Calgary Water Cooler Talk Thread

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I just finished watching Fargo, filmed in and around Calgary. It was a great show, and it was neat to try to spot all the filming locations. The old CBE stands in for FBI headquarters... nice bunker! I just went looking to see what the plan was for season 2, and I guess they should have started filming by now. I'm not sure how it will work out this year, given the total lack of snow. Should be a challenge for the producers.

I was pretty surprised they left the Bow Tower in some scenes unedited. A pretty iconic tower that pretty much screams "this is not Minneapolis".

[Bigtime]

Fargo is filming now, they were building sets and stuff like that since December.

Hell on Wheels is also getting set up right now and building a lot of stuff.

[McMurph]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I was pretty surprised they left the Bow Tower in some scenes unedited. A pretty iconic tower that pretty much screams "this is not Minneapolis".

Forget Minneapolis, season one had downtown skyline standing in as Duluth. That's a bit like casting Scarlett Johansson to play Druh Farrell. I mean, I'm sure Duluth is lovely and all, but...

Season two is well under way. From what I've heard the scene has shifted to the actual Fargo, a couple decades before season one's story line. The cafe owning former cop made many references to something happening there once -- presumably season two is all about that. They'll be crafty enough to deal with the lack of snow. I'm sure the cast and crew is happy with the non-North Dakotan temperatures.

[RyLucky]

I've seen Fargo too and loved it! I hope they have a long run in Calgary

[93JC]

Originally Posted by geotag277

I was pretty surprised they left the Bow Tower in some scenes unedited. A pretty iconic tower that pretty much screams "this is not Minneapolis".

Most viewers haven't a clue what Minneapolis's (nor Calgary's) skyline looks like, and almost certainly don't care.

The Bow is a relatively anonymous tower that most North Americans can't place...

[geotag277]

Originally Posted by McMurph

Forget Minneapolis, season one had downtown skyline standing in as Duluth. That's a bit like casting Scarlett Johansson to play Druh Farrell. I mean, I'm sure Duluth is lovely and all, but...

Season two is well under way. From what I've heard the scene has shifted to the actual Fargo, a couple decades before season one's story line. The cafe owning former cop made many references to something happening there once -- presumably season two is all about that. They'll be crafty enough to deal with the lack of snow. I'm sure the cast and crew is happy with the non-North Dakotan temperatures.

Looking forward to seeing Bow Tower again in Fargo, ND from 20 years prior

[UofC.engineer]

Originally Posted by 93JC

Most viewers haven't a clue what Minneapolis's (nor Calgary's) skyline looks like, and almost certainly don't care.

The Bow is a relatively anonymous tower that most North Americans can't place...

Sad. But very true.

I was in Montana once and met a guy that had never heard of Calgary. I thought the guy was trolling me for the longest time. I could understand if I was in Mississippi or Alabama...but for god's sakes Calgary is the closest city with over a million people to Montana.

[monocle]

Originally Posted by UofC.engineer

Sad. But very true.

I was in Montana once and met a guy that had never heard of Calgary. I thought the guy was trolling me for the longest time. I could understand if I was in Mississippi or Alabama...but for god's sakes Calgary is the closest city with over a million people to Montana.

Like a waitress in LA told me: "I'm one of those Americans that don't know where Canada is"

[Dreadmoose]

I guess they were actually filming in Kensington today for the next season. So it should be easy enough to pick some of it out.

[Calgarian]

One of the guys from that show was at the flames game a couple weeks ago, they showed him on TV a couple times. Can't remember who it was, but I think he was in Seinfeld (minor role) too.

[Jimby]

^ was it Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond?


Cool 3D printed cities for skyscraper geeks. Too bad they don't offer Calgary or any Canadian cities.

http://www.architectmagazine.com/pro...rbanist_o.aspx

[Fuzz]

So, any discussion on the provincial budget? I found it really disappointing about how they did the gas tax. Instead of doing something sensible like directing it to transit or something specif, its just general revenue to make up for their horrible budgeting. So now they've basically closed the door to a purposeful gas tax, as they sure aren't going to introduce another one.

But I guess I should be used to being disappointed by the provincial Tories by now...

