Kelowna
 

Hi,

The other day I was speaking to a nice man who said that Kelowna was a fab place to live in. Would anyone have any thoughts on:

- overall job situation for white collar work
- is housing easy to get
- is the town growing quickly - does it feel like it's growing
- can you get organic food easily
- do you often find you need to go to Vancouver for clothes or other items
- how are the schools - how is it for kids
- as it's a small town - do you ever find it boring?

For us to move there it would be a move away from a medium size city so just trying to size it up.

Thanks for your help
C2006

Re: Kelowna
 

Do you like water?

Re: Kelowna
 

I live a couple of hours north of Kelowna, and when moving over here gave Kelowna a lot of consideration. I can answer some of your questions, and those that live there will no doubt fill in the rest.....

Re: Kelowna
 

Re: Kelowna
 

Well the replies you have so far seem about right so just to add my ten cents worth:

1) Kelowna is not a town, it's a City of approx 110,000 so forget small town when you think of Kelowna.
2) It has the largest shopping mall between Vancouver and Calgary so if you add to that the imense variety of typical big box stores you really don't need to venture to Vancouver unless you fancy a nice weekend away.
3) House prices are increasing rapidly so what you may be able to afford today may be totally out of reach in say 2 years time so just be aware of that.
4) It ticked all the right boxes for us when we were researching but is not everyones cup of tea, some have even said it's "clicky" and some have said it's boring?????????? Depends on what you want and how much you put into it as well i guess.

Re: Kelowna
 

Hi,

Thanks to everyone for your replies! It's really helpful. I must say, I come from a town no-one's heard of with nearly 200k inhabitants that's part of the Manchester commuter belt. So 100k seems less like a city :) Of course, it's the opportunities and facilities that count - Kelowna really does seem to fit the bill for our young family.

A bit of a difficult question, I know, but what areas are good to live in, good schools, <30mins commute to the city centre with reasonably sized (1750-2000 sq ft) single family homes?

Thanks for your help,
C2006

Re: Kelowna
 

Hi
Difficult to say what constitutes a good family home - what's your criteria? New build? Schools? etc Give us a bit more info and I'll give you my view - which is just that - a view! Might be worth looking at mls once you've got some opinions.

Re: Kelowna
 

When we first looked into emigrating to Canada, Kelowna was our 1st choice, back in 1990 it had 60,000 population, and looked realty good to Us.

After we had emigrated (to Winnipeg) I went to Kelowna in 2000 and it seemed so crowded and congested because of "The Bridge" and the one main road through the valley.......... I hated it.

As is said, its all relative.

Re: Kelowna
 

We're out in Upper Mission, about 10-15 mins from downtown....not congested, good family area etc etc. Just got back from sledging in the park....whee!
Would recommend it.......

Re: Kelowna
 

OK so I was asked by a forum member to call by here and put some hard edged reality on this Kelowna thread. So here's a few pointers and an overview of life here.

To make a move to Kelowna successful, you need a real good chunk of money. Yes, a real good chunk. Bring startup cash, reserve cash, and yes even more reserve cash. You really would not want to be poor in this town - we have the highest gas and grocery prices in Canada. Coupled with real estate prices, it's becoming unaffordable for Joe Schmoe. Generally, service is poor (think similar to the labour shortages in Alberta, slightly less so but still bad enough that you have to be retarded, lazy, and perma-stoned or on the crack pipe to be unemployed here).

People come to Kelowna to party, have fun, blow big wad, and do the big crazy outdoor activities. If you can't afford to do that, personally, I would forget it. If you don't want to do all those outdoorsy things, why are you considering Kelowna ? There are far better places to go in BC or Canada if you just want to relocate and continue an existing non-outdoors lifestyle. Come to BC for the outdoors, not the jobs or the deeper culture or whatever else you might be considering to drive a move. It's a raw, rough, outdoors, simple, crazy way of life.

Don't expect to pay less than $500k for a half decent house. And $600k to $700k by the time you arrive if it takes a year or two to get here.

This is a "big money town". However, consider the population number of 110,000; of those, 30,000 people use the food bank, and 10,000 of those are children. Think about that very brutal fact. It puts the overall demographics mix into context. There are some real current and worsening social problems here, but hey, if we can ski and board and golf then who cares, eh ?

Employment can be a real bitch. Wages are still low and employers are in the main, very much of the old school notion that they can pay peanuts and treat people like crap. e.g. Job A in Vancouver pays $70k and in Kelowna pays $50k. Think of it in terms of the UK of the 70's. They expect to hire monkeys, so if you fit the bill you'll be fine (i.e. there's plenty of low paid service jobs around). If you have half a semblance of skills, personality, energy and ability, you'll stick out like a sore thumb and probably be classed as 'unemployable' by some people. That's because you won't be prepared to work for minimum wage, you won't suck it up, and you will expect to have some level of input into your work. Expect to be studied like some bizarre rare exhibit at interview....these people aren't well travelled.

On the other hand, this is all a bonus for you; as far as the small amount of decent employers and good jobs are concerned, if you can dig them out you will be well positioned to get an opening. Your knowledge and experience and confidence should shine through. But regardless, most of it is all about who you know, who you schooled with, golfing buddies and people doing favours. Like much of Canada, this is not about who's best at the job. Just even more so in Kelowna. But, it is changing, just very slowly. Expect to work with incompetent slobs, and retards who can't read and write, yet hold positions of power and influence. All I'm saying here is that employment can be unreliable, you may have to suck ass (nobody likes a "shit disturber" here), and it may not pay so much.

