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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hemsberg
Edmonton has the most character of these three cities.
Hmm... I'd be interested to hear an elaboration as to why Edmonton would have more character. A previous poster said the downtown was a bit underwhelming and fairly cheap. Never been, but what comes to mind is a working class oil town in the far northern prairies (and the most northern major city in latitude on the continent). Nice looking river and parks through the city, and perhaps a bit hockey crazed. I know both Edmonton and Calgary are post WWII cites for the most part which tends a paint a picture of utilitarian urban/suburban hybrid cities.
Hmm... I'd be interested to hear an elaboration as to why Edmonton would have more character. A previous poster said the downtown was a bit underwhelming and fairly cheap. Never been, but what comes to mind is a working class oil town in the far northern prairies (and the most northern major city in latitude on the continent). Nice looking river and parks through the city, and perhaps a bit hockey crazed. I know both Edmonton and Calgary are post WWII cites for the most part which tends a paint a picture of utilitarian urban/suburban hybrid cities.
I can't speak for the poster who said that but I do agree with that statement. Personally I find that Edmonton is more interesting in terms of the range of activities/festivals/entertainment options than Calgary. Edmonton is a more cultural and artistic city, from what I've seen. And of the two main entertainment districts in the respective cities, I think Whyte Avenue in Edmonton has more character than 17th Ave in Calgary.
As a bonus, I like that Edmonton's light rail line is underground through the core (unlike Calgary's).
I have to say I`m quite surprised by this poll and the comments. I can certainly see why people prefer Calgary as it has the other 2 cities beat in nearly every category. It`s safer, cleaner, wealthier, has the best transit, is near the mountains, has the least snow and milder winters, and is a very well organized city. You can move to Calgary and enjoy a high quality of life. Edmonton has the better university, more parks, and more festivals but that`s it. Canadians don`t call it Ed-mono-tone for nothing.
As for Winnipeg, statistically is at the bottom of the barrel. It has the worst climate, the most isolated, the worst {although still decent}transit, has higher crime, and is the poorest of the 3. That said I would take Winnipeg any day over Edmonton and probably Calgary. Winnipeg has a true soul and tons of character. It is a very artistic and cultured city even to the point of having the first ballet company in the entire Americas and is still one of the best on the planet. It is awash with festivals, arts, music, and theatre. Winnipeg has more restaurants per-capita than any other Canadian city and great small inner city neighbourhoods.
Winnipeg lost a lot of ground in the last 60 years but that had the very positive result of the saving the city from the wrecking ball which hurt a lot of Calgary and decimated Edmonton. The city has, by far, the best architecture, historical buildings, interesting neighbourhoods, walkable streets, and constant urban fabric. It`s downtown is vibrant all day and night and doesn`t empty out like Calgary and Edmonton. Cultural is a way of life in Winnipeg and is part of the city`s mentality unlike having a few festivals every year. The city has a huge downtown historic area called ~The Exchange District~ which has a the largest Chicago-style old warehouse district in NA including Chicago.
Winnipeg, in short, is a very cool, creative, historic, intriguing, interesting, and much more liberal city than either Calgary or Edmonton will ever hope to be. In a LIMITED way it`s kind of like comparing Chicago with Dallas or Houston...……….technically you will enjoy a higher standard of living in the latter 2 but if you are an urbanite, Winnipeg, like Chicago is where will feel most comfortable and invigorated.
I agree with ssiguy above. Winnipeg to me is a far more interesting and lively city than either Calgary or Edmonton. It has significantly superior historic architecture, impressive legacy institutions and a seriously under-rated arts and culture scene. It is kinda super-hipster: where young artists who are priced out of Toronto or Montreal have ended up. It is also surprisingly more cosmopolitan than either of the other two cities, and its downtown and adjacent urban neighborhoods are pedestrian-friendly and vibrant. Winnipeg has history, grit and soul.
Alberta is indeed the Texas of Canada: oil and cattle. Calgary and Edmonton are recent boom towns, especially Calgary, with tiny historic cores, very few walkable neighborhoods and a lot of cookie cutter, strip mall style sprawl. Calgary reminds me of Fort Worth without the art museums, and after one visit, there really is no reason to go there except as a springboard to Banff and the Canadian Rockies which are truly spectacular. Edmonton feels like a smaller, more college towny Calgary.
They are all science fiction cold in the Winter...
Calgary reminds me of Fort Worth without the art museums...
It’s hard for me to imagine anyone who has actually been to Calgary saying that. It’s significantly more walkable and urbane than Fort Worth. There’s a reason Calgary has one of the busiest light rail systems in North America and Fort Worth has very poor high capacity transit (hint: it’s land use). Also there is no corridor like 17th Ave SW in Calgary or Whyte Avenue in Edmonton anywhere in Texas aside from 6th Street in Austin.
