Why hate Kelowna?

[djs214]

hi everyone..hope all is well. before deciding to visit Kelowna last oct for three weeks i have done some research mostly on google and these searches usually take me to this website. I've read so many complaints about this city and honestly some if not most of them sound immature. i hope after reading this post this will change your view of your amazing city.

I'm currently living in Winnipeg & I've stayed in Kelowna for three straight weeks last October and these are my observations:

Gas Prices - it cost slightly more there however your commute is way shorter than ours, i drive 30-40mins to work, on winter time it gets nasty here and I'm blasting my car heat whenever I'm driving which means I'm burning more fuel, i visit the gas station 3-4 times in a month each visit costs me $95.00. in the end you Kelowna people save more money. I'm not sure about this but I've heard that the gas prices in manitoba are subsidized by the province, that might be one of the reasons why its cheaper here

Rutland - someone here said thats the place to avoid, however i spent almost an hour driving around rutland just to get the feel of the area, someone say its bad however if you compare it to our bad areas here like the North End ours is more bad *bleep*, and by that i mean embarrassing, hookers, homeless people every corner store, drunk people taking a crap in public, stupid people having sex in parking lots, young moms as young as 13 pushing strollers with two-three babies of their own unemployed relying money from the taxpayers. not to be racist but i just wanna share this too - Winnipeg is the Mecca of aboriginals from the reserves, they come here to collect their "allowance" they stay in hotels, get drunk & cause headaches. theres a huge percentage of the paramedics dispatched because of them coz they're lying "dead" on the streets only to find out they're drunk, do you want your tax money to go towards these things? these paramedics could have responded to real life threatening situations. I'm not exaggerating if you want proof go on Facebook and look for the group "people of winnipeg" and you will see what i mean all the bad stuff are there. and btw i will not hesitate to buy a property in Rutland.

Employment - if you barely graduated high school, if you never worked hard on improving your knowledge and skill and capabilities then employment is going to be an issue wherever you are. i come from a country where an entry level job like a sales person at a retail store requires AT LEAST a college/university degree. when i first moved here my first job with a well-known company my manager there was a high school graduate, perhaps he had the experience but still i find that a joke. my point is, if you hate entry level jobs then go bust your *bleep* and position yourself for future success. i look at current job postings in Kelowna and i see several high paying jobs there, the question is do you qualify and are you doing something about it or are you just busy with something thats not contributing towards your future or your bottom line =)

Kelowna has no proper city planning - i never experienced traffic there so i really can't comment about it, however i asked my colleagues in the banking industry (most of them moved from alberta or vancouver) and they say the traffic isn't that bad, someone pointed it out on one of the threads that even if you get stuck you do get a beautiful view - the lake and the mountains compared to an endless sea of red brake lights. plus your roads there are way better than winnipeg, every year they fix the roads coz every winter our roads get damaged from the extreme weather, they use sand and salt which not just ruin our roads but also cause nasty rusts on our cars. the pot holes here are horrible, the new mayor is planning to increase our taxes to cover the costs & deficits due to road repairs. go to canadian blackbook and search for the value of a used car of the same make/model/yr of a car in manitoba and compare that to the same make/model/yr of a car in bc & you'll see our cars here have low resale value. if you don't wash your car thoroughly every week don't be surprised that you'll see rust come summer time.

Drug problem - thats everywhere, thats a sad reality of our world wherever you are. chances are if you know these people and you surely know where they exist then theres a high possibility that you deal with these same people. birds of the same feather flock together. drugs is a major problem here too. stay away from it, do you part by reporting anything suspicious to the authorities, just stay away from it. Winnipeg is the carnapping capital of Canada. young aboriginal kids who ran away or kicked out from their reserves end up here, they end up with foster parents but has a high percentage of runaways. I'm not being racist, i have lots of close aboriginal friends and they're amazing, talented, smart & ambitious and they do recognize this problem..i have met with the hollywood actor/director Adam Beach in the past and if your familiar with his work he does recognize this problem and he is doing his part in cultivating the potential of his people, the Canadian Govt need to focus on developing them coz theyre beautiful and they have so much potential, their values and beliefs are something to be respected.

if thats not enough here are more things that you Kelowna people who are complaining about your city should be grateful of:

weather - last year we had minus 50, yes thats negative 50 not just once but twice, we were colder than the planet mars during those times. we get too many snow here too, although even if its super cold we do get bright blue skies and the sun shining on winter but i rather be somewhere warm. roads get slippery, winter collisions are very common here, whats stupid is that using winter tires is not mandatory here to think that we have the worse roads and the worse winter weathers. thats just plain stupid. -25 to -30 is just normal here. not to mention the injuries on slippery side-walks, it breaks my heart to see those elderly people break their hips. i have two new vehicles this year not because i needed something new or i have tons of cash lying around but its because i got into car accidents from last year's nasty winter.

