Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainYooh
Detroit suburbs at 3-4 upa with a water tower sticking up every few miles – that's sprawl. At 10-12 upa, Calgary is not sprawling, it's just been growing fast to keep up with the people that want to live and work here. The argument of the rest of the city subsidizing growth is old but holds little merit. Woodbine and Varsity used to be suburbs too. Did Mount Royal and Inglewood residents subsidize their growth?
Sensible intensification of the inner-city is great, as it makes the city more interesting. But so is sensible suburban growth, as it makes the city more affordable. Nenshi and a few aldermen (Farrell, Pinchott) have been pushing the former over the latter as an ultimate growth policy through the PlanIt Calgary document. This is where the problem is. Developers don't like it because they could loose some business over it. Guess what, they will refocus and start building more highrises eventually. But the real issue here is, will Calgary remain an attractive city to live doing so? I doubt it.
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Calgary may be less sprawly than Detroit, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have sprawl, as it certainly does.
Suburban growth is only sensible if it's fiscally sustainable. The way Calgary is growing now is not. That is why taxes are going up faster than inflation.
And I happen to think that not only will Calgary remain attractive, but if we stop subsidizing sprawl it will become more attractive than if we don't. That is what motivates me to care about this issue. Yeah, I hate the sprawl subsidy as a matter of principle, but in the short run it's not a huge amount of money. But if we change it, then we get a city where commute times stay shorter, where you might be able to get home from the bar without waiting half an hour for a cab, where you can walk to the amenities you need and spend less time in a car, and where higher population densities lead to increased street life and denser services. And those are the things that would make a far greater difference in my life than, say, $100 a year less in taxes.
I want the residential tower accross the street from me to get built, because it will add people to my neighborhood and those people will support the local businesses. Then, with more businesses and/or existing businesses keeping longer hours, my quality of improves.