Is Calgary becoming a dead town?

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

Calgary is more of a family-friendly city. We have the largest zoo, museum, municipal ski hill, shopping malls, science centre, theme park, and parks in all of Western Canada.
Does Calgary have as many night clubs, music festivals, or concerts as Vancouver? No, but those things are just a small part of the dynamic of a city.

By theme park are you referring to Calaway? If you are that is a sad statistic if try. I'm surprised there isn't a good amusement park in Vancouver.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Geeoff

Kids are at home playing video games and dating on Tinder instead of going to the club

Knowing the Calgary club scene, that's probably a better alternative.

[Darth Tkachuk]

Calgary also has the largest unemployment percentage of any city in the country. But we still have one of the highest cost property values (inflated property values) in the country. A large portion of the population is dependent on the oil and gas industry for income and employment, and like the industry itself, folks are cutting back to stretch their dollars farther toward the things that count. I'm not the least bit surprised at the way things are going here. I would hazard a guess that things are going to get worse as the country continues to alienate the energy industry.

[Mr.Coffee]

I was going to say... it’s pretty obvious what’s happened no?

Costs have gone up, taxes have gone up, bonuses and pay has dried up and nobody can afford to easily just drop the kinda money you need to drop now.

In most bars a beer is like minimum $7. There’s only so much blood from a stone and this is an oil and gas town. That pretty much sums it up.

[redforever]

Calgary's economy is still in pretty dire straights. People don't have the extra money to spend on entertainment.

[mikephoen]

Probably a lot of it is just the fallibility of human memory. I doubt the movie theatre has ever been busy at 10PM on a weekday, even if you remember it that way. You remember the bars being exciting in your early 20s because they were still a relatively new experience, now they're old hat and seem not very exciting. They're likely more or less unchanged.

When you go to a new city, it's just that, new and different, so it seems more exciting.

Calgary is also still in an economic downturn, so I'm sure most entertainment venues are down from what they were 3 or so years ago.

With regards to restaurants, who wants them to be busy anyway? I go to a restaurant to enjoy the food and to talk with the people I go there with. Why would I want it to be extremely busy? So it's too loud to talk, or so I have to wait for a table? One of the few good things about a down economy is reservations are easy to get or not even needed. I want restaurants to be busy enough that people have jobs and the good places stay in business, but wanting them to be packed seems odd as a customer.

[chemgear]

[Johnhitbox]

Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper

You’re not wrong OP. But the same can be said everywhere. Just google it and you’ll hear people complaining all the time and even in bigger cities than Calgary.

Nightclubs are dying out real fast right now. I remember 5-6 years ago when it was a party zone every weekend. Calgary is ultimately a family oriented city and when you hit a certain age, you go out less and you get home early.

The younger generation just isn’t as big into the nightlife as previous generations and they aren’t picking up the slack. They’ve gone elsewhere and with tinder ans netflix, you just don’t need to play the “game” the same way anymore.

And we wonder why we are lacking in social skills.

[Bunk]

Objectively, Calgary is a better city now than it has ever been - in its liveability and sheer choice of things to do, culturally and otherwise. However, the downturn and slow and precarious recovery is a constant cloud that has definitely dampened the psyche and usual exuberance of the population. The downturn has also depressed the number of young people flooding into the city, which has an effect on that cohort and what it brings to certain scenes. The point about the interests of the generation just becoming adults now being quite different than 10 or 20 years ago is a good one. Being 37, the things I do and see are always busy and full of vibrant energy. I imagine it being way, way better in terms of interests for 37yr olds than it was in the 90s, for example.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by tripin_billie

The problem with Calgary, in comparison to Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, New York, DC, Philly, Boston, and any other older city is that in all of those cities, there is effecient public transportation and the cities themselves are very walkable with neighborhoods typically having walkable amenities. Calgary is a hellscape of planned communities that are spread over way too much area. Driving to go out is a complete bummer. In my neighborhood (in DC), I can walk to 5 or more different hotspot areas that are full of nightlife. It's just easier when you can walk.

lol, this is definitely wrong. If there's a party or club people want to go to, they'll get there.

I think the "problem" is millennials don't seem to like to drink like 20s people did in the 90s. I've seen it at festivals where the people over 30 are annihilated and everyone in their 20s is standing there looking around like someone just farted.

[djsFlames]

RIP Drum and Monkey. Best spot on the south side of dt.

I have been on meetup.com for local stuff and there are interesting group meets/events here in town happening frequently, a lot more stuff than you would expect. It's encouraging if we are slowly shifting from drinking at bars to connecting over our hobbies and passions in our spare time.

Although I know Tinder, Xbox and Netflix from the comfort of home remain the go-to activities for many.

[troutman]

I'd say there are far more entertainment and dining options than we had 20-30 years ago. Way more people living in the core. We lost some live music venues though this year.

https://theyyscene.com/listings/

[Classic_Sniper]

I could see things turning around pretty soon. I think a couple things need to happen though. Once office vacancy rates downtown start to improve, then I think more people will start living downtown again. Condo prices have dropped like a rock in recent years which is not good sign for downtown liveliness.

Also, I think once 17th ave finishes it’s construction and stephen ave gets a much needed facelift that is being talkes about, then I think these areas will become hot spots again like they once were. It’s just a matter of economic timing and infrastructure improvements.

