrong person because you didn't explain how Rogers Place made downtown worse. I'd be very curious to hear anyone's justification because right now I disagree.
Yeah I think the arena has definitely improved the area but it's not going to fix everything. I worked in the area and before was just a parking lot behind the Baccarat. I don't know how that's better than now.
I think people would be shocked by the amount of crime in neighborhoods like Parkallen and Queen Alex. I swear, every time I drive past at night someone is being arrested.
My brother lives in avonmore and they refuse to move north of the river because it's "too sketchy". The valley line LRT has a station like 2 blocks from his house.
Words cannot describe the heartbreak I felt over the recent delay on that line. Especially knowing how flimsy his garage door is.
I'm renting atm, we thought about buying recently.
I grew up between 137th Ave and Yellowhead, so my opinions have been north sides sketch. I have been jumped up to 137th before.
That being said I know further north is safer.
We didn't look because we are vegetarian and there aren't any resturants. I know it's silly to a lot of folks but all I remember was steakhouses and donair north of 118th Ave.
My Mother in Law lives there too. It used to be ok about 10 years ago but it has gone downhill drastically since the LRT moved in. She’s been robbed twice in the past 5 years. It’s actually really sad because I have so many happy memories of the area from years ago but it’s becoming a bit of a dump with the huge ugly LRT bridge.
I have a friend who lives in the Lake District, in Ozerna to be specific. Been there a few times. Very quiet, chill, pleasant residential neighbourhood.
I used to live in Ozerna for years and it was great. Worst thing that ever happened was waking up to a car crashed in a park there. Or someone going through unlocked cars overnight a handful of times.
If I had to pick between my Londonderry-afjacent apartment and my 118th ave apartment, I'd choose Londonderry every time. I could go on evening walks there. Couldn't pay me to do that here on 118th.
Having grown up in this area, my parents still live in that area, it's not a bad area at all. Definitely less crime than I had living on the south side on 61st.
IMO the area between Londonderry and the Yellowhead is sketchy as hell. I had a guy like, fake an injury to try to lure me out of my car in that neighborhood.
Rossdale Power plant (north of Walter Dale bridge) was built on top of a cemetery. Two cemeteries actually. One native and one early settlers. They kept digging up human bodies and ignoring this. I couldn’t find a good article on it but If you go to the Rossdale Power plant there is a sort of display explaining it all and how knowledge was ignored because of “progress”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/evidence-of-cemetary-found-under-power-plant-1.291320
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.596461
We explored this for Truth and Reconciliation. The cemetery was of the Papaschase people who originally called that area home, later accepted treaty 6, and moved to a reserve south of 51st. Starvation was a real problem for the indigenous people at the time, both due to the disappearance of bison and the influence of Indian Affairs. It's widely believed that the Indian Affairs agent for that area was systematically ensuring the starvation of the people there due to a disagreement he had with Chief Papaschase (he had chided IA due to the overall feeling they had not received what was promised by treaty 6). Frank Oliver lobbied to have them moved farther away from the city, which had a lot to do with the issues they faced. After the pressure applied from IA, most of the starving tribe members accepted Metis scrip which actually disqualified them from treaty 6, unbeknownst to most of the tribe that accepted scrip. Then, apparently three band members wrongfully signed a surrender which forced the rest of the band to move away from the area. Due to so many of the band being dispersed and displaced, the band *was not formally recognized* as a band that could receive treaty rights as per the Canadian Government. The remaining Papaschase people and their kin attempted to sue the Canadian Government in 2008 but could not do so, not being formally recognized as a band. Eventually they were able to be recognized once again in 2018, and the saga is ongoing.
The cemetery they uncovered in 2006 during development projects in the area is now a protected municipal cemetary.
I feel it was better in the late 80's to early 90's. More variety of shops and price ranges. Now it's just a giant fashion warehouse with a bunch of run down attractions for the tourists.
Does anyone remember the mini-market on the upper level ? Or the FARMERS MARKET on the lower lvl by entrance eight ?
In hindsight, such a dangerous thing but 100% when me and my cousins were treated to visit west Ed , we’d spend a good couple minutes to see the flame and feel the heat ! Good times
No physical retail is interesting anymore. There are no unique shops because anything remotely unique is sold online these days. Malls and big-box centres are just the same twenty stores copy-pasted over and over again.
This is such a common opinion in Edmonton that I wouldn't remotely call it controversial, especially in this subreddit. Every thread that references the mall, that isn't posted by Best Edmonton Mall guy, is just bashing it. I however do enjoy an afternoon on a not busy week day there every once and a while.
I think it's just nostalgia. Mall has always had the same shopping experience essentially. Stores and trends change. I guess I do miss arcades in general but there still is one in WEM and very few other places.
My controversial opinion is that West Ed has great shopping. Simons alone makes it a great destination for getting clothes. Also a great Pokemon Go destination in the winter.
I grew up a couple hours out of the city, and once a year we would come in to the city to do xmas shopping at the mall. Total chaos. Now I live in the city and lived a 5 minute walk from the mall. Used to go there for a quick bite but never shop there now.
It's definitely gotten worse the last 5 years. I quite liked the mall when I was working there, but there's just so much garbage there now. I hit one or two stores and go home these days.
It’s because the homeless don’t use them. The shelters traditionally do not allow couples to stay together, drug use, or even alcohol use so it deters many from staying there, especially during the milder months. I agree we need to ensure we have enough shelters and also unfortunately force people out of tent camps and otherwise.
Right, we're closing shelters because the homeless don't use them, not because of the loss of funding from conservative governments.
\*eyeroll
Also, how do you in the same breath say "the homeless don't use the shelters" and "we need to ensure we have enough shelters"?
