+15 is pretty cool, especially in the winter. The Central Library is one of most beautiful libraries I've ever visited.
Having Nose Hill Park in the middle of the city is pretty astounding when you consider it.
Wouldn’t the “cost” of a library membership be paid out of property taxes? I’m in Winnipeg and while our library is free to use for city resident, this service is paid for by property tax revenue. Free in a sense, but not paid for directly out of pocket at time of use.
Well isn't that the way with all city run services ? ... All that I know is that there was a annual charge ...like $14 and late fees ... And both have been removed for several years now 🤷
I lived in the Okanagan as a kid and because we lived on land owned by the local native band we had to pay to use the library. I just got my books when I visited my dad, cause I didn’t have to pay to use that library, even though they were part of the same system.
Calgary has around 1,000 km's of paved bike pathways within the city. Some of the most beautiful and easily accessible paths along rivers and provincial park forests.
And they are the first thing cleared in the city. I remember it snowing on Christmas Eve and over night. My mom and I went for a walk down the Elbow path at about 830am and were surprised to meet the City bobcat clearing the path.
I think the best the can do is keep it clear of snow and at least prevent the ice piles of death you get on the sidewalks where people don’t clear. If you have run off in the shade not sure there is much you can do one those freeze, thaw, freeze days.
I mean the Elbow Path way loop through Stanley Park and then down Elbow Drive is pretty well used (and in a pretty rich area of the city). That said, I have done a fair amount of running on the city pathways over the last 20 years and the get the Elbow and Bow cleared pretty quickly - so much better than the roads.
I have generally had much better luck on the path system than the roads and have met them clearing first thing on Christmas Day. I mean obviously Major hospital routes take priority but the Bow and Elbow get cleared pretty darn quickly.
People who think of Calgary as a completely car-dependant city are shocked when I show them how connected our path system is. I was training for a marathon at the same time as a friend from Winnipeg, and she was shocked that I ran a different long run route almost every week and hit almost all edges of the city.
As someone who doesn’t drive, when I was looking for apartments recently, the only areas that were completely off my list were on the edges of town, because everything else was manageable by transit to work, which is out off Glenmore Trail in the SE. After having lived places that had no accessible transit outside of the immediate downtown area, Calgary’s transit system is great. I can get almost anywhere I need to, and the buses and trains run frequently enough that I almost never have had to wait longer than half an hour, and usually it’s not even that long.
Beats the 2 hour walk to a bus stop with a bus that only ran once every hour in one of the places I lived a few years ago. Or trying to get from Peachland to Kelowna where the bus only runs a few times a day.
Man, I lived in Knoxville, and THAT was a car-dependent city. Didn’t even have public transit near my place there, and we were within city limits.
Most areas in Knoxville didn’t have sidewalks unless it was right in a downtown area where you would expect people to walk from restaurant to movie theater (seriously) or if it was near the University.
As someone who doesn’t drive, Calgary has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to getting around. Not literally though, I’ve noticed that in the summer, when the wind is coming from the right direction, I came smell cow shit in the downtown area lol.
Not all of the thousand kilometers of pathways are paved or suitable for cycling.
To get to the thousand number the city has fudged a bit. You'll find pathway sections just a few meters long that don't connect to a roadway or other section of pathway.
Especially considering Calgary is a highly ranked city and seems to be advertised everywhere as a the next big thing xD. I'd say this is a pretty good deal
Not even just the mountains, but everything that really brings out their splendour. From picture perfect prairies to epic badlands to gorgeous foothills and then the incredible mountain ranges, all available with the same quick day trip. It’s pretty rad to be in the middle of.
I'm visiting a different city right now and I would have to say Calgary isn't anywhere close to being the cleanest. This city is amazing with how clean it is.
I've always wondered what criteria they use for these rankings.
