Didn't know where else to talk about this.
I was in Edmonton this past week with my girlfriend. Now, mind you, for context, she was born and raised in Vancouver Island, and has lived between Montreal and Toronto (last in TO) for the past 18 years (and in Kelowna, now), but had never been to Edmonton other than a short stop where she only visited WEM, back in the 1990s, so it was very interesting to hear her thoughts.
First, the good:
She was pleasantly surprised by the large variety and good quality of the food offerings, from coffee shops and bakeries to nicer restaurants, and everything in between. Her opinions were particularly favourable with regards to the relative affordability of places in Edmonton compared to similar quality ones in Toronto. (She also likes out donair better than NS, so that's a bonus). From everything she'd ever heard about Edmonton, she was expecting a lot less and got delivered with an experience that, save for the very high end, feels very much on par with Toronto and (to a lesser extent) Montreal. This echoes my own perceptions regarding the comparison with Vancouver.
She really enjoyed the River Valley and how the city, overall, is very lush and green, and how many trees Edmonton has in pretty much all of the city, save for very few places we drove by. She also liked our mature residential neighbourhoods, especially the more central ones (part of our visit was dedicated to me selling her on eventually moving to Edmonton as soon as I can move to work remotely, or find something back in the city, so we drove around). One neighbouthood she really enjoyed was Winketowin, especially after learning of the VLW and seeing all the new developments going up in the area. We stayed there for the week at a friends place and walked to mostly everything a lot of the time. She loved the Fringe Festival and how liverly Old Strathcona was, and how nice the nighbourhood was to walk around.
Her opinion of the people, everywhere we went, was extremely positive. Nice, kind and helpful, which she felt was a big plus over Toronto and, especially, Montreal.
Despite our very high standards in this forum, regarding the architectural quality of the buildings here, and all the (justified) criticisms we have, hearing that we have a lot of cool/nice looking buildings and areas from someone with entirely fresh eyes was very nice. Her favourites were the Arts District, particularly City Hall, new Winspear and the AGA, ICE District as a whole, Legislature Grounds, Whyte Ave and West Block, that I can remember. She also pointed out that The Parks look a lot like the building she used to live in Toronto, which I take as a compliment. She did think the library was some sort of big central warehouse when we drove by the first time (coming from the south on 100 st).
We rode the LRT a few times, mostly to go from DT to the University and walk down to the Fringe Festival, and then we also took it to go to Muttart Conservatory. She didn't feel particularly unsafe at any point, either on the trains or the stations. The little social disorder we saw was, according to her, not worse than a few of Toronto or Montreal stations. Her caveat was that because there are less users, it is more visible. Learning that after the VLW is complete basically all of our major destinations will be connected to rail transit was something she appreciated a lot, as it was something she got used to having in TO and MTL.
WEM continues to be a winner, for everything. We kind of normalized it, but having such a large and complete entertainment and shopping centre that gives us the opportunity to have year-round fun and services is not something most cities can say they do. we took a whole day just to enjoy the mall and she was left with the impression that it is, by far, Edmonton's best asset and definitely a great selling point in moving there.
Now the bad:
Downtown felt pretty dead, even during office ours, which made the social disorder issues feel a lot more prominent. Not particularly higher than Toronto or Montreal, but this aggregates to the perception.
as
@IanO and many others frequently mention, the city's upkeep and cleanliness left much to be desired, especially walking DT and across the Walterdale.
All of the construction was very annoying
The dystopian suburban hellscapes we call neighbourhoods, when we went to visit a friend, and how much of the city is comprised of these, was something she didn't enjoy. Felt lifeless and bland.
The lack or top notch fine dining that compared to TO, MTL and Van (and even Calgary, to a point).
The lack of enough entertainment options Downtown was a major letdown. It was the other side of the WEM coin. She wouldn't consider living there mostly because of that, since it would be the one thing that would counteract the visible social disorder, in her opinion, in the sense tthat she'd deal with the disorder if there was the convenience of not having to drive all the way to WEM or SEC for a lot of stuff.
Overall, her impression of the city was highly positive, and she's sold on the idea of moving to Edmonton in a not so distant future, especially when factoring in housing affordability, lower taxes, etc.
