These lists are always frivilous, if the best city in the world for a decade can have a ghetto like Hastings and still win, than there is something wrong with the ranking system.
Calgary would be number 1 in the world if they stopped building out and started building up. Like seriously we are already one of the world's largest city area wise. We need to stop building out into the boonies.
Although I agree that Calgary needs to stop it's sprawl outwards, it's not really a trend that is easily fixed or reversed. Calgary is one of the most family-centric cities in Canada, and those families want to live in big houses with garages and big back yards.
I'm not saying it's practical, but that's just the reality of living here.
Plus, developers aren't going to start building condos and multi-storied housing projects halfway out to Okotoks. They're left to pick and choose areas in the already developed parts of the city, and those are pretty hard to come by.
Compare that to Vancouver where the closer you get to downtown, the denser the housing gets. It's night and day.
FWIW, Calgary is the most eco-friendly city in the world, according to some recent study. Honolulu is second and Ottawa is third.
Although I agree that Calgary needs to stop it's sprawl outwards, it's not really a trend that is easily fixed or reversed. Calgary is one of the most family-centric cities in Canada, and those families want to live in small houses with garages and super small back yardsthat all look exactly the same.
I'm not saying it's practical, but that's just the reality of living here.
Plus, developers aren't going to start building condos and multi-storied housing projects halfway out to Okotoks. They're left to pick and choose areas in the already developed parts of the city, and those are pretty hard to come by.
Compare that to Vancouver where the closer you get to downtown, the denser the housing gets. It's night and day.
FWIW, Calgary is the most eco-friendly city in the world, according to some recent study. Honolulu is second and Ottawa is third.
^ Calgary's high rankings related to the environment largely have to do with our exceptional water and wastewater systems. Really second-to-none on the planet. Calgary also is very fortunate to have very good ground and air quality but largely that's because we're so isolated on the continent, don't have much heavy industry right here. We do worse on things like emissions from Transportation and horribly on emissions from our electricity sources because we rely so heavily on Coal.
Political and economic stability and safety/crime are also big factors in these kinds of liveability rankings. There is hardly a more politically stable, economically prosperous and safe place on earth than Calgary. Quality and access to public education...etc. Things we take for granted here, but are major detriments in much of the world.
I feel very comfortable in Calgary, but this list is just opinion-based (even though I do like it as a whole and do listen to the research behind the list). I guess different people have different views of different cities.
I think this is purely a livability survey and they tried to take opinion out of this survey as much as possible and measure things by objective factors like: stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. So that might be things like water quality, air quality, safety, #riots, traffic congestion, etc.
NYC and Tokyo would get rated to hell on those metrics given the population density and it's probably why they aren't high on the list.
Not for me, personally, but different strokes for different folks. Some people just want to know they own their own house. It gives them a sense of domain, I suppose. The market sets the standard, and the market in Calgary is single-detatched.
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Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
I think you mean the 'cleanest' city. Clean and eco-friendly are two very different things.
A new report says Calgary is the most eco-friendly city in the world.
The 2010 Mercer survey ranks cities into the top 50 for quality of living and environmentally-friendly practices.
Calgary finished number one in the eco-city category thanks to its "excellent level of service on waste removal, sewage systems, and water drinkability and availability, coupled with relatively low air pollution."
We also have Nenshi. That has to be good for quite a few points.
If nothing else it speaks to the religious and racial tolerance of the city.
Yeah, Paris, for example, is one of the greatest cities in human history, but I bet it's not nearly as awesome if you're a brown muslim guy living there - you'll certainly never be mayor.
Calgary would also hit number 1 if we had a big body of water. I think we should flood Forest Lawn, Dover, Penbrooke,Marlborough, Pineridge and Temple and turn it into hugemongus lake.
Stock it with sturgeon and create a new brand of Canadian Caviar.
Calgary would also hit number 1 if we had a big body of water. I think we should flood Forest Lawn, Dover, Penbrooke,Marlborough, Pineridge and Temple and turn it into hugemongus lake.
Stock it with sturgeon and create a new brand of Canadian Caviar.
When I was a kid, I used to think it would be awesome if a huge low velocity asteroid dug a huge channel through the area west of Calgary and it filled with water creating a giant freshwater lake the size of lake Winnipeg. We'd also have to build a really cool suspension bridge across it to reach Banff.
Also one end would create a natural mountain for closer skiing and the asteroid would also have been made of diamonds and gold.
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Not for me, personally, but different strokes for different folks. Some people just want to know they own their own house. It gives them a sense of domain, I suppose. The market sets the standard, and the market in Calgary is single-detatched.
Then we should have a property tax system where it increases the further away you are away from the core.
When I was a kid, I used to think it would be awesome if a huge low velocity asteroid dug a huge channel through the area west of Calgary and it filled with water creating a giant freshwater lake the size of lake Winnipeg. We'd also have to build a really cool suspension bridge across it to reach Banff.
Also one end would create a natural mountain for closer skiing and the asteroid would also have been made of diamonds and gold.
Stelmach would say no and send the asteroid and diamonds and gold back into space. It would ruin the farmland.
Calgary would be number 1 in the world if they stopped building out and started building up. Like seriously we are already one of the world's largest city area wise. We need to stop building out into the boonies.
Not sure how long you have lived here or how old you are, but in the last 20 years Calgary has started to build up big time.
Not sure how long you have lived here or how old you are, but in the last 20 years Calgary has started to build up big time.
Although sprawl as not stopped.
I've been here for over 30 years. It has but it's still not enough. not when we are going to hit cochrane, airdrie and okotoks in about 10 years. Completely ridiculous.
These lists are always frivilous, if the best city in the world for a decade can have a ghetto like Hastings and still win, than there is something wrong with the ranking system.
Please find me a city of over 1 million people that doesn't have a ghetto like neighborhood in it. Every city, regardless of how amazing, has bad areas.
