Calgary rates high in best cities to live in; Edmonton doesn't make the list
 

Edmontonians peeved, hah, what do they expect. That Ice District and bike lanes are going to make a world class city?

Whoever rated Calgary must not have had to commute anywhere…

Never know who they ask. Its a poll.
I really like living here. Guess it depends where and how you live

I like Calgary a lot

One should always take these listings with a grain of salt. Way too many variables to compare. What's important to one person doesn't matter in the least to another.

Grizz

X2! Each to his & Her own!

Where were best cities?

Fail !
 

If one considered the source and the validity of those findings & comments, most wouldn't have even started this thread!!!

And yes, I live in Calgary, but I just hate crap like this. :mad3:
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I love the view in calgry but would live in Edmonton for ever hands down. I hate waiting in traffic and I find calgry to be grid locked every time I’m there.

I live rural, but am within an hour of Edmonton so I am there often. I like the location of Calgary, and I pass through there a couple times a year.
My Observations
I notice the people in Edmonton are easier to start up conversations with, and will make eye contact and acknowledge you as you pass them on street more often. Just feels more comfortable to me.

Brad

Geeze the town I live in has 1200 people and I find that too crowded for my tastes....

I found Edmonton nice when I spent a couple of months there last winter on a commercial boiler room job. The thing that gets me is how flat it is excepting the river valley, not much topography. You can barely see anything from a distance; it reminds me a lot of Winnipeg that way. The plywood plant smells nice, love that smell of spruce being sliced up.

Calgary's home though, can't knock me for having a favorite. Its like Mom's cooking (at least if your Mom can cook, that is)

I like the back and forth ribbing, but I'm not down with it when people have serious contempt or a major superiority complex about where they're from. Or nations, when anywhere claims to be the best place in the world its never true, everywhere has something that's great & unique.

Will always have a soft spot for Edmonton, but I plan to move to Calg to do a Master’s, and will probably stay.

Only thing I will never like about Calgary’s downtown is all the one-ways. Talk about a pain in the butt to navigate lol.

Edmonton is a filthy dump. Calgary isn’t far behind but still nicer.

Live in Calgary, spent many years here...can't wait to get back to a smaller town...Calgary was a great city at around 700,000 people. Miss those days.

Less than an hour to the mountains, bike paths to work, employment options, relatively safe, great restaurants, constant work being done on parks/revitalization, good social infrastructure, thriving small business - love living here!

Grew up in Edmonton... only good memories as well.

As for the commute... Calgary is busy city, but if you can pick your community strategically and learn all the alternate routes, it ain't worse than any other city I have lived in.

Apart from the OP, thanks for keeping it civil. Urinating matches are useless.

I don't think anyone in their right mind would argue that Calgary does not have beautiful scenery and better weather. Edmonton has a nicer river valley, more festivals, and a nicer arena and football stadium. Though the cities are essentially duplicates population wise, Edmonton seems to have less traffic congestion. Calgary, in my opinion, has better hunting and fishing opportunities. Other than that they are just big cities.

Edmonton is home, and I am too old to uproot. But if I were young, knowing what I know now, I would likely settle in Calgary over Edmonton. Truth be known, I'd take Vancouver Island over either of them. Long winters suck.

A few things worth pointing out. The Economist only looked a a representative sample of cities. Its not surprising they included Alberta's largest city.

Its not a poll, its based on quantitative indicators. Summarized here. Its likely that if Edmonton were ranked on the same methodology it would have been #5 globally.

https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438...lSK0twVFJvaiJ9

Alberta cities are as good as it gets for the average citizen. You can afford a house, clean, safe, low crime, good schools, high incomes, amazing infrastructure. London is great if you are a Russian billionaire, but there are few places on the planet that have the quality of life we have in Alberta.

Let that sink in for a bit - Calgary is the best city to live in in North America, as based on data collected by a conservative business magazine, the Economist. Makes a lot of the end of the world about rhetoric about the need to save Alberta on this site seem a bit foolish.

Post of the year, maybe decade. Thank you, thank you!!!:)

For the same reason, I think it makes sense to defend what we have and even try to improve it. The reason other places are worse is because they allowed bad things to happen, though other things can be to do with their respective economies, not everywhere is blessed with abundant natural resources that have strong market values allowing for strong employment numbers. Complacency would just have us slide into 67th place. Who cares about our standing on such a list, it would be nice if everywhere had good evaluation numbers and the world was a giant prosperous tie. Perhaps you’re looking at it backwards, maybe we made that list precisely because people both defend what we have as well as build upon it. What I do know for certain is that apathy doesn’t get anything done.

We made the list because dinosaurs died and rotted in the ground creating thick black stuff that cars can run on. You honestly think people advocate for their communities more here than in other parts of NA? I don't think so. If you do, that's cool too.

All I know for sure is that complacency achieves jack squat. Some places that suck are just fine with on riding along on social assistance and their advocacy efforts go towards more gov’t handouts rather than actually achieving something. One such place in Burnaby is about to or is currently being dismantled by the RCMP but that’s another topic for a different forum.

As a person who actually does get involved in the political process - maybe you are too - complaining on AO, or any other outdoors forum for that matter, does less than nothing. That is what the poster was getting at, and I agree with him/her wholeheartedly.

Not much movement on this thread: http://outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=349156

Two quite different cities in my eye. Calgary is a head office city, a bit closer to some good recreational areas depending on what you want to do. Calgary has a lack of water in the general area, Edmonton is better situated that way. Edmonton is a capital city, also has more blue collar people, also serves a larger market area than Calgary. Winter is winter in Edmonton for the most part, Calgary has the "benefit" of chinooks. Southern Alberta would seem to me to be a bit more crowded, but, that may be illusory, although, getting out to bush country seems to be better out of Edmonton.

It depends where you live in Edmonton

My kids have never seen K Days. Never seen Boyle Street. No need to. They’ve never rode the LRT. And I am thankful.

Edmonton has scummy areas. We just don’t go there. I made it so we dont have to.

The areas we frequent are nice. And if someone has to get something near the Yellowhead, I go.

Calgary is similar. I like Calgary because I haven’t got it figured out yet. Lots of places I haven’t seen yet.

Then again, I don’t stay in $78 hotels either. My view of both cities is as skewed to the positive as I can make it

It's not that Edmonton didn't make the cut. The people that did the study figured that since Edmonton and Calgary were so close to eachother geographically/socially/economically they would just lump edmonton into the Calgary category. So in reality they share that spot on the list. Calgary is just more recognizable than Edmonton.

Yup, we are all anxiously awaiting our designation of a world class city :sHa_sarcasticlol:

You as well as a few others here have an entire city living in your head rent free.

Ask almost any Edmontonian what they think of Calgary and you will get something like, nice city, not for me though.

Ask almost any Calgarian what they think of Edmonton and they just start foaming at the mouth.

Inferiority complex? :love0025:

You’ll get used to them. They’re designed to make getting out of downtown easy, not so much for getting into downtown and finding your way around.

Yup, when you know your way around it is easy and quick. When you are unfamiliar it is a nightmare of one ways, stephan ave, the C-train, and the CP tracks.

Also my experience