How does Calgary stack up to other North American cities?

[Just Build It]

IMO Calgary stacks up well against other NA cities as a place to live and earn a living. I like the direction it's going, particularly with areas like Beltline and Bridgeland. Other areas of the city have been flying under the radar but are really on the move, like South Calgary/Bankview.

The city is always improving and progressing,that's what I like about it the most. It's a good city now, but will be very good in 10 years.

[Habanero]

Originally Posted by tarapoto

I'm no expert on Denver, I only spent 24 hours there but from what I saw Denver is nothing like Calgary. A lot of construction downtown, yeah but that's about it. I guess being close to the mountains is similar, but I thought I was in Mexico really, I heard more spanish than english in my 24 hours in Denver (at least until I got to the hockey game) and I saw maybe one or two asian people. Denver is also really dirty and it seems to be a lot more rundown. I would say the sprawl is much worse in Denver too, way bigger houses and lots and it has grown together with its surrounding cities already unlike Calgary for the most part, and why the heck is the airport 40km from the city? Denver is very american, Calgary is very canadian, I see few similarities. oh and housing is much cheaper in Denver

I agree, having spent some time in Denver over the years. The geographical layout is similar, with mountains to the west and prairies to the east. The city itself really doesn't seem like Calgary to me. American cities have a much different feel to them, I have yet to see an American city that reminds me of western Canadian cities like Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton. Some people (Well mainly Winnipegers on this forum) say Winnipeg reminds them of Chicago, whereas really the two are nothing alike.

[krazycanuck]

The city has completely changed over the past 10 years. 10 years ago, Calgary was alot more like Edmonton is today, just alot more laid back and a smaller feel.

A few people have mentioned that Calgary has really turned a corner in how we view our own city and the level that we expect our city to achieve at. 10 years ago, we were happy to compete with Edmonton and that was the extent of our thinking and our view for the city. However, now things seem to just be above and beyond all that, we no longer want to be just a city of a million people, or take on other cities of the same size, we want to have the same vibrancy of the 3 major centres in Canada.

The boom is partly the cause of this. The arts scene is much better here now than 10 years ago, they are better supported, funds are allocated to restore some of our heritage buildings. the Grand and Palace Theatres come to mind. All of our major attractions either have undergone, or are about to undergo major changes to enhance and upgrade them.

We really won't know what this city is and can be until we have some time, after this current boom to look around and ask ourselves, what do we have now?

Calgary is one of the youngest cities in North America, however we do have an attitude that we want to be the best, which is great. Are we a good city right now? yes. Are we a great city? I don't think so. However, The fruits of our labours won't truly be seen and the city's true identity and form will be shown 10-20 years from now. We are playing a game of catch up with other cities across North America and so far, I think we're on the right path to have a true gem on the prairies.

[Surrealplaces]

I like the direction Calgary is headed. I was out taking some update pictures in the beltline today and really stopped to look and notice how much change is taking place. It blew my mind. Calgary inner city areas are really changing for the good. As mentioned before, it seems like the art/culture side of the city is improving. That's the one area where Calgary lacks IMO, but it seems to be getting much better. Ethnic diversity is jumping by leaps and bounds and is reflected in the stats, and is also very noticeable, this might help shed the redneck image, although unwarranted it is still there and needs changing.

IMO, if you compare Calgary to American cities of the same population, Calgary seems much more vibrant and cosmopolitan. As I said before, I like the direction we're headed in. It's an exciting time to be a Calgarian.

[Calgarian]

Lets have the NYC / Beltline discussion in this thread, that's why I made it.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by johnnyc

Lets have the NYC / Beltline discussion in this thread, that's why I made it.

How about a Calgary-Houston comparison?

I'm down in Houston at the moment, and I have to say that in comparing Calgary to Houston, we fair very well IMO. Houston's downtown reminds me of Calgary, in the way the streets are laid out and the style of the buildings. This makes sense of course, as both downtowns were built up during the same periods. Houston's has tasller towers, but seems less dense than Calgary's. The outer suburbs are somewhat similar to Calgary's, and every other North american city.