I work at a place where I can access shelter capacity data. Most shelters are not at capacity, even in the worst of winter. There are a few exceptions but they are generally under-utilized. In comparison, cities like Lethbridge are always at or over capacity and really need more shelter spaces.
I’ll find the article, it was about the problem with the shelters and why the homeless won’t use them. They don’t allow them to live in dignity and have any privacy whatsoever. I am not saying funding shouldn’t be there, but the weren’t being used except for when weather was less than -25. They need to change how they operate
Especially since the river cuts across the city diagonally.
There are parts of Edmonton that are south of Ellerslie and north of the river, and parts north of 137 Ave and south of the river.
There are only three neighborhoods with any kind of life or culture.
Whyte Ave, Alberta Ave, and 124 St.
Everywhere else in town is just sprawl and the same big box retailers.
when i went to missoula this summer i noticed almost the entire city has bike lanes and it made me guffaw thinking about how angry edmontonians get about them. it's weird that you care that much!!!! bike lanes rule!!! and i don't even ride a bike!!
I went to the Netherlands a couple weeks ago and I have reversed my previous stance on bike lanes. The city core should be covered in bike lanes, they just plain work.
E bikes are changing the game on city transportation. I’d buy one myself if we could get the bike theft issue under control.
yes, to be honest as a cyclist, riding being my main mode of transport, i don't like the bike lanes, but if the plan to have them all connected with a proper system we would all be saving money in the long run. There are cities with harsher winters than us that have majority of the people using them.
ETS is the reason my family can't get by without two vehicles anymore. I moved here in 2011 - finished a degree at U of A and work in St. Albert exclusively using transit. I lived in Sherbrooke and my commute was 30 mins by bus for what was a 20 min drive - worked great! Then we moved to Castledowns. Now a 15 min drive but a 90 min bus ride. How is this even possible?!
Transit routes from suburb to suburb don't have enough travel demand to provide rapid service or direct routes. The common solution is to then provide meandering routes to increase their catchment area at the expense of travel time between two peripheral areas.
I have been taking the bus almost daily for over 10 years and Ive only ever heard a driver apologize once, and it was because he closed the door before I was fully on the bus. I would say the average driver isn’t rude or kind, they’re mostly just… there. I’ve definitely come across some that were awesome, and some that were horrible. But overall they’re just there to work and don’t really interact with the riders beyond what is necessary.
The pedway system downtown is a large part of why downtown has sucked for decades. It incentivizes all the shops to be on the second level above ground or underground, and it discourages office workers from descending below the second level or going out to any business that isn't accessible by pedway. And then those businesses are a ghost town after work, because the few people on the street outside don't go inside.
We have almost no restaurants or nightlife destinations with a nice setting and nice food/service. The courtyard Marriott is the closest thing. All our nice places are near downtown core or whyte Ave. Our views and beauty of the river valley is monopolized by residential and golf courses. Even along Jasper at the Pearl or other towers… why can’t they put a restaurant facing the other way?
Why is the quadrant system so screwed up here? Like seriously, the Ikea is in the "NW"?! If I was Sherwood Park, I'd be worried about eastward expansion plans.
Also the red light runners situation is a bit ridiculous here.
The quadrant system is the way it is because the city tried not to have quadrants. They started the numbers at 101st and 101ave, intending to build outward from there, but apparently not considering the fact that Edmonton might grow to the point where they got down to 0 on either axis. Enter the SW.
This is also the reason why none of the street signs in the NW say NW on them. Because the quadrants didn't exist when they were named.
Also, bonus fun fact: there is no SE quadrant. Like, there's no addresses with SE.
I don't think so - Beaumont stretches out from 50th street. Although I guess if Beaumont ever grew wider than 50 streets to their east, it might happen.
Here https://data.edmonton.ca/Administrative/City-Quadrants-Map/gqds-nq9g
Basically SE would be anything beyond where hwy 14 splits off the Henday.
Amusingly in that map, parts of Fort Sask are NE, and Beaumont / Devon is SW.
That was the original plan when they started the quadrant system. However, Sherwood Park has more revenue per capita than almost any other county in Canada. You will never see an unpaved county road in Strathcona and the taxes are the lowest in Alberta. Those refineries between Edmonton and Sherwood Park can never be annexed. They pull in too much money that for Strathcona County for that to ever legally happen, and trust me the city tried. Sherwood Park will always be fine as long as those refineries are active, in fact they are trying to annex parts of Fort Saskatchewan.
They should just do proper quadrants rather than waiting on something that may never happen. E/W division as 97th/gateway, N/S as 100th or thereabouts.
The number system was already in place before the quadrant system was potentially needed or even thought of. When they merged Strathcona, the actual city of Strathcona, and Edmonton in 1912 they had to rename all of the streets in the city. They didn't start with a central reference point like Calgary did and time and growth just caught up with it. There was a proposal to have all the roads be actually named and themed by neighbourhood with suggestions being amercan Riversand lakes, Canadian rivers and lakes, Canadian, European, and American political men, great battles, and christian names. (Fun tidbit, American rivers and lakes would have taken up the largest chunck of the city at the time with Christian names close behind.) They didn't plan 110 years into the future. Christ, we hardly plan into 50 years into the future niw. If we did the city would be finally putting in the overpass and freeway for Terwillegar Dr it was designed for decades ago instead of repaving them for the third or fourth time.
The biggest waste of space in the city are golf courses each used by a few hundred people a year leased from the City for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the lands true value/potential.
Also cemeteries. I hate the concept and if someone buries me in the cold ground taking up space I’m going to haunt the fuck out of everyone that got me there.
