Has Calgary lost it's appeal?

[Muta]

You know what's contributing to the death of downtown culture / entertainment in Calgary?

+15's.

Probably alot more than alot of you would believe.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Seems like everyone agrees on eon thing. Calgary lacks a cultural vibe. And it's not being taken seriously enough by administrators of the city yet. If they started bringing it to the front of the to do list more, then Calgary can have more of a cultural feeling to it and get away from the dead street life vibe after rush hour.

I went to Montreal for the first time last week. I have to admit that Calgary feels like a gigantic small town after a friday and saturday night on cresent street.
Montreal reminded me of Rome. People walking in the street 'till all hours of the night, patios and street-side cafes and restaurants, blocks of side by side buildings.

Calgary feels really cold by comparison.


But that doesn't change the fact that I love teh climate, I love being next door to the mountains (I spend ridiculous amounts of time in the kootenays), and I love being able to make the money I make here.

10 or 15 years of going hard here and I'll be able to afford to move wherever I want, and take up some kind of hobby-job (like... hang gliding instructor).

[JohnnyFlame]

I like returning to Calgary to live every few years because of family. My family and my wife's families both live here. Having travelled and lived all over the world I find it a pretty boring place to live but it's also a good solid place to live as well. But I am so very glad to have lived other places --would hate to think someone would just live in Calgary and never explore what's out there. There are far more interesting places on the planet!!!

[jolinar of malkshor]

I will be moving from Calgary in the new year. My wife and I moved here a year ago and we cannot get ahead. We are newly weds and recent graduates with a fair amount of student loans. There is just nothing in the market for us so we are forced to leave. It is sad because I like it here and there is a lot of work for me here.

[llama64]

Second generation Calgarian here, and I can't express how much I want out of this city.

For me, it's the general attitude of people in the city. Everyone has taken on a dog eat dog mentality that really bothers me. There absolutely NO consideration for other people any more. Calgary used to be known for it's peoples friendliness, but now we are city full of over-worked, over-stressed jerks.

One 10 minute trip down Crowchild or Deerfoot will prove that statement.

And service has become a nightmare. My coffee at Starbucks costs nearly a dollar more then it does in other cities, takes 10 minutes to make and the cashier sneers if I don't cough up a looney into the tip jar. Same story at other retailers as well.

Trying to buy groceries is like pulling your fingernails off, slowly. My wife was buying groceries at Safeway the other day. As she lines up in the express lane she notices a filled basket just sitting on the ground halfway down the line of people (which was 10 people deep). About a minute later, some surly woman comes back with an armfull of other groceries, puts them on top of the basket and starts screaming at the guy who had quite understandibly stepped past the basket. Apparently the basket was saving her spot in line. When I heard of this I was just floored at the arrogance of the woman. This may be just one anecdote, but I'm gathering a number of personal ones along the same line on an increasing rate here in Calgary.

If I could, I'd move to Victoria. The people there seem to have a proper take on how to live life. None of this 7am to 9pm work non-sense. You work to live people, not live to work!

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Muta

You know what's contributing to the death of downtown culture / entertainment in Calgary?

+15's.

Probably alot more than alot of you would believe.

I once attended a lecture given by the director of the film "Way Down Town". He presented the same argument quite convicingly. +15's are a great way to get around downtown but they really do destroy any sort of street culture in the city.

[urban1]

Calgary is what you make out of it. Its a city of a million people with a very short history that has experienced a lot of recent population growth.

Calgary doesnt have the nightlife or arts & cultural scene of Toronto or Montreal but there is still a lot going on in this city. Ive lived in Toronto and Montreal. Theres a lot going on there but even in those cities, its what you make of it. I had a ton of coworkers who would live on the Rive Sud of montreal and take the bus in every morning and head home right after work and theyd rarely spend anytime enjoying what montreal had to offer. Samething in toronto, people would hope on the GO train afterwork and spend there time in the burbs and never enjoy the city. Youd have a bit of the 905 crowd who would stick around Friday nights to enjoy the restaurants and clubs.

Calgary cant compare to city 3X to 5X its size. But there is a ton of stuff to do. Theres a lot of great restaurants, pubs, lounges, and clubs in this city. Theres more than a handful of trendy neighbourhood with great independant shops and trendy boutiques. I know a lot of people who complain about how lacking this city is. Yet these same people live in the burbs and rarely venture out of their burb. They shop at the mall, hit the big box stores on the weekend, and eat at the chain restaurant in big box mall parking lot. Do you think these people would have a different or more exciting life if they lived in Toronto or Montreal?