What is different, IMO is the way the inner city areas are laid out. The area around the core is much different than it is in Calgary. Here, the downtown is strictly a CBD , ringed by massive multi laned freeways, and on the other side of those freeways the neighborhoods don't have much.....allot of abandoned buildings and empty land. I've seen this with other American cities.

After touring around a bit, it makes me very thankful that we didn't build freeways in and around downtown as was onced proposed. I'm quite happy to see the direction we are going. The beltline IMO has fantastic potential, and so do the other areas surrounding the core.

[CorporateWhore]

Originally Posted by johnnyc

Lets have the NYC / Beltline discussion in this thread, that's why I made it.

I still find the idea of a NYC/Calgary comparison absolutely ridiculous....and yet the fact that real estate prices are starting to be in the same ballpark is why we sort of have to do it. However, let's make something clear...it's stricly a real estate discussion....there are costs in the NYC that you simply don't have in Canada...ie, paying 5-10k a year for your grade-school kid to go to a mediocre private school (because public school is somewhat like sending them to juvy), or the 3-5k a year per person you spend on health insurance.

[Deepstar]

Originally Posted by CorporateWhore

I still find the idea of a NYC/Calgary comparison absolutely ridiculous....and yet the fact that real estate prices are starting to be in the same ballpark is why we sort of have to do it. However, let's make something clear...it's stricly a real estate discussion....there are costs in the NYC that you simply don't have in Canada...ie, paying 5-10k a year for your grade-school kid to go to a mediocre private school (because public school is somewhat like sending them to juvy), or the 3-5k a year per person you spend on health insurance.

I heard auto insurance is expensive too.

I think we tend to think of housing in NYC is being ridiculously expensive, and 4 or 5 years ago it would've been. Calgary's average price for a house was 200k, and the dollar was 65 cents, and thus NYC would have been crazy money to buy. These days the reality is that we are very expensive, but I don't think it's going to stay up with the rest of these cities for long.

[401_King]

cities of similar sizes, I dont think there is another city in NA greater than Calgary.

[Tarsus]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

How about a Calgary-Houston comparison?

I'm down in Houston at the moment, and I have to say that in comparing Calgary to Houston, we fair very well IMO. Houston's downtown reminds me of Calgary, in the way the streets are laid out and the style of the buildings. This makes sense of course, as both downtowns were built up during the same periods. Houston's has tasller towers, but seems less dense than Calgary's. The outer suburbs are somewhat similar to Calgary's, and every other North american city.

What is different, IMO is the way the inner city areas are laid out. The area around the core is much different than it is in Calgary. Here, the downtown is strictly a CBD , ringed by massive multi laned freeways, and on the other side of those freeways the neighborhoods don't have much.....allot of abandoned buildings and empty land. I've seen this with other American cities.

After touring around a bit, it makes me very thankful that we didn't build freeways in and around downtown as was onced proposed. I'm quite happy to see the direction we are going. The beltline IMO has fantastic potential, and so do the other areas surrounding the core.

That's kind of what I thought when I was down there last year. Houston has the same population as Toronto, but is not near as diverse and cosmopolitan as Toronto is. I still don't know why we always compare our cities to ones south of the border. They should be comparing to us.

[Surrealplaces]

Here are a couple of pictures from downtown Houston. The streets in the downtown, did remind me of Calgary, as did one of their downtown markets. Outside of that, nothing here really reminds me of Calgary.

This street struck me as quite 'Calgary' looking






Then there's this market. Hmmm.. ... The same contrived baloney as a market in Calgary.

[CorporateWhore]

Originally Posted by 401_King

cities of similar sizes, I dont think there is another city in NA greater than Calgary.

that's always a fairly dumb comparison, because Calgary is a uni-city compared to most mult-city metros. Anyone who goes to any big city, whether it be Toronto, Chicago, NY etc will instantly see that reality is much different, and that these cities are in fact much bigger, just not on paper.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by 401_King

cities of similar sizes, I dont think there is another city in NA greater than Calgary.

