Lethbridge

[PyramidsofMars]

Not that anyone really cares, but this forum may care more than others, so I'm going to describe my experience in Lethbridge, coming from an outsider, a Calgarian 'visible minority' who has lived in numerous other cities, big and small, in various reasons of the world.

A few impressions:

-I feel less safe walking around downtown Lethbridge than downtown Calgary or Kensington

-my God, there is a ton of hate here for the Natives, more than the Arabs have oil, though it seems nobody has a problem with those who are productive or are students etc.

-The people of the city (though admittedly I mostly wander around the West side) are really pretty nice and down to earth, and friendly and curious and receptive. An interesting note, and this is the only reason I mention being a visible minority, is that in Lethbridge when I say I'm from Calgary, people accept that. Heck, since I don't speak with an accent, people assume I'm from Calgary, and will ask me in conversation, "are you from Calgary, then?" In Calgary, if I say I'm from Calgary, people will often ask where I'm from 'originally', or ask for my 'ethnic origin'. I'm not making any particular comment here, I just thought it was an interesting distinction

-I am happy with my choice of university with all the factors etc. included. It's actually quite an intellectually stimulating and open and academic environment, way better than the UofC for that sort of thing IMO, as someone who has gone to both

-it seems that everyone that isn't over 55 thinks Lethbridge is a colossal windy hole and one of the worst places on earth. Not exactly sure why. It's a big-small-town, and it's got the amenities and arts etc. required relative to its size. Actually, due to student activity and such, there is a HIGHER amount of arts and such in Lethbridge than in cities its size all over the world. It strikes me as a nice town to be a retiree in, if you're not the type who wants to get out a lot, and a nice town to live in as a student. I would never in a million years want to live here after graduating, except if I were to return to work at the university. Calgary isn't that far away, and I can do whatever I like there. I go up to Calgary pretty often on the greyhound or by hitching a ride with someone, so I don't feel too bad. It's a nice quiet little place, with not much going on

-people are not anywhere near as hickish as I'd heard, and seem quite keen on developing the intellectual community in the city, even if their occupation is in every way completely removed from academia. Very little anti-intellectualism around from what I can tell

So yes, it's sort of a boring town. Most places are. I fail to see how a life in Lethbridge is any worse than a life in a suburb in Calgary, assuming like many suburbanites you pretty much stick to your home, the supermarket, and a couple of cafes. Lethbridge is a pretty neat little place, I've got no complaints, and it's pretty hospitable. I have a feeling I'll kinda miss it when I leave. Then again, I'm the type of person who really never glamorizes anything. I like Calgary, but I realize it's not really one of the world's great cities, yet I'm more likely to be inspired by Calgary artistically than by numerous 'better' places.

[Temporary_User]

uhh. . .cool story bro?

I just got home from the Duke, am a little to old to hit studio or not drunk enough. Midterm @ 10am so that is a good thing.
Lethbridge is chill though. I don't know the point of this thread. Maybe I'm drunker than I think...

[Yeah_Baby]

Get Hurricane's season tickets! Oh wait, don't they suck now?

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by Yeah_Baby

Get Hurricane's season tickets! Oh wait, don't they suck now?

I think they do.

[shootsscores]

Woah.... I'm from Lethbridge and would love to talk about it but man, I wouldn't normally weigh in on political stuff about 9/11 but I'm not sure I agree with that signature on your post...

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

uhh. . .cool story bro?

I just got home from the Duke, am a little to old to hit studio or not drunk enough. Midterm @ 10am so that is a good thing.
Lethbridge is chill though. I don't know the point of this thread. Maybe I'm drunker than I think...

I don't know the point of this thread either. I just felt like venting and didn't have another way of doing so I guess. If you look into the archives of other boards I'm a member of, you'd see me describe my time in Muscat, Oman, and in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and a bunch of other places. I tend to make threads like this, giving my impression of whatever city I've spent some time in, because nobody IRL cares, and internet people not caring has zero effect on me while boring people IRL is kinda awkward.

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by shootsscores

Woah.... I'm from Lethbridge and would love to talk about it but man, I wouldn't normally weigh in on political stuff about 9/11 but I'm not sure I agree with that signature on your post...

are you sure you understand it?

[shootsscores]

Know what, I'm just gonna say my bad cause I'm not completely sure I do! So lets talk about the bridge and not your sig. Born and raised and I'm glad you like our little hick town haha. You can explain it to me in a PM.

[BlackArcher101]

Having lived there for 14 years, I can say the only thing I agree with is the note about the natives. I think you should leave the west side a bit more and update your review in a years time.

You haven't mentioned any background info which is relative to your review. What are you taking in academics and how long have you been in Lethbridge?

