Leben, Lernen & Arbeiten in Kanada » Kelowna katastrophen town?

hallo

in einem englischen forum habe ich folgenden text über kelowna gefunden

Rich_007 hat nichts dagegen ihn auch hier zu posten

zu beachten sind die links zu weiteren infos - in der stadt ist ja die "hölle" los - zumindest sieht das in einigen postings in den weiterführenden links so aus - am ende des text

wer will kann das ja mal übersetzen

ich stelle das als meinung von leuten in ca ins forum

Re: Kelowna

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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.

seine links

Local media:
http://castanet.net/

Local online resources:
http://forums.castanet.net/

Nun das kann man einfach so stehen lassen. Etwas sehr hart formuliert, aber nicht wirklich uebertrieben.

Mein Eindruck von Kelowna war aber eigentlich noch schlimmer. Kam mir vor wie Palm Springs zur Spring Break, wenn das jemandem was sagt.

Aber eines ist da unten einfach klasse. Die vielen Outlet Stores

Gruss
Thorsten

Die Immobilienpreise steigen andernorts in BC noch viel drastischer. Wo hat der gute Mann gesucht, am Lakeshore Drive? Jobs in low payment sector werden reichlich angeboten, hat er ja geschrieben, wer arbeiten will dort bekommt auch Arbeit. Dass der Job mit $50k in Vancouver $70k bringt ist einleuchtend, denn dort ist die Situation noch viel angespannter. Dass das angesprochene Networking (buddies) in Gesamt-Kanada unumgänglich ist, um einen Fuß in die Tür zu bekommen, dürfte mittlerweile ja wohl bekannt sein. Vieles kann man wiedererkennen, aber einiges ist auch drastisch überzeichnet in dem Bericht. Wäre mal interessant zu erfahren, in welche Schublade der Schreiber aus Kelowna sich denn selbst stecken würde und welche seiner blumigen Adjektive demzufolge auf ihn passen.

hallo

er schreibt ja über sich selbst

Zitat

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We made the life we really wanted to design out here in the west. We're better, happier, healthier people having moved here.

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letzte zeilen - das bestättigt er auch im forum der briten auf anfragen erneut.

übrigens ist es das folgende forum - immer wieder gut dort zu lesen

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisp...p?s=&forumid=56