Name one thing you like about Calgary - Page 2

lubicon · #21 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 5:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Calgary is meritocratic. Nobody cares about the colour of your skin, who "your people" are, whether you graduated from UCC or McGill or the "right" college at U of T. All that matters is if you can do the job, and then your rewards are only limited by your vision and your effort. Want a film festival? Don't glad-hand with the reigning "arts community"; START ONE YOURSELF as the founders of CIFF did in 2000. Want an indie music fest? START ONE YOURSELF instead of begging for scraps from NXNE as the founders of Sled Island did two years ago. Really loved the Jamba Juice you had in LA but can't get franchise rights to open it up in Canada? START ONE YOURSELF as the founders of Jugo Juice did.

Calgary is a city where one can achieve that stereotyped "American Dream" with all its apocryphal (in the US) myths of meritocracy. It really exists here. Yet Calgary is resolutely Canadian.

There's a lot of good things about Calgary, but you nailed it perfectly Rusty. I couldn't put it better myself.

Rusty van Reddick · #22 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 5:32 PM**

Thanks guys. Making me grin through what I hope are the dying throes of food poisoning

Me&You · #23 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 5:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty van Reddick

Thanks guys. Making me grin through what I hope are the dying throes of food poisoning

Where did you pick that up? Just got over a spell myself...

Rusty van Reddick · #24 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 6:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Me&You

Where did you pick that up? Just got over a spell myself...

well I don't know if I caught this from somebody but the intensity and short duration (I was basically in the bathroom nonstop from midnight until 5am but not much drama since then) spells food poisoning to me vs norovirus- last thing I ate was pizza from gondola, lunch had been at Ruan Thai, dinner night before was Oishii Village sushi. We also had sushi at a new grad students orientation thing that was catered and I was one of the few to actually eat the raw salmon but who knows, there are lots of suspects!

tsumetai · #25 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 7:31 PM**

If you're puking, It's probably from the sushi, my gf had something similar happen. There is a type of parasitic larva that lives right underneath the skin of some types of fish, if the sushi is cut too shallow, part of that layer gets ingested as well. This is also why its also a bad idea to eat raw fish skin.

Her period of sickness (alot of vomiting for 4-5 hrs) was over after she had "puked her guts out".

Ramsayfarian · #26 Posted **Sep 4, 2009, 8:16 PM**

There's lots of things I like about Calgary, but if I had to pick one, I'd have to say our proximity to the mountains.

Jimby · #27 Posted **Sep 5, 2009, 1:02 AM**

I like the climate.

LFRENCH · #28 Posted **Sep 5, 2009, 4:18 AM**

the attitude of "we can do it", comming from a certain community in BC. it amazes me to see calgary get off its ass and do something as opposed to talk for two years about how we can't do something.

frinkprof · #29 Posted **Sep 5, 2009, 2:37 PM**

^Welcome to Calgary LFRENCH. Have you moved here for the forseeable future?

SubwayRev · #30 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 1:23 AM**

I like that it's always sunny here. When I am other places and there are five consevutive days of overcast and rain...that wears me down. I like sunny days, even if it's -20C, at least its sunny.

fusili · #31 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 4:14 PM**

Does anyone else notice that most of the things people like about this city don't actually have anything to do with the city itself - ie proximity to the mountains and climate? Don't get me wrong, those are great things, I just wish we had more of the actual city to be proud of rather than things that are in no way influenced by us.

McPaul · #32 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 9:25 PM**

I don't understand all the comments about the mountains.

The mountains are nowhere near here. This city is flat, not mountainous. You have to drive two hours to even get to the mountains. If you want mountains, go live in Golden, or Squamish, or Denver, or Park City. The mountains have nothing - nothing at all to do with Calgary. The people in this city have to wake up and realize this.

I have to agree with the first poster. The only thing that attracted me to this city was jobs. And the fact that I've been trying to get out of this city ever since I came here, but can't as there are no comparable jobs where I want to be proves this.

The fact that there is lots of growth and development is of course a very pleasant feature about this city, and I do like keeping up with it all, but fact is, I don't use new architecture. I don't control where I work, and can't just decide to work in Jameson, or Bankers Court, or the Bow when complete. I live in the beltline, but my work has relocated out of the downtown. Perhaps if I worked downtown every day, I would be able to appreciate it more. I can follow the growth of new construction in other cities if need be.

