About Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta is a city of roughly 800,000 people, with a metropolitan population of over 1 million. I grew up here, and I could say lots of nice things about Edmonton, but I'll let you check out the links to the City of Edmonton's website, along with those of some other Edmonton boosters. They'll do a better job than I ever could, and get you started to finding out more about Edmonton and the surrounding area.
About Alberta Avenue
As for the neighbourhood, the house is located in a part of Edmonton known variously as Alberta Avenue or Norwood. We'll go with Alberta Avenue, since the house is located at 11720 95A Street, just a stone's throw from the actual Alberta Avenue (118th Avenue). My wife and I lived in the neighbourhood from 1997 to 2006 in a house not far away from this one. We noticed a lot of changes and improvements in the area in that time. We sold our house to some friends of ours and bought this one, so we didn't "leave" the neighbourhood completely. Once I'm done with this house, we very well might find a lot in the neighbourhood to build on and move back in.
Currently, the City of Edmonton is planning on putting lots of money (millions of dollars) into the revitalization of Alberta Avenue with a plan known as the Avenue Initiative. I continue to serve on two of the working groups for the Initiative,the Streetscape Working Group and the Development and Revitalization Working Group. The Initiative is going to make Alberta Avenue look great, and has already brought lots of positives to the area in the form of community events, beautification, and crime reduction.
Some Other Good Things About Alberta Avenue
With the area's central location, mixed housing stock of newer homes and older heritage homes and stuff in between, lovely tree-lined streets filled with elms and green ash, and a diverse population, it has all the bones of a great neighbourhood. It's close to Edmonton's Little Italy, Chinatown, downtown and NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), as well as major arterials for getting to other places in the city in a hurry. At the other end of Alberta Avenue you'll find Rexall Place, current home to the Edmonton Oilers, along with other sports teams, and Northlands, which hosts plenty of events and concerts throughout the year.
The Carrot is a great volunteer-run community coffeehouse that exhibits art and has live music on Friday and Saturday nights. It's three blocks from the house. Sprucewood Library, the local city library branch, is just two blocks from the house. The Italian Centre, routinely voted to have Edmonton's best deli and the place to go for all manner of Italian and other imported goods, is in Little Italy, around a dozen blocks from the house.
There are numerous schools in the area. The Jean Forest Leadership Academy, located a few blocks west and south at 10210 115 Avenue, is a junior high (Grades 7-9) program for girls offered through the Edmonton Catholic school system. The Ecole Publique du Nord, located just a few blocks north at 12050 95A Street, is a new school offering exclusively Francophone education. Just a little further away, and probably the best known of the three is the Victoria School of the Performing and Visual Arts, a K-12 arts school offering an arts focus as well as the International Baccalaureate Program.
Throw in a budding arts community and the potential for a vibrant commercial strip and you're looking at a great place to live. |
