How does Calgary stack up to other North American cities?

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Corndogger

No wonder most Albertan's think the rest of the country is clued out when it comes to how they perceive us. And it's no surprise that a lot of native Albertans wish the rest of the country would stay the hell out of our business.

Yeah. Must be. Let the Eastern bastards freeze in the dark!

[Calgarian]

So basically, people on here think the cultural amenities and public spaces within the city are sufficient, and that the culture we are building will continue to grow and evolve into it's own.

I am still curious if there is anything that is different or better in another city that can be done here?

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by Greco Roman

It's called regionalism, and westerners attack easterners just as much as easterners attack westerners.

We are all guilty of this.

But there is one big difference even though I expect most of you to not agree. When we attack it is usually because we are defending ourselves. Also, there is a lot more truth to our criticisms of easterners than there is to theirs of us. And as long as the eastern-based media keeps feeding them propaganda things will never change.

[Corndogger]

Originally Posted by johnnyc

So basically, people on here think the cultural amenities and public spaces within the city are sufficient, and that the culture we are building will continue to grow and evolve into it's own.

I am still curious if there is anything that is different or better in another city that can be done here?

I'm not sure how anyone can say that the cultural amenities we have are fine for a city of our size. Our performing arts center is way too small and the entire complex is bland (IMHO). We need more and better museums (hopefully the new Science Center will be decent) of all types and I'd really like to see us get a large outdoor amphitheater built in an area where no one can complain about the noise. The entire East Village area should have been developed into a huge cultural/sports district with the above mentioned items, a world class library, and a new baseball stadium.

[Edmonchuck]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

Everyone talks about how young Calgary is, and it is young, but having said that, there's still over 100 years of history, buildings, etc etc. Calgary has a repeated history of trying to rid itself of its past through the demolition of old buildings or even blocks of old buildings. (...).

Ok, I'm only going to comment here.

100 years is NOTHING in city history when people start making comparisons or look for an identity. New York/New Amsterdam is 2 centuries OLDER...and that "culture" took a long long long time to evolve, and still is evolving.

My friend Guhahand said it best. 100 years? Bah, I have CHAIRS in my house older than that! He wasn't kidding, most of the furniture in his house in Chenai was older than Canada is as a country.

Cities demolish old buildings. Cities build new buildings. Cities watch buildings go into disrepair. Cities put up plaques saying a great building once was here but in the name of progress blah blah blah.

The past is more than buildings. Calgary is way too young to really be heavily chastized here.

[Just Build It]

Originally Posted by johnnyc

So basically, people on here think the cultural amenities and public spaces within the city are sufficient, and that the culture we are building will continue to grow and evolve into it's own.

I am still curious if there is anything that is different or better in another city that can be done here?

Things will evolve as they go. Calgary, and Edmonton, etc.. are cities that are really young in the overall realm of things and will be evolving for quite some time.

We can always look to other cities for idea. Cities like New york have borrowed ideas from european cities, European cities have borrowed ideas from middle eastern cities etc..

Let's face it, in 100 years culture is going to be the same everywhere. I went to visit relatives in Portugal a few years ago, and was amazed at how North American it is these days. Portugal, along with the rest of Europe is being strongly influenced by us at the same time. So is the rest of the world, just look at fabulous cities like Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Where did they get their ideas for metro systems, internet cafes and skyscrapers? New Orleans wasn't the first city to invent a party.

[entheosfog]

Originally Posted by Edmonchuck

Ok, I'm only going to comment here.

100 years is NOTHING in city history when people start making comparisons or look for an identity. New York/New Amsterdam is 2 centuries OLDER...and that "culture" took a long long long time to evolve, and still is evolving.

My friend Guhahand said it best. 100 years? Bah, I have CHAIRS in my house older than that! He wasn't kidding, most of the furniture in his house in Chenai was older than Canada is as a country.

Cities demolish old buildings. Cities build new buildings. Cities watch buildings go into disrepair. Cities put up plaques saying a great building once was here but in the name of progress blah blah blah.

The past is more than buildings. Calgary is way too young to really be heavily chastized here.

