Moving to Calgary: Good Areas to Live?

[ManitobaFlame75]

Hello
I am going to be moving to Calgary next month, and I am looking for an affordable place to rent. I would prefer to live in the inner city, close to an LRT station. If you can give me more info about Calgary neighbourhoods, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

[JiriHrdina]

Ultimately it depends on a lot of factors. What are your priorities? Budget? Safety? Fun? Are you a male or a female (not being sexist but some areas are just not safe for young women).

In general I would not live right downtown. Its empty at night and scuzzy in a lot of areas. I lived downtown in my first apartment and I found it OK but it wasn't great.

Check out the following areas:

Beltline - basically 10th ave - 25thish ave from 1st Street SW-14th Street SW. Close to downtown and lots of places to eat and drink and what not. Safer than downtown.

Marda Loop - a little away from Downtown but a nice area. A little pricey

Bridgeland - This is the area across on the North side of Downtown up Edmonton trail. Again close to downtown but more of a neighborhood.

Kensington - North of downtown on the West side. Great area but a little pricey. But great night life and close to a bunch of stuff to do.

Those are your primary options for being close to downtown. After that you start to extend further out.

Good luck and welcome to Calgary!

[ManitobaFlame75]

Thanks, Jiri!

Well I am 29, Male, and for the moment, on a tight budget, so something affordable. i really like Calgary, and after the Jets left, became a huge Flames fan. Im not really worried about safety, as I have lived in inner city Winnipeg...

[kermitology]

I love the Mount Pleasant area. Really charming houses and pretty close to parks and downtown.

I love the West parts of the city.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by ManitobaFlame75

Thanks, Jiri!

Well I am 29, Male, and for the moment, on a tight budget, so something affordable. i really like Calgary, and after the Jets left, became a huge Flames fan. Im not really worried about safety, as I have lived in inner city Winnipeg...

So its just you?

In that case if budget is important you may consider living right downtown as some of the buildings are cheaper down there than beltline. Try to find an building where they have some sort of age restriction (usually 25+).

Stay away from the apartments around the Macs on 8th Street SW. There's a lot of them in that area and the apartments themselves are nice but that area is quickly becoming very very bad. This is where I lived before but I would not live there now - its a bad scene.

If you look at downtown pay close attention to what's in the area. Is there nightlife, are there people around? Is there anything that would attract a dangerous type of person.

Some areas look great at noon but change a lot a midnight.

[flmsfan2004]

I don't have very much to offer as far as comments about good/bad communities (I still live with my parents )

But once you narrow down your search to certain communities, these links may help

http://www.rentfaster.ca/

http://www.homerent.ca/index.cfm

[ken0042]

When I moved from Winnipeg myself 14 years ago I moved into the beltline area. Inner city enough to be close to everything; but not right downtown.

One thing you'll find with Calgarians vs. Winnipeggers; us Calgarians don't like to go too far out of our own areas. Keep in mind Calgary is almost 50 km from corner to corner, so being somewhat central will help you make friends; in so far as people you meet will never be too far away from you that they won't want to visit you.

[Vulcan]

Areas just east of downtown such as Inglewood or around Scotsman Hill are old and not necessarilly the best but some are respectable and maybe cheaper then other areas mentioned. I'd probably avoid Victoria Park or Forest Lawn. Quite a few apartments along the south LRT also. The Mission area from 1st St SW to about 6 St and from 17th Ave to about 34 Ave. is handy to shops, bars and downtown and is not bad.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

I used to live just north of North Hill mall...17ave and 17st NW (don't remember the 'hoods name)....it was pretty good for that time. Close to LRT, lots of rentals with SAIT and U of C closeby.
________
DIGITAL VAPORIZER

[Robbob]

I think that area is Capital Hill...It is a great location because you have the ctrain and the mall (sure its north hill mall but it does the trick).

Marda Loop/Bankview/Altadore are great places although not right by a station but a quick jump on the 7 bus cures that.

Lots of places around 17th ave which depending on what you like could be a treat (plus its convient to stumble down 17th right to your bed after Flames games)

[Reggie Dunlop]

Don't move to Calgary. The grass is brown and the folks are plum crazy I tell you.

[soulchoice]

So I am assuming that you want to live downtown, since you are still younger. As previous posters said, there are numerous downtown apartments that may be suitible for you. Keep in mind though, downtown is not an exciting place to be considering the size of the city.

Its unlike other major cities downtowns, like Toronto, Montreal, Van, etc. There are never many people walking around downtown at any time of the day. Come nightime, a virtual ghostown. Unlike other cities where people are on the streets walking around throughout the night. Even the areas where there are a lot of drinking establishments, restaurants, 17th, 1st st, well that is about all we have, are not busy at all, compared to other city centers.

So if you are hoping to find a place that is close to LRT, cheaper and allows you to get to other areas quickly, downtown is the place. But dont move to the downtown in the hopes that you will get that "vibrant & exciting" feeling, cause you will surely be dissapointed. Its a very conservative atmosphere here. Have had numerous friends and family whom have moved here from T.O. Mtl, Vcr, who are very dissapointed in the atmosphere of the downtown core.

