I grew up in the NE (Abbeydale) and I can tell you the 'anywhere but the NE' crowd usually is from the south side of the city. I actually liked growing up with people from all over the world and moved to deer run when my daughter was born. I couldn't stand deer run. The commute was a nightmare and it is so boring. It seems like 80% of people are caucasian and you can't find a good ethnic place to eat.
Now I live in Chestermere:
Pros:
Quiet
-Great place to raise a family and lots of people with kids
-Easy to get kids into school and they can actually go to a school close to home.
-Low crime rate
-Not many renters
-Great neighbors
-More restraunts opening up.
-Easy to access any part of the city with Stoney.
-15 minutes to a c-train station.
-No c-train going out there so no vagrants
-Great fire department and they will come out for block partys for the kids
-killer block parties
-Lots of outdoor hockey
-Good bike paths
-Not a lot of stray cats (I used to hear multiple cat fights every night when I lived in abbeydale)
-Good schools. My daughter is in elementary and they had Chinese food brought in for hot lunch today. Every Thursday they order something different for the kids.
-small town feel without being super far away from the city
Cons:
-No bus or c-train access if you don't drive
-Blue bins for recycling, green for compost but only 1 bag of garbage allowed per week. (I get the biggest size of bag and load it up though so no problem there)
-Sometimes get the farm smell during spring melt but it's not bad.
-Highway driving in the winter but they keep it pretty dry for the most part. Gets foggy though sometimes.
Yeah, they're better. Keep the riff-raff out with a barbed wire fence and post guards at both entrances. Plus, no dogs.
Natural stuff sucks, anyway. I hate nature. A mountain is boring until you throw a chairlift on it. Land sucks until it's bulldozed and roads are made. Just existing would suck without houses and all the other man-made comforts.
I feel sorry you, if that is your true opinion.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
Lmao, I didn't mention anything about race? But thanks for the assumption, most if not all the major crime I see on the news is happening in the NE region of the city.
It's everybody's opinion, whether they want to admit it or not. I know exactly zero people who eschew modern comforts like running water, physical homes, central heating and electricity in favour of living in the woods. Nobody does it because it sucks.
All of us could quit are jobs right now - just get up from your desk and walk away. Start heading west, or north, or east or south or any direction. Live off the land. Never work a day in your life ever again. No taxes, no bosses, no commute, nothing. Nobody will stop you. It's free. It's how people existed for thousands of years. Why don't we? Because it would suck. Nature sucks.
It's everybody's opinion, whether they want to admit it or not. I know exactly zero people who eschew modern comforts like running water, physical homes, central heating and electricity in favour of living in the woods. Nobody does it because it sucks.
All of us could quit are jobs right now - just get up from your desk and walk away. Start heading west, or north, or east or south or any direction. Live off the land. Never work a day in your life ever again. No taxes, no bosses, no commute, nothing. Nobody will stop you. It's free. It's how people existed for thousands of years. Why don't we? Because it would suck. Nature sucks.
Well Duh, do you really think that is what I meant? Do you really think I am suggesting we all become card carrying Luddites?
You suggestion that "Land sucks until it's bulldozed and roads are made", is wrong.
I eagerly await you full troll mode response.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
I know Sliver's response was a little tongue in cheek, but I can't say I disagree with him. I'm totally not a nature person. Give me man made anytime. For me, nature is only fun and bearable with at least some human intervention. (ie. campsites, hiking trails, mountains, etc). Undisturbed nature is pretty to look at, but doesn't really give me much in terms of enjoyment or fulfilment.
Oh, and no need to feel sorry for people like me who feel this way. In a way, I feel sorry for you because you don't think like I do.
I've lived in a few neighbourhoods now. Bridgeland was probably the best, but there was a lot of crime. Our house got broken into, roomate got mugged twice and had his car broken into. Cops shot a guy a block away. Hobos drinking everywhere. I lived down the hill though, it's probably better north of 1st avenue. There is a Ctrain station, but it's on the blue line, so not very useful. I usually just walked downtown if I needed to use the train.
Riverbend is underrated I think, but Glenmore and Deerfoot are often disasters so it can be hard to get places. And it's under an approach to the airport so there's lots of planes going by which gets annoying. Sometimes it smells because of the Bonnybrook treatment plant. SE leg of the green line is supposed to built in the next few years, but we'll see if it happens.
I had a job delivering hardwood for two summers, so I got to see every neighbourhood in Calgary and area. Outside of the more exclusive areas (Mount Royal, Bel-Aire, Pump Hill, etc.) I think Bowness is my favourite, with Varsity, Bonavista, Oakridge, Wildwood, Chinook Park/Kelvin Grove, Lakeview, Douglasdale close contenders. Discovery Ridge has a great location and a different feel than the rest of the city, but most of the houses are expensive. Ramsay and Inglewood have nice old homes but it's frequently noisy and smelly there. Most of the NE/Forest Lawn area is underrated, but there are some ghetto areas and places where I wouldn't want to live.
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Oh, in that case, to get the thread back on topic.
