It's difficult to drift when you feel like you're slowly turning into an ice sculpture. It's perhaps even more difficult to do when every five feet there is an icy puddle the size of a small lake. “weather permitting” is something that will always irritate me so long as I live in this city.
Flaneur is even more difficult to achieve in frigid temperatures. I find that in the winter I walk with purpose (my head down, looking at the ice on the sidewalk) as fast as I possibly can from destination A to destination B. I know, I know, I know the weather is something people are constantly complaining about, and I'm usually the first person to roll my eyes at yet another complaint. But weather is a big part of this city, of any city really. What is one of the first things people want to know, or think about, when going somewhere? I can tell you it probably isn't the navigability or the people. It's the weather. How many times did I have to describe the weather to people I met traveling in europe? If only I had a nickle etc, etc, etc.
This city provides us with seemingly endless obstacles, but one that cannot be blamed on poor city planning is the weather.
I definitely agree that the weather in Edmonton limits us from truly seeing the city in the a "flaneur" way, but in my case I don't think I really see it any differently when the weather is nice out. Maybe the winter months determine my overall view of the city. I guess we should all just embrace the 2 months of sun we get.
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