occidentalcapital
Senior Member
Where does this perpetual myth come from? U of A was never "supposed " to be in Calg. It was promised to a city south of the north Saskatchewan River and Strathcona was always in the running... there was a huge rivalry between Edmonton and Strathcona similar to the rivalry between Edmonton and Calgary today. Strathcona wasn't Edmonton back then.Yeah I wonder what the trajectory of downtown in general would’ve been if the U of A was on the same bank of the river as the downtown core.
I know that would’ve been politically impossible at the time (The U of A was supposed to be in Calgary but was put in Strathcona which was annexed by Edmonton), but it’s something to ponder I guess.
I’m still of the opinion that just because of geography, we got stuck with two downtown cores. Could that be a boon in the long run? Sure. But it’s a weird quirky detriment for a city of our size and density.