What's this "arabs that have oil" hatred comparison? I never even knew that was a hatred?

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Having lived there for 14 years, I can say the only thing I agree with is the note about the natives. I think you should leave the west side a bit more and update your review in a years time.

You haven't mentioned any background info which is relative to your review. What are you taking in academics and how long have you been in Lethbridge?

What's this "arabs that have oil" hatred comparison? I never even knew that was a hatred?

I meant it to mean people in Lethbridge have more hate for natives than the Arabs have oil.

Not sure why I'd want to leave the west side more. What's there to see? This is my second semester in Lethbridge and fourth in university (though the first two at the UofC weren't full-time, so I don't have the course credits to show). I'm in Humanities, thinking about switching to Psychology, a little uncomfortable about saying more than that.

What specifically do you disagree with? I was hoping someone who had lived there for a while would reply, but I was hoping it would be a little less vague.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by PyramidsofMars

I meant it to mean people in Lethbridge have more hate for natives than the Arabs have oil.

Not sure why I'd want to leave the west side more. What's there to see? This is my second semester in Lethbridge and fourth in university (though the first two at the UofC weren't full-time, so I don't have the course credits to show). I'm in Humanities, thinking about switching to Psychology, a little uncomfortable about saying more than that.

What specifically do you disagree with? I was hoping someone who had lived there for a while would reply, but I was hoping it would be a little less vague.

Ah, gotcha. That arab remark wasn't making sense to me, haha.

Leaving the west side would actually allow you to acurrately review the City of Lethbridge, instead of just a small portion of it. I always found the difference between west and north/south to be night and day. Especially north .

I have sinced moved away, but from family that still remains there, it sounds like lately the wind hasn't been occuring as often as it would normally. I'm far under 55, and frankly the wind is a key factor in my decision to never live there again.

Pros:
- Quiet and laid back (if you like that).
- If it rains in the summer, the green coulees can be fairly nice.
- Nice parks/public lakes.
- Cheaper housing.
- Henry's chinese restaurant (great lunch).
- Close to waterton.
- Better chance that a stranger will converse with you.

Cons:
- Quiet (if you feed off energy)
- Large ratio of students to permanent residents.
- Shopping and availability of products are more limited.
- Not a lot of things to do, fewer entertainment options.
- North Side
- Few jobs, especially in a few certain lines of work.

Basically, I feel it's not a place that really allows a person to grow to their full potential. It feels limiting in career and personal life development. As for retiring there one day, I think a more scenic area will be near the top of my list.

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Ah, gotcha. That arab remark wasn't making sense to me, haha.

Leaving the west side would actually allow you to acurrately review the City of Lethbridge, instead of just a small portion of it. I always found the difference between west and north/south to be night and day. Especially north .

I have sinced moved away, but from family that still remains there, it sounds like lately the wind hasn't been occuring as often as it would normally. I'm far under 55, and frankly the wind is a key factor in my decision to never live there again.

Pros:
- Quiet and laid back (if you like that).
- If it rains in the summer, the green coulees can be fairly nice.
- Nice parks/public lakes.
- Cheaper housing.
- Henry's chinese restaurant (great lunch).
- Close to waterton.
- Better chance that a stranger will converse with you.

Cons:
- Quiet (if you feed off energy)
- Large ratio of students to permanent residents.
- Shopping and availability of products are more limited.
- Not a lot of things to do, fewer entertainment options.
- North Side
- Few jobs, especially in a few certain lines of work.

Basically, I feel it's not a place that really allows a person to grow to their full potential. It feels limiting in career and personal life development.

Yeah, I don't disagree with much of what you said, except for the ratio of students to permanent residents, ha.

I've heard a lot of crap about the North Side. Let me put it this way, I'm a Calgarian but I have never really done more than just pass through whole swathes of the northeast to get to the airport. I have heard from East Indian acquaintances about a few really superb hidden gems for kebabs and tikka and such, so I check those out. That's really the limit of my exploration of NE Calgary, aside from some of the more inner-city areas. Does this make me unqualified to discuss my time in Calgary?

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my roommate when we were driving up to Calgary on a weekend this past fall. We were sharing travel stories and we ended up talking about our vastly differing perspectives on London (England), despite having both lived there for some time. Over a long discussion of it, we came to the conclusion that while there are some objective criteria by which we can discuss cities and towns (travel and civic exploration being a hobby of both of ours), ultimately we really make our own reality when it comes to where we live. To me, Calgary is downtown, Sunnyside/Kensington, Inglewood, and several parts of the NW and SW, mainly inner-city areas. To others, Calgary is the drive from their house in Royal Oak to the Costco to Walmart and back, with the occasional visit to their equivalent of downtown, Crowfoot.

