[mcc16]

Comparing ourselves to America shouldn't be a reason to congratulate ourselves for being not as bad as them...should that be our new city slogan? "Edmonton: ok compared to American cities."

It's more complicated than building up a downtown and forcefully limiting sprawl on the outskirts... We've seen in other cities that this approach leads to just as many problems. Vancouver doesn't have better traffic than Edmonton despite being "densely populated". Edmonton seems to be copying the trajectory of Toronto, and that also isn't a good thing. The biggest issue is people not living where they work. And I understand that it's impossible to think that everyone can or should live close to work. People change jobs or dont want to move their kids from school, or want to be near where their families live...and so on.

But it is impossible to think Edmonton can just keep building outwards. Places like Windermere are not that bad if they work the way they should. If most of the people living here were to use local services or work in local offices then this area would be no different than a central neighbourhood. But it's clearly not working this way.

We've made it way to easy to drive in this city which has caused people to make poor choices on where to live. So while everyone cheers the opening of the henday, I'm thinking how long until the henday is our 401 or gardiner: a parking lot of people stuck in traffic because we thought that building giant roads would solve all our problems.

I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again. Copenhagen! Definately not my favourite city I've ever been to, but clearly a very well planned example of how a city should function if quality of life is your main concern. And compenhagen has neither of the things everyone seems to be at odds with eachother about here. It has neither a built up central business district with centralized office towers or residential towers, nor does it have sprawling low density suburbs. And although its office towers and mid rise residential is spread out throughout the city, it still had an amazing central pedestrian shopping, eating, nightlife, and general entertainment zone...

So the suburb fetishists and the urbanistas here might do well to acknowledge the downsides of their own preferred lifestyle and work towards a balance that is better for everyone.

There is no global accepted right answer to what a city should look like, but we should acknowledge our deficiencies and look to other cities for what works...not congratulate ourselves for being better than a city that is failing.

And I should add, I'm a maths and sciences guy and find it extremely difficult to put my thoughts into writing...lol. So sorry if this makes no sense. I'll have to come out to one of those pint nights when I'm back in Edmonton to try to better explain...