Good/Bad Areas of Downtown Calgary?

[MonsieurFish]

I'm looking to finally make the big move out of the parents house and planning on moving into an apartment downtown with a buddy of mine. We're looking for something not too expensive, and would like to be in a reasonably nice part of downtown as well. My knowledge of downtown Calgary is fairly limited and I am not too sure which areas of downtown are regarded as sketchy/shady, but definitely would like to avoid those places.

So the question is... what are some of the sketchy areas of downtown to stay away from (15 ave?)?

And on the contrary... what are some of the nicer areas of downtown to live in?

[Daradon]

With prices and vacancy rates what they are, you may have to take what you can get.

I know it may not be the popular opinion, but I don't think there are really many bad areas. It's overblown a little. I've known people who've lived all over, sure some areas are a little more 'alive' but all and all it's a pretty safe city.

[drewboy12]

Its Calgary... There are not really any sketchy areas...

[chemgear]

http://crimemap.calgarypolice.ca/

Worth a look.

[KTrain]

Do you know what we need? Another thread where people say their neighbourhood is the best, all others suck and you can get to downtown Calgary from Airdrie or McKenzie Towne in 20 minutes during rush hour.

I will say this, I had a condo in Bridgeland for a couple years and on more than one occasion my parking stall was used as a toilet (#2). Proximity to the Drop-In Centre will have some added "challenges" if you decide to live close by.

Daradon, drewboy12 and chemgear offer three good posts.

[Daradon]

? I said the same thing as drewboy.

[KTrain]

Originally Posted by Daradon

? I said the same thing as drewboy.

I skip your posts because they mostly suck.

[shermanator]

I've lived in Sunalta for 4 years and haven't encountered too much in terms of crazies. You get the odd person yelling crazy stuff but most of the people are young professionals or newly immigrated families.

[Table 5]

Are you talking about downtown downtown, or the "inner city"? From the sounds of it it's the latter.

I personally live in the western part of Connaught, just off of 17th. Great for restaurants, bars, action....not so great if you hate noise. Drunks on weekends, annoyingly loud motorbikes all the time, and the occasional drifter type wandering around. The drifters look the most dangerous, but they are the ones that annoy me the least! But this area is really starting to get a nice vibe to it....the more west you go, the less developed it is.

IMO the nicest areas are the 4th St/Mission area as it provides you with something that's really close to the action, but slightly removed. If it wasn't as expensive, I'd personally live here.

Kensington/Sunnyside is good too, as it has a nice vibe without the rowdiness of 17th. But probably also a bit more expensive.

Bridgeland seems like a nice area, but it seems to have gotten a lot of the homeless action since they closed down the Cecil.

The last place I would live is actually downtown itself. It's dead after a certain hour, and to me, the lack of people is what makes an area dangerous. Eau Claire might be ok, but apart from the park, I think it's a bit of a dead zone.

[drewboy12]

All I said was... It is Calgary... unless you are going to move to the east end of down town, there really is nothing that sketchy in the city.

Even the west end around the high end condos you still have your share of homeless people using parking stalls as toilets...

I lived across from the old science centre, it was an awesome location. Still tons of homeless people around at night, but I never personally had any incidents. Just like anywhere have common sense, and chances are nothing will happen.

[Daradon]

^^^ I think you missed the joke, he was saying your post was good advice, I was merely complaining cause I said basically the same thing. In fact I said it first! (grumble grumble)

[Table 5]

Btw, about 15th ave. Are you basing your opinion on that one story about the guy getting beat up? Definitely a very unfortunate event (which didnt sit well with me either), but I don't think it has anything to do with it being on 15th....15th in the Beltline is pretty much exactly like anything from 10th-16th. I live on 15th myself actually, and I would feel no safer if I lived on 14th or 16th...it's all more or less the same.

Btw, there's more prostitution the more east you go in the Beltline (closer to Victoria Park) and there's less stuff to do on the west end. Basically, the best parts of the Beltline are in the middle!

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Btw, about 15th ave. Are you basing your opinion on that one story about the guy getting beat up? Definitely a very unfortunate event (which didnt sit well with me either), but I don't think it has anything to do with it being on 15th....15th in the Beltline is pretty much exactly like anything from 10th-16th. I live on 15th myself actually, and I would feel no safer if I lived on 14th or 16th...it's all more or less the same.

Btw, there's more prostitution the more east you go in the Beltline (closer to Victoria Park) and there's less stuff to do on the west end. Basically, the best parts of the Beltline are in the east!

fyp

[T@T]

Assuming the OP is young and single I would recommend the belt-line,tonnes of single girls and not as noisy as right downtown so you can sleep at night, as far as crime goes...Calgary doesn't really have a hood where you can't walk down the street.

I lived in 3 places years ago in the west belt-line area and it was great.

[MonsieurFish]

Awesome, thanks for the info guys. Good to hear that it's not generally as sketchy as I anticipated... will definitely be checking out the belt-line area.

[JiriHrdina]

Anything right on the lrt through the core isn't great. My first place was garden towers by "crack Mac's" and it was sketchy

[MonsieurFish]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Anything right on the lrt through the core isn't great. My first place was garden towers by "crack Mac's" and it was sketchy

Good to know. Had a friend who moved into that same place a couple years ago and I didn't get the greatest vibe from it either.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Anything right on the lrt through the core isn't great. My first place was garden towers by "crack Mac's" and it was sketchy

Mine was Place De Concorde - now Calgary Place Apartments (East Tower) one block North of crack Mac's,
it was actually great for our 1st apartment.
29th floor facing West, we rented there for almost 4 years.

Here's the view from many moons ago.

Storm Chasing by Witty nickname, on Flickr



Pointing West: Sunset by Witty nickname, on Flickr

[frinkprof]

There's not a whole lot of places you can go wrong in the area that is a 2 km or so radius from the central business district (north of CP tracks, south of the river). There's perhaps a few very localized (think like half-city-block sized) pockets here and there that can have some problems, but nothing to really write home about.

East Village used to be bad, but is improving all the time. Not too sure about Bridgeland (as per previous posts regarding vagrant migration there since closing of the Cecil). Seems okay to me, but not a place I frequent very often and I haven't lived there.

As for Beltline, in very general terms, living north of 13th Avenue is better if you work downtown, south of 13th Ave. is better if you like to frequent 17th Avenue. West of 8th Street is much more established (less redevelopment), generally quieter streets. Between 4th and 8th Streets is the heart of the Beltline and really you're close to everything. East of 4th Street is seeing a lot more change. Outside of 1st Street West, it will be a few more years before it is more filled in and has the feel of the rest of the Beltline. 1st Street West is a cool place to be right now.

As for other neighbourhoods, Mission, Cliff Bungalow, Lower Mount Royal and Sunalta are really good. Sunnyside/Hillhurst has a different vibe which I prefer less, but some people like more. Inglewood, Ramsay, Bridgeland are okay. Bankview can be hit or miss.

[Bigtime]

What's this Belt-line you're talking about? It's Beltline, one word.

Yes, you should find a place there.