Ongoing Calgarians complaining about pedestrian bridges thread

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

I say to my friends who aren't from Calgary but have gone to visit that Calgary could have been an amazing city if it had a better built environment. The people are very friendly, they love to be out and partying, enjoying the outdoors etc. But the City itself is just a wasteland of suburbs with basically zero urban character. If it had that it would be amazing.

That's also not true. There are quite a number of very walkable and liveable urban communities in Calgary. Yes, a significant proportion of the city is post-war suburb, but that doesn't mean these places of good urban character don't exist. I live in one of them - I have every bit as convenient and liveable urban lifestyle as I did living in downtown Toronto.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Count the number of bikes in a downtown bike cage in June, and the number in January. The huge difference is the people who are willing to commute outdoors in nice weather but not bad weather.

In the summer on a good day there are ~100 bikes in mine.

On the worst days of the year, between 1 and 3. Usually the other 2 are bikes that people left there from a day when it was nice in the morning and shyte in the evening.

If my bike ride was more than 10 minutes I might have a different attitude on what days were suitable to ride. Some days my hands are getting severely cold at the end of 10 minutes with 2 pairs of gloves on. I could get better stuff, but it gets severely expensive.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Probably in reference to the fact that it's a tired and lazy inference that was already made about a thousand times in this thread.

Hypothetical question is hypothetical.

[Tinordi]

Originally Posted by Bunk

That's also not true. There are quite a number of very walkable and liveable urban communities in Calgary. Yes, a significant proportion of the city is post-war suburb, but that doesn't mean these places of good urban character don't exist. I live in one of them - I have every bit as convenient and liveable urban lifestyle as I did living in downtown Toronto.

I'm not saying there aren't. I'm just saying there aren't nearly enough. And even those walkable communities are barely walkable. Not like the communities in Vancouver or Toronto where actual amenities exist. Calgary is still far too reliant on power centers and the like.

The downtown's a ghost town. Everything is disaggregated. If you want to enjoy the city you need a car to go from location to location. It's a legacy of the post-war boom dependent on the car. I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just saying that it would just be a way better city if it was more of a city and less of a suburb.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Hypothetical question is hypothetical.

Do you mean rhetorical question is rhetorical?

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Do you mean rhetorical question is rhetorical?

... uh... yeah.

Thank christ it's Friday.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

I'm not saying there aren't. I'm just saying there aren't nearly enough. And even those walkable communities are barely walkable.

Not sure where you live, but where I live it is completely walkable, the only reason i have a vehicle at all is because i use my giant gas guzzlin truck for work all over the city, and for driving to rec hockey, other then that I drive no where except to visit family/friends, and even then I usually make them come down around where I live.

I can say for a fact that while the chick living across from me has a car, she hasn't moved it in over 2 months. Not sure what your definition of walkable is exactly. No the burbs in Calgary aren't walkable, but I've yet to travel to a city where they are.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

I'm not saying there aren't. I'm just saying there aren't nearly enough. And even those walkable communities are barely walkable. Not like the communities in Vancouver or Toronto where actual amenities exist. Calgary is still far too reliant on power centers and the like.

The downtown's a ghost town. Everything is disaggregated. If you want to enjoy the city you need a car to go from location to location. It's a legacy of the post-war boom dependent on the car. I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just saying that it would just be a way better city if it was more of a city and less of a suburb.

What is this garbage you're spewing? You need a car to go from location to location? Have you even lived within 10km of downtown before, or are you just getting this crap from reading too many messageboards littered with people that like to hate on Calgary for not being as cosmopolitan as other cities that are hundreds of years old?

There are many, many inner city communities that are totally functional. Groceries, convenience stores, liquor stores, clothes stores, book stores, bars, pubs... FFS, there's a hardware store on 10th street.

Sure if you live in the suburbs you're going to need a car to get anywhere. There's no difference from any other city. I used to live in Rome and guess what...? If you live on the edge of town, suddenly there's no convenience store on your main floor anymore! But if you live downtown, there is every store you need within 2 blocks. That city is thousands of years old, but I guess it's just as crappy as Calgary because you need a car to get from location to location.

[Bigtime]

Fire up your latte machines! The Herald's Jason Markusoff is reporting that the welds are done and the bridge will be opened in 2012:

FINALLY an update on the Peace Bridge. Weld repairs are done. Predicted opening early 2012. #yyccc #yyc Herald story soon

http://www.calgaryherald.com/City+sa...#ixzz1XVAsUDAQ

[MrMastodonFarm]

So (on) Saturday and Sunday, people wll actually start to see some of that brilliant red structure showing,” De Vries said.


Global News also just did a piece on the bridge and said the budget hasn't changed and Graham Construction are on the hook for the delays.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

So (on) Saturday and Sunday, people wll actually start to see some of that brilliant red structure showing,” De Vries said.


Global News also just did a piece on the bridge and said the budget hasn't changed and Graham Construction are on the hook for the delays.

Red rocket! Red rocket!

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

So (on) Saturday and Sunday, people wll actually start to see some of that brilliant red structure showing,” De Vries said.


Global News also just did a piece on the bridge and said the budget hasn't changed and Graham Construction are on the hook for the delays.

I think I read in the Herald article that Graham may (read will) try to recover costs for the delays due to "city inspections"

It is unclear to me who is to blame for failed inspections. Spanish welders caused Graham to sit idle for months? Was there writing in the contract that stipulated the welds had to meet the inspections that failed? or did the city throw that in after the fact?

Anyways, I smell lawsuits from this, so it maybe a bit early to know what the end cost will be. What a mess.

I however, am looking forward to seeing this bridge after all this extra wait. It will also functionally help me walk to work faster from my house. Seeing as I have not driven to work and used the roads/lights/transit my taxes pay for for 7 years now, should be great to get some value back. Or should that money have gone to more free sewer hookups in Auburn Bay?

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Fire up your latte machines! The Herald's Jason Markusoff is reporting that the welds are done and the bridge will be opened in 2012:



http://www.calgaryherald.com/City+sa...#ixzz1XVAsUDAQ

I propose a CP latte meet up on the bridge to celebrate!

[V]

They'll get their money. They always do.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by shermanator

I propose a CP latte meet up on the bridge to celebrate!

We're already going to have a SSP Latte meetup, will the bridge be big enough?

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by fotze

Graham are fataing idiots.

Pretty successful idiots if you look at what they've been involved in.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

We're already going to have a SSP Latte meetup, will the bridge be big enough?

I'll invite Nenshi and Druh Farrell and watch Rick Bell's mind explode

[ken0042]

They have pulled the tarps back today; exposing the middle ~50 feet of the bridge span. Looks good from ~ 500 metres away.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by ken0042

They have pulled the tarps back today; exposing the middle ~50 feet of the bridge span. Looks good from ~ 500 metres away.

And by tarp you mean foreskin, ha!
-CaptainCrunch

[CaptainCrunch]

Did they pull it back on the left side, or the right side, because if it was the left side, it would almost be like a complete stranger was pulling it back.