It may be touristy, but Honolulu is pretty wonderful.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by CorporateWhore

that's always a fairly dumb comparison, because Calgary is a uni-city compared to most mult-city metros. Anyone who goes to any big city, whether it be Toronto, Chicago, NY etc will instantly see that reality is much different, and that these cities are in fact much bigger, just not on paper.

Hell yeah - having lived most of my life in unicities (or small towns), it's a total perceptual shift. I've had Torontonians tell me that Toronto itself isn't actually all that big - they discount the dozens of suburbs that butt up against it. Whereas from my standpoint, Toronto is positively HUGE and sprawls for tens of kilometres in every direction. To me, CUD is CUD, regardless of the sign saying "now entering Markham".

American cities are even worse, because they often have large gaps separating what is essentially the same city for the purposes of transportation and the local economy.

[CorporateWhore]

Originally Posted by Deepstar

I heard auto insurance is expensive too.

that's one thing that's thankfully not a huge issue....since most of us don't own cars.

[bendecido]

Originally Posted by Tarsus

I still don't know why we always compare our cities to ones south of the border. They should be comparing to us.

Here Here!

[Rysdad]

Quote:
Originally Posted by 401_King
cities of similar sizes, I dont think there is another city in NA greater than Calgary.

Ottawa-Gatineau is better in my opinion.

-cottage country and 1000s of lakes at your doorstep
-much lower cost of living especially Gatineau and a higer median income
-much much much more heritage culture and museums
-french-english mix
-more green space/parks
-very green
-closer to other major areas
-people dont think they live in a big city while its been a 1 million metro since early nineties-no pretention
-beautiful heritage towns such as almonte, wakefield, montebello, carleton place, smiths falls at doorstep
-rideau canal, st lawrence river and ottawa river provide real boating

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by Rysdad

Quote:
Originally Posted by 401_King
cities of similar sizes, I dont think there is another city in NA greater than Calgary.

Ottawa-Gatineau is better in my opinion.

-cottage country and 1000s of lakes at your doorstep
-much lower cost of living especially Gatineau and a higer median income
-much much much more heritage culture and museums
-french-english mix
-more green space/parks
-very green
-closer to other major areas
-people dont think they live in a big city while its been a 1 million metro since early nineties-no pretention
-beautiful heritage towns such as almonte, wakefield, montebello, carleton place, smiths falls at doorstep
-rideau canal, st lawrence river and ottawa river provide real boating

I am sure you have never been to Calgary. You are entitled to prefer Ottawa, but the points you present are ridiculous.
Reader's Digest says Ottawa is the rudest city in the country.
Ottawa is ok, but apart from being the national capital, it isn't anything special. Downtown Ottawa is deader at night than downtown Calgary, the only nightlife is in Gatineau.
I can't stand the humidity in the summer in Ottawa. Calgary has a much nicer climate - drier air, milder winters with warm chinooks, less snow, big blue skies...

my counterpoints:
- adjacent Rocky Mountains & national & provincial parks trump your cottage country and little hills
- much much higher taxes in Quebec, plus Ontario and Quebec have provincial sales taxes. Cost of living is slightly lower in Calgary than Ottawa
http://www.stat.sfu.ca/~cschwarz/SFU...CostLiving.pdf
I take it the higher median income you refer to does NOT include Gatineau?

