Walterdale Bridge Replacement | ?m | ?s | City of Edmonton | DIALOG

I once talked to a consultant from Vancouver, and he told me he likes Edmonton's winters better than Vancouver's.
 
kcantor said:
you will be neither the first or the last to disagree with me and i am going to continue to disagree with you on this one.

if you are going to make comparisons, there needs to be some validity to it. we can do that with our river valley. you can also use comparisons as aspirational examples, ie we would like the development of and around the power plant to be like granville island or the forks. but saying that today, saying the power plant and the area around it “is our granville island” or “is our forks” simply makes us look foolish. i’m glad danzer’s folly is becoming a bit of an under recognized charm within our river valley park system and we should certainly be promoting and marketing that. but it’s no english bay and i doubt that’s what we should even be aspiring to here. something like little mountain in queen elizabeth park overlooking the ball park - an equally charming location with an enchanting urban view - perhaps, but still not english bay. one of the keys to success is setting yourself up for success because success breeds success and recognition. it’s like our use of the term “world class” for things that aren’t. that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still be exceptional.
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I don't think we have anything like English Bay, which is quite spectacular in some ways, but lets not feel bad because few cities do. However, I have somewhat mixed feelings about English Bay - when I have gone there it has either been too packed on a nice day or almost empty and forlorn on a not so nice day. Vancouver does not really have that many hot summer beach weather days (we actually probably have as many or perhaps more).

I do think of the forks or Granville Island when I look at the power plant, but I realize what I am imagining is a potential that I hope can be realized, not the current state. So perhaps that sort of marketing spin should be left only to those who want to develop it in that way and those that want to encourage this.
 
kcantor said:
you will be neither the first or the last to disagree with me and i am going to continue to disagree with you on this one.

if you are going to make comparisons, there needs to be some validity to it. we can do that with our river valley. you can also use comparisons as aspirational examples, ie we would like the development of and around the power plant to be like granville island or the forks. but saying that today, saying the power plant and the area around it “is our granville island” or “is our forks” simply makes us look foolish. i’m glad danzer’s folly is becoming a bit of an under recognized charm within our river valley park system and we should certainly be promoting and marketing that. but it’s no english bay and i doubt that’s what we should even be aspiring to here. something like little mountain in queen elizabeth park overlooking the ball park - an equally charming location with an enchanting urban view - perhaps, but still not english bay. one of the keys to success is setting yourself up for success because success breeds success and recognition. it’s like our use of the term “world class” for things that aren’t. that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t still be exceptional.
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That’s a fair and sound perspective.

I just see it differently. I’ve lived in 22-24 different communities across the country in the past 6 years and one thing I have recognized is that it’s almost natural for communities to compare themselves against one another. Courtenay builds boardwalks that it compares to Campbell River’s. Surrey develops a downtown that it compares to Burnaby. Vancouver compares its skyline as being another Hong Kong. Ucluelet claims it has its own beaches that are like “Ukies Long Beach” (a Tofino beach).
Edmonton tosses comparables of its features out kinda all over the place trying to market itself too.

I see it as less of a pissing match, and just a way of saying “go look at this place, it’s pretty sweet”. And it’s definitely a common thread seen AT LEAST across different Western Canadian communities.
 
Stevey_G said:
That’s a fair and sound perspective.

I just see it differently. I’ve lived in 22-24 different communities across the country in the past 6 years and one thing I have recognized is that it’s almost natural for communities to compare themselves against one another. Courtenay builds boardwalks that it compares to Campbell River’s. Surrey develops a downtown that it compares to Burnaby. Vancouver compares its skyline as being another Hong Kong. Ucluelet claims it has its own beaches that are like “Ukies Long Beach” (a Tofino beach).
Edmonton tosses comparables of its features out kinda all over the place trying to market itself too.

I see it as less of a pissing match, and just a way of saying “go look at this place, it’s pretty sweet”. And it’s definitely a common thread seen AT LEAST across different Western Canadian communities.
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I'll add to that: I've lived in my fair share of cities in 3 countries and it is VERY common to make this kind of relations.
A lot of South Americans will compare Canadian cities with their own, for example. Brazilians will tell you that Vancouver is Canada's Rio, as much as Toronto is Canada's São Paulo, Edmonton is Canada's Porto Alegre and Calgary is Canada's Curitiba, for example. This helps people that are coming here to identify themselves, create a certain bond and even find the best cities to visit and immigrate to.
People from Chile that live in Canada will often compare Santiago with Toronto and Montreal.

And these comparisons are not limited to one country or the other. It is natural for people to find relations, especially for places that they want people to either visit or stay away.

If I compare Rio with Syria, right now, because there are just as many gun related deaths there as in Syria in the middle of a war, I'm making a point that it's not a place to go. And if I compare São Paulo with a mix between NYC and Tokyo means that it is a huge, vibrant, multicultural city. No foul no harm, you see?
 
Stevey_G said:
That’s a fair and sound perspective.

I just see it differently. I’ve lived in 22-24 different communities across the country in the past 6 years and one thing I have recognized is that it’s almost natural for communities to compare themselves against one another. Courtenay builds boardwalks that it compares to Campbell River’s. Surrey develops a downtown that it compares to Burnaby. Vancouver compares its skyline as being another Hong Kong. Ucluelet claims it has its own beaches that are like “Ukies Long Beach” (a Tofino beach).
Edmonton tosses comparables of its features out kinda all over the place trying to market itself too.

I see it as less of a pissing match, and just a way of saying “go look at this place, it’s pretty sweet”. And it’s definitely a common thread seen AT LEAST across different Western Canadian communities.
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i'm not going to disagree with the comparisons you note or with their validity but i don't think the apply to comparison they made here. each and every one of those comparisons is made hoping people will come and see for themselves and confident that if they do they won't be disappointed. courtenay's boardwalks can hold their own with campbell river's. the same can be said for surrey's downtown and burnaby's, vancouver's skyline vs hong kong, ucluelet's beach vs tofino's. that's why they make the comparison. anyone visiting danzer's folly expecting it to rival or hold its own compared to english bay is going to say wtf were they thinking? that's the silly part. danzer's folly is a wonderful example of what it is and responding to some of it's shortcomings will make it a better one. that's what we need to learn how to brag about. what was done here was like saying stony plain's glen hall arena block is just like edmonton's ice district and rogers place or scotiabank arena in the south core area of toronto. it's just not. it might be a great little arena and a stalwart part of the fabric of stony plain and that's what should be bragged about.
 
there was a master plan (mets) that included a west freeway (the jasper freeway), an east freeway (98 Avenue), a northwest freeway, a northeast freeway, a south centre freeway along 109 Street and a southeast freeway among others. fragments of them got completed (james macdonald bridge, pieces of 109 street and 97 street etc.) but never connected. this hill was part of an anticipated interchange. it’s called danzer’s folly in honour of the plan’s author.

 
kcantor said:
there was a master plan (mets) that included a west freeway (the jasper freeway), an east freeway (98 Avenue), a northwest freeway, a northeast freeway, a south centre freeway along 109 Street and a southeast freeway among others. fragments of them got completed (james macdonald bridge, pieces of 109 street and 97 street etc.) but never connected. this hill was part of an anticipated interchange. it’s called danzer’s folly in honour of the plan’s author.

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I can't emphasize enough how grateful I'll forever be for this never having being built. If our Downtown suffers today, this would've been the complete demise of it.
 
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