Calgary's great if you could draw a 2 km radius from the heart of downtown outward. The inner city is awesome (as I'm sure Roc would agree) - there are areas akin to River Heights, with tree canopies over the streets. There are ecclectic areas (Inglewood, Kensington) on par with the ones Winnipeg has to offer (e.g. Academy). 17th is great to hang out (and much longer than Corydon), and Stephen Ave is great during the summer. Prince's Island offers a great urban park in the heart of the city (although Eau Claire Market doesn't hold a candle to the Forks. And then the whole East Village area has seen an amazing turnaround over the past half-decade or so (and the momentum just keeps going). All that's connected by their very well maintained/continuous river front pathways and linear parks. However, once you get outside that awesome core, there isn't much (unless Lindenwoods, suburban strip malls, and big box power centres are your thing).

I'm not a Winnipegger and I've walked down it. :banana:

You also have to be a millionaire to own a house anywhere within that 2 km radius.

The latest installment of; What's Slippery Shammy Up To:

THE DEAL: Shammy buys One Million Dollar Home for $10.00, yes ten dollars. http://156.42.40.50/UnOfficialDocs/pdf/20120791760.pdf

comment on the article first:

Katz was able to buy a $1 million home mortgage free? Just a few years earlier, in 2004, he had to get a mortgage for almost $800k to buy his previous "home away from home". In 2010 he sells his house (at a loss of almost $225k) and turns around and buys a much larger house and doesn't need a mortgage at all!

Coincidentally, Katz has been mayor since 2004. Looks like his financial picture has improved significantly since then.

the article: Katz takes possession of $1-M home from Shindleman's sibling

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...171518891.html

we have no idea where the finances came from to purchase the house, (if it was purchased), so i don't think its fair to hint Katz's position as mayor allowed to conduct deals that allowed him to make a financial move of this caliber. Maybe he had some assets that he liquidated or something that were completely independent from anything related to being mayor.

That being said I am extremely interested to know where the bulk of this money came from and if the house was even purchased at the market value that was stated in the article. To bad that won't happen, as that is private stuff.

Who doesn't have $10.00, sure you might not have a Big Mac, Fries and Coke for lunch that day but it's a small price to pay to be able to afford a nice ranch house.;)

I won't adhere to any accusations until i see proof of how much Katz actually paid for the house.

The price is moot, the story is who he purchased (sic) it from, for a guy who professes no direct involvement with either Shindico or the Shindleman's their name keeps popping up.

if he paid near market value or even a bit less for the property it should not make a difference who the people involved with the transaction are, even if their names keep popping up.

It matters if they are related at all to Shindico. Which in this case they are.

The city has an obvious preferential policy with this developer that can only look worse if our mayor (who has professed no personal relationship with these people) is now buying houses privately from this developer's immediate family.

The smoke is pouring out of all these City of Winnipeg-Katz-Shindico-Sheegl deals. Where there is smoke there will be fire.

I really hope this firehall property swap fiasco gets a fair audit - so we can douse the flames. So to speak.

Its not Winnipeg in terms of culture and arts, thats for sure, but this is an obtuse statement. I think Bdog gives a nice run down of what "soul" Calgary has to offer. Its a different beast than the Peg.

Pretty much :cheers:

I'm mainly in Calgary for business, but it has a ton to offer as well. Its a different city than Winnipeg, so it can't be directly compared, but to deny it has any "soul" is misguided on that poster's end. Nice breakdown, btw.

haha...or drowning in debt..though the two could be one and the same

well the audit got voted through, whether it is for 5 years or dating back to 2000 is still to be debated. Hopefully some substantive information will be produced that can give the real picture of whats happening.

Do you trouble seeing the forest for the trees? Give your head a shake, Katz is a business partner (Goldeye's) with the Shindlemans who own Shindico who appear to be involved in any land deal involving the city and you think it's purely coincidental than Shammy receives a sweetheart deal on a home in Arizona from the sister-in-law of one of the Shindlemans.

ur missing the point he paid 10 $ hows 10$ market value for something worth a million... someone should prolly be contacting the irs about fishy money and cra

zillow.com is showing that the house changed hands this week for just over $1.2 million.

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/18...82827986_zpid/

I probably shouldn't be saying this online, but I purchased my car for 1850.00. On paper it was purchased for 500.00 (to lower my licensing fees). The same can happen with a house purchase in reverse. Just saying. I don't know enough about the scenario to have a direct input. But just because it says something on paper, doesn't mean it is or isn't true.

So two wrongs make a right? Because of people who do things like you did MPIC now assigns values on vehicles for insurance and sales tax purposes.

This was done in Ontario, and therefore has no bearing on MPIC (especially considering I haven't owned a car, ever in Manitoba). I know now that this is wrong. But it was also four years ago. I was 15, stupid, and broke. I couldn't afford plates, so the guy I bought it from suggested I put the price as 500.00.

I got what I deserved, because it turns out the car was falsely safetied, and the reason that the guy wanted me to put 500.00 on paper wasn't to save me money, but so that when I went looking for a refund, it would only cost him 500.00. I couldn't find him anyways, and the car only lasted a month. Needless to say I learned my lesson a long time ago, and the lecture is not needed.

The point was that Katz could have done the exact same thing (but opposite) to hide his tracks.

There was no moral point here defending him or myself. I know now what I did was wrong, and if that is what Katz did (though I am not saying it is) it is just as wrong.

Katz has gone on record saying he paid 1 million in cash for the house, do i believe him? yes i do

A sweetheart deal then? Not very

I still don't see what your point is, I could care less what his connections to the shindlemans are, he paid market value for one of their properties, whats the issue with that?

Say what you want about other land deals, which are legitimate causes for concern, but you can't use this particular story.

Haha...sad I missed the Bat Signal last night.

http://www.newstalk980.com/story/bat...xplained/77391

Also sad I didn't think of it first...lol