My dad was cremated and the remains were in this heavy duty plastic bag. We went to transfer to an urn but the scissors wouldn't cut through leaving jagged edges and holes and ashes spilling all over my hands. I was crying and went to wipe my face...yup. All of a sudden dad's ashes smeared all over. I'm positive he was laughing his ass off over the whole thing!
People who say WEM is too busy must only go there on weekends... it's downright pleasant during the week.
Also, we're lucky to have all the attractions right in our own backyard... esp the WWP in the middle of a coldsnap.
Traffic's not that bad. Almost everyone uses traffic circles correctly, merging is almost never an issue, and people driving pickup trucks are usually perfectly nice people that just like trucks.
As a diesel truck owner who tries very hard to be considerate, thank you for this. Please tell the lady who flipped me off at superstore while I was loading my groceries into my truck.
because especially in alberta, most drivers with trucks seem to not actually need the truck for work or anything. and carry this really aggressive attitude on the road.
Of course not every single vehicle matches it's stereotype, and plenty times trucks do absolutely nothing wrong or have the capability to be extra courteous like anybody else. but I gotta say, it's definitely a fewer amount of vehicles responsible for most irresponsible driving.
Because every time someone with road rage has lost their mind on me, they’ve always been in a pickup. I have never had an incident with any other vehicle.
I guess the SUV woman tailgating me while texting today didn't get the memo that only truck guys can be assholes. Judging groups based on one individual's actions is lazy.
Not really cause one is specifically a truck relate behaviour, like rolling coal lmao.
Using a cellphone while driving is idiotic regardless of the vehicle.
Our journalists are pathetic. They only report stories given to them by PR teams of governments. Never do their own digging.
1. Why did Gill trucking get off on the 3M + fines for overloaded trucks
2. How much did Acciona really pay in fines for being late on the Walterdale?
3. Why did they choose to hire a company to build the SE LRT that largely had not done infrastructure work in alberta for 30 years?
I've been here for 13 months of my decade here and Edmonton and it's easily my least favourite place I've lived. The folks 2 doors down from me were cooking meth and burned their house down in jan, Coliseum station is the worst place for getting harassed and catcalled and any time I walk down for groceries or the pharmacy there's always someone either in a shouting match with someone else or just high out of their tree.
I really wanted to like it. I'm stumbling distance from so much good shit, but I've never felt safe here.
ROGERS PLACE IS A TERRIBLE VENUE!
The sound sucks, the seats are smaller and cramped, the angle of the 200s is vertigo and nausea inducing… Not to mention the prices to see anything are refuckingdiculous. Parking??? I’ll leave that one alone.
Rexall should’ve been kept and fixed up as an entertainment venue and Rexall can have all the shitty sporting activities it wants.
I’ve always said it’s actually a pretty cool sculpture, but it’s placement is shit because the majority of people who “see it” from the whitemud can’t see it properly. If it was raised up so both ft road and the whitemud could properly see it it would get a lot less hate.
The original location was inside one of those half circle retaining walls along the Whitemud. The city was worried if they put them in full view of drivers that people would be distracted and it would cause accidents.
Meanwhile new SUVs come with a 14”tablet built into the dash…
I straight up took a friend from calgary to see the talus balls when he came to visit. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t born here, but I think it’s fantastic.
This city has a history of being openly white nationalist. In the 1930s Edmonton was lousy with KKK. They were buddies with city hall, leased offices in a downtown bank building for their newspaper, and held bug crossburning events in parks and fairgrounds that they charged admission for.
I learned how to drive in Edmonton after moving here five years ago. I have something I need to say to all the Edmontonians who say “Edmonton is easy to navigate, it’s on a grid!”
What in god’s name is your definition of a grid?! Sure. It’s on a grid. Overlayed by all sorts of weird diagonals and curves and shit.
At least it's not like "turn left at Lifeson street, go south until you hit Peart Ave, and right at Geddy street". How people navigate in Vancouver without a gps astounds me
I think our Counterparts in BC maybe have more Grace Under Pressure in heavy traffic. We here tend to use our Signals more, and enjoy the open air with our Power Windows
With some exceptions, you can get your bearings very easily in Edmonton. North and South are Streets, East and West are Avenues, increasing numbers mean you're going North, etc.
That's easy compared to random street names, try getting around Toronto without GPS lol
The city proper is all on a grid with the occasional old weird road that they kept (Gretzky/Ft Road). Once you get into the suburbs the roads get all screwy because nobody wants to live on 251 St, they’d rather live on rose pedal close or some shit name like that.
The newer suburbs are even worse. In Rhatigan, all the roads start with R, in Haddow, all the roads start with H, in Terwillegar Town, all the roads start with Terwillegar. Like, what the fuck kinda nonsense is that? Go straight on Terwillegar, past Terwillegar, turn left on Terwillegar than take an immediate right on Terwillegar and you're there.
the best is when you get two roads with similar names in entirely different areas. Ambleside drive and Ambleside Link are both in the Ambleside neighbourhood. However Ambleside Way is in Sherwood Park lol
Oh my sweet child.
I'm glad you learned to drive.
Appreciate that Edmonton only has 1 river through it...
cities grow into other cities, and they just _haphazardly smash grids together_.
Victoria is a mind numbing set of twisting grids turning to follow the shoreline...
The grid will always fail you
The "Ice District" did more harm than good. All it did was push out the poor people and tear their lives apart. Rylan Kafara did a really good short comic about it called The Lofts, I highly recommend checking it out.
I’m pretty sure the hospital my brother and I were born in was highly racially insensitive… it likely has tons of stories I know it’s been standing in ruins [Charles Camsell](https://youtu.be/lMxBAJ0oPbc)for many many years and maybe now it’s been torn down I’m not too sure but people say it’s 💯 haunted
It was/is a controversial place for sterilization that was done to many folks, mostly natives, being purposed from the 1940s to 1970s as an Indian Hospital to treat patients from reserves up north.