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Seems like everyone agrees on eon thing. Calgary lacks a cultural vibe. And it's not being taken seriously enough by administrators of the city yet. If they started bringing it to the front of the to do list more, then Calgary can have more of a cultural feeling to it and get away from the dead street life vibe after rush hour.

A big part of Calgary's lack of culture is a product of infrastructure. It's just awfully hard for a city to have much culture when people are extremely spread out and there is tiny population density. Culture builds up in areas where you've got tonnes of people all living very closely together, which is just a very unCalgarian thing. If the city ever gets it's head on straight, stops the continual building out into the prairies and starts building a lot more vertical housing in the downtown area then there'll be some opportunity for culture. You're just not going to get a lot of culture developing in the isolating kind of infrastructure Calgary has.

[urban1]

People keep saying Calgary lacks culture. If Calgary had a ballet, a symphony, and a national art gallery and museum, how many of these complaining people would take advantage of it? Would it change your life if we had a ballet and symphony?
One way Calgary lacks culture is that it lacks interesting people. Id rather have funding for local artists on a small scale rather than creating monster megaprojects like new museums or galleries. People who want to live in the burbs in cookie cutter homes on cookie cutter cul de sacs dont make a city interesting or vibrant.

JohnnyB is right about the poor design of the city. But part of it is what people want. A lot of new residents in Calgary are from small towns across the prairies and the east coast. These people want yards and homes in the 'burbs. In Toronto and Montreal you have a lot of immigrants from countries and cities with very dense populations and urban living is what these people know.
Its great to see lot of condos and multifamily units going up in and around downtown. But read the article in todays herald about development in the east village and youll see developmtn is very very slow.

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

A big part of Calgary's lack of culture is a produc
t of infrastructure. It's just awfully hard for a city to have much culture when people are extremely spread out and there is tiny population density. Culture builds up in areas where you've got tonnes of people all living very closely together, which is just a very unCalgarian thing. If the city ever gets it's head on straight, stops the continual building out into the prairies and starts building a lot more vertical housing in the downtown area then there'll be some opportunity for culture. You're just not going to get a lot of culture developing in the isolating kind of infrastructure Calgary has.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by llama64

For me, it's the general attitude of people in the city. Everyone has taken on a dog eat dog mentality that really bothers me. There absolutely NO consideration for other people any more. Calgary used to be known for it's peoples friendliness, but now we are city full of over-worked, over-stressed jerks.

One thing that occurs to me, and I'm just using you as an example, but how many people who are in the "don't like the city" camp live in the inner city? And I mean within 50 blocks of Centre street or Memorial.

I'm just thinking that I've found people getting friendlier and easier to deal with, and most of the time I think that, I realize I'm talking about people I deal with out in the burbs. It also occurs to me from past threads that a lot of people on here live within the bounds of the inner city.

People often ask me why I live so far away from work, and how can I stand the commute. Maybe those extra 10 minutes each way put me back to an area where the old time Calgarians live.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by urban1

People keep saying Calgary lacks culture. If Calgary had a ballet, a symphony, and a national art gallery and museum, how many of these complaining people would take advantage of it? Would it change your life if we had a ballet and symphony?
One way Calgary lacks culture is that it lacks interesting people. Id rather have funding for local artists on a small scale rather than creating monster megaprojects like new museums or galleries. People who want to live in the burbs in cookie cutter homes on cookie cutter cul de sacs dont make a city interesting or vibrant.

JohnnyB is right about the poor design of the city. But part of it is what people want. A lot of new residents in Calgary are from small towns across the prairies and the east coast. These people want yards and homes in the 'burbs. In Toronto and Montreal you have a lot of immigrants from countries and cities with very dense populations and urban living is what these people know.
Its great to see lot of condos and multifamily units going up in and around downtown. But read the article in todays herald about development in the east village and youll see developmtn is very very slow.

