Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Depends on your definition. I've always like this chart which is updated every couple years:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2016t.html
No, Calgary isn't an Alpha city (it'll never be New York, London, Sydney, etc) but it is a Beta city, similar in importance and "world relevance" to Seattle, Denver, Manchester, Edinburgh, etc. A small step below Berlin or Philly, but a small step above Glasgow or St Petersburg. In addition, Calgary consistently ranks very high in the quality of life it provides.
So, it's not the top of it's class, but Calgary is a pretty important and successful city in its own right, and ranks very well among other cities in the world. Part of getting there and staying there is our infrastructure and development. Having major entertainment venues and surrounding developed areas is just part of that, unfortunately.
I still don't want them spending money on a new arena, but I'm ok with money spent on redevelopment in areas that have a lot of potential (like the plan B area). So we'll see where the funding comes from and goes towards. |
For the record, the basis for these rankings is pretty much financial services based. The merits of consideration are based on the following: Accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and legal. So according to the list, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis and Kansas City rank ahead of Las Vegas (which doesn't even make the list at all). So ummmm, that would be the very definition of bull####. Nobody would ever consider those cities ahead of Las Vegas as far as being "world class"
World class implies elite, so the definition should be very narrow and not broad enough that every city could claim they are close to world class. It basically should be "As a non-resident, would you actively plan a tourist based visit to this city, to which you will spend the majority of your time in?". As such, Calgary is once again primarily a gateway to the mountains than it is a stand alone city you'd wanna visit.
And Glasgow is a ####hole, everyone knows this, it's Scotland's Edmonton, simply no good. Edinburgh is waaaay better.