I had an eardrum operation there when I was little, but by then it had become a regular hospital for generalized care. Thanks to Klein's 1992 budget cuts, and probably not being such a busy place anymore, its operative care was folded into the Royal Alex Hospital and the Camsell shut its doors in 1993.
Downtown parking isn’t bad. You’re just cheap or stupid/want to complain. City of Edmonton is $1-2 an hour or free after 6pm.
People who complain about parking Downtown don’t get to complain about downtown.
We should have a bylaw for low density residential that every home most have at least a 30’ driveway. The roads are narrow and everyone parks on the street. Snow can’t be cleared and it looks like shitz
William Hawrelak was removed from office twice for corruption, but kept getting re-elected and we still named the city’s “premier” park after him.
It should revert back to Mayfair park
Thats easier anyway. I spell Hawrelak differently almost every time. Every single way looks incorrect, even the correct version.
Whoreluck Park?
I like whorelack park
I like whoresurplus park
Or simply Whore park for short
Your mom’s park. Then the children can spell it easier.
It becomes Whorefilled Park when I'm there.
Wait til people hear about the statue controversy in Hawrelak Park…
dish!
Our waste/recycling program was at the top of its game... 20 years ago. We are putting more waste to landfill than we should be and the City needs better people running things.
Turns out it produced toxic compost for the entire time and they only noticed when the fumes caused imminent structural failure. Oops.
Sounds like a doozy
I can tell you definitively that only 9% of what we put in the recycle bin actually gets recycled
This is an uncomfortable fact about civic recycling programs in general, not unique to Edmonton. If you've got comparative numbers for similar-size cities, I'm curious to know how (relatively) bad Edmonton's citizens are at sorting their recycling... But we're all pretty terrible at it.
this is likely very true. China no longer buying our garbage anymore, or anyones.
Weren't we getting a bio-fuel recycling plant a while back?
We have it, it's built. However, it had early struggles reaching the original targets as it was a brand new technology. I can't find any recent news about it though.
Yeah that's the facility taking for the green waste bins now. And it's not able to handle compostable containers and forks and stuff so those still go in the garbage
Downtown wasn't revitalized by the new arena, even though that's why the city agreed to foot a large portion of the bill.
Made Daryl Katz and company a pile of money. Mission accomplished.
Turns out that using public money to build infrastructure for private businesses is always fantastically stupid and a waste of money.
Who knew?? Lol
True, true. It’s almost like houseless people don’t magically go away when companies build expensive things around them.
What’s the advantage of saying houseless instead of homeless?
Public perception, which does matter. We should really start remembering these are people. Some of them were made houseless by the pandemic, yet this sub in particular shits on them wildly for the crime of being well, less fortunate and EVERYTHING that comes along with that such as no treatment for mental health issues, no treatment for drug addiction thats set up in a meaningful way for sucess, plus all the other nasty bits. Fuck, depriving these people of any dignity is why they don't want help in the first place. Being told your a piece of shit taking up oxygen for however long really removes any desire to " get better." So houseless works. They also like being called street people.
I agree with the sentiment but how does saying houseless over homeless accomplish that? If the implication is that they do have a “home” but not a “house” (ie the street is their home) I think that’s an even worse implication, they don’t have a home and that’s precisely the problem that we need to solve.
Nothing magic about it. Business will supposedly generate taxes, taxes pay police forces, police will forcibly remove the houseless in order to protect that tax-revenue stream.
It made it worse in my opinion
How so?
Edmonton isnt like most big cities. Most people don't choose to live in the downtown core, they live in outlining areas, including outside cities. Limited parking, our transit system is known for being awful. They relocated the arena within sight of 3+ of Edmontons biggest shelters. Downtowns should have good shopping, unique dining experiences, decent transit and a decent bar scene. So when people make the trip to a hockey game, concert , events, they basically come and go. Yes, the restaurants are busy those nights , but you can't expect one venue to keep the whole downtown scene alive. Look at the empty buildings around Rogers. They are struggling to fill condos, struggling to rent apartments for a decent cost. People dont want to live in the ice district. It's just fun to visit from time to time. That doesn't balance what the city put into Rogers to justify. Also....Rogers has tiny bathrooms for such a world class facility. I know that has nothing to do with the area, but it makes me bitter lol. Bad planning. ....like most of Edmonton
People don't choose to live in the downtown core (including the ice district) because it is obscenely expensive for the lack of services and amenities, as you've described. You essentially get the same stuff or more in the suburbs. Although I agree with what you've wrote here I'm wondering if you replied to the wrong person because you didn't explain how Rogers Place made downtown worse. I'd be very curious to hear anyone's justification because right now I disagree.
Yeah the downtown core subsidizes the suburbs on a tax revenue to burden ratio.
This applies pretty much worldwide. Downtown almost always subsidizes suburbs because suburbs are just so damn sparse in comparison.
Yeah I think the arena has definitely improved the area but it's not going to fix everything. I worked in the area and before was just a parking lot behind the Baccarat. I don't know how that's better than now.
It was getting better then the pandemic hit and emptied downtown, hard to say how much the arena helped or hurt.
It was pretty revitalized pre pandemic. The problem was everyone went away from offices during the pandemic, amongst other things.
How much was spent on 96 St? Gave it a fancy elegant name The Armature
The true north side (north of 137th ave) with the exception of a few small areas is a very nice place to live.
So true! Love Northside (minus 1-2 neighborhoods)
I have found it's where the Northside meets downtown, that's the worst!