Obviously Calgary is young compared to New York or European cities but my point was that Calgary has 100 short years of history and it wants to keep erasing what little amount it has left. It's not about just demolishing old buildings, but getting rid of spaces that evolved over time and are being replaced with cold spaces. I wasn't trying to compare Calgary to New York or any city much older than Calgary as that would be foolish. But I was trying to make comparisons with Vancouver as Vancouver was incorporated as a city around the same time as Calgary. I'm aware both cities (and all cities) demolish their old buildings but Calgary has a lot of vacant and under-utilized land that could be built up instead. And Calgary seems to have too few old buildings left, in my humble opinion.

[poopysheep]

i think Calgary is an immensly livable city... however we really need to work on alot of issues.... the great thing is that we seem to have a group of young people ( most of the people on this board ) who have the right ideas and hopefully they will make things happen for the better....

i agree about the time issue.... think in 10 years if the East Village is built up, the river boardwalk area built up, the stampede expansion, Railtown, Eau Claire, the greyhound station gone and those car dealerships moved and that area built up... emphasis on the TOD concept and the WLRT... Vic Park and the rest of the Beltline... all of these things if they go forward will make Calgary into a vastly different urban environment... so again it comes down to time....

we will never be a Boston, or Montreal or NYC... that isn't us... Calgary is about innovation and making it happen and our "newness" reflects that and it isn't something to lament... embrace it... for better or worse it's who we are...

[Edmonchuck]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

(...)but Calgary has a lot of vacant and under-utilized land that could be built up instead. (...).

There we agree...

[Western Spaghetti]

Originally Posted by poopysheep

we will never be a Boston, or Montreal or NYC... that isn't us... Calgary is about innovation and making it happen and our "newness" reflects that and it isn't something to lament... embrace it... for better or worse it's who we are...

I agree, and Boston, Mtl and NYC will never be Calgary either. I love visiting, for example NYC, but I'm quite happy to live in Calgary.

[wild wild west]

If you look at the events of the last few years though, Calgary has turned a huge corner. The visible changes are all around us - new skyscrapers being built in the core, intensification on a massive scale in the Beltline/Vic Park area - but an equally big breakthrough has been in getting people to buy into the vision of what kind of city this can and should be. Almost everyone on Council and City Administration now recognizes that downtown intensification, new transit lines, transit-oriented development and higher densities throughout the city are the best way to go. We have a great new Downtown Plan, there are exciting new visions for areas such as Eau Claire and East Village, developers are increasingly being asked to increase their densities rather than decrease them, the new policy plans coming out of City Hall are for the most part vastly superior to what was being turned out 10 years ago, LRT expansion is getting priority over new roads, transit-oriented development is being actively promoted, there's a much greater emphasis on the pedestrian realm in policy documents, Urban Design Panel and Planning Commission than there has been in the past, and there is even talk of investment in new public buildings and spaces such as the new library. Before a city can become truly great, its citizens must collectively realize what steps it will take to get there; I believe Calgary has made tremendous strides in that direction in recent years.

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by poopysheep

i think Calgary is an immensly livable city... however we really need to work on alot of issues.... the great thing is that we seem to have a group of young people ( most of the people on this board ) who have the right ideas and hopefully they will make things happen for the better....

i agree about the time issue.... think in 10 years if the East Village is built up, the river boardwalk area built up, the stampede expansion, Railtown, Eau Claire, the greyhound station gone and those car dealerships moved and that area built up... emphasis on the TOD concept and the WLRT... Vic Park and the rest of the Beltline... all of these things if they go forward will make Calgary into a vastly different urban environment... so again it comes down to time....

we will never be a Boston, or Montreal or NYC... that isn't us... Calgary is about innovation and making it happen and our "newness" reflects that and it isn't something to lament... embrace it... for better or worse it's who we are...

I'd argue that our "newness" is a reflection on local culture but not in any positive way. It doesn't really have to do with a fondness for innovation, instead it reflects a city lacking an identity. There isn't an established sense of who or what we are. I think part of this is the cities age but another part has to do with the nature of the city. Since it is a boom bust kind of place where most of the people came from some where else there is less of a connection to here. Also the people who come here do so in search of new opportunity, Calgary to them represents economic opportunity instead of life style or culture, so there is no connection to the Calgary that is and was. I think this differs from the truelly great cities of the world where, even if they take in large numbers of out siders, there exists a mythos around them. Like you go to New York for every thing it represents, the whole idea of if you can make it there you can make it any where, the power, the culture, and every thing else. This is lacking in Calgary so there has been less concern for the place.

