Edmonton Construction 5 - Page 93

Coldrsx · #**1841** Posted **Dec 28, 2006, 9:51 PM**

wayne gretzky once told me,

"i didnt become known for going into the corners and fighting for the puck, i went to the open ice, where there was no one competing for the same little black piece of rubber"

not everything has to be done in toronto or calgary.

I laugh at how many friends leave Edmonton to cal, van, tor, and come back or complain after the honeymoon wears off there. Mind you, i left to vancouver for a year and came back because i really like Edmonton.

CorporateWhore · #**1842** Posted **Dec 28, 2006, 10:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Edmonton has West Edmonton Mall that looks more tattered and trashy by the day, but Calgary has tons of shopping plus Calaway Park.

Coming to Calgary for Calaway Park would be very sad (and dissapointing) indeed.

Wooster · #**1843** Posted **Dec 28, 2006, 10:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

My three-year-old son yesterday told me he wants to move to Calgary.

WTF? We get 'em young now I guess.

Anyway, Edmonton will be fine, it will carve its own path. I think it will increasingly be divergent from Calgary's. I'd like to see two different cities. Not a clone of one another.

Bad Grizzly · #**1844** Posted **Dec 28, 2006, 10:29 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

SUBJECT: An Edmontonian envies Calgary

The Journal has recently lost some reporters to its sister paper The Calgary Herald lately and the trend seems to be continuing. That was once unthinkable.

My former colleagues give reasons such as new challenges, beats etc. but a lot of times they seem to be just covering the exact same stuff they did here.

Maybe it's a quality of life issue that drives them away from Edmonton. I've been spending the last few days in Calgary as the family does every Christmas. Where Edmonton looks shabby, Calgary looks shiny.

Whatever Edmonton has, Calgary generally has the same, only better. The newly expanded Calgary Telus World of Science, the Calgary Zoo, the Glenbow Museum outclass their northern counterparts in resources and appearance. (I refuse to take visiting Calgarians to the Edmonton Valley Zoo for fear of undying shame.)

Rail against corporations if you want, but their bucks make a huge difference in things that attract tourists, employees and their families to a city.

Edmonton has Whyte Avenue, but Calgary has 17th Avenue and Kensington and newly trendy Inglewood. Edmonton has West Edmonton Mall that looks more tattered and trashy by the day, but Calgary has tons of shopping plus Calaway Park.

Their airport is a hub, ours is not. Calgary has the Rocky Mountains. We've got ... Wabamum Lake.

Calgary freeways actually take you from one end of the city to the next in generally efficient fashion. Wayne Gretzky Drive, Whitemud Drive and Yellowhead Trail take you fewer places, far less quickly. The same goes for Edmonton's LRT system, er, line.

All other things being roughly equal, cities attract people to work and play with quality of life. Even reporters will abandon one newspaper for its sister paper down the road if the city is better. Maybe this is also why CBC's The National maddeningly ignores Alberta's capital in favour of Calgary.

My three-year-old son yesterday told me he wants to move to Calgary.

Often things that add quality of life cost money -- adding some reason to visit the river valley if you don't jog or taking some of the grit out of the gritty downtown east side. For this reason, I cut our more visionary civic leaders a little slack when they get dogpiled by the nickel-and-dimers.

Posted by Bill Mah on December 26, 2006 2:09 PM MDT
Permalink

Here's the comments I posted in the Calgary thread:

Hmmm... I love Calgary, but I don't agree with some of points in this article. Edmonton's provinical museum is nicer than the Glenbow IMO, and I don't know about the science centre either. I haven't been to the new Telus Science centre, but it isn't much different than the old one. Our new science centre hasn't even been built yet?
Another thing is that Edmonton's ring road is farther along than Calgary's. I think Edmonton's road system is pretty good.

I've known various people that have moved from Edmonton to Calgary and the results vary. One of my coworkers tranferred down here from Edmonton last year and has sinced moved back, while my girlfriend's moved here from Edmonton 7 years ago and really likes it. You can't easily sum up the differences between the two cities, and it's also going to be a different experience for each person.

itom 987 · #**1845** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CMD UW

While I agree that there should be amendments to the zoning bylaw, particularly for the downtown area, approvals in Edmonton take no longer than those in any other city.

E.g: Every development within downtown Vancouver is executed via Direct Control zoning.

Having Edmonton's approval process in tune with other cities isn't getting us anywhere.

Jasper and one o nin · #**1846** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:22 AM**

You know what is really interesting. I have spent a lot of time in Houston and Dallas. here is a tale of two cities very similar to alberta. Houston and Dallas are relatively the same size as each other (as is cal and edm), the demographics and economy is very similar ect... But the one thing that I notice is that the media and the people dont have this rivalry attitude like we have here in Alberta (or at least edmonton - cant speak for calgary). But each of the citys are unique in their own ways. And because there is not this us vs them mentality, each city is recognized on their own, for their own individual attributes. Whereas it seems like when someone thinks of edmonton, they have to size us up against calgary. which to me is just stupid. and Edmontons media is the absolute worst. as soon as edmonton gets something that calgary doesnt, or outperforms calgary for whatever reason, some idiot like graham hicks is all over it like a fat kid at a buffet line. but when its short lived, we look stupid.
Edmonton has a ton of things going for it, (and so does calgary) no reason to spoil it by comparing to our friends to the south

chenmau · #**1847** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:28 AM**

^^The Edmonton media is brutal for that. Edmontonians are being fed the us-them crap. A ton of my friends are tired of it.

christopherj · #**1848** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chenmau

^^The Edmonton media is brutal for that. Edmontonians are being fed the us-them crap. A ton of my friends are tired of it.

