Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm
Don't know about world class, but Calgary is a step above Edmonton in most, if not all ways. There has always been a decent gap. Growing up North of Edmonton it was never an impressive site or place to visit, minus the mall. The first time I was in Calgary as a youngin, it was just better. Cleaner, the skyline (even then) and the view of the mountains almost anywhere in the city.
I'd say in the last 4-5 years, the gap has only grown and at this point Calgary is easily the better place.
Just drive into both cities and you'll quickly realize what I'm saying. Calgary has a wow factor with impressive buildings already there, and going up. Edmonton just feels like a lower quality of it, no "wow" there as you enter.. it's actually a lot of "oh... wow..yuck".
Honestly, what really excites me about Calgary is the changing aspect. It's not a world Class city, it might not ever be.. but it's attempting to do so. There has been a dynamic shift in the culture recently. It's no longer acceptable for architecture in this city to be boring, bland, and look Joseph Stalin designed it. YYC is finally comfortable saying we want things to be different and dynamic.
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Have you driven down 17th Ave SE in the past......30 years? That's a dump. How about the C-train line downtown, that has some beauty to it as well. Having lived in Calgary for 30+ years and Edmonton for 5 I have a much different view than yours. Calgary looks good and it's location is great, mountains are right there. The sprawl is brutal, the commute is a joke and the Stampede is something that is much bigger in Calgarians heads than it actually is. The downtown skyline is great downtown with the vacant buildings and the location of it is laughable at best. How much have the floods cost so far? What has been done?
The traffic in Edmonton isn't even comparable to Calgary, it's night and day. They have an actual football stadium that can attract big concerts and major sporting events. The arts culture is way ahead of Calgary (not hard though as Calgary might have the weakest art culture in Canada). The river valley is an actual valley without any concern of disasters. Don't forget that with the closure of the airport that the skyline in Edmonton will be changed within the next 10 years as well.
Very good possibility of being a host city for the World Cup of Soccer in either 2022 or 2026, Calgary is unable to be a host city because they have a "stadium" that can seat 30,000 with a noise by-law that basically renders it useless.
But Edmonton sucks and Calgary rules huh.......