Edmonton: The Quarters

Edmonton's downtown is a far seedier and rougher place than Calgary. From about 109th Street east..most of the core is low rent & empty. There are pockets where the city has tired to fix things up but they've been somewhat unsuccessful although residents say that it's improved in the past few years.

The east side of downtown Edmonton is known as the Quarters..an area that reminds me of watching "Cops" when I was a kid. It's endless vacant lots or dilapidated houses and most of the population you'll see there are homeless folks or drug addicts. It's common place to see street walking hookers & there are more than a few sex parlours in the neighborhood. When I parked to take this photo with my Blackberry, I was approached immediately by a woman asking if I was looking for a good time..in broad daylight..with a cop car in plain view up the street. If you're a student of urban design you'll find this area of Edmonton fascinating. Low rent shops, stores & the portion of society that we left behind to suffer with their own ills.

I'd say half of the core is rundown and it may be why so many people see Edmonton as such a rough place. There looks to be a huge drug problem in downtown & the few times I've been there I've been approached by addicts & people that rise my guard (something that doesn't happen much).

Once you pass 109th Street, there is a notable change in the mood of the city core. I'll write about that next...but first it's the gym.

Edmonton: Lucky 97

Food prices are expensive in Alberta..and one way around that is Lucky 97 supermarket. It's an Asian supermarket in Chinatown (97th street and about 106th Ave).

When you arrive at Lucky 97, you'll immediately discover that there are not enough parking spaces for all the customers. The parking lot is a sea of people that just stop or park sideways or come up with more creative ways to stick their car in a corner and hope it doesn't get towed. Even around the back you'll find most of the spots are taken. I tend to park on the side streets but they are very narrow and in winter have huge snow ruts in them. I'd advise you to lock your doors and keep valuable out of site. The area is populated by some pretty ghetto looking characters..absolutely none of them Chinese.

Inside Lucky 97, you'll experience what you find in most Asian markets. It's small and it's very crowded. Just walking down the aisle is somewhat frustrating with all the people scattered around you. The store has a great selection of fresh fruit and veggies and it's one of the only places in Edmonton where you can find good veggies in winter. It's also one of the only places I've found stuff like Bok Choy & other Asian foods without paying double the price at Sobey's.

Lucky 97 has a huge seafood department, a big meat department (very busy) and has a take out style deli/restaurant. I'm a big fan of genuine Chinese food and this place is a deal. $4.50 for 3 choices in a combo..that's a price that's unheard of in Alberta. You'll pay double that pretty much everywhere else.

The store has a good choice of pretty much everything, but if you're expecting the aesthetically pleasing atmosphere of Safeway or Sobey's you aren't about to find it. There is no 80's music playing on the speakers and the aisles are packed with merchandise stacked up as high as it can go. For "fresh food" the prices can't be beat but be prepared to to endure a long line and huge crowds on weekends.

The store caters to Asians but you'll find the odd white person shopping there, perhaps looking to save money. The day I walked toward the store, some bum came running at me saying "You're the first white guy I've seen all day, can you spare some change". Did he think that by saying that I'd hand over some money ?

This area of Edmonton can only be described as a run down shit hole, but it has some incredibly interesting shops & it's unique in the city. It's unfortunate for the vendors & for the area that it's in such a lousy neighborhood. It's also an amusing paradox. We often here people bitching that "immigrants" are lazy, good for nothing scum that just live off government handouts. Chinatown is exactly the opposite....the business owners are all Chinese and the addicts & bums in the neighborhood are all white.

If you do visit this place, try weekends mid day. It will be busy and somewhat frustrating but it's worth it. The area is very seedy and outright dangerous at night..and it's very empty

Edmonton: Chinatown

Like all cities, Edmonton has it's own Chinatown. Chinatown in Edmonton is on the NE side of the city core near an area called "The Quarters" on 97th Street & around 104th Ave.

The first thing you experience when you drive into this area is how gritty and rough looking the area is. The area is populated with hundreds of the poor, homeless & drug addicts...and very few Chinese people. The Chinese seem to come here to shop & eat, but they wisely don't seem to own any property in the area (outside of some seniors I'm sure).

My favourite stop in Chinatown is the Garden City Bakery & Restaurant. It's a small hole in the wall that has a great bakery where everything is $1.00 or less. They make these excellent curry, pork and beef filled buns that are the size of a Pizza pop but they taste much better. The prices are excellent although you might be taken aback with putting the food on a food court style plastic tray rather than in a box. The shop is small, cramped and often very busy, usually with Chinese folks but you'll occasionally see a white guy or two.

The area around this bakery is sadly a perfect example of urban decay in Edmonton. The Chinese people don't seem to be bothered by the bums & addicts in the neighborhood but I'm quite sure that some people would be.