the view - look out the window and 8ft from you is the neighbours window, if you drive around its all flat and boring. now i don't need to make a comparison as to what kind of view you guys have there

the lake - your amazing lake is like steps away from most of you, we have to drive an hour to Birds Hill Park, they got this sh*tty lake there with lots of leeches and its man-made. no matter how smart they designed it you can never replace a nature-made lake. you drive much further about two hours from the city & theres Grand Beach. people here brag that its one of the best beaches in the world and i say thats BS, they've never been to where I'm from, the beaches are amazing with world-class hotels & white powdery sands...at least its Grand beach is not man-made. during winter time if you want to go indoor swimming you have to drive another two hrs to get to this indoor swimming pool in Steinbach which is nothing compared to H20 Adventure.

tourists - when i was young and single i ran my business (from one store it grew into three branches) & in between that i drive for tourists, several threads on this forum people complain about the tourists and i don't get it. when i was dealing with tourists it was the best time of my life (had korean (korean women are the best, hands down), japanese, german girlfriends - no commitments just a one to two week thing) on the serious side imagine all the amazing people you meet, new things to learn, make new friends & establish that network that might be beneficial down the road. take advantage of that. and before you complain think about how they help Kelowna's economy, the jobs they create. it opens up to a multitude of opportunities.

housing - yes houses there are much more expensive however i found out from four people that i met there who own a house thats much bigger than mine pay lesser property tax than i do and we are talking about a $600-800 difference. we do get warm weather here during summer & you factor in the extreme and long winters that we have and that results to more house repairs/maintenance. my first house when i first move to canada/winnipeg 6yrs ago i pay $650 every three months just for heat on this older house, imagine the money i wasted. now that i have a brand new house i still pay around $400 every three months and thats because its cold your heater is constantly running. high utility payments but with a low increase on the equity of your property is not good. id rather buy a house like in Kelowna and expect a guaranteed good chunk of a yearly property value increase plus low monthly maintenance & i know I'm sitting on a gold mine guaranteed huge payday when i sell it.

fresh fruits, veggies, wines. farmers market. meanwhile in Winnipeg most of the goods come in frozen

Winnipeg Jets and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are only good at one thing - losing!

i know not everyone will agree with everything i posted here and i will respect that (and I'm not blowing my own horn about the tourists women or about the education coz they're all true), we all react to the same situation differently..glass half empty or glass half full. all i wanna say is be grateful, you are living in a paradise with amazing weather, amazing view, lots of opportunities to meet other people, its a health conscious city (the obesity rate in Winnipeg is sadly rising, you know its cold outside so lets just stay home watch tv and eat junk foods) and a city that has a bright future ahead. i may not be an expert of your city having only stayed there for three weeks but with all the things i mentioned about i have decided to move there soon and i can't wait for that day to happen =)

[Jo]

Sounds as though you are going to love it here.

Winterpeg sounds as though it really lives up to its nickname, lol.

[MCB]

Attitudes, Land Values, Wages and Rental Rates; those are my sour grapes!

[davis123]

djs214, great post, I agree with you 110%. I think most people who live here take it all for granted, or they have never lived outside of Kelowna in their life.

Gas prices fluctuate everywhere, yes it is normally more here, but nobody is happy paying for it anywhere - guess that is one of the costs you gotta suck up if you do choose to live here.

Rutland is a decent place, pretty much all middle class people, very nice big lots, etc. it is definitely no comparison to any sketchy area of Winnipeg - there is nowhere in Kelowna that compares to Winnipeg in that way. I grew up in Manitoba, and even Brandon has more sketchy areas than Kelowna, and it half the size of Kelowna.

Employment, I will say that in my opinion, if you are educated the wages are not great here - depending on your career choice of course. I work in technology and the wages are far less here than they would be in a larger city for sure but I will take the beautiful scenery and mild winters over that few bucks more I would make in Calgary or wherever any day.

The traffic planning in Kelowna is fairly ridiculous but at this point there is no workaround for it, Harvey/Hwy 97 runs right through the middle of Kelowna, there is no possible way to divert this traffic elsewhere - perhaps they could add in some overpasses but this city likes to stay stuck in their thinking that it is a 'small town' and they seem to be against adding anything 'city' like, such as an overpass.

Drug problem, this is a problem everywhere. Downtown is likely the place you would see it the most in Kelowna, but still this would be nothing compared to a city like Winnipeg.

Housing prices are ridiculous, in the past 10 years the prices have skyrocketed, but people are buying them so I guess that goes to show it cant be that bad, but it would be very hard for a middle income or certainly low income family to purchase a home here, even mobile homes are ridiculously priced. Rent prices are also crazy, but it could always be worse right..when I lived in Fort Mac I rented a crappy 2 bedroom basement suite for 1750$ a month, in Kelowna I have a very nice 5 bedroom full house, with garage for the same price. In Brandon I paid 475$ for a 3 bedroom old house.