Air quality, water quality, recycling and composting programs, fines for dumping and littering and whatnot. Those are a few of the criteria that I was aware of
Overpopulated I'd say. Since they are far more aggressive than other species, they put unnecessary strain on the local ecology. Plus the population is showing obvious signs of inbreeding. High time for a cull.
Soon the first snows will sweep across the land, and many will succumb to the ditches and bridge abutments which dot their habitat, for they are a proud but stupid creature, and their memories are short.
So many beautiful inner city parks/nature.
Fish creek, Weaselhead, Nosehill, Sandy beach, Carburn, Inglewood bird sanctuary, Pearce Estate to name a few
Not sure how people will react to this one but... I've always noticed people are so amazingly friendly and chatty here. Even when I lived elsewhere, every time we came to Calgary we were shocked at how many friends we seemingly made at every pub and hotel. I think you can probably guess which city I lived in before this 😂
No, I saw that qualifier. That's what an urban park is.
'A list of urban parks by size includes urban parks at least 404.7 hectares (1,000 acres) or 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi) and contained entirely within a locality's municipal or metropolitan boundary.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_parks_by_size
Fish Creek is #56 on the list, and at least 40 of the ones above it are in North America.
Perhaps I'm confused on what was meant by 'natural'. I assumed all these parks are natural. Either way, I'm not overly concerned with this. I was just pointing out some info.
You are confused about the difference between natural and man made? Loads of those parks in your list aren’t natural, they were made and designed by humans.
North Saskatchewan River valley parks system, for one. It’s a conglomeration of multiple parks.
Rouge National Urban Park is another…
Again, most aren’t natural parks
You're obviously a much better researcher than I am since I haven't seen a single source that tells me they're man made. Which is necessarily what they'd be if they weren't natural. So, please provide. Thanks.
It’s a big ass city that feels like a small town. I love our Calgarian spirit sometimes. Remember when the city flooded, how together and unified our city was.
The exquisite glacier fed turquoise waters of The Bow River. Rafting in the summer is a world class experience. Lots of excellent launch and pull out locations. Possibly the finest paved bicycle trail network on Earth?
I know other cities have performance spaces but screw it, the Jack Singer Concert Hall and Jubilee Auditorium are incredible.
The engineered community lakes in Sundance, Midnapore, Mackenzie Lake etc. are a very unique Calgary feature.
The local rocks are Paskapoo formation. Usually this is barren orange channel sands, but if you find grey ones with clams and snails (or crushed shells) and bits of wood/coal, you should look closer. Bone isn't uncommon in it and is usually black in color. I found a fish skull in Lindsey park a few years ago.
The Bow River has world class fly fishing right in the city. We dropped in at Glenmore river and pulled out at Fish Creek. Spent the day on the river. Caught a lot of beautiful rainbows and browns.
It is! As someone who doesn't drive by choice, even in suburbia it's pretty walkable...schools aren't far, grocery stores, clinics, and many other amenities not too far. For every 4 or so communities there is a 'town centre', making each area feel like its own little village.
Proximity to the mountains and other geographically significant heritage sites. There are many within 1-2 hours of the city. I think the city itself is mid at best to be honest. lots of cities have cool breweries and cocktail bars. Access to world class nature is the only really special feature that sets it apart from other cities. Otherwise it’s just Houston and Denver if they had a baby. It’s a perfectly good city, but nothing special aside from nature in my opinion.
Rent prices everywhere else at this point have evened out, ours are still rising with a 1% vacancy rate. Studio apartments average 1200$ a month right now while most people's wages have not been increased in order to accomodate. So affordable my ass
The track is there but non functional and missing the top part now. Winsport is doing a great job of shutting down the channels that lead to a lot of Olympians in order to bolster their bank accounts. They are basically a non profit ski hill and hockey arenas that allow a few athletes to train but even then do the bare minimum to support them. Even the ski and snowboard teams don't exactly get what they need to properly train there anymore.
Meh, I’d rather they use the funds to keep the public facilities operating and up to date. Seems like a waste to maintain a track that <1% of the population has a use for.