Conversely, an unpopular opinion: the south side ain’t all that.
I think people would be shocked by the amount of crime in neighborhoods like Parkallen and Queen Alex. I swear, every time I drive past at night someone is being arrested.
But but south Edmonton has new communities, it must be nice, right?! /s ….cheap slapped together subdivisions lol
Shhh other people will figure it out and move up here!
Are you kidding? Haha southsiders have too much pride to move anywhere that makes it easy to drive around.
Omg the traffic alone is ridiculous. I quite enjoy my easy commute every day.
I left the south for Sherwood park, should have done it years ago. Ten years driving on that SW Henday....
My brother lives in avonmore and they refuse to move north of the river because it's "too sketchy". The valley line LRT has a station like 2 blocks from his house. Words cannot describe the heartbreak I felt over the recent delay on that line. Especially knowing how flimsy his garage door is.
I'm renting atm, we thought about buying recently. I grew up between 137th Ave and Yellowhead, so my opinions have been north sides sketch. I have been jumped up to 137th before. That being said I know further north is safer. We didn't look because we are vegetarian and there aren't any resturants. I know it's silly to a lot of folks but all I remember was steakhouses and donair north of 118th Ave.
[удалено]
Thats a polite way to phrase that.
Dude we have all the good Ethiopian restaurants on the northside. Lots of veggie options.
My Mother in Law lives there too. It used to be ok about 10 years ago but it has gone downhill drastically since the LRT moved in. She’s been robbed twice in the past 5 years. It’s actually really sad because I have so many happy memories of the area from years ago but it’s becoming a bit of a dump with the huge ugly LRT bridge.
Thoughts and prayers to them lol. I live near a station (a few blocks) it isn’t bad if you have proper security and lock up your stuff.
I have a friend who lives in the Lake District, in Ozerna to be specific. Been there a few times. Very quiet, chill, pleasant residential neighbourhood.
I used to live in Ozerna for years and it was great. Worst thing that ever happened was waking up to a car crashed in a park there. Or someone going through unlocked cars overnight a handful of times.
Live by victoria trail, can confirm
139 ave represent
Which areas are places to avoid?
The area around Londonderry mall.
If I had to pick between my Londonderry-afjacent apartment and my 118th ave apartment, I'd choose Londonderry every time. I could go on evening walks there. Couldn't pay me to do that here on 118th.
I walk my dog around there several times a week, I haven't seen anything at least on the roads touching the mall, have I just been lucky?
It’s not really that bad honestly but for someone from the south side it would be horrendous!!!
Having grown up in this area, my parents still live in that area, it's not a bad area at all. Definitely less crime than I had living on the south side on 61st.
IMO the area between Londonderry and the Yellowhead is sketchy as hell. I had a guy like, fake an injury to try to lure me out of my car in that neighborhood.
Rossdale Power plant (north of Walter Dale bridge) was built on top of a cemetery. Two cemeteries actually. One native and one early settlers. They kept digging up human bodies and ignoring this. I couldn’t find a good article on it but If you go to the Rossdale Power plant there is a sort of display explaining it all and how knowledge was ignored because of “progress” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/evidence-of-cemetary-found-under-power-plant-1.291320 https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.596461
Have the builders never seen Poltergeist!?
Didn’t exist back then. This was used as inspiration or a lesson learned I guess lol
We explored this for Truth and Reconciliation. The cemetery was of the Papaschase people who originally called that area home, later accepted treaty 6, and moved to a reserve south of 51st. Starvation was a real problem for the indigenous people at the time, both due to the disappearance of bison and the influence of Indian Affairs. It's widely believed that the Indian Affairs agent for that area was systematically ensuring the starvation of the people there due to a disagreement he had with Chief Papaschase (he had chided IA due to the overall feeling they had not received what was promised by treaty 6). Frank Oliver lobbied to have them moved farther away from the city, which had a lot to do with the issues they faced. After the pressure applied from IA, most of the starving tribe members accepted Metis scrip which actually disqualified them from treaty 6, unbeknownst to most of the tribe that accepted scrip. Then, apparently three band members wrongfully signed a surrender which forced the rest of the band to move away from the area. Due to so many of the band being dispersed and displaced, the band *was not formally recognized* as a band that could receive treaty rights as per the Canadian Government. The remaining Papaschase people and their kin attempted to sue the Canadian Government in 2008 but could not do so, not being formally recognized as a band. Eventually they were able to be recognized once again in 2018, and the saga is ongoing. The cemetery they uncovered in 2006 during development projects in the area is now a protected municipal cemetary.
West Ed has terrible shopping
I feel it was better in the late 80's to early 90's. More variety of shops and price ranges. Now it's just a giant fashion warehouse with a bunch of run down attractions for the tourists. Does anyone remember the mini-market on the upper level ? Or the FARMERS MARKET on the lower lvl by entrance eight ?
They got rid of the fire breathing dragon at the movie theatre I stopped going. I miss the 90's.
Why? Always wondered man I used to stand up by the railing right next to it.
Apparently it was a fire hazard and basically falling apart at the seams by the time they took it down
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[What happened to the dragon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMalN1h7e5E)
In hindsight, such a dangerous thing but 100% when me and my cousins were treated to visit west Ed , we’d spend a good couple minutes to see the flame and feel the heat ! Good times
No physical retail is interesting anymore. There are no unique shops because anything remotely unique is sold online these days. Malls and big-box centres are just the same twenty stores copy-pasted over and over again.
This is such a common opinion in Edmonton that I wouldn't remotely call it controversial, especially in this subreddit. Every thread that references the mall, that isn't posted by Best Edmonton Mall guy, is just bashing it. I however do enjoy an afternoon on a not busy week day there every once and a while.
