Wow, I really didn't think this would turn into a big thing here and didn't want to have to belabor this tangent we're on.
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Originally Posted by Vulcan
The Beltline has been called the West End or Connaught by every cab company in town for years.
I just don't see the need to change the names of communities that have been there for a 100 years to appease folk who've been in Calgary for ten years.
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The change wasn't made to "appease folk who've been in Calgary for ten years." Both previous community associations wanted to amalgamate and create one community and there was widespread engagement in the community at that time that strongly supported both the amalgamation and the new name. As it had become a much more transient area at the time, many of the few longtime residents were instrumental in the amalgamation and name change.
What the cab companies call a place, although not to be discounted of course, is a bit of an odd measure in comparison to what the residents of a place overwhelmingly have decided to call themselves.
It's not that the historic names aren't important (quite the contrary, they should be used and preserved in some contexts - naming of parks and buildings, etc.), and they are indeed included in the nomenclature of areas within the community, it's that the community itself actually isn't called that anymore. On the scale of the history of the area and the lifetime of longer-term residents and visitors to the area (like cab drivers), yes ten years isn't a very long time for a new name to fully replace the old one in the vernacular and that some people will still call it something else out of habit is understandable given this. Those that might use the old names though, by and large will also use the new name interchangeably or at least know about the new name and what it refers to. Actually in that light it's quite remarkable how well-known and well-used the new name has become in such a short time.
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Originally Posted by Vulcan
Naw, the main reason it's called Victoria Park is because it's been named that for a 100 years.
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Yes, true. I suppose what I meant in the post you've quoted is that compared to the other former community of Connaught, Victoria Park seems to have a stronger lasting foothold because there are still things that visibly and actively use the name - just not the actual community. Yeah there's a few things that use the name Connaught (Connaught School and Connaught Park), but less people seem to hang onto the Connaught name when referring to the area.
If there were a Connaught BRZ, it would probably be a different story in that regard. A BRZ can be mistaken for a community or an area to those not familiar with the differences. It's a group of businesses that do various promotional events and will publicly advocate for their interests and speak to certain issues in the area. They will have signage with their name that, in the absence of other signage with the actual community name as you will see in newer areas of the city, can be mistaken to be the name for the place.
Kensington, Marda Loop and Victoria Park are BRZs that don't share a name with the communities they are adjacent to whereas Inglewood, Bowness and Montgomery are BRZs that also share the name of the community. If those communities were to ever go through some renaming or amalgamation process (and both happen from time to time in Calgary - Mount Royal used to be called "American Acres," for example), and the BRZ didn't also rename, it would also take a long time for the new name to be used more in the vernacular.