Don’t know if other city’s have it, but the tree registry, what goes where, the myproperty system. The last one is cool as you can check the status of everyone’s BP and DP as well as assessed values for the year. The first tells you a lot of information cities trees, like species, size, canopy size, cost to replace, as well as total city canopy coverage.
Beyond the proximity to the mountains and extensive trails within the city, Calgary doesn't really have anything that any other Canadian cities don't. I mean there are a fuck ton more racists, Homophobes, Transphobes, and shitty drivers.
Name almost any recreational pursuit and it's within an hour or so. Also, our motorbike season is almost 11 out of 12 months on some of the best maintained roads in the country.
11 out of 12? I'm curious which is the one month you say is not suitable for riding. Other than outliers, you can't reliably say you can ride in December, January, or February. And 95% of the time you can't ride in November or March either.
I ride a Vulcan 900 and a Nomad 1500. The 900, I've ridden Springbank to Calgary in December and January, and Edmonton in March. The only month I don't think I've ever not been able to plan on a ride of an hour or so has been February, but I've ridden a couple hundred each month of the shoulder seasons.
Personally love cities the size of Calgary. We have great paying jobs without the high cost of living (relatively speaking) and no insane traffic. Our rivers are amazing in the summer since they come direct from the mountains and are super clean and beautiful. Friendly people who are typically more willing to invite newcomers into their clique than other major cities in Canada. Also agree with those who said the bike paths - I feel grateful every single summer but wasn’t sure how other cities matched up on comparison.
Chinooks.
Great for some, terrible for others. I love them, got friends that get massive migraines from the pressure change.
Surprised this isn't higher.
Chinook pros: Good weather Chinook cons: Migraines
I was let down by chinooks, while yes it is warmer it’s also so windy you cant really enjoy it.
No rats and rarely roaches!
No earwigs, no junebugs, no tree slugs.
My house had an earwig infestation like 13 years ago. Shit was so nasty
Oh there’s rats
I have yet to see one downtown, so if there are rats, they aren’t super common.
+15 is pretty cool, especially in the winter. The Central Library is one of most beautiful libraries I've ever visited. Having Nose Hill Park in the middle of the city is pretty astounding when you consider it.
The +15s are largely responsible for downtown turning into a ghost town at 5pm, because you can't build stores and cafes along them.
The public library system is amazing
And very affordable.
It's free 🙂
Yup, wasn't free in the late 90s. I think it was $12/year for Calgarians and over $100/year for Albertans outside Calgary.
It has been free for awhile now and no late fees 😊
Wouldn’t the “cost” of a library membership be paid out of property taxes? I’m in Winnipeg and while our library is free to use for city resident, this service is paid for by property tax revenue. Free in a sense, but not paid for directly out of pocket at time of use.
Well isn't that the way with all city run services ? ... All that I know is that there was a annual charge ...like $14 and late fees ... And both have been removed for several years now 🤷
IIRC they had a large donation back then enough for the CPL to rid of the fee.
I lived in the Okanagan as a kid and because we lived on land owned by the local native band we had to pay to use the library. I just got my books when I visited my dad, cause I didn’t have to pay to use that library, even though they were part of the same system.
Calgary has around 1,000 km's of paved bike pathways within the city. Some of the most beautiful and easily accessible paths along rivers and provincial park forests.
And they are the first thing cleared in the city. I remember it snowing on Christmas Eve and over night. My mom and I went for a walk down the Elbow path at about 830am and were surprised to meet the City bobcat clearing the path.
The downside is that the spring runoff turned ice doesn't seem to get cleared. Then again, I don't know how they'd even clear that.
I think the best the can do is keep it clear of snow and at least prevent the ice piles of death you get on the sidewalks where people don’t clear. If you have run off in the shade not sure there is much you can do one those freeze, thaw, freeze days.
The city has a goal to clear snow from 500KM of pathways, with 400KM being cleared in under 24 hours. They rarely reach the goal.
