Best places in Calgary to live?

[Mr.Coffee]

I've always wanted to live in the areas closer to downtown like Bankview, Inglewood, etc. Unfortunately my bullet train strategy to growing up and living life has resulted in living with a partner that thinks rape and murder are hourly occurrences in any neighbourhood remotely close to downtown (she's a small town girl though, so I understand).

Basically though I think one could gauge based on all the posts in this thread that there are many places that offer a lot of great things and you probably won't go wrong whereever you choose to live and therefore, as fotze mentioned earlier, you need to figure out what your priorities are and then choose the area accordingly. If you don't have any real "priorities", then anywhere will probably work. However, I'd argue you'll develop a better sense of what you want after you move into a place.

For example, I lived for a year in Copperfield and didn't really like it, moved to Hidden Valley for a year and hated it... and realised that the older "suburb" communities in Calgary like Bonavista generally seem to be the best value for the things I want.

As a recommendation there is a new building getting the finishing touches in Inglewood right off the river that a buddy of mine lives in and it's a real nice place... Inglewood seems bent on revamping itself.

[FCAV]

What's the general consensus on Sunalta? Especially tucked up in the corner by Crowchild and Bow Trail?

[guzzy]

Originally Posted by Shazam

What's rampant? We had human poop on the front step about every week. The hookers were around in the back alley every day. So are the bums.

I lived in Inglewood for 3 years (moved 1.5 years ago to Chestermere) and i never saw a hooker. I walked up my dogs through the community daily, nightly.....never saw anything like you talk of. I saw the odd homeless guy around the bottle depot and the liquor store but that was it. We never had a problem and neither did our neighbours.

Inglewood has been a great place for the last ten or fifteen years and only going to get better.

[MelBridgeman]

The opposite side of the city from Mayer

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

Spruce Cliff has a decent little collection of condo's townhouses and a unique view of downtown. Close to the Shag golf course and the first new west leg LRT station will be very close by.

Just bought a condo in Spruce Cliff 2 days ago - haven't moved in yet, but I've been a Southwest guy most of my life. Looking forward to it.

[Flames in 07]

I don't live downtown, but I'm a 15 min walk to the middle of it, in my neighbourhood, in 2 years, have seen 2 homeless people ( who contrary to suburb myth ... actually weren't all that scary), no nightcrawlers and outside of the festivals on the island, no real noise.

I think people who spend their sunday's asking their neighbor what earth tone shade their stucco is, while they mow their 1/2 acre lawn assume that if you live in the inner city that must mean London House.

[temple5]

I have lived in sunnyside (rent) now live in china town north (crescent heights)

I like CH - the walk to work is a little longer than I would like but it has easy access to 16th ave so everyone can find my place - 90 second drive to downtown with no traffic, 5-8 minutes if you leave at 8am.

I liked the convienience of walking to restraunts and unique shops in Sunnyside but the weed smell does get to you after a while.

CH neighborhood isnt ans nice, but Druh Farrell dosnt have her claws into this area for shutting down streets etc. With the widening of 16th ave it has made it very easy to get to places. Only negative would for a single guy would be no train access to the dome - and you dont have the amount of dirties walking along centre street as you do 17th ave.

Also, terrible access to Wendys - great access to McD, A&W, Peters, TacoBell/KFC, Boogies, etc.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by dj_patm

Yup, which by the way was only 10 minute walk from my house. And MRU is only a 15 minute drive.

Where ISN'T MRU a 15 minute drive from? (assuming typical middle of the night 20km/h over the speed limit estimations as I'd expect from someone like you)

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by FCAV

What's the general consensus on Sunalta? Especially tucked up in the corner by Crowchild and Bow Trail?

Never lived there, but I've looked at a couple places there. It's definitely on my own radar for places to live when it comes time for a new place. In my opinion it is great now and will improve in the near future.

Now:

-Walkable to 17th Avenue
-Walkable to Co-op on 11th Avenue/10th Street and Rexall Drugs on 12th Ave./14th Street for daily needs
-Walkable to CBD
-Walkable to some good restaurants/pubs (Ruan Thai, Crush, aforementioned 17th Ave. establishments)
-Lots of condo stock, whether it be older conversions and also some newer buildings. Definitely a share of crap, but also some affordable gems to be found

Future:

-LRT station at 16th street in late 2012 via WestLRT


(Westlrt.ca)

-"West Village" across Bow Trail will provide lots of new amenities and much better connectivity to the river. Notice the connection over Bow Trail at 16th Street/Sunalta Station in this rendering:


(Calgary Herald)

-Other improvements as part of the amended Sunalta ARP

The only things I'm not too sure about, not having lived there, are noise and parking (if you even care about that). I can't imagine parking is any worse than any other relatively dense community. As for noise from Crowchild/Bow Trail and the CPR tracks, I'm not sure. I think the commercial buildings along 10th Avenue act a good buffer for the residential area south of it. From walking through the community, it didn't seem noticeable though.

[COGENT]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Never lived there, but I've looked at a couple places there. It's definitely on my own radar for places to live when it comes time for a new place. In my opinion it is great now and will improve in the near future.

