Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Since we're arguing common sense knowledge I'm not going to spend all day finding statistics for the edge of the city. But heres some for Glenmore and Deerfoot. http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/glengp.htm

130,000 vehicles use that overpass everyday. Using an average of 1.2 people per car. Thats 155,000 people a day.

Congratulations on picking the busiest interchange in the city

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Spoken like a true inner-city resident.

Excellent rebuttal. Inspiring really. You are a true giant for your cause.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

The residents of Hillhurst-Sunnyside believe that everyone should live in the Inner City. Just so long as they don't try moving to Hillhurst or Sunnyside.

I'm all for this bridge if they agree to put up a dozen or so highrises on the North End of it.

Hey thanks!! Please let me know where you live so I can tell you what your opinions are based on your community!

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by Jedi Ninja

The residents of Hillhurst-Sunnyside believe that everyone should live in the Inner City. Just so long as they don't try moving to Hillhurst or Sunnyside.

I'm all for this bridge if they agree to put up a dozen or so highrises on the North End of it.

I actually support densification in urban neighbourhoods through infill and properly located apartment/condo complexes. If not because of the lower environmental footprint of suburbs, for increasing a sense of community and livability oh and also the property values.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Spoken like a true inner-city resident.

You don't agree?

When living in Rocky Ridge I had a good laugh that I was paying nothing for taxes and saw 6 overpasses go up on Crowchild in my time there and two train stations. Even though I was seeing a lot of value out of that construction every single day, I wasn't so delusional to feel that the whole system was terribly slanted in my favor.

I think the ring road is great (except for the induced demand it's going to create if outlying land isn't managed properly) and I also think this bridge is great.

Can't anyone be objective about things that improve our city as a whole without worrying about pissing off team Suburbs or team Inner City?

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

Excellent rebuttal. Inspiring really. You are a true giant for your cause.

Hard to argue against a bunch of belly-aching.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Speaking of my family in particular, we've been in both the far north (where the Deerfoot / Stoney overpass will be) and far south many more times in the last 5 years than we've been downtown... especially walking downtown, and that's happened even more than walking across the river. We haven't been to Prince's Island, we haven't been to TD Square, etc. We just have no reason to go there.

May I ask why not?

You're missing out on one of the crown jewels of our city if you've never been to Prince's Island. You've also probably never been bothered to explore any number of the other excellent interesting inner city areas that are peppered throughout our "downtown" (Historic downtown sites, the Glenbow Museum, Eau Claire, Inglewood, Bridgeland, Kensington(Hillhurst/Sunnyside), 17th Ave, 11th Ave, 4th Street, Mt Royal, Sunalta, Crescent Heights, Rosedale, Point McKay, Edworthy Park, Sandy Beach, etc).

You're also obviously someone who is opposed to this bridge.

I shudder to think about the mental and emotional viewpoint that someone of your experience has of Calgary. Honestly, if your entire time in Calgary has been limited to the extremely generic outskirts of our town, you might as well be living in Anytown, North America and that is probably exactly how you feel about Calgary.

I'm a born and raised Calgarian and I am interested in what it is going to take to make my city vibrant and sustainable; also in what it is going to take to make it an attractive, pleasant place to live and visit.

90% of the people that I interact with on a daily basis are transplants in this town and are so quick to spit on what a terrible place this is (and getting worse!), and how they're moving "back home" as soon as they have enough money.

What you see in Calgary is the result of this attitude. We've got this "get in, get out" attitude written all over this town and frankly it is not acceptable to a guy like me who intends on making this my home for a long time and is going to be raising a family here. I know I am in the minority.

It is nice to finally see something being done to encourage attention to an area that deserves it. Its an area that many people already enjoy and it is an area that should be celebrated even more.

The same thing is going on with Plan It... so much effort is going into creating options for our city, towards reducing long run development costs (economic and other wise), yet there is an outcry by a majority who don't understand the impact their lifestyle has on the long term viability of Calgary, nor do they care. Its brutal.

I fully agree with Fotze - this bridge is going to be the first shot of a long fight fired from those who genuinely love this town towards those who are just here to make a quick buck and then split.

OF COURSE a bunch of people who are not interested in Calgary in the long run are opposed to a gift to ourselves as well as future generations, born of the prosperity of our times.

Screw that.

I am pretty sick of the selfish, transient attitude of the majority of Calgary's citizens. This is one hill that I would be prepared to fight on because I am of the exact opposite mentality.

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Hard to argue against a bunch of belly-aching.

Troll?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Hard to argue against a bunch of belly-aching.

delicious delicious irony

[calculoso]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

You don't agree?

Not at all.

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Can't anyone be objective about things that improve our city as a whole without worrying about pissing off team Suburbs or team Inner City?

Obviously not. The Inner City lovers do nothing but demean anyone living in the suburbs. How can anything they say be objective with that kind of a mindset?

(P.S. I used to live in the Inner City and enjoyed my time there... but I enjoy my time so much more in the Suburbs)

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Congratulations on picking the busiest interchange in the city

It was the only one with any information available that didnt take hours to find. Regardless if we're talking vehicles moving over or under you could take 1/5 that number and it would still hold up over the amount of people using a pedestrian bridge.

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by calculoso

Not at all.


Obviously not. The Inner City lovers do nothing but demean anyone living in the suburbs. How can anything they say be objective with that kind of a mindset?

