Has Calgary lost it's appeal?

[JimmytheT]

Try living some where else, and then you will indeed miss it. Especially living in a small town for 2 1/2 years.

I look forward to returning to Calgary in the next 5 years.

[FurnaceFace]

I actually hope it loses some appeal. I hope people realize it's not nirvana, there aren't endless 6 figure jobs, the school system, the health system, the infrastructure, etc all need serious help.

I love every story about how this person or that person who decided to move back to Sask or every story about guys who move from Newfoundland but have to live in a shoebox on the side of the road.

Negative stories to me are a good thing because they create balance. My hope is the growth cools so all the infrastructure related things have more of an opportunity to catch up.

[Red]

I go to get an oil change in the wife's Jeep, come home I have an oil drip from the oil filter. Not tight enough.
I get the oil changed in the car, they recommend to change the belt as well at no labour charge so I let them do it. They took 1.5 hours to do it, strange for "proffesionals". Two days later I notice they chipped one of the pulleys while jamming the belt in.

Got new tires at Canadian Tire for the car a while back, the kid putting them on stripped not one, but THREE bolts with the power tools he so obviously never had any training on.

Wife gets a flat tire, I go to Canadian Tire and they ask me if I have an appointment. Yup, like I could've forseen that nail.

I go to get a coffee at Tims, after 20 minute wait I get to deal with a person that doesn't speak english, coffee is not the way I asked too.
I go to Home Depot to get some chicken wire, ask a person, she doesn't know where it is, she is new here. Find it myself, wait 20 minutes in line to pay, cashier has a "thanks for being patient, I am new" sticker.
I go to Future Shop to get my wife some MP3 player accessories, I needed a car charger, cassette adapter and a thing to hold it on the dash, settled on a callphone holder. 2 of the 3 items are not marked with a price. About half the items on the shelf have no prices on them. Which reminds me, Home Depot a couple of months ago I went to get a new garbage bin, most were not marked with prices. How annoying.

Got new couches in the spring, the delivery kids ripped it open taking it off the truck. Basically one of the kids dropped his side and it slid down the rusted metal lift. Waited 6 weeks for replacement, the new delivery crew needed my directions at how to fit it thru the door. Real proffessionals.

Life is good in Calgary

It never used to be like that, it's the price we are paying for the boom. It's very hard to find competent help even in retail. Can you imagine getting your roof done or some major car work?

And I haven't even touched on traffic.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by Dion

A good friend of mine and I were having a conversation this morninng and he begins to rant about the city. Quite honestly he likes to complain about everything and anything

Anyway he said people are rude, the cost of living has gone crazy, and all the traffic and construction makes it hard to go anywhere in a timely fashion. In a nut shell he said he hates the city he lives in.

Do you agree with him that Calgary has lost it's appeal?

If so what are your beefs?

If not, what do you like about Calgary?

Depends on what appeals to you. I've grown up in this city and my family and friends live here, I can't forget to mention my favorite hockey team. For these reasons I love this city. As far as professional and just general interests I find this city and province lacking in a lot of ways. I make a living out of being a chef and working in the arts and unfortunately this city doesn't have very much to offer in either of these. There's a lot of good restaurants here but perhaps only a handful that offer world class cuisine. As far as the art scene and support is concerned, this city is simply terrible for both. That's why I'm getting out of here in two years for Barcelona. But I'll always have an affection for this city because of what connects me here.

As far as the traffic and the people. I like the people in Calgary, not everyone is nice but not everyone is rude either, but you'll find this anywhere you go in the world and same with traffic problems. You'll find traffic problems in pretty much every major city in the world. If your friend is that unhappy with the city I suggest he start to consider other options. There's no reason why he should be living in a place he hates.

[4X4]

In response to Red's post, I have a few things to say...

The oil filter thing... Murderous. That's how I'd feel.

The belt changing... WTF were you thinking letting children at an oil change shop change a belt for you? Your fault, dude... Ditto for any work done at any Canadian Tire anywhere in Canada.