Note that the economy is growing in many ways, mainly though real estate/development, and the associated dollars that sector generates. UBC is expanding and new big store are arriving, new hotels being built, and other infrastructures. This is creating, in the main, new low end jobs that ironically are even harder to fill. The bigger employers (PSP/SunRype/Tolko etc) have done or are in the process of downsizing and moving jobs elsewhere. So it's just becoming resort-ville. And even that is fading as bigger and better ski hills compete directly (Revelstoke).

So it's not really a work town. Too much money, too much stuff to do. There is a small tech sector, with some growth but in the main, pretty small potatoes. Even our Economic Development Commission has publicly given up trying to attract new business here. It's just not a viable place to do (commercial) business.

Out of the total population, the working population is very small (perhaps 30,000). The vast bulk of the remainder are retirees, seasonal swing-travellers with multiple homes, ski bums, students, the homeless, sofa-surfers, pimps, ho's, and drug dealers.

I would say that if you can make it work here, it's a truly awesome life. You can hike, bike, ski, golf, all on the same Spring or Fall day. Every type of leisure pursuit is right on your doorstep, you can embrace it, join clubs, contribute, do whatever you want and live it to the full. If you are outgoing and chilled you can make good friends who'll welcome you and involve you in activities. But most of them will be incomers who, like you, are looking to connect. Long time locals are too tied up with trying to keep ahead of the incomers with their flash new money, too insecure, low in confidence, bitter, nasty, small minded, and introverted, to really spare you any of their 'precious time'.

As far as life here is concerned, well, every day brings surprises and reminders of why people move here. Just be wary of the slick web sites, glossy brochures, marketers, realtors and other grease bags. Get a dose of reality, know what you are letting yourself in for, and understand the big picture. It's not Wonderland. Only a goof would say it is. And I ain't exactly Alice, so beware the rose tinted shades brigade of goggle-eyed Brit nut jobs who've only just got off the plane and think life's a bed of sweet smelling roses. They've not even scratched the surface of real life here.

Isolated from reality in their mountain-top homes, they're like the three monkeys. They live their lives like a hissing, gossiping, gaggle of nosy tourists. They have nothing to offer apart from spending money and they are here just for personal gain. Most of them don't "embrace it", they don't "get it" and they're usually not the type to do voluntary or charity work to better the community - it's just another reinvented "Little Britain" here in Canada. They may have those ideals of 'giving' and 'making a difference' when they start out in the relocation process, but it falls off the radar once they start spending money, and they just do more of what they used to do back in the UK. i.e. gossip, whine, complain, spend money, seek out other gaggling Brits.

There are also dumb trashy rednecks, racists, tub-thumping bible bashers, uptight conservatives, ranting abortion protesters, cranky old croakers, vile snobs who have no reason to be snobby, and basically every other type of weirdo, freak, nut-job, nasty-ass and crank you can imagine. It's a mad mix of people !!! Oh and we do have the worst drivers in Canada.

So, it's an extremely interesting place to live. In fact, a plain bonkers out there kind of place. We totally love it here, it's not been easy, we've had plenty of highs and lows, ups and downs, but we're just different I guess. We made the life we really wanted to design out here in the west. We're better, happier, healthier people having moved here.

Just my 10c with no guarantee, warranty, or refund. Complaints will not be acknowledged.

R. :thumbsup::thumbup::D

Re: Kelowna
 

Do we have a Post of the Year competition on here? If so, I'd like to nominate the above.

Re: Kelowna
 

Yep, probably would score for post of the year if it wasn't a rehash of the same stuff I've heard him post on other websites over and over and over again.

He seems to think he's the only 'decent' Brit who's come across to the area. Everyone else, is, apparently obsessed by moaning and trying to get hold of Marmite and Heinz baked beans.

He makes many salient, valid points, but frankly I get sick of the same old same old. If it's that bad, begs the question why he's still here.

I don't live in a mountain hideaway. I do acknowledge the postives and negatives, including house prices, homeless etc.

Not every Kelowna Brit is a brainless, braindead flipflop wearing Sun reader.

Re: Kelowna
 

Regarding the former, they are. I can't argue with the facts.

Regarding the latter, I thought I had clarified the point that I'm extremely happy with my life here. I have jewels and wonders and life experiences beyond my wildest imagination, and I have self-actualized to a totally higher level of being. Why would you question that happiness, and for what motives ? The depth and breadth of my experiences here have been truly awesome. However, would-be migrants need to know the spot-on factamundo badass reality. They seem to rarely find it elsewhere....all is deemed to be glee and wide-eyed wonder, and based on rotund jollity. I'm the dude that gets banned from Pravda-like websites for telling it straight up, and for holding no prisoners.

I even seem able to garner such responses mere minutes after posting. Cyber stalking must be so much fun ! I expect a flock of the same to follow, from my bizarre and whacked out "fan club". Let the hissing of tongues begin.

:thumbup::thumbsup:


R.

Re: Kelowna
 

I wouldn't say you have a fan club or otherwise. I only responded quickly because I happened to be online and I subscribed to this thread.

In fact on another website I agreed with much of what you said, but that was always at best ignored.

Nope, Kelowna isn't Utopia, and I fully agree that people need to come with their eyes open. I just get a little tired of the same old same old being rehashed. Like anywhere else, Calgary, Vancouver, or whatever, there will be positives and negatives, and it's good to be aware of them before you arrive. What I do take exception to is the constant Brit bashing and apparent assumption that everyone is fresh off the plane with a copy of The Sun in one hand, a can of brown ale in the other, and prepared to whine for England as soon as they can't get hold of 'real' baked beans.

Sorry folks, won't bore you with bickering, just that I've heard it all before.;) If anyone is interested in our experiences of Kelowna, good and bad, PM me and I'll be happy to help, warts and all.

Re: Kelowna
 

Crikey - he doesn't pop in here very often, but when he does, you do get your 10c worth. That's surely worthy of a dollar or two? :blink::rofl: