How to Make Edmonton Less Awkward, One Connection at a Time

I think of Edmonton as a living breathing thing. It is constantly changing, growing, and finding its sense of self. Or in this case, it’s the sense of community.

And as a young person who grew up here in Edmonton, I often heard a blunt narrative from my peers, “Edmonton sucks.”

Within the last few years and especially since the pandemic, our search for community has found itself going from in-person to online. We all quickly learned how easy it is to isolate ourselves and how difficult it is to create a meaningful connection.

Being online made it easy to find those with common values, and while I was able to connect with people I maybe wouldn’t have been able to before, it did not compare to how I connect with people in person.

There is something different about striking up a conversation with a neighbor or running into an old friend you haven’t seen in ages. The organic connection of just going about your day dwindled significantly.

Building the foundation for these connections has been incredibly difficult, so it is only natural that people turn online. Some people had all the explanations right there and people saw things the exact way that you do. The connection was also instant, there was no building.

Flashing forward to today, nothing frustrates me more than the comments section on a misleading post or a post meant to insight rage for the sake of clicks and engagement. There you see hundreds of people reaffirming the narrative, “Yeah it DOES suck in Edmonton!”

But that leaves me asking: there has to be a reason you choose to stay.

Recently, I enjoyed being a guest on the “Dog-Eared Radio Book Club” Podcast. With the host Randi, we chatted about the book “Big Mall” by Kate Black and there’s a specific quote that resonated with the both of us, “When I told Vancouverites where I was from, hardly anyone asked why I left. Instead, I was met with what resembled condolences, then congratulations for choosing a better life for myself.”

How you experience your city is hyper-local, when things go wrong, you feel it deeply and personally. A bad experience on the bus, a frustrating time at work, or the feeling that everything is just getting more expensive, wondering if relief will ever come from those pressures.

When those experiences build, it’s not surprising that people cling to the negative feelings they have towards their city.

When we are critical, we also need to ask what our role is in part of the issue. While we as individuals can’t change everything at once, what can we do to create progress?

The big issues we experience, like the economy, homelessness, climate change, anything and everything, manifest locally. We can see those issues with our very own eyes.

More and more I felt incredibly hopeless and that things were happening to me without my control. I’m sure that I am not alone in this feeling.

With my work, I hear the concerns of everyday folks who just want a solution. In those moments, I’m also not able to magically give them the solution that they are looking for. Sometimes the solutions are complex and have to go through lots of layers and steps to get addressed.

But through this feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness, what always helps at the end of the day is a listening ear. It makes a difference to be steady in times of uncertainty. It makes a difference to feel like you can express what you feel and that you are being heard by someone who cares.

I recently moved in February, and in my previous two neighborhoods, I felt incredibly connected. The first one I had lived in for 20 years, my roots in the neighborhood went deep and the second one I lived in was one where so many of my friends lived. Everything I needed to feel fulfilled was within a close distance.

Rising rents and changing priorities took us elsewhere. We moved to a neighborhood I thought I knew well. I knew the boundaries, surrounding neighborhoods, and quick facts about the area. But I realized after months that I felt disconnected and lonely. While you could know a neighborhood, it’s different than knowing your community.

Chances are if you are feeling these frustrations and anxieties there is a good chance that your neighbors are feeling them as well.

As someone who moved into a new space, I was so focused on making sure everything was perfect inside my home, that I forgot to take into account the concept and feeling of home extended outside.

The concept of mutual care for our neighbors and neighborhood buy-in should be a muscle we learn to strengthen. A connected community is a community that stands the test of time and can weather any changes. When you know the people around you, your sense of belonging grows.

Recently, I’ve been inspired by many of my close friends and their approaches to building on existing connections and forming new ones. I’ve witnessed book clubs, dinner parties, community pantries, and more.

Something that I’ve been itching to do in my community is host a free community coffee where folks can sit, drink coffee, and chat with their neighbors (an idea that I saw some friends of mine do).

Creating connections doesn’t have to be big, it can be small in scale but deeply impactful. You not only can enhance your experience but you can also foster a sense of belonging and neighborly care.

Getting out there is nerve-wracking, but it’s important to identify how our neighborhoods are not just the places we live in, they are tools for our well-being.