I agree to a certain extent, though there are a large number of art patrons here in the city. The Calgary Opera has had sellouts or near sellouts at almost all of its performances in the last five years. By comparison, the philharmonic is quite poorly attended when compared with Edmonton (where the philharmonic sells out and the opera cannot attract anyone). Alberta ballet does pretty good on its Calgary shows, better than the philharmonic and less than the opera.
The Alberta government has long maintained an attitude that investment in the arts should not come from the government. And Calgary's affluence has resulted in a good trickle-down effect, where Calgarians do spend more money than most on arts and culture. Unfortunately, the nature of Calgary's culture combined with a lack of government investment means that though some of the larger arts organizations do quite well, individual artists find it very difficult, not having the same funding opportunities that artists in other provinces have. I know several artists in a variety of disciplines who have moved out-of-province largely because of better development programs for young artists.
Edmonton has done far better than Calgary in terms of grassroots artist support, both in terms of developing artists and retaining them. I don't have numbers in front of me, but I believe Edmontonians spend less on arts and culture than Calgary, but because more of their money is directed toward young and developing artists, their arts scene overall feels more vibrant. The fringe would be an example of this. Calgary's most prominent theatre festival (High Performance Rodeo) tends to support a small number of established theatre groups, and doesn't have broadly accessible works as the fringe does.

[Ozy_Flame]

Good god, who the hell works 7 am to 9 pm?? Holy moly, does the the private sector ever work your tail off. If I'm working those hours, I want full compensation and then some; that's just incredibly wrong, especially when you're not owning your own business.

Another reason why Calgary is losing it's footing - people think they get ahead in life by working incredulous hours.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by llama64

If I could, I'd move to Victoria. The people there seem to have a proper take on how to live life. None of this 7am to 9pm work non-sense. You work to live people, not live to work!

Doesn't sound like you've tried to find work there lately. Vic is a brutal place for young people to start out their careers. Unless you're in geriatrics, hearing aids, medicine, and other retirement related careers.

A friend of mine foolishly decided to be a teacher there. 8 years later he still doesn't have a permanent contract. I don't think he's ever made more than $25K a year.... He's abandoning teaching (and the idiotic union / 12 civic governments there) to be an artist...

[llama64]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Doesn't sound like you've tried to find work there lately. Vic is a brutal place for young people to start out their careers. Unless you're in geriatrics, hearing aids, medicine, and other retirement related careers.

A friend of mine foolishly decided to be a teacher there. 8 years later he still doesn't have a permanent contract. I don't think he's ever made more than $25K a year.... He's abandoning teaching (and the idiotic union / 12 civic governments there) to be an artist...

Kinda why I put "If I could.." into my statement I never said I was being reasonable about it. Mostly, I'd like Calgary to cut back a bit on the obsession with work and focus on making the city a nicer place to live.

But the nice thing about my career is that I'm rather portable. I can do most of my work at home without dealing with cube culture and idiotic pointy haired bosses. Lonely shack in the middle of the woods, here I come!

Well played Fotze, well played.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by llama64

Kinda why I put "If I could.." into my statement I never said I was being reasonable about it. Mostly, I'd like Calgary to cut back a bit on the obsession with work and focus on making the city a nicer place to live.

Agreed. In this era of Bronco Building I've seen umpteen new interchanges. Umpteen new road widenings. New LRT lines.

But what about parks, Rec Center, municipal (read affordable) golf courses and the other quality of life measures? Bronco made a big deal about some new parks, but I don't think they're in use yet. And I don't mean a chunk of baldass prairie with some chain link around it and a big sign stuck in the ground that says "Park" (ie NoseHill). More manicured places like Princes Island, Riley and Bowness would be a great way to spend some family time. Everytime I ride past one of these places it's always filled with families.

And isn't hard work just a part of Prairie culture? We ain't no softies here like those with water around em!

[FireFly]

Hey now... has no one noticed all the new flower planters they've put out? They are working on making Calgary nicer!

[Dodsdomd]

I lived in Calgary for nearly eight years. The last couple of years I really began to sour on the city for various reasons. Instead of complaining we decided to leave. Looking back nine months now, it was the best thing I could have done for my family.

I don't regret the time we spent there. For the most part it was great it just wasn't for us anymore. I don't really miss anything except going to Flames games.

[Flames_Gimp]

Originally Posted by tanguay'sstillgood

Nobody's gonna try to pick a fight with someone in a wheelchair. And it's not all that fun to have to worry about looking at someone the wrong way and having them flip out. I commend you on your bravery, however.

dude..90 year old grannies have been beaten and raped in this city...

[lifer]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

dude..90 year old grannies have been beaten and raped in this city...

They must have been wearing those low-cut slutty sweaters and bonnets...you know, asking for it. Or they were lipping off.

[tanguay'sstillgood]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

dude..90 year old grannies have been beaten and raped in this city...

Ya, but now I get the feeling I wasnt clear with what I was talking about. I meant going down to a bar on a weekend, something a 90 year old granny probably rarely does. Old ladies probably hardly ever worry about some ###### stabbing them because they talk to the wrong person.