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So, any discussion on the provincial budget? I found it really disappointing about how they did the gas tax. Instead of doing something sensible like directing it to transit or something specif, its just general revenue to make up for their horrible budgeting. So now they've basically closed the door to a purposeful gas tax, as they sure aren't going to introduce another one.

But I guess I should be used to being disappointed by the provincial Tories by now...

That's how I felt about the gas tax. As soon as a tax is put into general funds it will stay that way forever, just a base level of tax. I was hoping for some more details on infrastructure funding and if the Heritage Fund would be grown into something meaningful.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

So, any discussion on the provincial budget? I found it really disappointing about how they did the gas tax. Instead of doing something sensible like directing it to transit or something specif, its just general revenue to make up for their horrible budgeting. So now they've basically closed the door to a purposeful gas tax, as they sure aren't going to introduce another one.

But I guess I should be used to being disappointed by the provincial Tories by now...

Originally Posted by milomilo

That's how I felt about the gas tax. As soon as a tax is put into general funds it will stay that way forever, just a base level of tax. I was hoping for some more details on infrastructure funding and if the Heritage Fund would be grown into something meaningful.

Unfortunately none of the new revenue is specifically designated for anything, including the new health levy.

Also why does the tax rate on the >250k bracket drop back to 11.5% from 12%? Why not leave it at 12%?

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

Unfortunately none of the new revenue is specifically designated for anything, including the new health levy.

Also why does the tax rate on the >250k bracket drop back to 11.5% from 12%? Why not leave it at 12%?

Provincial taxes have never worked like that. It doesn't really matter.

All income taxes, cigarette & alcohol taxes, and the levy will still not even cover the entire health budget. So why does it matter whether it goes into a mythical account to only go to health or not?

As for the gas tax, the province collects less in gas tax than it spends on Green Trip, MSI, BMTG, maintenance for provincial highways, and provincial capital projects.

So why does it matter?

Our taxes haven't covered our basic expenses for years and still don't. To expect flow through increases is a bit much.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Provincial taxes have never worked like that. It doesn't really matter.

All income taxes, cigarette & alcohol taxes, and the levy will still not even cover the entire health budget. So why does it matter whether it goes into a mythical account to only go to health or not?

As for the gas tax, the province collects less in gas tax than it spends on Green Trip, MSI, BMTG, maintenance for provincial highways, and provincial capital projects.

So why does it matter?

Our taxes haven't covered our basic expenses for years and still don't. To expect flow through increases is a bit much.

At least if one showed it it would make it visible. Also if you are going to ask people to pay more (completely justified IMO) at least if you put it directly to a single function it would potentially be more palatable by people.

IMO all of the specific charges (user fees, gas tax, etc.) should be allocated to those areas, this also gives the ability to directly say that gas taxes don't cover transportation costs and grants.

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by Full Mountain

At least if one showed it it would make it visible. Also if you are going to ask people to pay more (completely justified IMO) at least if you put it directly to a single function it would potentially be more palatable by people.

IMO all of the specific charges (user fees, gas tax, etc.) should be allocated to those areas, this also gives the ability to directly say that gas taxes don't cover transportation costs and grants.

Meh. Not that hard to read the fiscal plan tables. And people that won't won't believe it even if the budget was sliced and diced like you suggest.

The Wildrose leadership candidates seem to believe the entire budget deficit can be handled through administrative efficiencies. You don't get to believing that without some serious misreading of what is there.

[Full Mountain]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

Meh. Not that hard to read the fiscal plan tables. And people that won't won't believe it even if the budget was sliced and diced like you suggest.

The Wildrose leadership candidates seem to believe the entire budget deficit can be handled through administrative efficiencies. You don't get to believing that without some serious misreading of what is there.

Making fiscal information more accessible is a separate issue from political opportunism. The later goes back as far as politics do, the former is something that shouldn't be that hard to present given today's technology.

Simply presenting the information in a visual manner would go a long way to helping the average citizen understand the finances of the province. Tables while they may not be hard for the average academic to understand don't present the information in an easily digestible fashion. In a sound bite culture the government needs to present information in a fashion that is compatible with it, charts and other visual representations of data are good ways to do this.

[MalcolmTucker]

The government has interesting charts lol! Or at least I think they are interesting.

[Full Mountain]

That first chart is extremely useful, not. Especially since Alberta isn't on there for comparisons.