Similarly, to me, London is great music at pubs in Fulham, intense soccer matches, incredible hustle and bustle, and the immense psychogeographic reality of a TWO THOUSAND year old city which one could really lose themselves in and find anything and everything in it. To my roommate, it was really just a bunch of dirty, ugly streets with a lot of crime and poverty, and he hated the romanticization of London in our culture. And he pointed out that we really say a lot about places we travel to and visit without really experiencing them, only portion(s) of them. For example, I mentioned Muscat, Oman in this thread already. Absolutely amazing place. Really opened my eyes to the history of the gulf region. Absolutely amazing, eye-opening, fascinating political history, ripe grounds for new anthropological advances. Yet ignored by the most of the world, thank heavens. Yet I had the benefit of knowing Canadian expats there who knew their way around and showed me a lot of the stuff worth seeing and a lot of really awesome hidden gems. The other day I went on youtube and saw a video of a British couple who had obviously got some package deal, and it was just them sitting at the hotel bar, going to MALLS, and going to the souq (local marketplace). They missed out on everything that's really cool and vital about the place, and it was a complete waste of their time.

For the record, I'm not really saying Lethbridge is a great place to live, I'm just saying it's not nearly as bad as I'd heard and assumed, and that it's sort of neat and decent for what it is.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Pros:
- Quiet and laid back (if you like that).
- If it rains in the summer, the green coulees can be fairly nice.
- Nice parks/public lakes.
- Cheaper housing.
- Henry's chinese restaurant (great lunch).
- Close to waterton.
- Better chance that a stranger will converse with you.

Cons:
- Quiet (if you feed off energy)
- Large ratio of students to permanent residents.
- Shopping and availability of products are more limited.
- Not a lot of things to do, fewer entertainment options.
- North Side
- Few jobs, especially in a few certain lines of work.

Basically, I feel it's not a place that really allows a person to grow to their full potential. It feels limiting in career and personal life development. As for retiring there one day, I think a more scenic area will be near the top of my list.

I was born and spent most of my formative years in Lethbridge. I agree with your list, except for the bolded parts. I don't find the ratio of students to permanent residents to be a con at all. I find it breathes fresh air into the city.

Every town is bound to have its relative dirty side, but the North Side isn't enough of one for me to call it a con.

PyramidofMars - I'm a little unsure what points you're trying to make. Seems you are just getting a bunch of thoughts out there, which is fine.

I agree with BlackArcher101, and recommend that you spend some time on the other side of the Oldman River. It is a lot different, especially the downtown and older residential areas. It's not as vibrant and intense as Calgary's downtown and older areas of course, but you will definitely get a different impression of the City of Lethbridge as a whole. This is mostly due to the built form as compared to the west side. You're correct that the West side is a lot like any generic Calgary (or anywhere in North America) suburban community. This is because the entire west side was built from the 1970s onward, after the University opened in 1967.

As for attractions outside of the west side, there's quite a few. There's the Yates Memorial Centre, Galt Gardens, Galt Museum, Henderson Lake Park, Japanese Gardens. 4th Ave./downtown area can be pleasant to stroll, same with the older residential areas on the north and especially south sides. There's some decent hangouts too like the Penny Coffee House (haven't been there in years, so not sure if it is still good), Average Joe's sports bar (if that's your bag), and I hear the new (a few years old now) restaurant in the old water tower is good.

Just trying to give you some unique-to-Lethbridge ideas. Of course there's stuff you'd find anyplace else, like Calgary, like Park Place Mall, industrial area, Costco, etc.

If you're outdoorsy in any way, I highly recommend heading down into the coulees sometime. I gather you don't have a vehicle, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to take a walk or bike down using the pathway system and there's lots of picnic benches and shelters down near the river. You can be down there for a walk, jog, dip in the river (stay away from the weir) and be back in no time, all on your own two feet or by bike.

As far as your comments about natives, growing up there I found that they are a much more prevalent part of everyday life in Lethbridge than in Calgary. I don't have the numbers, but they seem to be fairly evenly distributed throughout the city and just proportionally more of them. There is some negativity toward them, you're right. I found this especially true amongst second or third (or more) generation Lethbridgites.

Do you live on or off campus?

[Jesse834]

Um there is a lot of hot chicks that go to College then again there is a lot of hot chicks all over all the place.

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

PyramidofMars - I'm a little unsure what points you're trying to make. Seems you are just getting a bunch of thoughts out there, which is fine.

yeah, that's really it.