Hard to answer. In terms of statistics, Winnipeg ranks at the bottom, clearly, having among the highest crime rates in Canada, a relatively lackluster job situation and income situation, and on paper, would be among the worst cities in Canada. However, as several posters have noted, it has more soul than Edmonton and a quite good arts scene (same is true of Minneapolis as well across the border). It has a bit of a grunge feel to it too, which is kind of neat.
But overall, I'd probably rate Calgary>Winnipeg>Edmonton.
Hard to answer. In terms of statistics, Winnipeg ranks at the bottom, clearly, having among the highest crime rates in Canada, a relatively lackluster job situation and income situation, and on paper, would be among the worst cities in Canada. However, as several posters have noted, it has more soul than Edmonton and a quite good arts scene (same is true of Minneapolis as well across the border). It has a bit of a grunge feel to it too, which is kind of neat.
But overall, I'd probably rate Calgary>Winnipeg>Edmonton.
Honestly, I see Edmonton as the happy medium option here. It has lower crime, better nature, warmer weather, more exciting growth (see: The Ice District) and much better transit than Winnipeg. At the same time, it has more grit, soul and character than Calgary, and a better arts and festival scene. And it's the only one of the three that has a subway through the core.
Edmonton has some nice neighborhood corridors and nodes outside of Downtown as well:
Overall:
Calgary has a better culture/historic scene than Edmonton. Not sure about Winnipeg but from the street view pics and videos Ive seen, I think they can make a strong case against Calgary. Calgary does have much better weather than both Edmonton and Winnipeg, however Edmonton is closer to Calgary than Winnipeg. Overall, Edmonton has a better university (UofA), better job stability, and cool new arena. But thats as far as Edmonton wins, everything else Calgary does better. Its nightlife is much stronger (concentrated mostly in the Beltline and 8th ave), its denser than both Edmonton and Winnipeg (depending on how u perceive density, it can work in the favour of vibrancy), much better airport(more destinations), wages and job opportunities is higher (has the 2nd highest number of offices in Canada after Toronto), Edmonton might have a bigger mall but Calgary has a lot better shopping (Calgary contains a lot more luxury brands than the other two cities if your into that lifestyle), Overall more to do in Calgary (if you run out of things to do, you can run to the mountains), Scenery/landscape is much better than the other two cities, crime is lower, Infrastructure and just the overall look of the city is much better (its newer looking), more multicultural with diverse cuisines and finally Calgary is classified as a "Beta city" meaning its more closer to a world class city/well connected/and receives more recognition internationally.
Calgary does come with a lot of its own problems too though. Highly dependent on the car like the other two cities but because the population is larger, it can create a nightmare during rush hour, although not as bad as Vancouver. Its sprawled out like the other two cities as well, which has been getting better since Nenshi has been Mayor. Too tax evasive, and what I mean by that is Calgarians will do anything to get away from paying an extra penny towards government services even though they have some of the lowest taxes in Canada. This tends to create a lot of tension and regressiveness in certain areas of the city. Same reason why Calgary doesn't have a field house or new arena yet, but as of late, this might change as it plans to build a massive entertainment district (sort of like Edmontons Ice district), Transit sucks but equivalent too Edmontons but much better than Winnipeg's from what I hear, Downtown empty's out after 5pm/ although the Beltline is a bit more vibrant. And lastly, the city is way to reliant on oil, when its booming, its really booming and that shows in its massive skyline for a city of 1.4 million but when things are down, the whole city can turn really hostile.
All and all, Calgary>Edmonton>Winnipeg.
I don't have as extensive knowledge about Winnipeg but what I hear from friends and other online sources, its doesn't sound too great. If the job market wasn't so down as of late, Id recommend Calgary to anyone arriving to Canada or moving from elsewhere, even over Toronto and Vancouver because wages are way too low and housing prices are absurd relative to Calgary. I still prefer the beautiful scenery and reasonable weather that Vancouver has to offer but Calgary can win you over too if you give it enough time.
There's a lot of residential and mixed-use towers under construction in downtown Calgary, so I'd expect that in a pretty short amount of time, Calgary's downtown will have a decent level of activity even outside of office hours.
Given the growth and strong downtown cores of Edmonton and Calgary and the growing Red Deer in between, it seems like rail service between the two might be sensible a couple decades from now.
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I'd be interested to hear an elaboration as to why Edmonton would have more character. A previous poster said the downtown was a bit underwhelming and fairly cheap. Never been, but what comes to mind is a working class oil town in the far northern prairies (and the most northern major city in latitude on the continent). Nice looking river and parks through the city, and perhaps a bit hockey crazed. I know both Edmonton and Calgary are post WWII cites for the most part which tends a paint a picture of utilitarian urban/suburban hybrid cities.
