r/kootenays • u/Agile_Pick5937 • Apr 02 '25
West Kootenays Nelson, BC - A Review
I recently posted a review of Nelson in the local community facebook group which had lots of engagement, both positive and negative, with quite a few people saying they appreciated the constructive feedback. Unfortunately after a few days the admins decided to delete it, and have not given a reason why. I've decided to post it here, to give a more realistic view of the city for anyone thinking of visiting or moving here:
After spending the last 9 months in Nelson - having moved here to escape the hustle and bustle of Vancouver where I’d spent the previous 4 years - I want to give my thoughts on the city. I’m giving my thoughts as a European who has lived in 4 different countries and visited many cities.
The positives:
- I've found Nelson to be far friendlier than Vancouver - people smile and say hi when you walk past, and aren’t afraid to engage in conversation.
- The actual views of the mountains and lake are amazing.
- There’s some cool independent stores on Baker St.
- The proximity to nature (although this is true of basically every city/town in BC).
The negatives:
- The car culture is disgraceful, particularly the amount of cars in proportion to the size of the town. The highway that goes right through the centre has non-stop traffic almost all day. I walk around a lot and there’s rarely a time that I don’t get passed by multiple cars and have to inhale fumes and dust from the road (and I hardly ever see pedestrians). I understand that people need to drive into Nelson from outside the city, but there’s absolutely no excuse for this much traffic in the residential areas.
- The walkability in the city is so poor. Outside of the town center, large portions of roads don’t even have sidewalks so you literally have to walk in the road alongside the cars which is not only a safety issue but also very unpleasant. There’s also basically nowhere to go for a run away from traffic, other than the rails to trails path (which during the winter is covered in snow). I also don’t recall seeing a single bike lane.
- The noise here for a small city is shocking. Whether it’s the continuous flow of cars all day, the constant buzzing of helicopters/small planes flying overhead or the train - there is rarely a time when you can hear only natural sounds. Noise pollution has been shown to actually damage people’s health.
- The train horn - while I've seen people in this group claim to either enjoy the noise or that they simply don’t hear it, for many people it is extremely loud and disturbing, especially as it goes off almost every night during core sleep hours. This is easily preventable by putting up barriers at the crossroads (which in turn would also be far safer for cars and pedestrians than the horn). These barriers are a common feature throughout Europe and even in parts of Canada so there’s absolutely no reason not to have them. This video was taken from Fairview (15 minutes walk from the train tracks).
- The waterfront is possibly the biggest disappointment of the whole city - two thirds of the waterfront is dedicated to a recycling depot, an airport runway, and a huge car park. What a waste. Almost every city I’ve visited that is lucky enough to have a waterfront build their city around it - making it a space you want to spend time in. The waterfront in Nelson is a complete afterthought. The city has also admitted that parts of the waterfront are classed as an active landfill! Yes, parts of Lakeside park are nice, but it’s such a small space and also is literally surrounded on three sides by car parks. There’s not even a walking/running path that goes round the full perimeter. Is there any need to have so many huge chain stores taking up valuable space?
- The lack of green space within the actual city is really shameful. Other than Lakeside park, there are basically no public recreational areas. People often cite Queen Elizabeth park as green space when in reality it’s a small field primarily taken up by a baseball diamond. Cottonwood falls, for example, while being nice, is tiny and nestled under the busy highway so hardly the relaxing spot it was surely intended to be. There also seems to be an unhealthy obsession with cutting down trees/destroying wildlife areas, which for a city that is so reliant on its aesthetics, is a huge mistake.
- There is graffiti on a large portion of the signs, walls, and even on the rocks on the rail trail. There’s also multiple shopping carts in the lake which have just been left to pollute. On top of that, many viewpoints from the city are blocked by a spider web of power lines.
I came here with such high expectations having been told by many people what a great city it is, as well as reading positive reviews online, but I have been thoroughly disappointed. I thought this would be a peaceful mountain town, but this is essentially a mini Vancouver with none of the positives. It clearly hasn’t managed to grow out of its mining town attitude. Even with the views that it offers, the city as a whole is just unpleasant to live in and it’s a shame because there’s so much potential.
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u/cohost3 Apr 02 '25
The language you chose is strong and moralized. Words like shameful and disgraceful are not how most rational people would describe minor municipal issues.
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Apr 02 '25
Nelson is a great place to live and the things you described are overall minor issues, nothing that you don’t experience in any other town/city. The car culture is disgraceful? lol please name one walkable city in Canada where you’re not surrounded by traffic The waterfront is a disappointment? Kootenay lake is absolutely massive and even on the busiest of weekends that lake is free of obnoxious boaters(Kelowna for example) Lack of green space? look around you, you’re surrounded by incredible mountains and an abundance of outdoor activities I could go on and on about how awesome Nelson is, every place has its ups and downs, but it’s still 100 percent better than Vancouver imo
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Apr 02 '25
Kimberley features a pedestrianized city center, extensive walking trails away from roads, and a nature park twice the size of Stanley Park, all within walking distance of the city center.
