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Why can't we have a civil discussion about a city with out people trying to start shit. Stop trolling and contribute something or go away, it's quite simple
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There it is, the infamous "T" word.. You should know better, Johnnyboy, pot & kettle thing & all ;^)
You asked for city comparisons, I gave you one from Milwaukee, a city I sepnd about three weeks a year in & one of my favorite "1 millionish" US city. Beautiful place, in an interesting state of flux right now. Lots of great entertainment, and a very diverse cross-section of people. Milwaukee has lots of available land, like Calgary, ut unlike Calgary it is bordered on the east by lake Michigan, and huge abandonned warehousing & industrial on the south & west. North Milwaukee is growing like the beltline with some impressive condo developments and very upscale restaurants and night spots. There downtown core does not have many underutilized parcels of land, which has resulted in some excellent densification.
Calgary, like many other pimples on the prarie, is a victim of sprawl due to the lack of natural boundaries found in coastal and mountainous cities. Calgary seems to be dealing with it better than many other cities, so much so that even the infamous east village has a shot at being properly developed as the city grows naturally. Comparable cities, take Edmonton for example, are a lot further off at being able to "naturally" develop the decrepid (sp ?) areas. Calgarys' burbs are carbon copies of the burbs in any other similar city, the big differences appear to be happennig downtown, and of course that is driven by an unprecedented construction boom that is directly tied to the energy sector. Most other cites in the 1 million range (I've never been to Texas tho.. can't comment on Houston or Austin or Dallas) don't have that working in thier favor.
Edited to add: I spent some time in Sacramento a few years back, when I was still living full time in Calgary. To me, Sacramento feels almost exactly like Calgary, and is similar in lots of ways, but I found Sacramento to feel soulless, lacking in vibrancy... quite unlike Calgary