TimmyHo's? They didn't speak english? Welcome to Canada, dude. Get used to it. In the last week I've been to Timmys in Calgary, Toronto, Wasaga Beach, Georgetown and Montreal. It's all the same. Either teenaged or immigrant. No prob, man. I'm glad they're working and not collecting. For every non-english speaker working a Timmys, there are two lazy canadian kids collecting allowance from daddy and breaking into cars on friday nights. In calgary, TO, mulletville, van, wherever.

As for the price sticker probs in Future Shop and Home Depot, maybe they were trying to circumvent the whole 'it's not in braille and therefore I'm being discriminated against' thing...

[photon]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

I love every story about how this person or that person who decided to move back to Sask or every story about guys who move from Newfoundland but have to live in a shoebox on the side of the road.

The funny thing is this is being overblown by quite a bit I think.. last year housing prices in Sask. went up what, 43%? And I've spoken with people that were selling houses in Saskatoon that went to multiple offers, all of them from Alberta... sounded pretty crazy, like people were flooding out.

But the real story? The total net migration from Alberta to Sask? For the year? The huge influx of oil money rich Albertans that flooded into Sask to push the real estate prices up by 43%? 700 people. That's it.

Compare that to 186 people moving into Calgary every day.

[4X4]

But photon, it was probably savvy buyers anticipating a price spike in Sask. they may have been right.

[Ford Prefect]

I agree with the remarks Dion made earlier ... if you don't like living in Calgary then move. I lived in Calgary from 1980 to 2000. During the mid 1990s I found that the city had changed a lot from what it had been during the 1980s, plus I had entered the child raising years, and Calgary no longer offered the life style I wanted, so I moved to a small town about an hour out of Calgary. It was a great decision and my family and I love living in a small town. Still, I wouldn't say Calgary is a bad place. I still think it's a great city. Just because it changed, and I changed in a different direction, doesn't make it bad city. Compare it to similar sized cities and it is still a great city in my books.

[FlamesPuck12]

Any city that the Flames are playing for is appealing.

[V]

Originally Posted by 4X4

But photon, it was probably savvy buyers anticipating a price spike in Sask. they may have been right.

That's pretty much exactly what it was. I know a lot of people that anticipated the spike and bought there.

As for the OP, yeah, I'm tired of this city, but unfortunately I signed on to a pretty kick-a$$ job, and I doubt I can find this kind of money doing what I'm doing anywhere else. So I'm stuck here. Not too big of a problem, my neighbourhood is nice and quiet, and I try to stay off of the roads as much as I possibly can. Hopefully I can retire in 10-15 years and move to a nice small town. One day.

[photon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

But photon, it was probably savvy buyers anticipating a price spike in Sask. they may have been right.

Maybe, though is the price spike real, or is it driven by the speculators only (ie the speculation creates the increase it is looking for). I don't see much in the way of good solid economics driving the prices there.

I'm sure lots made a ton of money there, but that's just too risky for me.

Of all the cities I've been in, Calgary is pretty much the best so far. And hopefully as we grow we can add more things to do, more culture type stuff, and that kind of thing.

[psicodude]

Maybe off topic a bit, but I don't understand the people that say they want to move to a small town to raise a family. I grew up in Medicine Hat and let me tell you, I got into a ton of trouble because there was simply nothing else better to do. EVERYONE in my school got wasted every weekend, and I would say a solid 50% had been in trouble with the police.

Obviously the same thing can happen in the big city, but at least there are other options for kids. There are a million different activities in the city that just don't exist in small towns. Mind you, gangs aren't a real problem in small towns...

[Five-hole]

It's up and down for me.

Traffic -- my job has hours where I'm never fighting rush hour to get there and back, so honestly the traffic doesn't bother me. The construction related to traffic annoys me to no end ... it would sure be nice to drive SOMEWHERE where you didn't have to slow down for construction or change lanes because of closures or whatever.

Weather -- the winters suck but the summers here have to be some of the best around. I love really hot weather though. Having lived here all my life, the winters are really starting to get to me. They're so looooong.

Cost of living -- I think it's pretty proportional to the job market. Doesn't bother me too much.

Arts scene -- believe it or not it's getting better. The problem right now is that there doesn't seem to be much connection between the scene here in Calgary and any sort of international scene. It's very difficult for Calgarian artists to take their shows any place else because it's so far away to get to any city save Edmonton. Compare to a place like Cali or NY where you've got twice the population of Canada in an area smaller than Alberta.