Agreed. It's fun in say, hockey, but when comparing cities...

itom 987 · #**1849** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:41 AM**

Good photos CMD UW!

chenmau · #**1850** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:42 AM**

So true. Comparing cities can get personal. Many people choose to live where they do, and it's partly a reflection of who they are.

SHOFEAR · #**1851** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 5:01 AM**

During my recent stay in Calgary it was pretty clear the Calgary media was just as bad. It seems to me that the Edmonton media loves to compare the two to see how each city performs. Calgary's media seemed much more ruthless in the comparison. Global Calgary had some drunk driving report where the police chief insisted, without any sort of benchmark that calgary's police were doing a far supperior job. Then some arts guy, oblivious to the fact that edmonton being named a culture capital was a rotating declaration, was soooo smug saying that the funding was because edmonton's arts community was suffering and Calgary's was flourishing without government handouts. It's a pretty clear example of how the two cities work differently. Calgary goes on the agressive stating what a great place it is and Edmonton just sites back and lets people make up their own mind. Give Calgary credit it freaking works.

I'm not sure if I was just being overly sensitive but it rubbed me the wrong way.

How ironic, in an attempt to say how stupid these comparisons are, I ended up comparing each cities media....

Jasper and one o nin · #**1852** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 5:32 AM**

I posted this in Borisisis's thread (with his pics) (but nobody seemed to be watching - so here it is)
saw the ukrainian catholic church pic and thought of this...

(you will need to watch for about a minute or so)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc3D0Wb_jvg

SHOFEAR · #**1853** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 5:48 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper and one o nin

I posted this in Borisisis's thread (with his pics) (but nobody seemed to be watching - so here it is)
saw the ukrainian catholic church pic and thought of this...

(you will need to watch for about a minute or so)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc3D0Wb_jvg

That's actually pretty funny. I'm guesing that first scene was shot around 95 street right?

Xelebes · #**1854** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 6:37 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SHOtime

That's actually pretty funny. I'm guesing that first scene was shot around 95 street right?

Looks like it.

IKAN104 · #**1855** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 4:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chenmau

So true. Comparing cities can get personal. Many people choose to live where they do, and it's partly a reflection of who they are.

It's very much a reflection of who they are. Everyone fits in somewhere and eventually most people find the city where they are most comfortable. Nothing wrong with that.

CMD UW · #**1856** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 5:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by itom 987

Having Edmonton's approval process in tune with other cities isn't getting us anywhere.

Then explain to me why?

itom 987 · #**1857** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 9:45 PM**

If development companies believe they can make more money pre sqft in Vancouver and Calgary while going through the same regulatory hurdles that Edmonton has so there is no reason for them to consider building in Edmonton. If Edmonton had less regulatory hurdles then Vancouver and Calgary have it would prevent developers from ignoring the Edmonton market. How will the Edmonton market grow if we don't feed it?

Coldrsx · #**1858** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 9:50 PM**

^demand in Edmonton is HUGE, margins are good, required work is relatively low.....there is the incentive for Edmonton.

Coldrsx · #**1859** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 10:15 PM**

wow...another well informed Edmontonian

Railway to blame for traffic snarls
Gateway Blvd. only one of several problem areas
The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, December 29, 2006

Much has been written about the proposed interchange at 23rd Avenue and Gateway Boulevard.

The estimated cost is $125 million. The discussion of whether the city or province will pay for it has omitted the one party who is the major reason for traffic congestion in south Edmonton -- the railway.

Why do we read nothing about the need to have the railway install and pay for underpasses on 53rd Avenue at 91st, 97th, and 99th Streets, and on Gateway Boulevard at the Whitemud and 51st, 34th, and 23rd Avenues?
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Never mind the accidents, think about the slow-moving freight trains causing a 20-minute-plus delay at three or four intersections at the same time. This delay coincides with the morning and evening rush-hour traffic, and often interrupts midday traffic.

Why does the city put up with it?

Why is the railway not given an ultimatum --build the required underpasses or vacate the south side.

The railway vacated the north side and I don't think anyone misses the railway crossing 104th Avenue at several locations, as it once did.

This is not the 1800s when the railway played a dominant role in settling the West.

This is today, when the railway is a royal pain and the major cause of traffic delay in south Edmonton.

L.R. Cunningham,

Edmonton

© The Edmonton Journal 2006

itom 987 · #**1860** Posted **Dec 29, 2006, 10:18 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

^demand in Edmonton is HUGE, margins are good, required work is relatively low.....there is the incentive for Edmonton.

We know that, but for some reason the developers don't. It seems like we are being ignored because we are ugly.