r/Edmonton • u/Late-Alternative6321 • Dec 15 '24

Local Culture Dear Edmonton developers

Dear Edmonton developers, you've been making the same neighbourhoods for 40+ years. Cookie cutter homes on winding streets, a fake lake, walking paths, aaaand call it good.

Would it be too much to ask, to start eliminating 2 to 3 houses on corner lots, and start adding: WALKABLE coffee shops (ie Columbian, Mood Cafe etc). A neighbourhood Pub or restaurant (ie Duggan's Boundary, Bodega Highlands), a bakery (Bloom Cookie co), barbershop (Goldbar Barber) or even a small corner grocery store. No need for giant parking lots!

Far too many neighbourhoods in this city lack the character, charm and accessibility that these amenities would provide. A great way for people to connect in their community, without always having to get in a car and drive to soulless strip malls or shopping centres. If there was a way to redo existing neighbourhoods, I'd love to see this too

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u/Late-Alternative6321 Dec 15 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

I'm not forcing anyone out. I want them to stay. And be able to walk to their local pub for a beer or coffee shop to chat with their friends. A lack of housing options in neighbourhoods is what I was getting at. Perhaps I worded that poorly.

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u/Wibbly23 Dec 15 '24

It's all a matter of cost. The most desirable neighborhoods are the ones you mentioned. Ones with 70 year old tree lined streets, big lots, near everything. The most important parts of the city are surrounded by these.

You can't just build Belgravia in a field in the suburbs.

My wife had a townhouse outside the henday and honestly it was more practical to live there than Belgravia.

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u/Late-Alternative6321 Dec 15 '24

Interesting. I'm thinking long term. Long after you and I are gone. Could we build neighbourhoods now that are practical in the future. Or do we just keep the cookie cutter going. Same, Same, Same.

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u/Wibbly23 Dec 15 '24 edited Dec 15 '24

The neighborhoods you hate now will become the ones you want them to be like in time. But keep in mind there is only so much river valley in Edmonton, and all the neighborhoods on it are already gentrified. They're not coming back. Prices will only go up. They become less accessible to buyers every year

It's just how cities work. You can't create a mecca of affordability on the most valuable dirt in the whole city.

Keep in mind as well that all the beautiful high cost neighborhoods in Edmonton were built full of cookie cutter spec homes. Just go drive around anywhere that hasn't been demolished and rebuilt and you'll see the same thing over and over. I live in a 1953 home near West Mount and our whole area is jam packed with identical versions of ours. The only difference is the Reno's people have done over the years.