I don't think this lack of identity is really bad though. I obviously regret the consequences but it means we are still something of a blank slate which can be a good thing. It means we have the power to decide what we want Calgary to represent on the world stage. Right now we can really forge the foundation of a more complete local identity. Where as now when some one thinks Calgary they might think "there is a rodeo and it's booming", in the future there could be a more complete idea. I think right now we are starting to really form this idea of Calgary, which makes this a very exciting time. We're now biulding a city with some ideas on what we want it to become, instead of letting anything go we now care about design and function. This can only be a good thing.

[Arch26]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

Everyone talks about how young Calgary is, and it is young, but having said that, there's still over 100 years of history, buildings, etc etc. Calgary has a repeated history of trying to rid itself of its past through the demolition of old buildings or even blocks of old buildings.

To be fair, much of the wanton demolition that has happened in the last 40 years is simply a product of modernist planning principles. In the 1960s, when most of the "urban renewal" occurred, it was very common in North America and certainly NOT unique to Calgary. Montreal, for example, did HUGE damage to itself during that time as well, as did Toronto. Vancouver dodged a bullet. But to say that it was solely Calgary's mistake, and solely Calgary's stupidity is really not fair. It was simply a product of the times... a regretful one, but not at all uncommon.

[Arch26]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

but the transit system here is a world above what I experienced in Calgary.

Seriously dude. You could skateboard faster than most of the buses in central Vancouver. The city has the rapid transit system from hell and has a reputation for making some really outlandishly ridiculous transportation decisions. Buses are more frequent (due to higher density mostly) and they do benefit from the rigid grid, but I would not give Vancouver more credit than that.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Bassic Lab

I'd argue that our "newness" is a reflection on local culture but not in any positive way. It doesn't really have to do with a fondness for innovation, instead it reflects a city lacking an identity. There isn't an established sense of who or what we are. I think part of this is the cities age but another part has to do with the nature of the city. Since it is a boom bust kind of place where most of the people came from some where else there is less of a connection to here. Also the people who come here do so in search of new opportunity, Calgary to them represents economic opportunity instead of life style or culture, so there is no connection to the Calgary that is and was. I think this differs from the truelly great cities of the world where, even if they take in large numbers of out siders, there exists a mythos around them. Like you go to New York for every thing it represents, the whole idea of if you can make it there you can make it any where, the power, the culture, and every thing else. This is lacking in Calgary so there has been less concern for the place.

I don't think this lack of identity is really bad though. I obviously regret the consequences but it means we are still something of a blank slate which can be a good thing. It means we have the power to decide what we want Calgary to represent on the world stage. Right now we can really forge the foundation of a more complete local identity. Where as now when some one thinks Calgary they might think "there is a rodeo and it's booming", in the future there could be a more complete idea. I think right now we are starting to really form this idea of Calgary, which makes this a very exciting time. We're now biulding a city with some ideas on what we want it to become, instead of letting anything go we now care about design and function. This can only be a good thing.

Good post, I agree completely.

[entheosfog]

Originally Posted by Arch26

Seriously dude. You could skateboard faster than most of the buses in central Vancouver. The city has the rapid transit system from hell and has a reputation for making some really outlandishly ridiculous transportation decisions. Buses are more frequent (due to higher density mostly) and they do benefit from the rigid grid, but I would not give Vancouver more credit than that.

I was just comparing it to Calgary

[Arch26]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

I was just comparing it to Calgary

I know. I was just playing devil's advocate . However, I will say that I think the C-Train is light years more useful than the Skytrain. Except for frequency, by virtue of the Skytrain's automated vehicles.

[entheosfog]

Originally Posted by Arch26

I know. I was just playing devil's advocate . However, I will say that I think the C-Train is light years more useful than the Skytrain. Except for frequency, by virtue of the Skytrain's automated vehicles.

You can fit way more people in a C-Train car, that's for sure. I guess they are a lot longer...

[Arch26]

Originally Posted by entheosfog

You can fit way more people in a C-Train car, that's for sure. I guess they are a lot longer...

I think the C-Train has more balanced coverage too. I mean, the Skytrain has no service at all in Vancouver west and covers only one corner of the downtown peninsula. Yet there are TWO lines through Burnaby.

[ummagumma66]

I'd rather not get into the whole "how does Calgary stack up against ...." but I'd rather think in 25 or 50 years how will other cities stack up against Calgary...