City size -- for me it's the right mix between small-town-homey-occasionally-run-into-acquaintances and big-city-anonymity. Too much on either side and I get a bit agitated.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by photon

Maybe, though is the price spike real, or is it driven by the speculators only

Bite your tongue. Next you'll be telling me that the reason a 2bdr condo is 350+ is because of speculators.

[OracleOfCalgary]

Originally Posted by psicodude

Maybe off topic a bit, but I don't understand the people that say they want to move to a small town to raise a family. I grew up in Medicine Hat and let me tell you, I got into a ton of trouble because there was simply nothing else better to do. EVERYONE in my school got wasted every weekend, and I would say a solid 50% had been in trouble with the police.

Obviously the same thing can happen in the big city, but at least there are other options for kids. There are a million different activities in the city that just don't exist in small towns. Mind you, gangs aren't a real problem in small towns...

Ditto here. People get scared by the news reports and the "crazy people" they see downtown. A City of 1 million is going to create a lot more news stories than a town of 3000, even if that little town is a hell hole.

[photon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Bite your tongue. Next you'll be telling me that the reason a 2bdr condo is 350+ is because of speculators.

If by speculators you mean 186 people moving into Calgary a day, then yeah.

By far the worst part of living in Calgary is Chinook Mall. More specifically the traffic around it.

[4X4]

Haven't you heard? Those 186 people are keeping our rental vacancy rate at zero % (well, .9). From what I understand, they're all renting condos. Rich get richer and so on and so forth.

I love this city. Those who don't can leave. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

You're pretty fond of this place too, aren't you?

[Rampage]

I'm Calgary born and raised but now living in a small town for work purposes. I come back to Calgary every chance I get. It's home.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Red

I go to Future Shop to get my wife some MP3 player accessories, I needed a car charger, cassette adapter and a thing to hold it on the dash, settled on a callphone holder. 2 of the 3 items are not marked with a price. About half the items on the shelf have no prices on them. Which reminds me, Home Depot a couple of months ago I went to get a new garbage bin, most were not marked with prices. How annoying.

You went to Canadian Tire to service you car? Giggle. (Having worked there, I wouldn't even have a bike assembled there)

Most places don't sticker items with prices nowadays. Makes it too hard to adjust prices, which in today's market, get done weekly. Imagine Future Shop having to slap new stickers on all it's stock everytime they had a sale. And all the people asking for the lower price if they forgot to take them off after the sale. Much easier to change just 1 shelf tag. Although I do agree it's anoying when the shelf tag can't be found.

It's not the easiest place to live, but with that comes the ability to earn a salary like few other places. Money isn't everything, but getting more of it quicker means I get to live like I want to sooner. And it's not like it's a horrible situation right now.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by photon

The funny thing is this is being overblown by quite a bit I think.. last year housing prices in Sask. went up what, 43%? And I've spoken with people that were selling houses in Saskatoon that went to multiple offers, all of them from Alberta... sounded pretty crazy, like people were flooding out.

But the real story? The total net migration from Alberta to Sask? For the year? The huge influx of oil money rich Albertans that flooded into Sask to push the real estate prices up by 43%? 700 people. That's it.

Compare that to 186 people moving into Calgary every day.

Actually Photon, it was 763 people for the first 3 months of the year according to Statscan. And of course the big story was that after decades of net outmigration to Alberta, there was a net inmigration to Sask from here.
As for me, I love Calgary, mived here for good over 15 years ago (does that make me an old time Calgarian?), but the past couple of years the place has changed for me...when I moved from Connought to Bankview, we remarked how it was kind of nice that we could stay colse to downtown and have gotten away from the riff raf. Now I get spare changed more walking or driving blocks from my home than in a week in downtown Vancouver (and they are a lot more aggressive), there is tons more grafitti than there used to be, and cycling along the Bow is an adventurre because of the various drug deals etc going down on the pathways. Calgary is still home, but it's not as great, at least for me, as it used to be. (And for those who are basing quality of life on the whole rent/own thing, I bought a condo in Bankview for UNDER the list price years ago...and no longer pay a mortgate.)