[Beltliner]

I was going to file this under "Declining Quality of Life", but then it occurred to me that a thread for denizens of the board to talk about the media in Calgary might be useful. Kicking things off, here's a little personnel notice (http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=a127dacb-7a2a-4c37-a7c8-344b5778e7ae) that precipitated a spit-take out of me when I glanced at The Fishwrap this morning:

Fishwrap appoints Editorial Page editor

Monday, December 03, 2007

The Fishwrap has appointed a new leader for its opinion and commentary pages.

Licia Corbella, a long-time editor and columnist in Calgary [my emphasis], takes over as The Fishwrap's Editorial Page editor effective today.

Corbella has served as editor of The Calgary Scum for the past 10 years, and as a columnist for Scum Media. In addition, she has worked as a news and feature reporter at Krasnaya Zvezda, The Toronto Scum and The Profiteer in Vancouver.

During her career, she has won awards for column writing, news series reporting, feature writing and police reporting. [Do the Dunlop Awards (http://torontosunfamily.blogspot.com/2007/05/all-dunlop-winners.html) actually count? --Ed.]

"We are pleased to have someone of Licia's calibre [my emphasis] join our organization," said Lorne Motley, The Fishwrap's editor-in-chief.

"She is well known to many Calgarians [my emphasis], and we are looking forward to her move to Calgary's largest media organization [my emphasis]."

Among her first priorities will be to push the editorial component of the paper further into the online world [my emphasis] -- allowing readers across southern Alberta to further engage with the paper on matters of importance to the region [such as why local coverage just got crummier, more nebulous, and more dilute, shurely? --Ed.].

Corbella is looking forward to her new role.

"I'm very excited to be joining The Fishwrap," Corbella said. "I am looking forward to making the already thought-provoking [meaning "apoplexy-inducing", shurely? --Ed.] editorial pages even more compelling for our paper and online readers."

Corbella, 44, is also a former member of the Canadian National Swim Team, and has held Canadian records in a number of events.

In her role, Corbella will also oversee The Fishwrap's editorial board. She can be reached at lcorbella@thefishwrap.canwest.com.

[240glt]

I wonder if Corbella will work towards lowering the quality & integrity of the Herald to below Calgary Sun standards.... if that's even possible.

ETA: I just got the "fishwrap" thing

[240glt]

Life of luxury
Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Sales in the luxury home market in Calgary have ballooned this year compared with a year ago.

According to the latest Calgary Real Estate Board figures, sales of million-dollar plus properties locally have increased in four separate categories - single-family homes in Calgary metro, metro condos, surrounding towns and country residential acreages.

At the same time, a report released today by Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., says as demand for luxury homes continues to grow, so do the wants and needs of those looking to buy, and homeowners keep raising the bar when it comes to outfitting their multi-million dollar pads.

The million-dollar home is no longer the exclusive domain of the rich," said Elli Davis, sales representative for Royal LePage in Toronto. "In fact, many typical middle income Canadian families now own million-dollar residences due to soaring property prices. Accessorizing the property with the hottest must-haves is a natural extension of living a luxury lifestyle and a way to stand out from the crowd."
The report said some of the most sought-after accessories are elevator car lifts, indoor carwashes, walk-in refrigerators, spas, gyms, yoga and Pilates studios, wine cellars and tasting rooms, concierge services, media rooms, wrapping and sewing rooms, structured wiring and security, home elevators and heated driveways, walkways and garages.

Increasing disposable income in Calgary as well as 40-year amortization periods are some of the key factors contributing to the soaring luxury home sales in this market.

Until the end of November, 421 single-family homes sold for more than $1 million compared with 296 sales during the same period in 2006. There have been 29 condos sold in that price range so far this year while a year ago there were 27.

In the surrounding towns, 79 properties have sold for more than $1 million this year compared with 38 last year and sales in country residential acreages have ballooned to 203 this year from 146 in 2006.

mtoneguzzi@theherald.canwest.com

As a firm believer in living within my means and trying to keep my consumption to a rational level, articles like this disturb me.

Anyone who's taking out a 40 year mortage to buy a McMansion is an idiot.

[Mid1]

As a firm believer in living within my means and trying to keep my consumption to a rational level, articles like this disturb me.

Anyone who's taking out a 40 year mortage to buy a McMansion is an idiot.

I agree with all you said and I think it's a much bigger problem now than ever before. I'm surprised no one else complains about these mansions on this forum since they are much worse than the crap in suburbs. All the resources you waste on these type of houses:(

[freeweed]

I agree with all you said and I think it's a much bigger problem now than ever before. I'm surprised no one else complains about these mansions on this forum since they are much worse than the crap in suburbs. All the resources you waste on these type of houses:(

I've noticed many people seem to interchange the two, where any single family home in the suburbs is labelled a "McMansion".

Wow, the austerity of my 1400 sq ft palace! :haha: Maybe I'll convert my third bedroom (ie: office) into a "yoga room" - do you just put mats on the floor, or is there a special kind of wasteful conversion procedure I could pursue?

Mostly you don't hear much about it because while a McMansion may be extremely wasteful (whatever that means anyway; I once met a guy who ranted about McMansions and then got into his car that was decked out with a $6000 stereo) on an individual basis, the sheer number of suburban homes will vastly dwarf any effect is has.

[240glt]

FWIW, I label the shacks going up out towards Bragg Creek as "McMansions", although the term is definitely subjective.

My friends' 3500 s.f. house up in Coach Hill is not a "McMansion" as much as he'd like to think it is (he's an unappologetic "keeping up with the Jones" type)

Regardless, my point was that it seems we're valuing the appearance of affluence more than ever... a trend that cannot go on forever I wouldn't think.

[wild wild west]

Wine-tasting rooms, wrapping and sewing rooms, yoga and pilates studios...yikes, the things people blow their money on. I'm just happy to own a modest house in this market!

[240glt]

^anyone who needs a "wrapping" room has too much money. Or Maybe it was supposed to be a rapping room ??? who knows.

Anyways, just noticed this in the Herald:

Calgary's office vacancy to rebound

Mario Toneguzzi
Calgary Herald

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

A national survey of Canada's five major centres shows Calgary as being the only one that will see a rise in office vacancy rates in the coming year.

The report released today by Cushman & Wakefield LePage said vacancies in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal will fall in 2008.

"Calgary has had a wild ride over the past few years," said Paul Morse, the company's senior managing director and national practice director of office leasing. "We've seen space incredibly tight - down to 0.4 per cent vacancy in the core - and now we're seeing a healthy rebound to more manageable levels."

Calgary's downtown vacancy rate is projected to rise to 3.6 per cent while the suburban market will reach 6.3 per cent by year-end 2008 as almost four million square feet of new supply comes to the market, said the report.

The Calgary downtown office vacancy rate in the third quarter was 3.1 per cent with an inventory of 32.7 million square feet, said Mike Gigliuk, director of research in Alberta for CB Richard Ellis.

At a Calgary real estate leasing forum in late October, Todd Throndson, managing partner of Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (Alberta), said the suburban market vacancy rate was 1.94 per cent at that time.3.6% is still nice & healthy. I wonder what this means for the Penny Lane Development.... will that have to wait for the next cycle ?