Now:

-Walkable to 17th Avenue
-Walkable to Co-op on 11th Avenue/10th Street and Rexall Drugs on 12th Ave./14th Street for daily needs
-Walkable to CBD
-Walkable to some good restaurants/pubs (Ruan Thai, Crush, aforementioned 17th Ave. establishments)
-Lots of condo stock, whether it be older conversions and also some newer buildings. Definitely a share of crap, but also some affordable gems to be found

Future:

-LRT station at 16th street in late 2012 via WestLRT


(Westlrt.ca)

-"West Village" across Bow Trail will provide lots of new amenities and much better connectivity to the river. Notice the connection over Bow Trail at 16th Street/Sunalta Station in this rendering:


(Calgary Herald)

-Other improvements as part of the amended Sunalta ARP

The only things I'm not too sure about, not having lived there, are noise and parking (if you even care about that). I can't imagine parking is any worse than any other relatively dense community. As for noise from Crowchild/Bow Trail and the CPR tracks, I'm not sure. I think the commercial buildings along 10th Avenue act a good buffer for the residential area south of it. From walking through the community, it didn't seem noticeable though.

Nice post!
I live in Sunalta and I can't wait for the new LRT station, it's going to be 2 blocks from my condo! My walk to work is 15 minutes but it would be great to jump on the train on cold days or those days I'm running late (even if I'm just feeling lazy).

As for the noise from Crowchild... I don't hear anything where I live. They actually built Crowchild above lower Sunalta and eliminates most of the noise. I walk my dog all over Sunalta every night and when you start getting up the hill near Sunalta school you can hear Crowchild but certainly not overwhelming... IMO anyway.

[JD]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

Hmmm.. what's up with that footbridge over the Bow there? That thing better not cost more than $5M....

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by JD

Hmmm.. what's up with that footbridge over the Bow there? That thing better not cost more than $5M....

The rendering is just a concept. There will likely be a crossing at that location, but the design shown is just a stand-in (as are the buildings, they are just there to show height and massing). There is no official design or budget for that bridge yet as far as I know. It will most likely cost more than $5M though. $5M doesn't stretch very far when it comes to a bridge of that length and capacity over a river. I wouldn't be surprised to see this bridge funded in the same fashion as the St. Patrick's Island bridge - through land sales in the area (East Village in the case of the St. Patrick's Island bridge, "West Village" in the case of this bridge). That's just speculation on my part though.

Anyway - back to topic.

[SeeGeeWhy]

I was under the impression that there used to be an active refinery in the area that your rendering calls the West Village.

I believe the exact site correlates well with where the greyhound station is.

Does anyone know how one can research the early industrial development of Calgary to find out nuggets like this? I think the guy that used to write the "abotu town" column (David Parker?) published a map that showed the location of about 4 refineries that used to exist near Calgary that would fall inside city limits now.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by jd

hmmm.. What's up with that footbridge over the bow there? That thing better not cost more than $5m....

*whoosh*

Originally Posted by frinkprof

the rendering is just a concept. There will likely be a crossing at that location, but the design shown is just a stand-in (as are the buildings, they are just there to show height and massing). There is no official design or budget for that bridge yet as far as i know. It will most likely cost more than $5m though. $5m doesn't stretch very far when it comes to a bridge of that length and capacity over a river. I wouldn't be surprised to see this bridge funded in the same fashion as the st. Patrick's island bridge - through land sales in the area (east village in the case of the st. Patrick's island bridge, "west village" in the case of this bridge). That's just speculation on my part though.

Anyway - back to topic.

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by SeeGeeWhy

I was under the impression that there used to be an active refinery in the area that your rendering calls the West Village.

I believe the exact site correlates well with where the greyhound station is.

Does anyone know how one can research the early industrial development of Calgary to find out nuggets like this? I think the guy that used to write the "abotu town" column (David Parker?) published a map that showed the location of about 4 refineries that used to exist near Calgary that would fall inside city limits now.

-David Parker still writes his column

-The Glenbow Museums online archives are good for old photos and other information that show old land uses. http://www.glenbow.org/collections/search/

-There was a creosote treatment facility in that area, which serviced the CPR line. It was operated by a company called Canadian Creosote. There has been a cleanup since, although I'm unsure of its extent. It did go as far as to prevent contamination of the Bow River. The 1949 aerial photo below (from the Glenbow archives) shows it. The piles of rectangular objects are railroad ties, which were treated with creosote.



-There is a thread on skyscraperpage discussing the "West Village" Concept Plan from when it was announced back in November:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=175246

[frinkprof]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

*whoosh*

Yeah, figured it was sarcasm, wasn't 100% though. Well played, JD.

[JD]

Originally Posted by frinkprof

The rendering is just a concept. There will likely be a crossing at that location, but the design shown is just a stand-in (as are the buildings, they are just there to show height and massing). There is no official design or budget for that bridge yet as far as I know. It will most likely cost more than $5M though. $5M doesn't stretch very far when it comes to a bridge of that length and capacity over a river. I wouldn't be surprised to see this bridge funded in the same fashion as the St. Patrick's Island bridge - through land sales in the area (East Village in the case of the St. Patrick's Island bridge, "West Village" in the case of this bridge). That's just speculation on my part though.

Anyway - back to topic.

yeah, I realize all that. My post was just a tongue-in-cheek jab at the anti-Peace-Bridge people in this city.

[shermanator]

West Village is probably 10-20 years away from being a reality I imagine. However, Sunalta will be redeveloped with higher density around the Sunalta station before West Village is around.

Here's the ARP for the area with more information. www.westlrt.ca/stationareas/sunalta_arp.cfm