News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 11K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 43K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 6.7K     0 
The change in the last 10 years in Kelowna is huge though, they seem to have really urbanized a lot. Long way to go, but I think they are quickly becoming a real city, not just a beach resort in the summer. I'm not sure they will get to a Victoria level of vibrancy since it's such a car dependent city, but they are at least trending in the right direction. One thing that might help them along is the brutal traffic. With only a single crossing, traffic on 97/Harvey will only get worse.
 
There is a third major road under development atm for Kelowna.

Right now it’s currently
1) Highway 97B
2) Glenmore Rd
3) going to be an extension of Clement Ave I believe scheduled to open in 2031

with Glenmore and Highway 97 being the only 2 roads that can really funnel traffic from Vernon -> Kelowna it’s genuinely hell trying to go anywhere. I somehow have a better time going from YYC to the SW than I do going YLW to downtown.

getinvolved.kelowna.ca

Clement Avenue Extension

This extension is part of a plan to replace Highway 97. Extending Clement from Spall to Highway 33 will reduce traffic on Enterprise, Highway 97, and Springfield.
getinvolved.kelowna.ca getinvolved.kelowna.ca
 
The government of BC is planning for an eventual 2nd Okanagan crossing at Kelowna, but I don’t think they’ve even settled on a location yet. Who knows if they ever will.

I lived in Kelowna for a summer 16 years ago, prior to my 2 years in Vancouver and my 14 years here. I have always been impressed with Kelowna for a city its size the era that it really started its growth. Kelowna has definitely matured a lot, but there’s always room for growth. The 150-meter student residence tower of the downtown UBCO campus will definitely add a lot of students and extra vibrancy to the south side of downtown.
 
Dkeirle said:
I might be in the minority, but the giant river valley was more of a pet peeve for me. It's beautiful and a fun place to do outdoor stuff, but I would have loved the river valley if it was north of downtown instead of between Downtown and Strathcona/UofA. I always like that you can leave work from a downtown Calgary office and walk or scooter your way over to Kensington, Mission or 17th, etc.. Another thing that was kind of a pet peeve was how far down you had to go to get to river. Here, the river is so accessible, probably more so than any city I've visited. People here don't realize how lucky they have it with the river system and pathway.
Click to expand...
I’m with you. I’ve never been a fan of the river valley. It looks nice, but it separates the inner city in two. Also like you mentioned, access to the water is difficult, and it’s obvious as people there don’t use the river, whereas the Bow is heavily used.
 
It is weird how the river valley cuts Edmonton in half, though I'm surprised how the north side of the valley never developed it's own high street. Jasper is close in parts, but is like 10% as lively as Whyte...
 
Mountain Man said:
It is weird how the river valley cuts Edmonton in half, though I'm surprised how the north side of the valley never developed it's own high street. Jasper is close in parts, but is like 10% as lively as Whyte...
Click to expand...
That likely has to do with the fact they were separate for such a short amount of time. I mean Calgary was supposed to get the University of Alberta but we didn't because Strathcona got it because they were not part of Edmonton at the time.

It also doesn't help that Edmonton's downtown never got the boom that Calgary's did.
 
Last edited:
Edmonton’s downtown never got the boom Calgarys did, but until not that long ago, maybe 20 years ago Calgarys downtown was all office buildings and a few apartment buildings, and Edmonton’s was the opposite and their downtown was pretty comparable to Calgary’s in terms of vibrancy - I would say theirs was maybe busier after hours or in weekends. But while Calgary’s downtown has exploded in the past 20 years Edmonton’s hasn’t changed. I think it might even be less busy than it used to be.
 
Vancouver's downtown was and still is, much more contiguous than Edmonton's though. Vancouver has very few parking lots left and are at the point where demolishing a 40 storey building makes sense. Edmonton has so much room for growth still that it's crazy.
 
12 years ago Calgary's downtown was arguably as busy or busier than any north American downtown during the day, except NYC, Chi, and Tor, maybe a couple of others, but was a complete ghost town after hours. 20 years ago Edmonton's downtown was busier than Calgary's after hours, but it's never been very busy in general due to geographical layout. Flash forward to today and daytime activity in Calgary's downtown has slowed somewhat compared to its peak in 2014, but after hours activity has skyrocketed. It has become a more balanced core, and the population doubling since 2014 is probably the main reason. That, and the satellite neighborhoods around downtown (Kensington, Mission, Bridgeland, EV, Inglewood) have all exploded in population.

Edmonton's case is kind of a funny one. So much of the residential is in a long east-west line along the river valley, and because the downtown doesn't have a lot of office workers in a concentrated area, retail has always struggled somewhat. These days retail in Edmonton's downtown is still struggling, its anchor mall Edmonton City Centre is more or less hanging on trying to avoid closure. It's a chicken before the egg - how do you get more people downtown without the retail? and how do you get the retail without the people? In their case, they just need to keep adding residential around the downtown. It's been a slow process, but it has been happening.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top