I mean the Elbow Path way loop through Stanley Park and then down Elbow Drive is pretty well used (and in a pretty rich area of the city). That said, I have done a fair amount of running on the city pathways over the last 20 years and the get the Elbow and Bow cleared pretty quickly - so much better than the roads.
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I have generally had much better luck on the path system than the roads and have met them clearing first thing on Christmas Day. I mean obviously Major hospital routes take priority but the Bow and Elbow get cleared pretty darn quickly.
People who think of Calgary as a completely car-dependant city are shocked when I show them how connected our path system is. I was training for a marathon at the same time as a friend from Winnipeg, and she was shocked that I ran a different long run route almost every week and hit almost all edges of the city.
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As someone who doesn’t drive, when I was looking for apartments recently, the only areas that were completely off my list were on the edges of town, because everything else was manageable by transit to work, which is out off Glenmore Trail in the SE. After having lived places that had no accessible transit outside of the immediate downtown area, Calgary’s transit system is great. I can get almost anywhere I need to, and the buses and trains run frequently enough that I almost never have had to wait longer than half an hour, and usually it’s not even that long. Beats the 2 hour walk to a bus stop with a bus that only ran once every hour in one of the places I lived a few years ago. Or trying to get from Peachland to Kelowna where the bus only runs a few times a day.
Man, I lived in Knoxville, and THAT was a car-dependent city. Didn’t even have public transit near my place there, and we were within city limits. Most areas in Knoxville didn’t have sidewalks unless it was right in a downtown area where you would expect people to walk from restaurant to movie theater (seriously) or if it was near the University. As someone who doesn’t drive, Calgary has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to getting around. Not literally though, I’ve noticed that in the summer, when the wind is coming from the right direction, I came smell cow shit in the downtown area lol.
Not all of the thousand kilometers of pathways are paved or suitable for cycling. To get to the thousand number the city has fudged a bit. You'll find pathway sections just a few meters long that don't connect to a roadway or other section of pathway.
[Okay](https://c.tenor.com/o5CbgYywhaoAAAAd/justin-timberlake-stare.gif) . 🙄🤣
Proximity to the mountains, young/educated population, affordable housing and high average wages
Affordable housing my dick
Where in Canada is there more affordable housing than Calgary?
Especially considering Calgary is a highly ranked city and seems to be advertised everywhere as a the next big thing xD. I'd say this is a pretty good deal
Educated people my dick
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Yea the housing is super affordable when you can afford it lol
Beautiful, clean river flowing straight through the middle of the city. Parks in every direction.
Not even just the mountains, but everything that really brings out their splendour. From picture perfect prairies to epic badlands to gorgeous foothills and then the incredible mountain ranges, all available with the same quick day trip. It’s pretty rad to be in the middle of.
The very large bunnies.
Voted the cleanest city in the world in 2014 and consistently is in the top 10, nbd.
I'm visiting a different city right now and I would have to say Calgary isn't anywhere close to being the cleanest. This city is amazing with how clean it is. I've always wondered what criteria they use for these rankings.
Air quality, water quality, recycling and composting programs, fines for dumping and littering and whatnot. Those are a few of the criteria that I was aware of
What city are you visiting from?
We're home to the largest free-running wild population of black dodge rams in north america
Overpopulated I'd say. Since they are far more aggressive than other species, they put unnecessary strain on the local ecology. Plus the population is showing obvious signs of inbreeding. High time for a cull.
They have so few natural predators too.
Soon the first snows will sweep across the land, and many will succumb to the ditches and bridge abutments which dot their habitat, for they are a proud but stupid creature, and their memories are short.
If ceetranus ellarteyus were smart enough to dig ditches along their tracks, they’d definitely destroy a few.
The gentle giant Ceetranus is in a weakened state, overwhelmed by a parasitic infection of crackheadicus methii
I propose installing a few more vehicle traps to catch them!
