Anybody know why there was a lineup for beer? An ALCB strike or something?
I remember several ALCB strikes, they were announced ahead of time and usually before a long weekend or Christmas or something like that. There used to be some crazy lineups when they happened. People literally used to roll full shopping carts of booze out of the store. I remember that the only beer anyone could get was Rainer or Olympia, US beers that really aren't good. Can't remember how anyone got those beers though since the liquor stores were closed.
We moved to Calgary in 1989 and it was really dumpy back then.... this video is even dumpier.
I'm glad we are where we are now. I love this city.
I was born here in the late 70's and I loved living here as a kid. I never found Calgary dumpy, but maybe that is because we grew up in the deep south with a lake and Fish Creek. It was actually really awesome as a kid.
I admit I rarely went downtown, but I do remember how much I loved it when I did. Being able to look out the window at the sky scrapers was my favorite thing to do.
I guess being a child in Calgary was different than a teen or early adult. I read Bruce McCulloch's article of being a young man in 80's Calgary and it did sound kind of rough. Granted he was an artist in a pretty conservative city.
I think the point I am trying to make is that I have always loved living here (weather aside). The Calgary you see in this video is not glamorous, but it was a real community. I often refer to my current street as 80's Calgary for all the good reasons. Neighbors who are friends, look out for each other, who will help each other out no questions asked. That is the Calgary I remember and grew up in, and although it isn't quite the same now, it still exists in pockets and it is something I will always love about this city.
Funny, I thought the SAAN store shot was here: Link (Obviously I was wrong.)
Have a look at dowtown Winnipeg. So many old buildings that are condemned; but designated "historical" so they can't be torn down. I really think that is a big part of how Winnipeg's growth stagnated a lot in the 60's-80's.
I'm not sure historically designated buildings will stagnate your growth unless your economy is strong enough in the first place to causes businesses to want to put up new buildings.
As far as that SAAN building, I think that it looks gorgeous and I would have loved to walk inside. Looks like it was an interesting lower-cost counter-point to the Bay as a downtown multi-floor department store. In today's market, that would make for really cool converted studio space for a business or studio apartments.
Funny, I thought the SAAN store shot was here: Link (Obviously I was wrong.)
Have a look at dowtown Winnipeg. So many old buildings that are condemned; but designated "historical" so they can't be torn down. I really think that is a big part of how Winnipeg's growth stagnated a lot in the 60's-80's.
On the other hand, I look at something like this video on Calgary and think "man we tore down a lot of cool stuff and lost a good chunk of our character".
Funny, I thought the SAAN store shot was here: Link (Obviously I was wrong.)
Have a look at dowtown Winnipeg. So many old buildings that are condemned; but designated "historical" so they can't be torn down. I really think that is a big part of how Winnipeg's growth stagnated a lot in the 60's-80's.
Totally agree. The buildings may be heritage buildings but they're boarded up, vandalized and an eyesore. Sometimes they're converted into hotels and bars you don't want to be in. Think of the king eddy in calgary.
We moved to Calgary in 1989 and it was really dumpy back then.... this video is even dumpier.
I'm glad we are where we are now. I love this city.
In '79 that would have made sense but by '89 the downtown core was pretty much built up to the majority of what you see now with all the skyscrapers and we had parks and big malls, etc. You were getting into that first phase of "prettier" growth (even if that late 80s/early 90s pastel colored buildings look is really dumpy looking in 2014) I don't think this city was very dumpy in 1989 at all.
In '79 that would have made sense but by '89 the downtown core was pretty much built up to the majority of what you see now with all the skyscrapers and we had parks and big malls, etc. You were getting into that first phase of "prettier" growth (even if that late 80s/early 90s pastel colored buildings look is really dumpy looking in 2014) I don't think this city was very dumpy in 1989 at all.
I tend to agree. I moved to Calgary in '90 and aside from crazy growth, it's more or less the same level of dumpiness. Though there has been significant beautification of inner city/beltline with all the reclamation projects and infills. Especially Inglewood - having rented there the first 6 months before finding a house, it was downright ghetto in 1990. They really did a good job turning that entire area around.
On the other hand, I look at something like this video on Calgary and think "man we tore down a lot of cool stuff and lost a good chunk of our character".
Some of it, we don't appreciate until it's gone. Some of it, we keep it around and keep tarting it up until we can't wait to take a TNT plunger to the goddamn thing (see: 7th Ave SW Herald Building).
The trick is having the foresight to identify which buildings we want to keep around and having a plan to incorporate them into something new, practical, and cool.
Oh, and the money. That's a big one.
I know Bunk mentioned a while ago that the 7th Avenue AutoPark was still an ongoing project, that's a great example of identifying a valuable chunk of historic capital and preserving it, while still enabling it to be practical in terms of our needs today. Also curious when the York Hotel façade will be put back with a new building in its place.
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Originally Posted by Azure
Typical dumb take.
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I moved to Calgary in 76. Been in all those bars at one time, thanks for the memories. Calgary tore down a lot of character, making the downtown kind of barren.
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Its nice Calgary decided to honor it's history by still using the buses from 1976.
I believe there is only one bus left in the fleet that has the 2 tone blue colour scheme. It's bus #1046 and is a 1980 GM New Look "fishbowl." It might even be fully retired itself now.
I think there's still a couple of 1978 and 1979 units kicking around the yards but they aren't in revenue service anymore, although Calgary Transit had dozens of buses from the late 70s in operation no more than a few years ago.
The City went through several years of not buying buses in the 80s and then after that they switched to the boxy New Flyer models in the early 90s which aren't as easy to maintain, so there's a big gap in the age of the buses. Those old GM buses were built pretty good and ran forever with diligent upkeep.
Last edited by frinkprof; 01-20-2014 at 01:09 PM.
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I'm not sure historically designated buildings will stagnate your growth unless your economy is strong enough in the first place to causes businesses to want to put up new buildings.
Yeah. It perhaps makes the stagnation more noticeable, but isn't much of a cause in and of itself. I've heard similar arguments about Halifax.