Dont worry bout the crime, danger of inner city living here. It will be no worse that what you will experience in Winnipeg. I am sure that will not deter you from living in the core. WELCOME...

[Flash Walken]

Inglewood, Inglewood, always up to no good.

[MarchHare]

When I moved to Calgary 3.5 years ago, my first apartment was in the Beltline area. It's a pretty cool spot to live; you're walking distance to everything you need, tons of restaurants and other nightlife abound, and you're only a few minutes away from the Red Mile to join in the festivities. At the time, I had a roommate and our modestly-sized two bedroom apartment ran us $825/month, all utilities included.

In October of 2004, I moved to a place in Kensington. As others have mentioned in this thread, it's a really young, hip neighbourhood. I jokingly call it "the coffee house district", as there's no less than seven of them in a tree-block radius on 10th St. NW and Kensington Road. Restaurants and nightlife here are almost as good as they are downtown, but it's only about a 15-minute walk to get downtown anyway. Bonuses to this location include the fact that I live directly across the street from the Safeway (making trips to the grocery store so much easier) as well as the Sunnyside LRT station. I'm also a scant five-minute walk from SAIT (where I work), which makes the morning commute totally painless. Also, the size of the place is significantly larger than my old apartment, yet the rent is cheaper ($795/month, with heat and water included, but I have to pay for electricity here).

[Tron_fdc]

Kensington is a really great place to be. Lots of pubs, and close to a Safeway (which is right beside the LRT). If you work downtown you can easily walk across the river (via Princess Island) or take the train with the rest of the humans commuting. There is a pathway system there as well that runs along the Bow river, which is usually busy in the summer and great to run/cycle on. I'd say rollerblade, but we all know how gay rollerblading is. Loads of coffeee shops there too (as mentioned) and lots of ladies milling about in the summer.

I just moved to Marda Loop, and love it. Close to everything, and a $5 cab ride from downtown. It's pretty pricey though, so your best if you want to be in the general area is to rent in the zone from between 15th ave to 25th ave SW, and between 2nd street and 14st (Downtown is set up in a grid with streets running North South, avenues running East West). I lived in that area as a youngun, and it was handy to get to really good eateries and decent bars.

[Flames_Gimp]

17aveSW..love that area. lived in the apartment at 16th ave and 10th street SW for a few years in 2000 - 2002. 12ave around 8th street is an ok area, close to 17ave sw and close to lrt/downtown. so ya, beltline area I recomend

[Muta]

I live right next to SAIT on the west side... in Hillhurst. Great area, but again - getting pricey, and quick.

Kensington is a great area, and if you find a place down there that's affordable, take it. The area is safe, and I'm walking through there or hanging out there somewhere almost everyday.

Oh, but if you move down there, watch out for two people...

...the first one is known as Rainbow Man, who seems to be an obsessive compulsive liar. He once told me he invented the Internet, and he was teaching it to world leaders at Mount Royal College. He then told me that his website is made up of 14,000 email accounts and that if you look really closely on any computer graphic ever generated, his initials are at the bottom of every single one of them. He then had to excuse himself from our conversation because he had to go withdraw $8,000 from his Swiss bank account to get a coffee.

The other guy to watch out for down there apparently go up to random people (usually guys), and kicks them in the crotch, and then runs. I'm not kididng you. Of course, he hasn't been around for a while apparently, so I'm not really sure what happened to him...

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by fotze

The amount of litter in this city is getting to me, yet I never see anyone litter, where the hell does it come from?

I suspect it's the wind. Loose garbage from whereever just seems to get around everywhere in town.

I love the Beltline area. I used to live in near the 8Ave London Drugs. Except for the gay prostitutes and the transsexual karaoke parties at the nearby Best Western, it was a great area. I'll buy a house around there someday when prices get lower.

All the areas mentioned in the thread are nice, nice areas. Calgary has a very livable inner city.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by fotze

I find kensington to be getting more ratty by the day. I would be all for revamping some of those storefronts. Those buildings where the hardware store are just scream downtown Medicine Hat but uglier and dirtier. The amount of litter in this city is getting to me, yet I never see anyone litter, where the hell does it come from?

But I digress.

You should see all the crap in the new areas. I just left Cougar Ridge, and it was a swirling toilet bowl of insulation, shingles, wrapping and whatever else tradesmen decided to throw on the ground. I had a corner lot when I first moved there, no one had fences up yet, so all the construction garbage accumulated in my yard. I hauled truckloads of waste outta there on a weekly basis.

There should be some kind of bylaw against tossing garbage around in the new areas, with fines levied against the builder or the tradesmen that are doing it. Not that it would do anything other than increase the price of housing though......I'm sure the builder would flow whatever fine they recieved straight through to the homebuyer.

[Shazam]

There should be some kind of bylaw against tossing garbage around in the new areas

There is a bylaw for this. Call the City of Calgary, maybe they'll do something about it.