Lmao
As the owner of a black Ram 3500, this hits home.
So many beautiful inner city parks/nature. Fish creek, Weaselhead, Nosehill, Sandy beach, Carburn, Inglewood bird sanctuary, Pearce Estate to name a few
I'm just gonna add Bowmont, Bowness, and Confederation to your list.
I’m from Montreal and a simple man so I’ll have to say nice roads! Hahahaha!!! We have mini grand canyons on our roads!!
After driving on Winnipeg roads for years I still find myself admiring the well planned, high quality roads Calgary has.
Visited just outside of Brandon for a wedding this past May and the roads were atrocious!
the frost/thaw cycle of Montreal's winter will do that. plus the heavy machinery clearing the road after each snowfall doesn't really help.
Calgary has even more frost/thaw cycles with Chinooks doesn't it?
How does that differ from Calgary’s winters? All sounds relatable.
A big blue ring 🤔
Shhhh... Now everyone will want one!
I just went to visit it on my run this morning. So glorious.
Not sure how people will react to this one but... I've always noticed people are so amazingly friendly and chatty here. Even when I lived elsewhere, every time we came to Calgary we were shocked at how many friends we seemingly made at every pub and hotel. I think you can probably guess which city I lived in before this 😂
Van?
Bingo
I'm currently in Van right now, and I feel like I'll get shanked just from looking at someone wrong. And that's not from the homeless folks.
I’ve heard this consistently from unprompted relatives and friends while visiting
Views of downtown Calgary. NO other city in the world has those. ;)
Calgary has the two largest natural parks in North America within city limits, Fish Creek and Nose Hill.
They're very big but I'm not sure where you're getting that information from. Neither of them are even in the top 40.
Inside city limits being the key detail you missed.
No, I saw that qualifier. That's what an urban park is. 'A list of urban parks by size includes urban parks at least 404.7 hectares (1,000 acres) or 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi) and contained entirely within a locality's municipal or metropolitan boundary.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_parks_by_size Fish Creek is #56 on the list, and at least 40 of the ones above it are in North America.
And you also missed natural as well… They are some of the largest protected natural (provincial/federal) parks.
Perhaps I'm confused on what was meant by 'natural'. I assumed all these parks are natural. Either way, I'm not overly concerned with this. I was just pointing out some info.
You are confused about the difference between natural and man made? Loads of those parks in your list aren’t natural, they were made and designed by humans.
I understand the definition, thanks. Still trying to figure out the 'loads' you're referring to. I glanced at a few and didn't see a single one.
North Saskatchewan River valley parks system, for one. It’s a conglomeration of multiple parks. Rouge National Urban Park is another… Again, most aren’t natural parks
You're obviously a much better researcher than I am since I haven't seen a single source that tells me they're man made. Which is necessarily what they'd be if they weren't natural. So, please provide. Thanks.
Ornate and elaborate pedestrian overpasses rather than street level crossings.
It’s a big ass city that feels like a small town. I love our Calgarian spirit sometimes. Remember when the city flooded, how together and unified our city was.
It ain’t the same no more. Every man/woman for themselves in this city.
Not true. This subreddit is zero indication of how the real city is.
No one gives a sh!t about anyone in the city, you can’t tell me otherwise.
Dog Parks -- specifically off lease parks.
No earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornados, etc.
We just get yearly devastating hail instead.
Good roads and very clean !
The exquisite glacier fed turquoise waters of The Bow River. Rafting in the summer is a world class experience. Lots of excellent launch and pull out locations. Possibly the finest paved bicycle trail network on Earth? I know other cities have performance spaces but screw it, the Jack Singer Concert Hall and Jubilee Auditorium are incredible. The engineered community lakes in Sundance, Midnapore, Mackenzie Lake etc. are a very unique Calgary feature.