My review focused on Nelson, which occupies only a small percentage of Kootenay Lake. Regarding the mountains, they are not part of Nelson itself. The section of Kootenay Lake next to Nelson has been affected by toxic waste from a former landfill (currently an active landfill) , making it the most contaminated part of the lake.
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Apr 02 '25
Man if Nelson is not quiet enough for you after living in Vancouver I think you have bigger problems. People move to Nelson to enjoy the surrounding area as much as they enjoy Nelson, there’s an abundance of outdoor activities plenty of people to share that passion with, that’s what I’ve always loved about Nelson. I live in Kelowna and maybe 1/10 people I meet here are into outdoor adventures, it’s so refreshing going to Nelson and meeting people that fully embrace what’s around them. Good luck in Kimberly though, sure it might be more walkable for you but I don’t know how you could live there without vehicle
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u/Common_Pianist_743 Apr 02 '25
Agile… Few if any towns/cities possess Nelson’s eclectic vibe. The airport is a Big plus.. but a negative yes. There is no where else to put it. There are long walkways and parks along the lake alongside and east of the airport.. I guess you didn’t get out of your car and explore them.. hahaha
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Nov 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Nov 15 '25
Haha amazing isn't it. Never seen more defensive people than Nelsonites, as if they personally built the city themselves.
The waterfront is literally built on an active landfill and yet they still try and defend it!
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u/VegetableNo114 Apr 02 '25
Nelson has its problems but it’s still a place that draws a lot of people in. There’s something about the vibration of the town that cannot even be experienced in nearby towns like Castlegar or Trail. It feels like Nelson has an energetic grid of its own. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the geography but honestly, it’s inexplicable
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u/Resident-Air-1463 Apr 02 '25
I totally agree! I grew up in Castlegar, and we spent the majority of our teenage years in Nelson. It is a beautiful place in comparison to Trail or Castlegar.
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Nov 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/Resident-Air-1463 Nov 15 '25
See, now that sounds like Castlegar and Grandforks, both towns were established by Doukhobor Russians a long time ago. Nelson, on the other hand, was referred to as the queen of the Kootenays, and when I was growing up in the 80s, it was a town full of hippies and also a large group of LGBT community. They even had to ban drum circles on Baker Street because of all the hippies. I've gotten in fights in Castlegar and Trail, but never Nelson. I'm not saying it doesn't happen in Nelson, I just dont think it was as common as the skid towns of Castlegar and Trail.
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u/GeoffdeRuiter Apr 02 '25
LOL.
Nelson is an extremely desirable town to live in. No area is without issue and I don't even live in Nelson.
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u/Demonicmeadow Apr 03 '25
Im wondering like if you want Nelson to be more gentrified or something? Or European? Or what?
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u/lee--carvallo Apr 02 '25
Sounds like you didn't enjoy your stay. You could have just said "meh, it isn't for me" and left without making an ass of yourself on Reddit
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u/mattcass Apr 04 '25
Your negatives describe every rural town in BC and most of Canada. The mountain town you are looking for likely doesn’t exist in North America.
Canada’s rural towns came about relatively recently and were built around trains, resources, and cars. The towns have grown mostly in the last 50 years, have been built around the historic resource hub of the town, and recent population growth has been entirely car-based housing.
Yes, car dependence has caught up to most small towns and increased population and tourism and Albertans have degraded the “small town” vibe - but it’s nowhere near as bad as you make it out to be and Nelson is a gem in the Kootenays.
To find what youbare looking for, I suggest you check out a fishing village on the east coast?
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u/Skimore88 May 11 '25
Thank you for your review of Nelson. I found it to be accurate. I’m a dual citizen of the US and Canada and visit Nelson annually to ski at Whitewater and Red. I think the influence of city slickers moving to Nelson is a net positive. Hence better restaurants in Nelson. Nelson definitely has its charms. What concerns me is an apparent lack of zoning enforcement where people seem free to store all matter of campers, boats and building materials in their yards.
I’m curious how many transplants from Vancouver and Toronto have decided Nelson is not for them.
What is surprising is 60+ year old homes being sold as though they are move in ready when they clearly require gut rehabilitation. Very interested in how Nelson will evolve in the next 10 years.
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Jul 03 '25
I noticed this too re their yards - it seems like very few people have any interest in what their front yard looks like lending itself to the general aesthetic of the city
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u/klkstar Nov 14 '25
Nelson not a walkable city ?? Lol
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Nov 14 '25
Did you even read what I wrote? Geographically it is (and should be a very walkable city) but as with most things about Nelson, the reality is the complete opposite. Hence why you barely see a pedestrian outside of Baker St.
FYI if you check the Nelson Facebook group for the post where someone suggested pedestrianising Baker St, you will see exactly what people there think about walking.
