A 1984 video promoting Edmonton will give you some serious déjà vu

Times change, and people do too, but some things stay the same.

A promotional video posted to YouTube by the City of Edmonton Archives channel proves precisely that. The 39-year-old clip is a 1984 promotional video for the City of Edmonton, with a heavy focus on its downtown core.

“We need a downtown with a large population if our city is to truly have a heart,” says the video narrator.

“With a new and vibrant downtown, Edmonton will take its place as one of the world’s most attractive cities.”

If this sounds familiar to you, you’re not crazy because revitalizing and attracting people downtown is exactly what the City is trying to do in the year 2023.

Back then, they had a bunch of wild ideas, but also some that came to fruition and others that we wish went forward.

For example, the City wanted to build an “Old Town” market in downtown Edmonton, similar to Gastown in Vancouver or Boston’s Quincy Town. The market was predicted to attract 300,000 people downtown annually by 1995. We would have been so down for that!

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A few of the other projects included a “dynamic new look” for Jasper Avenue and revitalizing the area around the Convention Centre as well as Chinatown (not déjà vu). That would have involved building a theme park below the Convention Centre if city planners had their way.

Figuring out ways to get people downtown was also a point in the video — in 1984, city planners wanted the LRT to be free, as well as free parking downtown and parking lots outside the downtown core with shuttles to bring you back and forth.

What do you think? Are there any plans you would have liked to see realized? What does your ideal downtown Edmonton look like? Let us know in the comments.