I took this in January sometime..typical snow filled day in this city. I was sitting in Second Cup at 105th and Whyte. This is sort of the de facto centre of Whyte Ave & close to places like Blues on Whyte & The Elephant & The Castle.

I'm not really a fan of Second Cup..I think it's contrived "cool" and rather un-original but unfortunately Whyte doesn't have many choices when it comes to "indie coffee houses". There is a place called Cafe Dabar which is about 5 blocks west of here..but it's more an Internet surfing place than a coffee house.

Home..Sweet Home

The sign above is the one at the corner of 112th Street and Whyte Ave, across from the U of A campus & just around the corner from where I live.

Whyte Ave is 82nd Street and part of it runs through an area known as Old Strathcona. The "cool" part of Whyte Ave seems to start around 99th Street and heads west to about 112th where Whyte ends..at the U of A campus. The area is called Old Strathcona & also consists of another area called Garneau which is more or less the U of A campus & some businesses along 109th street

Old Strathcona is..without question...the best area in this city. It's a charming place, a mix of modern businesses like Chapters that sit next to mom & pop stores. It's home to a dozen pubs, live music venues, interesting food places & just about everything else you can think of. One could spend weeks just walking around, going into each pub, etc just to see what's going on.

The area next to Old Strathcona is Garneau. It's the University & a few blocks of streets with 90 foot trees and old homes. The roads are narrow & the area is incredibly pleasant..it reminds me of the better neighborhoods back in Toronto or Ottawa. It's also where I live and has probably been my saviour while I've lived here. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Old Strathcona is as good OR BETTER than Calgary neighborhoods like Mission or Kensington. It's a true gem & one of the best neighborhoods in Western Canada.

What makes Whyte/Strathcona so different from Mission or Kensington in Calgary is that it's not all upscale. This is a place where little indie food places still manage to survive..whereas in Calgary they're long since vapourized when the boom hit and rent soared. Whyte Ave reminds me of Marda Loop..years ago, before the upscaleness hit the area and all the interesting shops were replaced by stores designed to cater to people with 6 figure incomes.

Strangely..a whole bunch of people in Edmonton either like or hate Whyte Ave. They seem to see the bad side of it, the late night drunks, the noise when the Oilers play, the 20 somethings that line up at Lucky 13 to go and get toasted. That's only a small fraction of what goes on in this neighborhood but it's the part of the 'hood that catches the attention of people.

I've spent 5 months living here and I give this place 5 stars out of 5. And I've yet to really explore it .... because for the most part, the temps make it too cold to go walking. When I leave Edmonton..there isn't alot I will miss, but I will miss this area. If you come up this way..park the car and walk. It's worth it. I'll get into detail on some of the pubs, etc that you'll find on Whyte in the next while

Vue Weekly

If you live in Calgary, you've probably read FFWD Weekly..a remarkably good Arts & Entertainment weekly available in Cowtown. The same company that does FFWD does a magazine up here called SEE...and by all accounts it sucks.

What doesn't suck is VUE Weekly, this indie weekly that I actually look forward to reading. It reminds me of a poorer version of NOW magazine from Toronto..but it's actually more interesting. It's a true "indie" magazine and it's as much fun to read it for the advertisements as it is for the articles. It's got some great writing in it & some interesting opinions...not all of them the usual left wing point of view either. Nothing wrong with "left wing"...just I find that those notions are sort of outdated.

VUE is a great magazine to really find out what's going on in Edmonton. It's an easy read, it's small & compact and available almost everywhere in the city. It has a real Edmonton vibe to it & that's something you come to appreciate. If I can say one good thing about this place, it's got a true genuine real "indie" sort of vibe. Edmonton is like Buffalo North..it's not really on the map & because of this it's music and arts scene incubates without outside influence. There are no expectations...but I'll take this further when I write again..I've got to go work overtime today. Ugh.

Roads

The picture above is 106th Ave, just outside of Chinatown in Downtown Edmonton. The brown mess you see is sand, salt & snow mixed together. Perhaps I'm a little "off" but it seems rather stupid to me to dump sand all over snow and then let it sit there. Maybe a wiser idea might be to plow the snow away..but that doesn't happen here. What I find most annoying is that cities like Montreal...which have HUGE amounts of snow manage to keep their roads clean and they're not part of the Alberta Advantage.

Have you ever heard of the Iditarod ? It is a dog sled race that takes place in Northern Canada. Each day I drive in Edmonton on streets like this, I can't help but get the feeling I should have a dog sled to get around. You know when Americans ask if we all live in igloo's ? Well maybe they got that opinion of Canada because they saw a slideshow of Edmonton's streets and assumed we all use dog sleds.

Oh, and just like the rest of Alberta, the city also uses rocks on the road..as you can see by the cracks in my cars windshield.