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Hello, with family on both sides of border my experience is that outside of a few NCC-manicured streets (read: made to look euro) near Parliament, Ottawa is a pretty Midwestern medium sized city.
yep.
and it takes about half an hour to see all the European style buildings before you stumble right back into a typical Midwestern suburb that is true Ottawa.
Ottawa is a nice, pleasant, quiet place to live. It isn't an exciting, dynamic city, except for the activity around Parliament Hill. Lots of political staff and media around there. There are many international embassies, national institutions, and non-government organizations that have offices here. There's a lively restaurant/club area in the Byward Market downtown. There are some interesting "main street" type areas in many neighbourhoods that have a lot of funky small businesses. It's also kind of eclectic because of the bilingual nature of the city. Lots of people speak French and Gatineau is our neighbour across the river. There are a lot of outdoor-oriented recreational activities. There's some beautiful cottage country north of the city in Quebec. It's safe and clean.
The downside is that it's kind of overly safe, clean and quiet in many ways. The nightlife is quite lacking for a city with this size of a population (1 million). This is despite having two decent sized universities in the city. It's like a one-industry down, but in our case, the industry is the government bureaucracy. Most people here are government office workers. It's not unusual for people to head to Montreal or Toronto for the weekend for something to do. Ottawa can't compete with Montreal or Toronto when it comes to the entertainment, the shopping, etc.
I enjoy living here, and it's a wonderful place to raise a family. A bit on the dull side compared to larger cities, though.
OK, but you're over-emphasizing the dull part...I'd say it's more lively than most cities that are close to it's size. Cities that are Ottawa's size have about the same, quite reasonable level of downtown things to do, or have less. The only downside is that medium-sized cities are inherently lacking the energy and other attributes of big cities, which is a given and not a big deal-Montreal's only 2 hours away if that's desirable.
IMO with Quebec right across the river and the two languages/two cultures, and being the capital, Ottawa has more going for it than most cities of this size, actually.
yep.
and it takes about half an hour to see all the European style buildings before you stumble right back into a typical Midwestern suburb that is true Ottawa.
Uh, no. I've lived here in the US for decades after growing up in Ottawa. Ottawa's got a more pleasant and elegant feel to it than many American cities of its size, due to the two languages, two cultures, Quebec nearby, and being the capital, a higher degree of worldliness and standard of living coupled with higher educational levels. It's more sophisticated and cosmopolitan, for its size, due to the abovementioned factors. Throw in a Canadian sensibility and the governmental presence along with hi-tech (not a one-horse town BTW) and it's not the same as other places. The quality of life in Canada's capital is better than many mid-sized Amercian cities.
Sure, the suburbs in Ottawa, that I've lived in, bear some similarities, but the Americans have a special way of commercializing their neighborhoods, making them more cookie-cutter than I'm used to seeing in Ottawa and other Canadian locales. Canada and Ottawa retain a nice Euro-American mix that results in both better qualities of life AND respect for different socio-economic levels of life that is somewhat closer to the European models; Americans don't make much effort on equality, and it shows.
I moved from Ottawa to NYC. I'd take Ottawa over life in "TO" or any other Canadian city, factoring in the above as well as the costs of living and quality of life. Montreal's great but is a tougher life, and TO's is just big and non-descript, lacking Ottawa's more humane size, french-english mix and other charms. Vancouver, Calgary too expensive. Maybe Winnepeg or Regina would be nice too.
It's all a matter of perspective, but I would disagree with the last poster. There are comparable sized cities in Europe and the US that have a
more vibrant cultural life than Ottawa. Plus with the flattening of the core of Ottawa over the past fifty years there is unfortunately little of the city's European character left. That doesn't make these other cities better or worse - just different. I have travelled to visit family in many American cities where there are more older buildings and heritage preserved. I'm sure many will disagree on what is essentially one subjective opinion against another, but that's my two cents...
It's all a matter of perspective, but I would disagree with the last poster. There are comparable sized cities in Europe and the US that have a
more vibrant cultural life than Ottawa. Plus with the flattening of the core of Ottawa over the past fifty years there is unfortunately little of the city's European character left. That doesn't make these other cities better or worse - just different. I have travelled to visit family in many American cities where there are more older buildings and heritage preserved. I'm sure many will disagree on what is essentially one subjective opinion against another, but that's my two cents...
No one brought up Europe, that's truly a reach bringing that up.
There's plenty of European flavor left, in comparison with American cities.
Provide 5 or 10 examples in the US of similar size that have more flavor, without which it's just empty rhetoric and easy to say. At best you'll be able to provide some that might be comparable.
No one brought up Europe, that's truly a reach bringing that up.
There's plenty of European flavor left, in comparison with American cities.
Provide 5 or 10 examples in the US of similar size that have more flavor, without which it's just empty rhetoric and easy to say. At best you'll be able to provide some that might be comparable.
I tend to agree with you. Ottawa I find is a bit unsatisfying when it comes to urban sophistication when compared to European cities of its size and even capitals in other parts of the world (often in poorer countries than Canada). For Europe I am thinking of places like Oslo, Geneva, Zurich, Helsinki.
But when it comes to the U.S., cities in Ottawa's size category are places like: Grand Rapids, Rochester, Buffalo, Birmingham, Salt Lake City, Louisville, New Orleans, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Austin, Nashville, Milwaukee, Jacksonville...
I think downtown/central Ottawa when it comes to overall quality of the urban experience beats almost all of them. Probably the best of the American lot I listed is Austin. And maybe New Orleans, but it has a whole of bunch of other issues as we know.
But when it comes to the U.S., cities in Ottawa's size category are places like: Grand Rapids, Rochester, Buffalo, Birmingham, Salt Lake City, Louisville, New Orleans, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Austin, Nashville, Milwaukee, Jacksonville....
Grand Rapids, Rochester, Buffalo, Birmingham?? These are all cities a lot smaller than Ottawa in terms of population. Even New Orleans proper has a smaller population that the Capital City.
Grand Rapids, Rochester, Buffalo, Birmingham?? These are all cities a lot smaller than Ottawa in terms of population. Even New Orleans proper has a smaller population that the Capital City.
Then my point stands. They all have metros about the same size as Ottawa. Some are even larger I think.
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