[mykalberta]

There seems to be an overwhelming sentiment in this thread by some that I should feel sorry for someone who lives in Cochrane, Airdrie, Okotoks, and all the other communities surrounding Calgary. I dont, they made the decision to save on housing, taxes, didnt like big city life and blah blah blah. Well guess what, you chose to live there, dont expect us who are paying more property tax this year to care one bit about your commute to work.

They currently (with the exception of maybe parking) pay 0$ for the maintenance of this city. Why should Calgary do anything at all to make it easier for these people to come to Calgary to work, but live somewhere else. And before you bring out the whole, well they shop in Calgary. They do no more or less shopping in Calgary than a city 100K away will. I lived in a rural town outside Edmonton, and we shopped in Edmonton once or twice a month for Costco/Ikea etc. But we didn abuse the Edmonton city services like someone who lives in Airdire but works in Calgary.

DESS may have some extreme views (vis a vi dogs) but the leaching of bedroom communities off of the major cities in Alberta is getting so ridiculous it makes me sick and it should make everyone else sick as well. And Calgary isnt even 1 or 2 on the list on the cities getting screwed. Here is my list (I have lived in all 3 cities), havent lived much outside of these cities so others might be worse but here goes:

1: Edmonton - Sherwood park still being classified as a Hamlet - enuff said.

2: Red Deer - County of Red Deer not allowing expropriation of lands to the city. As such all the stuf in gasoline alley, none of that revenue goes to the city, it all goes to the county. It didnt use to be as bad, but now there is a theatre there.

3: Calgary - barely on radar compared to the first two, but is in the top 3 because of the traffic headaches caused by these 60 minute commuters.

Also, no one is talking about Toll on the deerfoot or transcanada, but all the major intersections into downtown. City of Calgary residents get it back as a refund at the end of the year would be my idea.