When I lived in Penticton tourists were definitely noticeable and annoying, but in Kelowna I don't notice it so much, cause its busy here all the time, again downtown is where you would notice tourists the most - I prefer to avoid the downtown area tho so it isn't an issue for me.

Overall I definitely agree that many people like to complain about Kelowna, I think it would do them some good to go live in Winnipeg or Fort Mac over a winter and experience some real traffic problems, real drug problems, real winter problems, etc. etc. and then maybe they wouldn't take living here for granted anymore.

I moved here many years ago and there isn't a day that I don't appreciate living in this beautiful place :)

[Oxl3y]

- over priced
- uptight
- unfriendly
- terrible job market

Great place to visit, terrible place to live.

[Panzer130]

- over priced
- uptight
- unfriendly
- terrible job market

Great place to visit, terrible place to live.

Yet, the original poster completely disagrees with you. In fact, I have lived here for 25 years and I completely disagree with you.

Looks to me like perhaps the problem is yours and your attitude, not the city.

[Oxl3y]

Yet, the original poster completely disagrees with you. In fact, I have lived here for 25 years and I completely disagree with you.

Looks to me like perhaps the problem is yours and your attitude, not the city.

I lived in Kelowna for over 30 years. I never thought I would want to leave but I had blinders on.

Now I'm in Calgary making a great living in a great city and I just watch post after post from facebook friends who are struggling to survive and raise a family in Kelowna.

The wages are terrible. For a comparable job to mine in Kelowna I would have started at $12 less an hour with a cost of living that is the same if not higher than Calgary. In two years I was able to buy a house, it would have taken me ages to accomplish the same thing in Kelowna.

People are friendly if you fit into their world but the Kelowna world costs money and that's hard to break into. Can't have golfing buddies if you can't afford to golf, can't have ski buddies if you can't afford to ski.

The majority of jobs in Kelowna are minimum wage service positions. There is no real industrial sector to speak of as its just too expensive to do business.

Say what you will but a lot of the people that say Kelowna is so great are people that have never left. People who slog away trying to scrape out a living due to the "sunshine tax".

[LANDM]

Then it is an absolutely wonderful thing that you were able to move to calgary.
One less complainer here.

The OP had some great comments and it is refreshing to read.

But, if slogging through the snow that you had in September to cash your paycheque is fun for you, who am I to say differently?

[djs214]

today's weather

Kelowna: 0
Winnipeg: -22 with a -35 windchill

[Fancy]

I've lived in a few places and there's lot to like about the Kelowna area. So much to do and see.

[AirHoss]

yadda, yadda, yadda "compared to..."

If you've lived here your whole life and don't know anything any different, of course you think everything is as it should be.
No city is perfect. Some things about Kelowna are good, some things are bad.

Kelowna IS beautiful. Well, the area is pretty. The city itself has no real architectural beauty to speak of.

For a city of this size, traffic IS horrible.

The job market here isn't very good. We have a couple of great employers and a large number of low-pay jobs. This has nothing to do with the people of Kelowna and everything to do with geography. There just aren't very many high-pay employers located in the valley. How anyone can take offence to that, I have no idea.

I've lived in 4 provinces and several different cities within those provinces and I also travel a lot... it has been my experience that Kelowna is (comparatively) not friendly. To protect your sensitivities, maybe Kelowa isn't unfriendly... just maybe other areas are more friendly.

Flame away.

[djs214]

in my personal position if i move to Kelowna what that means is a promotion, one step higher of a position than what i have right now plus a $10k increase excluding bonus. you maybe right on the income thing but i guess that doesnt apply to all industries coz it certainly doesnt apply to me

[Steve-O]

Moved from Calgary in 08 and never moving back unless something puts a gun to my head.

Traffic is just fine here. It gets funneled between a lake and mountains so it is what it is.

I've been mountain biking everyday pert near up until today while my buddies in Calgary have been shut down for a while now and I should be back on the bike shortly.

[goalie]

Employment - if you barely graduated high school, if you never worked hard on improving your knowledge and skill and capabilities then employment is going to be an issue wherever you are. i come from a country where an entry level job like a sales person at a retail store requires AT LEAST a college/university degree. when i first moved here my first job with a well-known company my manager there was a high school graduate, perhaps he had the experience but still i find that a joke. my point is, if you hate entry level jobs then go bust your *bleep* and position yourself for future success. i look at current job postings in Kelowna and i see several high paying jobs there, the question is do you qualify and are you doing something about it or are you just busy with something thats not contributing towards your future or your bottom line =)

I'm curious in which country it's required to have a university degree for an entry level sales position in retail?

[djs214]

i come from the Philippines, im sure other countries like India and other asian countries are like that too. our call centre agents doesnt have a single high school graduate working there i bet my balls on that everyone there has a degree. if a person just finished high school honestly thats a joke to us, life is hard there but everyone bust their *bleep* to get a degree. i spent a total of 6yrs in university and international school and thats uncommon to us