Quote:
Originally Posted by Table 5
It may not be the coolest thing to judge a city by, but I think Calgary's ability to offer a ton of accessible, and relatively affordable, recreational activities for families/kids is one this city's best traits.
• Bike paths everywhere
• A great library system
• The ability to boat/kayak/float/fish in two rivers, or try white-water on Harvie Passage
• A truly world-class zoo
• Plenty of rec-centers, some that seem to rival Olympic venues
• COP (yeah it's not for everyone, but it's perfect for kids, and its right there!)
• Integrated parks like Fish Creek/Glenmore/Princess Island, and err, Nose Hill?
• Hockey/skating rinks/soccer fields in most communities
• Skateboarding and Pump tracks
• Heritage Park, Stampede, Science Centre etc.
• Private activity centers like climbing walls, go-kart tracks, gymnastics centers etc.
• All that, and the frickin' Rockies being next door for all your skiing, hiking, camping, biking needs.
Apart from a water park, better access to lakes, and better art/history museums (which hopefully the renovated Glenbow can help fix), I'm not sure there's that much missing for families. All in a relatively safe and stable environment. Calgary may not be the ultimate place for a 20-year old cool hunter or a 60+ retiree, but for those kid-raising years, personally I think it's pretty awesome.
And I'm not saying that places like Vancouver and Victoria don't have these things...but with the cost of housing being considerably less here, I think it gives families more breathing room to devote their money and time on these types of activities (and if something is missing, the ability to travel to other places to supplement).
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Good list and this isn't even going into some of the unique small town feels you can get very close to Calgary in the smaller towns and bedroom communities like Cochrane, some of Airdrie, Chestermere, Okotoks, Nanton etc. Kids riding bikes on the street and many other things I remember as common as a kid that I don't see with as much frequency anymore.
You absolutely don't get that in most of the cities anymore or most places in that level of proximity to a city, especially Vancouver and Toronto. It's not my cup of tea, but a few friends moved out to Cochrane and Airdrie and seeing those vibes, I can start to understand why some parents were dealing with the longer commutes rather than choosing something within Calgary.
Calgary/Alberta absolutely has its pros and cons. But when it comes to raising kids, there are aspects that it definitely has an advantage to many other places. This advantage has only increased since the explosion of global work from home opportunities.
This based on quite a few conversations and anecdotes I've had with friends/friends of friends from Toronto/Vancouver of new family age or family planning age that I've spoken with. that has created a bit of a migration to Calgary/Edmonton from cities like Vancouver and Toronto (reason for some of the housing bidding war here). Some of these families are cashing out condos, townhouses and houses in Vancouver/Toronto areas and coming out here to transition from being house poor to low/no mortgage and huge cashflow to actually do things. They even have enough cash flow to go back and visit frequently, but for some of the conversations I've had, many end up just pay for their parents to visit instead or paying to meet up at a resort somewhere. This isn't even discussing some of the interesting trends of my peers and friends and/or their parents and out of town friends investigating buying acreages and cashing out to move further out.
I do honestly think this type of migration is quickly going to create a sort of temporary strain in Alberta for a few years. People will constantly complain about Calgary/Edmonton having slightly more inflation and busier entertainment venues than other places. But I feel like with the influx of money and opportunities that is happening (beyond O&G), most people in these regions will be able to just shrug off the inflation with a few more worries than complaints that it costs more than before. I've seen the explosion of improvement to the food scene in Calgary. That's great. I really hope to see additional explosions of other forms of entertainment like the arts or nightlife. I'd also expect to see additional explosions of more family friendly activity centres so that it isn't as insanely crowded at places like big box and sky castle.
I've often said that Calgary is a great home base. An excellent place to have high standard of living, accumulate resources, and then travel. Calgary isn't as strong as many other big cities for some of the special night lift, interesting points of interest etc. But it does have a superior day to day infrastructure, plus easier access to resources to visit point of interests in other cities. That's straight up not as accessible for some of my friends in Vancouver/Toronto because they have mortgages corresponding to a property value that is 1.5-2.5x more than a similar property here. A million buys you limited properties in Vancouver/Toronto. Here, even with rising prices, you can get a damn nice place meeting nearly all your requirements and still have enough money for a nice car or two and travel if you aren't saving it all up.