This is The City to Beat on Housing Reform

“Neighbours over NIMBYs” — that’s a sticker we saw on the back of a sign in Edmonton, Alberta, and it gives a hint as to some of the attitudes that make this maybe the most forward-thinking city for housing reform in North America.

Keep Urbanity rolling:

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[randyyyyyyy]

Local here. This city kicks ass. You didn’t even mention the huge investment into bike infrastructure that’s under way right now - at some point in the future I anticipate being able to do most of my commute with my bike. I truly appreciate how open minded and aggressive our council is when it comes to reforming building codes.

[Vaporwave_kdh]

“This housing development helps no one… especially not the 3 extra families who can be housed on this plot of land rather than just the 1.” — NIMBY

[munkyz]

I’m seriously blown away by how many people have the attitude that building denser housing is somehow only beneficial for the developer

[botks]

As an edmontonian this had made me proud for the last year, i just hope we can dig ourselves out of the realy big hole we dug, outer edmonton is all stroads and car dependent suburbia and i have no idea how they will rehabilitate that

[LoneHowler]

In Calgary there's a bunch of NIMBYs upset about a condo tower that's affordable housing for blind people. The reason it's going to "block the view from a dog park" the park is one that few people know exists, the view the tall building will interfere with? Downtown. So a tall building will interfere with the view of tall buildings, and people think that's more important than affordable housing for the blind

[Jonago.]

50 cars for 42 people is insane. I'm glad they stop requiring parking minimums

[michaelchristopher]

What isn’t mentioned in this is the massive transit expansions that have been happening, and the huge investment in bike infrastructure. Proud of my city.

[jiffyb]

Having positive examples is so vital to avoid doomerism. Thank you for this!

[themanyouwanttobe]

If Edmonton, where -30°C days in winter is not unheard of, can encourage people to get out of their cars, there is absolutely no excuse for any other municipality to not go in the same direction. "There's no bad weather, just bad preparation."

[GeorgeP-ujxc]

Your point in the video about Edmonton succeeding because it's a progressive city in a conservative province mirrors Austin's situation in the US. I don't think it's a coincidence that Austin has approved twice as many building permits per capita as the next best major city in the United States, and we're already seeing rents comes down as a result.

[StardustMonkey]

I live in the SF Bay Area in California and develop real estate. Listening to this was so refreshing and enraging at the same time… I spent 7 years of one infill project trying to split a lot. 7 years and waiting for the meetings with old people next door trying to stop my lot from becoming the density of all the surrounding ones… 7 years of holding costs amounting to $80, 000… 7 years and $50, 000 fee to draw a line down the middle of my lot

[darklink]

I do think that videos on cities that are doing it well are better than videos on cities that are doing things wrong. It gives us a lot more hope that we can make some changes and what we should aim for.

[addieburkam]

So nice to see videos like this on Canadian cities, not just American! As a Halifax NS resident, I'm excited to see how the new zoning laws which just passed here will play out, the city just approved denser housing to encourage more "missing-middle" housing. I think the city will see a lot of change in the next few years, hopefully away from the sprawl that was so common for a while. Thanks for the great videos!

[Ryan-]

i am currently in Calgary and can't wait to get back to Edmonton. Edmonton is a hidden gem 💎 and will really shine over the next 5 to 15 years ✨️

[orthranus]

Edmontonian here. We still have a lot of problems. As mentioned, our urban sprawl is really bad, snow clearing and transit aren't great. There has been a lot of progress but we're also surrounded by more or less tax havens like Sherwood Park and St. Albert so the city can only do so much.

[earlwashburn]

When I went to Edmonton a couple of years ago, my big takeaway was how much sprawl there was, and the relative lack of density. I'm glad to hear they're trying to change that.

[Arjay]

0:32 what really stands out to me is that the building(s) doesn't even dwarf the other homes, if you count it as two buildings, then the buildings is just slightly bigger than the home next to it. Yeah the look of the building is starkly different than the other homes in the area, which I wish was taking more into consideration, however all the other buildings look like they are rather old and a bit dated, so maybe if they got upgraded/redone today or built today the visual difference wouldn't be so big.

They even elegantly solved the parking issue by keeping the on street parking but then squeezing a just big enough to park your car parking lot in the back.

[riker_]

I live in Edmonton and I have been seeing the positive things our city has been doing and have since taken an interest in urbanism. I've been waiting for a channel in this space to take a look at Edmonton. What's more impressive is how there are things outside of housing that are being addressed (active and public transportation) and the culmination of all these things can be represented by the Blatchford development which will feature Edmonton's first (and hopefully not last) transit mall. There's a long way to go but the innovation needed to solve the sprawl is present (if only we could hit the reset button on St. Albert and Sherwood park).
Edmonton is also very young and there seems to be lots of desire for Gen Z's such as myself to live car free and I see a future in Edmonton where that is possible.
But of course there are so many negative reactions to many of these things like the 15 minute city conspiracy theorists (which is probably a very radical example). Most people, especially Gen X's, seem to complain about things because they don't like change. But at the end of the day they will just go with it and say nothing if it succeeds. Therefore the biggest takeaway from Edmonton is a. Elect the right people and b. Let the professionals plan and ignore the nimbys.

[Shifter_Cycling]

With so many cities finally considering housing reform, including my city of Calgary just south of Edmonton, it's so nice to see some perspective a few years after the changes were made. The sky hasn't fallen, neighbourhoods haven't lost their "character" and more people can live in reasonably priced homes. Great video. But next time, get a better cycling model 😉.

[MultigrainKevinOs]

Excellent video I am glad you were here and got a great pulse on the city, its successes and challenges. I am really excited for the zoning changes and what new ideas can be built to further density in our fantastic old neighborhoods. 2024 will be the stress test. Despite the challenges of an actively hostile provincial government I think we can be the underdog that offers a good quality of life to anyone who wants to give a smaller center a shot. Regardless, I echo the call for every city to push their own reforms, if we can do it in oil and sprawl centric Edmonton, just imagine the impacts other cities can make, we all deserve better.