Is Alberta Avenue’s Negative Reputation Overblown?
Alberta Avenue (118 Ave) has a bad reputation in this city. When I tell people that I’m seriously considering buying a condo just off of the Avenue, they look at me like I’m crazy. They tell me that I’ll have to deal with all kinds of problems: hookers, drug dealers, etc.
While prostitution and drugs are a pretty big problem on Alberta Avenue, I’m starting to wonder if some of those problems haven’t been exaggerated by people who don’t live in the community.
I was looking at the quality of life statistics (PDF) for the community, as part of the research I’ve been doing before deciding whether or not to make an offer on the condo I looked at.
Despite the fact that it isn’t located in Sierra Leone, Alberta Avenue was given a quality of life rating of zero by the City of Edmonton. This, I actually find kind of hilarious, especially since, despite it’s problems, many of the people who live in the Alberta Avenue community are incredibly fond of their neighbourhood.
Out of curiosity, I decided to also look up the stats for the downtown core (PDF). Despite having a slightly smaller population, the crime stats for downtown are significantly higher than they are for Alberta Avenue.
The number of property crimes in the downtown area (where I have lived in the past) was slightly more than triple the number in Alberta Avenue. The number of violent crimes was 2.6 times higher.
Even in Oliver, where I currently live, the number of property crimes is higher than in Alberta Avenue. Violent crimes are lower, but not by much.
Prostitution is likely much higher in the Alberta Avenue area. Drug use is likely quite high as well, but these are things that I can deal with. Besides, the area is being revitalized. The community has been very active in the process of cleaning up their neighbourhood, and the City has stepped in with cash to help the effort.
I genuinely believe that within 5-10 years, Alberta Avenue will be a dramatically different place than it is today. I can see it becoming a real destination location in the city. I can picture Alberta Avenue looking very much like how Little Italy or 124 Street look today.
As it is now, it seems that the problems along Alberta Avenue have more to do with urban blight and “visible” crime, than with they do with the actual instance of crime (though, admittedly, the instance of crime in the area is much higher than average for the city). Poverty is a large part of the problem, as well.
Poverty is a complex problem, and the other issues are closely related to it. I’m not entirely sure how to solve these problems, but I know that progress is being made, and I’m interested in seeing what I can do.