Quote:
Originally Posted by powderjunkie
That's not Calgary. Imagine the arena was built where the Bow Building not stands. Or Eau Claire. Or North Hill Mall. Or CNext proposed location. None of those locations could really be called 'middle of nowhere' (except CNext). But I don't think any of them would work any better in terms of 'vibrancy'. They wouldn't be any better for transit, but would be much worse for cars.
Calgary isn't New York, Toronto, Montreal, or even Vancouver. Cars are king here, and the Vic Park location is the best compromise to serving vehicular traffic, with the potential to achieve the entertainment district 'vibrancy' everyone desires.
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You're ignoring the entire purpose of the East Village development though. Hell, there's now even discussion starting about taking advantage of the office vacancy rates downtown to turn some buildings into mixed use office/residential towers. Not too long ago planners in Pittsburgh where similar conversions have been taking place were invited here to discuss the possibility of doing something similar in Calgary's downtown core to bring up residency levels.
People are starting to understand that Calgary's development priorities in the 70s and 80s are producing a lot of problems in the here and now. It's not just a matter of handwaving it away as being 'different', it's a woefully inefficient way to structure a city in virtually every definition of the word. TO, Montreal, and Vancouver aren't exempt from having planning issues but nobody is complaining about a lack of vibrancy in any of those places. If you want better 'vibrancy' in the city core you need ways to get less people to flee to Mahogany or Paramount as soon as the clock hits 5, in all of your counterexample cities there's a wealth of compelling reasons in their respective downtowns for large amounts of people to stick around. Calgary as-is has few. An arena/entertainment district within the core (I'm willing to regard the Saddledome/Vic West location as fitting that definition, at least for me it's easily walkable from downtown/the East Village and it's one stop removed from the free fare zone) works to provide some of that incentive. Having more people actually living within the core works even better.