- you only have "culture" and museums because the whole country subsidizes the national capital, it has nothing to do with anything anyone in Ottawa has done.
- we have English, and more French than you think; and every nationality in the world is moving to Calgary for the unlimited opportunities here.
- Calgary has some of the largest urban parks in North America. Your parks are subsidized by all Canadian taxpayers so I should hope they are nice, we would like to see some value for our money.
- we're a 2 and a half hour flight from L.A. We are more attuned to the west coast than the east. Lucky you can make connections in Toronto if you want to go anywhere. Lufthansa is to fly Frankfurt-Calgary; what you got, Zoom Air?
- big deal you have a million unpretentious civil servants - yawn -a totally artificial town with no real reason for existing apart from the federal government. High tech can and does locate anywhere.
- our heritage is thousands of years old, we have medicine wheels, teepee rings and other evidence of long-standing indigenous not imported culture.
Banff beats Montebello (a castle compared to a log cabin), Wakefield, Almonte etc.
- the Bow river is recognized as one of the world's outstanding trout fishing streams. Yes we have boating, yes we have canals, yes we have 2 clean rivers flowing through the city.

[Rysdad]

Very good points by you,one guy said its the best city of its size in NA I think its Ottawa-Gatineau.

I have been to calgary several times and it is great-dont get me wrong. This is just my opinion you are very well entitled to yours.
The cost of living for business may be lower in calgary and I agree taxes are higer in quebec where I live. But my house and land would be double or more than double(in Calgary). Plus I have 2 kids and despite the fact I pay higher income taxes I pay 7 dollars per day for child care, I dont pay for water usage(not really a good thing) or health care. So any difference in the area of taxation is moot, I also know auto ins and hydro are more exp in Alberta.

I think Calgary is physically beautiful and many times I considered moving there its just that right now the cost of living for families is way too high. Two years ago a house that was 200k is 400 k now. I know salaries have not increased that much.

I just think its getting out of control.

[Rysdad]

and here are some supporting me, though neither is correct these are pure opinions, for a single person alberta is probably better
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/rank...olive/list.jsp

The world's top cities offering the best quality of life
(New York is the base city with a score of 100 points) 2007 Rank 2006 Rank City Country Points
1 1 Zurich Switzerland 108.1
2 2 Geneva Switzerland 108.0
=3 3 Vancouver Canada 107.7
=3 4 Vienna Austria 107.7
=5 5 Auckland New Zealand 107.3
=5 6 Düsseldorf Germany 107.3
7 7 Frankfurt Germany 107.1
8 8 Munich Germany 106.9
=9 9 Bern Switzerland 106.5
=9 9 Sydney Australia 106.5
11 11 Copenhagen Denmark 106.2
12 12 Wellington New Zealand 105.8
13 13 Amsterdam Netherlands 105.7
14 14 Brussels Belgium 105.6
15 15 Toronto Canada 105.4
16 16 Berlin Germany 105.2
17 17 Melbourne Australia 105.0
=18 18 Luxembourg Luxembourg 104.8
=18 21 Ottawa Canada 104.8
20 20 Stockholm Sweden 104.7
21 21 Perth Australia 104.5
22 22 Montreal Canada 104.3
23 23 Nürnberg Germany 104.2
=24 25 Calgary Canada 103.6
=24 25 Hamburg Germany 103.6
26 31 Oslo Norway 103.5
=27 24 Dublin Ireland 103.3
=27 27 Honolulu USA 103.3
29 28 San Francisco USA 103.2
=30 29 Adelaide Australia 103.1
=30 29 Helsinki Finland 103.1
32 31 Brisbane Australia 102.8
33 33 Paris France 102.7
34 34 Singapore Singapore 102.5
35 35 Tokyo Japan 102.3
=36 37 Lyon France 101.9
=36 36 Boston USA 101.9
38 37 Yokohama Japan 101.7
39 39 London UK 101.2
40 40 Kobe Japan 101.0
41 44 Barcelona Spain 100.6
=42 45 Madrid Spain 100.5
=42 51 Osaka Japan 100.5
=44 41 Washington DC USA 100.4
=44 41 Chicago USA 100.4
46 43 Portland USA 100.3
47 53 Lisbon Portugal 100.1
48 46 New York City USA 100.0
=49 51 Milan Italy 99.9
=49 47 Seattle USA 99.9

Alberta has however made a great move regarding paying for Autism treatment one which all Canadian prov govts should follow.