I agree with BlackArcher101, and recommend that you spend some time on the other side of the Oldman River. It is a lot different, especially the downtown and older residential areas. It's not as vibrant and intense as Calgary's downtown and older areas of course, but you will definitely get a different impression of the City of Lethbridge as a whole. This is mostly due to the built form as compared to the west side. You're correct that the West side is a lot like any generic Calgary (or anywhere in North America) suburban community. This is because the entire west side was built from the 1970s onward, after the University opened in 1967.

As for attractions outside of the west side, there's quite a few. There's the Yates Memorial Centre, Galt Gardens, Galt Museum, Henderson Lake Park, Japanese Gardens. 4th Ave./downtown area can be pleasant to stroll, same with the older residential areas on the north and especially south sides. There's some decent hangouts too like the Penny Coffee House (haven't been there in years, so not sure if it is still good), Average Joe's sports bar (if that's your bag), and I hear the new (a few years old now) restaurant in the old water tower is good.

Thanks for all these suggestions. I guess a proper exploration of Lethbridge is due. I have walked around downtown a fair bit, mostly near the bus terminal, to the Greyhound station, and to the public library, and walked from the downtown bus stop to SaveonFoods several times because they deliver your groceries for free (and I prefer walking that distance to catching another bus). I have meant to check out some of the cafes downtown, they look nice. The only one I've been in was Round St. which had very good coffee and cake, I sat there waiting because I was a bit early for the Greyhound (which as you know is pretty much right next door).

If you're outdoorsy in any way, I highly recommend heading down into the coulees sometime. I gather you don't have a vehicle, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to take a walk or bike down using the pathway system and there's lots of picnic benches and shelters down near the river. You can be down there for a walk, jog, dip in the river (stay away from the weir) and be back in no time, all on your own two feet or by bike.

I have been planning to do this probably in the summer since I plan on doing at least one term of study.

As far as your comments about natives, growing up there I found that they are a much more prevalent part of everyday life in Lethbridge than in Calgary. I don't have the numbers, but they seem to be fairly evenly distributed throughout the city and just proportionally more of them. There is some negativity toward them, you're right. I found this especially true amongst second or third (or more) generation Lethbridgites.

Do you live on or off campus?

I live off-campus but very near-by.

I agree, they are more prevalent here, but while I think that it's sad that racism against natives specifically is the cultural norm almost even in Calgary, it seems a lot more vicious down here. On my first day here the one point people seemed to stress was to avoid 'all the drunk natives infesting the city', some said avoid downtown entirely because the natives ruin it, I heard countless Indian jokes (hey, I don't mind racist jokes sometimes, but these were often more cruel than amusing), and just a ridiculous number of derogatory and clearly racist comments about them. I also see people outright glare at any white/native couples, while the city doesn't seem to particularly care either way about Blacks, Indians, Arabs, Asians, etc. in a similar situation.

[PyramidsofMars]

Originally Posted by Jesse834

Um there is a lot of hot chicks that go to College then again there is a lot of hot chicks all over all the place.

seems to me there's a lot of skanks who go to College, and a lot of hot chicks who go to the University.

[Lithium]

All the girls in Lethbridge look and dress the same. It's kind of funny, and by funny I mean pathetic.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by PyramidsofMars

I live off-campus but very near-by.

Yeah, I grew up on the west side about a 7-10 minute walk from campus. A lot of the houses on the street I grew up on are now rented to students.

You may want to check out a Hurricanes game or two. A U of L Pronghorns game can be fun as well. Fun fact - the Pronghorns won the CIS championship in 1994 under the head coaching of some guy named Mike Babcock. He actually lived quite close to me while he was coaching the team. Kelly Kisio also lived down the street from me in Lethbridge when he was part of the Flames scouting staff.

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by PyramidsofMars

are you sure you understand it?

I get what you are trying to say but by definition you are using the word in the wrong context.

A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"; stem μάρτυρ-, mártyr-) is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious.

[Buff]

Been in Lethbridge for over 20 years now. I want to comment more, but right now I'll just pickup on the natives. Being so close to two reserves, Lethbridge will see a lot of aboriginal people in town. They do have a devil may care attitude, which isn't bad, but it doesn't fit in with what many people consider to be normal. However, where they get their bad name is the homeless natives who hang out in Galt Gardens seemingly 24/7. They get wasted on whatever chemical they can get their hands on. In the winter they go somewhere to cause a disturbance so the police are called to haul them off to the drunk tank so they have a warm place to stay. They have no qualms about trying to bum money off of anybody within earshot. it is this crowd that gives the natives as a whole, a bad name.

I worked downtown for a few years, and it was a great area to go to everyday, but you had to deal with the homeless natives. You got used to them and found ways to avoid them, but sometimes you couldn't and they would wear on your patience. Is it a problem? Yes, but not a problem deserving of the hatred it brings... but thats the easy way out.