(P.S. I used to live in the Inner City and enjoyed my time there... but I enjoy my time so much more in the Suburbs)

I don't demean people who live in the suburbs beyond the fact that they don't pay their share. I believe in free choice, by all means live where you want. I just don't want to pay for it.

When suburb living isn't subsidized we'll see how many people really want to live out there and how much infrastructure we actually need to support he suburbs. Right now it's just way out of balance with denser neighbourhoods being starved.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

Automobile infrastructure dwarfs any inner city pedestrian or cycling friendly infrastructure by an entire order of magnitude.

As such is sadly the case, the entitlement to infrastructure that allows one to live 45 kms from the city is all-too-often considered a right by suburban dwellers. I would much rather the entire cost of their habitation decisions was theirs to bear. That means toll highways, paying for the marginal cost of sewage and power lines instead of average cost pricing that hurts inner city dwellers disproportionately.

Infuriating sense of entitlement. rant...

Seriously. Who's living 45km from the city (core, I presume)? Christ almighty, Okotoks is 37km away from Prince's Island Park.

While I enjoyed living downtown well enough, the bums, criminals and pollution are deal breakers for me.

[Peanut]

Team Inner City!!

But, back to the bridge... I think if it turns out anything like the photos posted in the first page of the thread it will be a nice addition to the City for sure. Calgary seems to be generally lacking in architecture (perhaps due to most construction happening as fast and cheap as possible during boom times), so this bridge and the Bow will be nice new showpieces for downtown.

[MarchHare]

I fully agree with Fotze - this bridge is going to be the first shot of a long fight fired from those who genuinely love this town towards those who are just here to make a quick buck and then split.

OF COURSE a bunch of people who are not interested in Calgary in the long run are opposed to a gift to ourselves as well as future generations, born of the prosperity of our times.

Screw that.

I am pretty sick of the selfish, transient attitude of the majority of Calgary's citizens. This is one hill that I would be prepared to fight on because I am of the exact opposite mentality.

That's hardly a fair assessment of the situation. Many born-and-bred Calgarians are the most fiscally-conservative people in the entire country and view any spending above the absolute bare minimum to be wasteful.

Many transplanted Calgary residents, like myself, have seen the greatness other cities have achieved in terms of architecture and livability and want to see more of that in our adopted home. More often than not, we're met with violent opposition from the Ric McIvers of the world who are content living in a totally bland and boring city that lacks any kind of character so long as it keeps their taxes low (or I should say lower, since Albertans already enjoy the lowest taxes in Canada and are among the least taxed people in any Western democracy).

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

It was the only one with any information available that didnt take hours to find. Regardless if we're talking vehicles moving over or under you could take 1/5 that number and it would still hold up over the amount of people using a pedestrian bridge.

But again, you have to compare cost as well, not just overall numbers. To build a proper interchange today to serve those vehicles would cost perhaps 10 times as much as this pedestrian bridge.

Also, the interchange provides no real benefit outside of the people who use it directly, whereas the pedestrian bridge has a real benefit outside of being "used" - it beautifies the city, makes it "interesting."

[BlackArcher101]

Well, this thread went to crap in a hurry.

[burn_this_city]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

That's hardly a fair assessment of the situation. Many born-and-bred Calgarians are the most fiscally-conservative people in the entire country and view any spending above the absolute bare minimum to be wasteful.

Many transplanted Calgary residents, like myself, have seen the greatness other cities have achieved in terms of architecture and livability and want to see more of that in our adopted home. More often than not, we're met with violent opposition from the Ric McIvers of the world who are content living in a totally bland and boring city that lacks any kind of character so long as it keeps their taxes low (or I should say lower, since Albertans already enjoy the lowest taxes in Canada and are among the least taxed people in any Western democracy).

Its true, I'm born and raised Calgarian and I don't care for the bridge. Heck I dont even live in the suburbs. I mostly argue against the folks that think this is bridge will have a meaningful impact on the city image. Or believe that because its downtown will be used by more people than other infrastructure projects mentioned in this thread.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

That's hardly a fair assessment of the situation. Many born-and-bred Calgarians are the most fiscally-conservative people in the entire country and view any spending above the absolute bare minimum to be wasteful.

Many transplanted Calgary residents, like myself, have seen the greatness other cities have achieved in terms of architecture and livability and want to see more of that in our adopted home. More often than not, we're met with violent opposition from the Ric McIvers of the world who are content living in a totally bland and boring city that lacks any kind of character so long as it keeps their taxes low (or I should say lower, since Albertans already enjoy the lowest taxes in Canada and are among the least taxed people in any Western democracy).

Well, I can't say that I've met very many people like you in Calgary during the three decades I've lived here.

Fiscally conservative is one thing, fiscally resposible is another.

My point is that a majority of our population demands action based on short term goals, and that is what we end up getting from our leaders. Its only every once and a while something nice like this bridge manages to peek its head out.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

I don't demean people who live in the suburbs beyond the fact that they don't pay their share. I believe in free choice, by all means live where you want. I just don't want to pay for it.

When suburb living isn't subsidized we'll see how many people really want to live out there and how much infrastructure we actually need to support he suburbs. Right now it's just way out of balance with denser neighbourhoods being starved.

Then hire different elected officials. You know, ones that will implement a property taxation that you think is fair.

As it is, based on the precise reasons that you like downtown you keep exhuming, demand for property inner city is apparently far more than than demand for property in the suburbs. Couple that with limited supply, and your property values are far higher than those in outlying areas.

What is your solution?