No, what I do enjoy about this city is the extensive parks and pathways system extending all around the city. I actually use the parks system regularly and enjoy and appreciate the fact that it's there for me whenever I want it, and is not usually too crowded. The c-train is nice to have as well.

That's what I enjoy about this city.

The Chemist · #33 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 10:20 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by McPaul

I don't understand all the comments about the mountains.

The mountains are nowhere near here. This city is flat, not mountainous. You have to drive two hours to even get to the mountains. If you want mountains, go live in Golden, or Squamish, or Denver, or Park City. The mountains have nothing - nothing at all to do with Calgary. The people in this city have to wake up and realize this.

.

2 hours from drive from Calgary puts you in Lake Louise! You can reach the Front Ranges in Kananaskis in less than 45 minutes.

And the west side of Calgary is most certainly NOT flat.

Metro-One · #34 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 10:28 PM**

Different people have different perspectives of what is close or far.

I know the Canadians and Chinese (because they come from big countries) think of an area 2 hours away as close, but people i know from Japan and Europe consider a place 2 hours away to be far away.

Perfect example - Canadians/Chinese generally think Whistler is close to metro-Vancouver. Japanese/Europeans think that Whistler is far away from Vancouver and would even consider it a decent road trip.

Oh, and I like Calgary's skyline.

You Need A Thneed · #35 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 10:55 PM**

^^ Yeah, If you live in the Westhills area, or down south by the 22x, you can get to the mountains in less than half an hour. The HWY 40 turnoff is only about a half an hour drive from the Western City limit on 16th Ave.

2 hours will take you from anywhere in the city to Lake Louise, which is nearly 100 km into the mountains.

And Calgary certainly isn't flat, some of the east side is flatter, but still isn't really flat. There's at the very least small rolling hills everywhere in Calgary.

citizen j · #36 Posted **Sep 6, 2009, 11:05 PM**

Its maturity. The city seems to have outgrown its need to over-compensate for not being someplace else. It seems to finally have arrived at a mature level of self-confidence as an urban centre. Bravo. And yeah, plus ... mountains.

Ferreth · #37 Posted **Sep 7, 2009, 1:07 AM**

If I can photograph it, I consider it to be not too far away:

As far as an hours driving goes, I don't really notice the time going to the mountains - watching them get bigger and new panoramas reveled around every corner never gets old.

fusili · #38 Posted **Sep 7, 2009, 1:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by citizen j

Its maturity. The city seems to have outgrown its need to over-compensate for not being someplace else. It seems to finally have arrived at a mature level of self-confidence as an urban centre. Bravo. And yeah, plus ... mountains.

I think this is starting to happen, but there is still quite a bit of an inferiority complex in this city. How many references do you hear about Portland, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Houston, Denver even Paris when comparing to Calgary? For some reason we always seem to want to compare what we are doing with what others are doing. Great cities don't compare themselves to others, they work to create an identity of their own. New York, Toronto, Paris and Vancouver are all great cities, all for different reasons, and they don't try to be like the others (at least from my perspective).

Wooster · #39 Posted **Sep 7, 2009, 2:06 AM**

^ I don't know about other cities, but I know Toronto is constantly comparing itself and measuring itself against other cities - Chicago, New York, San Francisco even Vancouver. In my line of work, living in Toronto I hear it all the time. In certain contexts that can get annoying, but I don't think it's necessarily unhealthy for a city like Calgary to look at other cities and what they do well, recognize the city's deficiencies and strive to close the gap. That's not to say we should emulate them, but it's good to observe what cities like Vancouver have done, learn from it and apply that knowledge to our own city-building.

Ramsayfarian · #40 Posted **Sep 7, 2009, 6:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by McPaul

I don't understand all the comments about the mountains.

The mountains are nowhere near here. This city is flat, not mountainous. You have to drive two hours to even get to the mountains. If you want mountains, go live in Golden, or Squamish, or Denver, or Park City. The mountains have nothing - nothing at all to do with Calgary. The people in this city have to wake up and realize this.

Tell that to the thousands of people from this city who spend their weekends in the mountains. As someone else mentioned here, distance is relevant. Compared to Winnipeg, Calgary is an alpine city.

The one thing I don't like about this city is people such as yourself who live here, but yet do nothing but bitch about how much living in Calgary sucks, but yet you continue to live here because you can't find employment else where. A city is much like life, you get out of it what you put into it.