All that glitters is not gold in Kelowna. Beyond the pristine lake, mountain landscapes and natural beauty lies an ugly underbelly of crime, drugs and violence. At least, so says a story today in The Province newspaper.
But for some Kelowna residents, that isn't the case. They said they feel safe in the city they call home.
"It's one of those things, if you're not doing something stupid, nothing will happen to you," said Nathan Peters. He believes calling Kelowna a dangerous city is a bit of an exaggeration.
"I don't think it's that dangerous. The people who you usually hear about in the news already seemed to be involved in that kind of lifestyle. There's less random violence here," he said.
Russ Banister feels the same.
"I feel safe. It depends on how you live. I don't hang out with the bad guys," he said.
In 2011, Maclean's magazine named Kelowna the seventh most dangerous city to live in Canada. That news was something Kelowna RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon didn't seem too concerned about.
"I've always had concerns about that Maclean's report and the methods that it relies on," he told The Daily Courier in 2011.
The magazine prepares the list every year by using public crime statistics, and focuses on murders, sexual assaults, break-ins and vehicle thefts. McKinnon also noted that ranking doesn't properly account for the 1.2 million tourists Kelowna gets every year, so the city's crime rate on a per-population basis isn't accurate.
With the recent news of the double murders of Tiffany Goruk and Jeremy Daniel Snow in West Kelowna, Mackenzie Sharpe thinks people should be concerned, but the city shouldn't get a bad reputation.
"Kelowna's still a small town. It's not like in Toronto, when these kinds of things happen every day.
"I feel safe in Kelowna. I think when something happens here, you hear about it more because we're a small town," he said.