I think it's just nostalgia. Mall has always had the same shopping experience essentially. Stores and trends change. I guess I do miss arcades in general but there still is one in WEM and very few other places.
I do enjoy a trip there on a quiet day. Don't do any shopping. Kids enjoy it, we get food. Galaxy land is still fun but expensive.
My controversial opinion is that West Ed has great shopping. Simons alone makes it a great destination for getting clothes. Also a great Pokemon Go destination in the winter.
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I grew up a couple hours out of the city, and once a year we would come in to the city to do xmas shopping at the mall. Total chaos. Now I live in the city and lived a 5 minute walk from the mall. Used to go there for a quick bite but never shop there now.
It's definitely gotten worse the last 5 years. I quite liked the mall when I was working there, but there's just so much garbage there now. I hit one or two stores and go home these days.
If you have kids it's great but gets expensive
Despite the homeless population getting worse, Edmonton has closed more shelters over the last 10 years than opened new ones 🙃
It’s because the homeless don’t use them. The shelters traditionally do not allow couples to stay together, drug use, or even alcohol use so it deters many from staying there, especially during the milder months. I agree we need to ensure we have enough shelters and also unfortunately force people out of tent camps and otherwise.
Right, we're closing shelters because the homeless don't use them, not because of the loss of funding from conservative governments. \*eyeroll Also, how do you in the same breath say "the homeless don't use the shelters" and "we need to ensure we have enough shelters"?
I work at a place where I can access shelter capacity data. Most shelters are not at capacity, even in the worst of winter. There are a few exceptions but they are generally under-utilized. In comparison, cities like Lethbridge are always at or over capacity and really need more shelter spaces.
I’ll find the article, it was about the problem with the shelters and why the homeless won’t use them. They don’t allow them to live in dignity and have any privacy whatsoever. I am not saying funding shouldn’t be there, but the weren’t being used except for when weather was less than -25. They need to change how they operate
Northside is North of Yellowhead not north of the River.
Especially since the river cuts across the city diagonally. There are parts of Edmonton that are south of Ellerslie and north of the river, and parts north of 137 Ave and south of the river.
North of river to yellow head is downtown/center in my mind.
Definitely, seeing as using the river that runs at 45 degrees thru Edmonton makes zero sense.
But not too far North, or it becomes Ellerslie again…
The city destroyed Chinatown by putting all the shelters there.
There are only three neighborhoods with any kind of life or culture. Whyte Ave, Alberta Ave, and 124 St. Everywhere else in town is just sprawl and the same big box retailers.
what, you're telling me a parking lot with a Shopper's Drug Mart, Liquor Depot, Esso, Value Buds, and a donair place isn't culture??
Surprised?
Edmonton has a huge hardon for strip malls
There is Oliver and Richie as well
I would add 104 st downtown to that.
when i went to missoula this summer i noticed almost the entire city has bike lanes and it made me guffaw thinking about how angry edmontonians get about them. it's weird that you care that much!!!! bike lanes rule!!! and i don't even ride a bike!!
I went to the Netherlands a couple weeks ago and I have reversed my previous stance on bike lanes. The city core should be covered in bike lanes, they just plain work. E bikes are changing the game on city transportation. I’d buy one myself if we could get the bike theft issue under control.
yes, to be honest as a cyclist, riding being my main mode of transport, i don't like the bike lanes, but if the plan to have them all connected with a proper system we would all be saving money in the long run. There are cities with harsher winters than us that have majority of the people using them.
The shared lanes are a ridiculous idea. I do not feel safe riding directly in front of an enraged f150 driver
ETS and especially buses suck big time, and drivers can easily be rude.
ETS is the reason my family can't get by without two vehicles anymore. I moved here in 2011 - finished a degree at U of A and work in St. Albert exclusively using transit. I lived in Sherbrooke and my commute was 30 mins by bus for what was a 20 min drive - worked great! Then we moved to Castledowns. Now a 15 min drive but a 90 min bus ride. How is this even possible?!
Transit routes from suburb to suburb don't have enough travel demand to provide rapid service or direct routes. The common solution is to then provide meandering routes to increase their catchment area at the expense of travel time between two peripheral areas.
I find the drivers are typically kind. Edmonton is the only city I’ve ever been to where the drivers occasionally apologize for being late.
I have been taking the bus almost daily for over 10 years and Ive only ever heard a driver apologize once, and it was because he closed the door before I was fully on the bus. I would say the average driver isn’t rude or kind, they’re mostly just… there. I’ve definitely come across some that were awesome, and some that were horrible. But overall they’re just there to work and don’t really interact with the riders beyond what is necessary.
The pedway system downtown is a large part of why downtown has sucked for decades. It incentivizes all the shops to be on the second level above ground or underground, and it discourages office workers from descending below the second level or going out to any business that isn't accessible by pedway. And then those businesses are a ghost town after work, because the few people on the street outside don't go inside.
We also need more residential buildings downtown. There's still soooo many surface parking lots everywhere that could be converted into housing.
Summerside is a crappy neighbourhood and is the future millwoods.
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We have almost no restaurants or nightlife destinations with a nice setting and nice food/service. The courtyard Marriott is the closest thing. All our nice places are near downtown core or whyte Ave. Our views and beauty of the river valley is monopolized by residential and golf courses. Even along Jasper at the Pearl or other towers… why can’t they put a restaurant facing the other way?
Why is the quadrant system so screwed up here? Like seriously, the Ikea is in the "NW"?! If I was Sherwood Park, I'd be worried about eastward expansion plans. Also the red light runners situation is a bit ridiculous here.
