Quote:
Originally Posted by BretttheRiderFan
I wonder how much of a coincidence it is that since the West Edmonton Mall opened, development in the city centre has been relatively stagnant.
|
It definitely contributed, but there were other factors at play:
1) The oil bust of the early 80s
2) Growth in the provincial bureaucracy slowed dramatically (and shrank for a while in the 90s)
3) Some Provincial government workers moved to suburban locations (ex. Neil Crawford Center)
4) LRT construction on Jasper in the 80s disrupted business for so long that many customers never came back
5) Edmonton made some dubious attempts to prop up downtown in the 80s like subsidizing the Eaton Center and Manulife 2 developments. This produced a lot of low quality product that was mostly vacant, further promoting the White Elephant image of downtown
6) Whyte Ave emerged as the entertainment street
7) Other suburban malls expanded in an attempt to compete with WEM (ex. Kingsway in 91, Londonderry in 92, Westmount in 90)
Threaded Mode