Quote:
Originally Posted by Fuzz
Ok, so then you must at least partially understand why some people don't want that ruined, right? Like you may start biking, but then you notice the nice trail throguh the woods suddenly ends at some dude's back porch, and you end up on a crappy paved trail beside a golf course, and can't have anymore fun on a trail throguh the woods? To actually ride a trial without that, you then have to put your bike in a vehicle and drive somewhere else. The greatness of Canmore used to be you could jump out your back door and have endless choices on trails like that. Now most of them have been turned into golf courses, condos, or closed entirely because the golf courses and condos displaced all the wildlife, and biking is apparently the real impediment to animal flow. Says the developers, anyway.
Or perhaps a bit of a stretch for you, but you go on a hike, and have some loser blasting crappy music on a bluetooth speaker, and you spend more of your hike standing to the side letting people by than hiking? That's what happens as you bring more and more people around.
The reality is Canmore is already full. Adding more condos and more people just makes everything worse. Hell, I did a project for Social Studies in 1996 examining the growth in Canmore, and the town was dead set that development would solve the town's financial woes, golf course would bring in the money, and everything would be protected. The reality is all it did was make the financial situation worse, and existing taxpayers foot the bill.
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I'll start with the easy one - yeah, bluetooth speakers (and just that type of guy) are beyond obnoxious. I think when you're on the trails you need to respect them as outdoor spaces meant for us all to enjoy the natural aspects. Main-character behaviour is crazy.
For biking, I've been biking there a bunch over the last couple summers, just not on off-road trails. Typically scooter or ebike on that paved path from Three Sisters down to town. Not to be a goof, but I do wish there were more paved paths because they're the most accessible and I see a lot of old people using that one path. I think the ship has sailed on Canmore being a granola-guy paradise and you'd really need to go to Field or something if that's what you want in 2023. I can empathize big time with you, though, that you miss the way it was and I can understand and appreciate how negative the direction it has taken would feel.
For me, I didn't like Canmore in the 90s. It was Banff or bust. It was only a few years ago that I discovered the Three Sisters area and was like,
holy crap, this is what I've been looking for. Banff was always the dream to live in for me, but the hoops and sacrifices necessary to live there were non-starters for me.
You know, I'm fine with capping Canmore at full
if we build a new town that is almost as accessible and just as beautiful. Like maybe between Louise and Banff or something. Or one mountain range over. The problem with capping it and not building something else is it pushes Banff and Canmore further out of reach for people. I've got a place there. Your dad has his place there. We're fine, but I'm super uncomfortable with staking my claim and then not letting others in. The demand is there and only growing. I know it's not going to happen since people these days will block any infrastructure anywhere.
I don't understand politics enough to know how it works, but can the provincial or federal government just kind of map out a little town spot and start hacking down trees? That'd be the best.