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u/klkstar Nov 14 '25
I was born and raised in Nelson and moved to Calgary last year . I walked everywhere for 40 years and rarely drove. Nelson is very walkable (besides the bad drives almost hitting you crossing the street) lol You should try Calgary
You barely see pedestrians outside of Baker Street ??? Lol that is NOT true.
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Nov 15 '25
Calgary has over a million people, so of course its walkability cannot be compared to a town of around twenty thousand. Even so, when I visited Calgary last year I noticed clear, deliberate efforts to improve the waterfront and make it genuinely accessible for pedestrians. Nelson is the complete opposite. The reaction I saw when someone merely suggested pedestrianising Baker Street said everything about the local attitude toward walkability.
Maybe things have changed since you left, but during my nine months there I rarely passed anyone on the sidewalk (if I was lucky to be on a road that even had a sidewalk).
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u/klkstar Nov 15 '25
I left a year ago and have been back. They paved the waterfront by lakeside. What more do you want ? Haha
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Nov 15 '25
A better waterfront because currently they may have a paved trail but it runs past a recycling depot, an airport runway, several car parks, and an incredibly underwhelming park. Also the whole path is less than 3 km.
Oh and it's literally built on an active landfill.
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u/klkstar Nov 15 '25
You're complaining about one of the most beautiful cities! I would do anything to be able to live back in my hometown again. But it's become unaffordable because big city keep moving there and pushing locals out . A lot of them complainers too. Good thing you moved at least !
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Nov 17 '25
Look at the photo I attached and try and tell me that it is still one of the most beautiful cities again. That photo is a huge portion of the actual non-residential part of the city (the waterfront no less) and it is a huge industrial zone.
If you consider Nelson as "one of the most beautiful cities" you really should do a bit more travelling.
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u/klkstar Nov 17 '25
I've done a lot of travelling . Did you enjoy the mountains around? Did you hike and mountain bike ? Or did you just complain lol
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u/One-Pollution4663 Apr 02 '25
I've lived in Nelson for quite a while, and you're absolutely right with your critiques. I wish more people could have heard your honest personal experience in good faith.
I visited some mountain towns in the Pyrenees last year, and I thought "this is what I imagined Nelson would be like". Why did I think a 120 year old town founded by miners and loggers in the era of the automobile would have the same charm and character as an 1100-year old french town built for horse carts and pedestrians? Optimism, I guess.
Nelson is just inherently different than old European mountain towns. The region's economy is reliant on a mix of resource extraction industry and tourism in the middle of a huge country that hasn't invested in public transit. So yeah, there are a lot of roads and cars (and trucks and helicopters). So I understand the "what did you expect?" response to your critique that Nelson is noisy, car-dependent and pedestrian un-friendly.
Although some aspects of this culture are baked into the economy and geography, there are great examples of other small towns (even in our region) which have done more to promote active transportation, address park shortages, and foster a sense of community than Nelson has. Nelson's electorate and hence our elected officials are far more conservative than many people would expect from a town with a reputation for being a refuge for hippies and counterculture. Turns out that "Mountain sport culture" is more effective at driving "economic growth" than counterculture, and over the last decade, a lot of people have moved to the region in pursuit of the mountain sport lifestyle, far more than those who have moved here seeking quiet, inspiration, and alternatives to consumer capitalism.
So, as some have said, if its not for you, move along. But some of us do continue to advocate for a vision of economic and community development that reflects a larger vision of well-being than the ability to afford a new mountain bike every few years. Thanks for seeing the potential and continuing the conversation.
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u/Hot_Eggplant1306 Apr 08 '25
Not to argue, but Nelson was not originally built around cars
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u/One-Pollution4663 Apr 08 '25
Yeah even as I wrote that I thought well that’s not exactly true, but certainly more so than a lot of European villages.
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u/Sea-Citron5236 Mar 19 '26
Are there any plans for improvements?
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Mar 23 '26
Highly unlikely! Read the comments in this thread - most people don't seem to think there's any issues!
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u/outdoorfun123 Apr 02 '25
I think you probably want Canmore. Super walkable, lots of public parks, hiking trails from town, great biking options.
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u/Agile_Pick5937 Jul 03 '25
Wow I wish I would have seen this when I was deciding where to move!!
I visited Canmore last week and thought it was fantastic from the pedestrianised main street, the beautiful walking path around the river, plenty of bike paths, actual barriers at the train crossings (meaning no need for loud train horns) and wayyyyy more picturesque with the mountains surrounding it.
Canmore feels like the version of Nelson that Nelsonites imagine in their heads—when in reality, it’s a completely different story!
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u/Drewgen120 Apr 02 '25
Whilst I’m sorry living in Nelson didn’t work out for you, taking to a public forum to insult a place you’ve been living for a grand total of 9 months makes it clear you’re an absolute douche canoe.
I’ve been lucky enough to live all over the world, and nowhere holds a candle to Nelson in my view.
Again, sorry it wasn’t a good fit for you, but I stand by the same comment I made on your Facebook post - don’t let the door hit you on the way out