Sage Hill
Pros
- relatively cheap house prices
- new
- quiet neighborhood
- close to a bunch of retail going up (Walmart, Sobeys, COOP, Farmers Market, Creekside, Beacon Hill)
- close access to Stoney Trail
Cons
- Out in the boonies
- Sucky downtown access
- Need a car
- Construction noise
- Takes time to drive anywhere (is probably just a little better than Airdrie in terms of distance to most places in Calgary)
Full of young professionals and their kids
Three Parks
Well Built houses
Close to North-Glenmore Park
10 Minutes to downtown VIA Crowchild
Quick access onto Glenmore and Crowchild
Local traffic only as it is inconvenient to drive through
Clean and Quiet
Same size houses as Garrison Woods and Currie Barracks go for 100k less
Cons:
Have to drive for groceries, restaurants and schools.
ATCO construction ongoing
MRC nearby means traffic can be bad at 9am/5pm
Lack of C-train access
Lots of kids (if that is not your thing)
Pros:
-smallish, quiet community
-good access points to major roads (Stoney, Crowchild)
-lots of green spaces
-close to Crowfoot and other shopping centres
-right on the c-train line
-city can't really sprawl into Bearspaw/Springbank, so congestion shouldn't increase by a lot
Cons:
-any retail or restaurants nearby are of the chain/big box variety
-other than the gas station, can't really walk to any stores/services either
-no community lake
I've lived here for almost 9 years now and really like it, but there are 2 more cons:
-Commute to DT or south via Crowchild can be a nightmare especially if it's snowing (I guess this is probably true everywhere)
-No restaurants at all directly in the neighborhood. I would LOVE a Scenic Acres pub.
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Sent from an adult man under a dumpster
Are most neighbourhoods in Calgary noticeably different from each other? Most communities were built Post WWII and are very much cookie cutter neigbhourhoods. They basically differ in location and transport links but have the same sterile character, except for the NE and it somehow gets a poor reputation because it actually has a distinct character and has a marginally higher crime rate that would be considered virtually crime-free in most of the World.
Would it be wrong to say we have the following groups of neigbourhoods in Calgary?
Central Calgary (e.g. Beltline, Downtown, East Village, Mission)
Inner City (e.g. Bridgeland, Inglewood, Sunnyside)
Northwest & Central North
Northeast & Near Southeast
South Calgary
Deep South Calgary
West Calgary
Out of those groups, only the individual neigbourhoods in Central Calgary and Inner City could really be described as having their own unique character.
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“Such suburban models are being rationalized as ‘what people want,’ when in fact they are simply what is most expedient to produce. The truth is that what people want is a decent place to live, not just a suburban version of a decent place to live.”
- Roberta Brandes Gratz
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Grew up in Parkland which was great. Fish Creek. Quiet community with only 500 or so homes, so low density. Then lived in Bonavista which was great because you had access to Fish Creek and Lake Bonavista. Everything is that much closer. The LRT line is right there, Southcentre. Now living in
ELBOYA
Pros:
-R1 designation so no duplexes. Low density.
-Inner city, close to Elbow and McLeod.
-River pathway, Stanley Park
-Quiet community
-Britannia plaza with the Village Ice cream
-Tons of transportation options.
Cons:
- Lots of B&E, car break-ins
- Property taxes
- Hawks helicopter is always flying around. Like always.
Current neighborhood: Sunalta. Neighborhood in 2 weeks: Altadore
Pros:
- Cheap entry into the housing market. Lots of 2 bedroom condos at a fair price
- Can walk everywhere for anything you need
- Close to the river pathway system
- On snow plow routes, closest roads always plowed first
- 2 blocks from the C-Train station
- No need to go to the bottle depot ever
- Easy vehicle access north and west via Crowchild or Bow Trail (rush hour excluded)
- Somewhat easy access North and South via 14th st (rush hour excluded)
Cons:
- Vagrant population. Wasn't bad the first 6 years but it seems to be getting worse, and quickly. Have had multiple break ins into our boiler room in the last 2 months.
- Those jerks in Scarboro looking down their nose at us (I kid)
- Houses are expensive.
I live in Sandstone in central NW, love it! Previously I lived in Coventry Hills (kill me now) and Harvest Hills.
Pro's:
-small, quiet
-good access to 14th street NW, Shag, country hills blvd, deerfoot, centre street.
-just south of country hills blvd which makes getting to downtown much quicker and easier
-bus loop
-2 elementary schools
-2 gas stations in the community
-parks/dog parks
Cons:
-could be a little more central
-common neighborhood issues
I've lived here for almost 9 years now and really like it, but there are 2 more cons:
-Commute to DT or south via Crowchild can be a nightmare especially if it's snowing (I guess this is probably true everywhere)
-No restaurants at all directly in the neighborhood. I would LOVE a Scenic Acres pub.
I figure the mysteriously vacant and undeveloped land across from the community hall could hold a strip mall with pub.
I live in Redstone. One of the farthest north communities you can get to right now!
Pros:
-Super quick access to Stoney Trail and Deerfoot Trail
-New neighbourhood -- nothing run-down, but all reasonably priced
-Stonegate Landing going in across Metis -- huge shopping complex
-Future LRT
-Quiet people
Cons:
-Stonegate Landing going in across the street... probably five years away from being finished. Will be awesome once it's there but for now we are not very close to a lot of amenities (at least a 10-15 minute drive).
-Future LRT. See above, but stretch to ten years
-Airplane noise -- could be worse, but might bother some people
-Lots of construction
-Not many parks or pathways in yet
It's your typical brand new neighbourhood, but we're planning to be in for the long term, so it should work out.