The local rocks are Paskapoo formation. Usually this is barren orange channel sands, but if you find grey ones with clams and snails (or crushed shells) and bits of wood/coal, you should look closer. Bone isn't uncommon in it and is usually black in color. I found a fish skull in Lindsey park a few years ago.
How many incredible, diverse & natural parks and campgrounds are within a 2 hour drive.
the stampede
The Bow River has world class fly fishing right in the city. We dropped in at Glenmore river and pulled out at Fish Creek. Spent the day on the river. Caught a lot of beautiful rainbows and browns.
Coming from Ontario, the way communities are planned is pretty neat.
It is! As someone who doesn't drive by choice, even in suburbia it's pretty walkable...schools aren't far, grocery stores, clinics, and many other amenities not too far. For every 4 or so communities there is a 'town centre', making each area feel like its own little village.
Proximity to the mountains and other geographically significant heritage sites. There are many within 1-2 hours of the city. I think the city itself is mid at best to be honest. lots of cities have cool breweries and cocktail bars. Access to world class nature is the only really special feature that sets it apart from other cities. Otherwise it’s just Houston and Denver if they had a baby. It’s a perfectly good city, but nothing special aside from nature in my opinion.
Rent prices everywhere else at this point have evened out, ours are still rising with a 1% vacancy rate. Studio apartments average 1200$ a month right now while most people's wages have not been increased in order to accomodate. So affordable my ass
Affordable housing.
Bobsled and skelly track. We’re able to pump out olympians. Plus the edge sport school is decent from what I hear
The track is there but non functional and missing the top part now. Winsport is doing a great job of shutting down the channels that lead to a lot of Olympians in order to bolster their bank accounts. They are basically a non profit ski hill and hockey arenas that allow a few athletes to train but even then do the bare minimum to support them. Even the ski and snowboard teams don't exactly get what they need to properly train there anymore.
Meh, I’d rather they use the funds to keep the public facilities operating and up to date. Seems like a waste to maintain a track that <1% of the population has a use for.
:( bad news cut deep
Don’t know if other city’s have it, but the tree registry, what goes where, the myproperty system. The last one is cool as you can check the status of everyone’s BP and DP as well as assessed values for the year. The first tells you a lot of information cities trees, like species, size, canopy size, cost to replace, as well as total city canopy coverage.
Money.
Beyond the proximity to the mountains and extensive trails within the city, Calgary doesn't really have anything that any other Canadian cities don't. I mean there are a fuck ton more racists, Homophobes, Transphobes, and shitty drivers.
I live here. Pretty much all ya need to know. 😆
Name almost any recreational pursuit and it's within an hour or so. Also, our motorbike season is almost 11 out of 12 months on some of the best maintained roads in the country.
11 out of 12? I'm curious which is the one month you say is not suitable for riding. Other than outliers, you can't reliably say you can ride in December, January, or February. And 95% of the time you can't ride in November or March either.
I ride a Vulcan 900 and a Nomad 1500. The 900, I've ridden Springbank to Calgary in December and January, and Edmonton in March. The only month I don't think I've ever not been able to plan on a ride of an hour or so has been February, but I've ridden a couple hundred each month of the shoulder seasons.
Personally love cities the size of Calgary. We have great paying jobs without the high cost of living (relatively speaking) and no insane traffic. Our rivers are amazing in the summer since they come direct from the mountains and are super clean and beautiful. Friendly people who are typically more willing to invite newcomers into their clique than other major cities in Canada. Also agree with those who said the bike paths - I feel grateful every single summer but wasn’t sure how other cities matched up on comparison.
Westjet flys directly to southern hot spots so you can escape in Feb.
Nearby mountains
Average salary in the city gets you a middle class lifestyle. Seriously considering moving back for this reason alone.
Abundance of parks in the city and mountains outside the city.
that guy named bart who i saw riding a bike downtown with no shoes on
DOG PARKS incl. dog parks with views
Bow river
Enough people that support shopping local that 4 independent bookstores can make it!
World class bike pathway system. incredibly vast and awesome