Edit: One thing that I’ve personally noticed is how much the crowd downtown at the Core has deteriorated at lunch time. It use to be crawling with action and now it’s just a shadow of its former self.

[Joborule]

The economy probably is the most significant impact on this. People need to be more selective on what they spend their money on. So entertainment spending has diminished in this city.

But the generational interests may also be a factor in this. People have more options to socialize these days than you would've in the 90's and 00's. Fitness is bigger now, so people get together for spin, yoga, boxing, climbing, etc. rather than go to clubs every Friday night. With social media dating apps, more home dates/hookups could be occurring. And could also be people conserving their money to budget for traveling more often.

Is this something that's occurring in other cities also?

[Party Elephant]

I came home to visit in August for the first time in years, and I really enjoyed going out with my friends and checking out newer spots as well as old favourites. At no point did the city feel dead. I dont know what the OP is on about here but then again maybe I didn't go to enough weeknight movies to really get a feel for it.

[GullFoss]

City isn't dead.... good restaurants are super busy a lot of nights. Lots more daytime choices - yoga, spin, cross fit, escape rooms, etc. Food scene is solid. So I can only assume you are referring to clubs and drinking establishments.

For drinking establishments we now have beer halls and cocktail lounges and shisha lounges...all of which were super limited more than 10 years ago. So more options there.

For the night clubs scene...youre right. It has been steadily getting worse since at least the mid-90s. But why? I bet three things:

1) Technology. In the 80s and 90s, we listened to the radio for new hits, the top 100. We went to underground clubs to find new sounds and interact with those sharing your interest in music. There was no better way. Now I can find new music and interact with fans better on online forums and applications such as SoundCloud. So technology has made this better, cheaper, and easier.

2) Better alternatives for night life. Beer halls accomplish a lot of what a club does. Can get wasted with buddies, flirt with ladies, hang out. But as a bonus - you can actually talk with people at a beer hall! Other alternatives to a night out of clubbing include cocktail bars and shisha lounges.

3) Better live music experiences elsewhere. Go to a super club (say one of dj mags top 100 in the world), or a music festival like Coachella, edc, Osheaga, shambhala, etc. Then compare it to a run-of-the-mill night club. It just can't compete. I'd rather do shambhala once a year than do 26 night of clubbing in a year.

4) cultural shift has reduce demand for certain types of dance clubs. Remember when guys use to just start bumping and grinding with girls at the club...that doesn't really fly for a large segment of the world today. #metoo

The eventual solution is fewer clubs overall...where lots of old ####ty clubs are replaced with fewer higher quality, higher capacity, purpose built clubs that make for a better night out and can use scalr of enterance fees to get awesome live acts. Better sound, better lights, better ventilation, better bar set up, better djs. But at the same time, the club night still has to be genre focused. So instead of 5 electronic focused dance club with capacity of 500, you need 1 club at 2500. Think Hakesan or The problem for Calgary is that back in the day it could only support one electronic dance club. So even if the city is twice as large now, it lacks critical mass more now than it did in the past.

[81MC]

Originally Posted by redforever

Calgary's economy is still in pretty dire straights. People don't have the extra money to spend on entertainment.

The popularity of lounges/bars serving up >$13 cocktails and >$20 plates tellls me otherwise. Honestly I'm amazed how busy these places consistently are. It's all quite a bore when the ambiance and drain on your wallet are the only things that seem to draw people anywhere.

Calgary often has lots going on, but if you're just strolling around most of the inner city it can be exceptionally hard to find anything other than a pricey place to have a drink. If you're wanting to find music, a late theatre or anything artsy or just something really fun you need to plan it out a bit, I find anyhow.

[csnarpy]

Working at craft for the last 7 years. I can tell there is definitely an upswing. But it has taken time to get here. We are well past last year totals and every Saturday night now is starting to feel and look like it was 4 years ago.

The economy is/was the biggest factor and slowly but surely its coming back.

[Weitz]

I’m actually shocked people go out for $9 beers.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Here's an outsider's perspective so take it with a grain of salt.

Last time I was in Calgary (4ish years ago?) I found it to be what I call a 'new' city.

The downtown area is very divided. Office buildings house offices. Off to the side are apartment buildings with only apartments. Any retail is chain retail, any restaurant is a chain restaurant.

17th Ave, I was expecting nightlife, bars, pubs and restaurants all the way. It was more like a sprawl street, the pubs were fairly spaced out, only thing missing were the fast food restaurants every so often.

The downtown wasn't overly mixed use, Stephen Ave was all Local, National, Earl's rather than a locally owned place with local character.

Now combine that with a downturn in the nightclub, hard liquor, shot drinking culture.

Now 20 somethings would rather sit down with a craft beer than his up a club with vodka and orange bar mix.

You'll also get people out several times a week for a beer and munchies rather than one to two nights a week at a club. Even in Vegas the clubs don't open for over half the week.

Really, what needs to happen in order for a strong sense of 'busyness' is to have retail, office space and residential all in the same space. (Ie: ground level and second floor is retail/restaurant/pub; floors 2-5 office space; floors 3+ residential). That causes people to be in the same area longer, makes the place seem vibrant and alive and encourages more spending, interaction and healthier lifestyle.

With that said, ask yourself what you're looking for and you'll find it. Even in my small town, things are always going on, you just need to know where to look.

Do you want trivia, music, rec sports (basketball to hockey to Aussie Rules football). Art, theater, running? It's all here, you just need to look.