Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post

jammies · 12-12-2007, 11:46 PM

Like people have said, Calgary is not particularly "sprawled" comparatively - if you want sprawl, go to Dallas, LA, or the US Eastern Seaboard, or Toronto - these are places where people can take 2 hours to get to work by car because they have to live in feeder communities far away from the commercial/industrial areas where they work. One significant advantage Calgary has is that it has no natural boundaries, so it can grow in all directions, keeping the distance between any two points in the city smaller than in cities where water or other natural barriers force the city to grow in only one or two directions.

I live in the inner city (west end downtown), and I've seen a big shift lately in the number of high-density units being built - give it 4-5 years, and there will be a big enough population downtown to really kickstart the kind of "culture" scene that figures so largely in people's perception of a "world-class" city. As far as character goes, Calgary simply hasn't been a big city long enough to develop a big-city identity, and the old small-city character has been submerged beneath waves of immigrants from the rest of Canada - which I'm not saying is a bad thing - and it'll take some time before that is overcome.

12-12-2007, 11:46 PM	#121
jammies Basement Chicken Choker Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants. Exp:	Like people have said, Calgary is not particularly "sprawled" comparatively - if you want sprawl, go to Dallas, LA, or the US Eastern Seaboard, or Toronto - these are places where people can take 2 hours to get to work by car because they have to live in feeder communities far away from the commercial/industrial areas where they work. One significant advantage Calgary has is that it has no natural boundaries, so it can grow in all directions, keeping the distance between any two points in the city smaller than in cities where water or other natural barriers force the city to grow in only one or two directions. I live in the inner city (west end downtown), and I've seen a big shift lately in the number of high-density units being built - give it 4-5 years, and there will be a big enough population downtown to really kickstart the kind of "culture" scene that figures so largely in people's perception of a "world-class" city. As far as character goes, Calgary simply hasn't been a big city long enough to develop a big-city identity, and the old small-city character has been submerged beneath waves of immigrants from the rest of Canada - which I'm not saying is a bad thing - and it'll take some time before that is overcome. __________________ Better educated sadness than oblivious joy.