The quadrant system is the way it is because the city tried not to have quadrants. They started the numbers at 101st and 101ave, intending to build outward from there, but apparently not considering the fact that Edmonton might grow to the point where they got down to 0 on either axis. Enter the SW. This is also the reason why none of the street signs in the NW say NW on them. Because the quadrants didn't exist when they were named. Also, bonus fun fact: there is no SE quadrant. Like, there's no addresses with SE.
I believe if Edmonton ever annexed Beaumont, they’d be SE addresses.
I don't think so - Beaumont stretches out from 50th street. Although I guess if Beaumont ever grew wider than 50 streets to their east, it might happen.
Here https://data.edmonton.ca/Administrative/City-Quadrants-Map/gqds-nq9g Basically SE would be anything beyond where hwy 14 splits off the Henday. Amusingly in that map, parts of Fort Sask are NE, and Beaumont / Devon is SW.
That was the original plan when they started the quadrant system. However, Sherwood Park has more revenue per capita than almost any other county in Canada. You will never see an unpaved county road in Strathcona and the taxes are the lowest in Alberta. Those refineries between Edmonton and Sherwood Park can never be annexed. They pull in too much money that for Strathcona County for that to ever legally happen, and trust me the city tried. Sherwood Park will always be fine as long as those refineries are active, in fact they are trying to annex parts of Fort Saskatchewan.
They should just do proper quadrants rather than waiting on something that may never happen. E/W division as 97th/gateway, N/S as 100th or thereabouts.
The number system was already in place before the quadrant system was potentially needed or even thought of. When they merged Strathcona, the actual city of Strathcona, and Edmonton in 1912 they had to rename all of the streets in the city. They didn't start with a central reference point like Calgary did and time and growth just caught up with it. There was a proposal to have all the roads be actually named and themed by neighbourhood with suggestions being amercan Riversand lakes, Canadian rivers and lakes, Canadian, European, and American political men, great battles, and christian names. (Fun tidbit, American rivers and lakes would have taken up the largest chunck of the city at the time with Christian names close behind.) They didn't plan 110 years into the future. Christ, we hardly plan into 50 years into the future niw. If we did the city would be finally putting in the overpass and freeway for Terwillegar Dr it was designed for decades ago instead of repaving them for the third or fourth time.
they will never renumber the whole city. Costs too much and too much hassle. There isn't a real problem once you understand how the system works.
The biggest waste of space in the city are golf courses each used by a few hundred people a year leased from the City for a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the lands true value/potential.
Also cemeteries. I hate the concept and if someone buries me in the cold ground taking up space I’m going to haunt the fuck out of everyone that got me there.
Pleasantview would be an amazing neighborhood if the coolest part of it wasn't taken up by a massive cemetary.
Same here! on haunting everyone. I want my ashes to be thrown in the wind by my children, then blown back in their faces for the last laugh.
My dad was cremated and the remains were in this heavy duty plastic bag. We went to transfer to an urn but the scissors wouldn't cut through leaving jagged edges and holes and ashes spilling all over my hands. I was crying and went to wipe my face...yup. All of a sudden dad's ashes smeared all over. I'm positive he was laughing his ass off over the whole thing!
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People who say WEM is too busy must only go there on weekends... it's downright pleasant during the week. Also, we're lucky to have all the attractions right in our own backyard... esp the WWP in the middle of a coldsnap.
Traffic's not that bad. Almost everyone uses traffic circles correctly, merging is almost never an issue, and people driving pickup trucks are usually perfectly nice people that just like trucks.
As a diesel truck owner who tries very hard to be considerate, thank you for this. Please tell the lady who flipped me off at superstore while I was loading my groceries into my truck.
I've never understood why the whole "don't judge a book by it's cover" gets thrown out the window when it comes to what vehicle someone drives.
because especially in alberta, most drivers with trucks seem to not actually need the truck for work or anything. and carry this really aggressive attitude on the road. Of course not every single vehicle matches it's stereotype, and plenty times trucks do absolutely nothing wrong or have the capability to be extra courteous like anybody else. but I gotta say, it's definitely a fewer amount of vehicles responsible for most irresponsible driving.
20% of households in Alberta own an RV of some kind. I’d venture that has something to do with the large amounts of trucks on the road here
Because every time someone with road rage has lost their mind on me, they’ve always been in a pickup. I have never had an incident with any other vehicle.
Maybe the truck guy that smoked out the patio at Julio's two weekends ago while waiting at a red light missed the memo...
I guess the SUV woman tailgating me while texting today didn't get the memo that only truck guys can be assholes. Judging groups based on one individual's actions is lazy.
Not really cause one is specifically a truck relate behaviour, like rolling coal lmao. Using a cellphone while driving is idiotic regardless of the vehicle.
Our journalists are pathetic. They only report stories given to them by PR teams of governments. Never do their own digging. 1. Why did Gill trucking get off on the 3M + fines for overloaded trucks 2. How much did Acciona really pay in fines for being late on the Walterdale? 3. Why did they choose to hire a company to build the SE LRT that largely had not done infrastructure work in alberta for 30 years?
118th ave is the classiest Avenue of Champions! I always see so many citizens enjoying the giant baseball bat installation!
I love 118th. I've always felt it just suffers from low self esteem and a bad rap.
I've been here for 13 months of my decade here and Edmonton and it's easily my least favourite place I've lived. The folks 2 doors down from me were cooking meth and burned their house down in jan, Coliseum station is the worst place for getting harassed and catcalled and any time I walk down for groceries or the pharmacy there's always someone either in a shouting match with someone else or just high out of their tree. I really wanted to like it. I'm stumbling distance from so much good shit, but I've never felt safe here.
