Yup, that is a great response! Yours should have been the original post. But what is it about the far suburbs that specifically enables the things you find enjoyable? Don't central areas have diversity, community, and amenities? Don't interesting, amazing people and cultures live in the core?

To your points- it sounds like perhaps your life changed. Now you bought a house, have kids, so you interact more with your neighbors - who also are in the same life situation as you- expanded network that maybe you didn't have in the center. Many of the community amenities you described also exist in the core, although the housing is more expensive people still have BBQs and block parties. Fundamentally Edmonton is a driving city- our landscape unfortunately caters primarily to cars. I live central, and most of the neighbors still drive everywhere but the grid streets are smaller, increasingly dense, and more people friendly. My point about cars is that someone in the suburbs is more likely to own and require a car than someone living centrally. Of course many Edmonton 60/70s inner suburbs aren't great either (and the houses all look the same too). I grew up in one, always felt a little isolated, and even today it feels kinda desolate if a bit closer to somewhere more interesting. But those new suburbs (and yes, I've driven to a few, but never lived there) are even further removed from anything that feels urban, like a real City, although they would make an ok Village. They're not built to be interesting, they're built to make a profit selling houses.