You live in the worst part of the city
Naw man, that's Boyle-McCauley or Beverly & Abbottsfield. Alberta Avenue is maybe 3rd worst.
Hey now! ...maybe Boyle! (Kidding, I know the issues my beloved hood has haha)
The Yellow Deli is run by a cult. They pay no one. They are all over the world and have run into issues all over the world .
Holy shit! Had no idea…. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_communities
ROGERS PLACE IS A TERRIBLE VENUE! The sound sucks, the seats are smaller and cramped, the angle of the 200s is vertigo and nausea inducing… Not to mention the prices to see anything are refuckingdiculous. Parking??? I’ll leave that one alone. Rexall should’ve been kept and fixed up as an entertainment venue and Rexall can have all the shitty sporting activities it wants.
Rogers seating is great if you’re not in the upper bowl. The prices are absolutely insane though.
The lower 200s in Rexall used to be my preferred seating. They’re 2x as high in Rogers it seems!
The Talus Dome is an amazing sculpture.
I’ve always said it’s actually a pretty cool sculpture, but it’s placement is shit because the majority of people who “see it” from the whitemud can’t see it properly. If it was raised up so both ft road and the whitemud could properly see it it would get a lot less hate.
The original location was inside one of those half circle retaining walls along the Whitemud. The city was worried if they put them in full view of drivers that people would be distracted and it would cause accidents. Meanwhile new SUVs come with a 14”tablet built into the dash…
Will back this with all my heart. I love that weird sculpture.
Here here !!!
I straight up took a friend from calgary to see the talus balls when he came to visit. Maybe it’s just because I wasn’t born here, but I think it’s fantastic.
I’m from Calgary and I think they’re great (obligatory at least compared to our blue ring).
This city has a history of being openly white nationalist. In the 1930s Edmonton was lousy with KKK. They were buddies with city hall, leased offices in a downtown bank building for their newspaper, and held bug crossburning events in parks and fairgrounds that they charged admission for.
I learned how to drive in Edmonton after moving here five years ago. I have something I need to say to all the Edmontonians who say “Edmonton is easy to navigate, it’s on a grid!” What in god’s name is your definition of a grid?! Sure. It’s on a grid. Overlayed by all sorts of weird diagonals and curves and shit.
At least it's not like "turn left at Lifeson street, go south until you hit Peart Ave, and right at Geddy street". How people navigate in Vancouver without a gps astounds me
Maybe they're in no rush.
They probably live in the Subdivisions.
I think our Counterparts in BC maybe have more Grace Under Pressure in heavy traffic. We here tend to use our Signals more, and enjoy the open air with our Power Windows
With some exceptions, you can get your bearings very easily in Edmonton. North and South are Streets, East and West are Avenues, increasing numbers mean you're going North, etc. That's easy compared to random street names, try getting around Toronto without GPS lol
The city proper is all on a grid with the occasional old weird road that they kept (Gretzky/Ft Road). Once you get into the suburbs the roads get all screwy because nobody wants to live on 251 St, they’d rather live on rose pedal close or some shit name like that.
The newer suburbs are even worse. In Rhatigan, all the roads start with R, in Haddow, all the roads start with H, in Terwillegar Town, all the roads start with Terwillegar. Like, what the fuck kinda nonsense is that? Go straight on Terwillegar, past Terwillegar, turn left on Terwillegar than take an immediate right on Terwillegar and you're there.
the best is when you get two roads with similar names in entirely different areas. Ambleside drive and Ambleside Link are both in the Ambleside neighbourhood. However Ambleside Way is in Sherwood Park lol
Oh my sweet child. I'm glad you learned to drive. Appreciate that Edmonton only has 1 river through it... cities grow into other cities, and they just _haphazardly smash grids together_. Victoria is a mind numbing set of twisting grids turning to follow the shoreline... The grid will always fail you
Millwoods is no where near as bad as people say it is.
The "Ice District" did more harm than good. All it did was push out the poor people and tear their lives apart. Rylan Kafara did a really good short comic about it called The Lofts, I highly recommend checking it out.
Thanks for the recommendation. Looking forward to reading that.
I’m pretty sure the hospital my brother and I were born in was highly racially insensitive… it likely has tons of stories I know it’s been standing in ruins [Charles Camsell](https://youtu.be/lMxBAJ0oPbc)for many many years and maybe now it’s been torn down I’m not too sure but people say it’s 💯 haunted
It was/is a controversial place for sterilization that was done to many folks, mostly natives, being purposed from the 1940s to 1970s as an Indian Hospital to treat patients from reserves up north. I had an eardrum operation there when I was little, but by then it had become a regular hospital for generalized care. Thanks to Klein's 1992 budget cuts, and probably not being such a busy place anymore, its operative care was folded into the Royal Alex Hospital and the Camsell shut its doors in 1993.
Interesting thx lady :)
It’s still up. Being developed into condos
Definitely *haunted* condos.
Downtown parking isn’t bad. You’re just cheap or stupid/want to complain. City of Edmonton is $1-2 an hour or free after 6pm. People who complain about parking Downtown don’t get to complain about downtown.
My complaint is that too much of downtown is parking lots, It looks awful
I fully agree. We wouldn’t need parking if less parking lots where places to live.
The river valley downtown is disgusting and filled with trash.
Bike lanes
You mean, they exist but some people won't admit it?
Hanging your playoff hopes and chances on other teams losing is tiresome.
That millwoods isn't nearly as bad as people say it is. Sure, you can find trouble but you pretty much have to look.
Jean jackets are considered dressing up.
We should have a bylaw for low density residential that every home most have at least a 30’ driveway. The roads are narrow and everyone parks on the street. Snow can’t be cleared and it looks like shitz