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Great idea for a topic. I guess I'll go first:

I live in Tuscany, in a single family home. Moved from Beaumont (Edmonton suburb) in 1997. Grew up in a series of small Alberta towns.

Why we bought in Tuscany:
1. wanted a single family home, with yard etc for the future family. Growing up in a small town, I guess that is what I was used to and we really didn't think of 'condo' when it came to family plans.
2. didn't want to live that far out, but similar homes closer to DT (Varsity, Dalhousie etc) were running at 3x the price at the time. We just could not financially swing it. Anything closer to DT than that and you are looking at smaller homes and / or major reno's.
3. didn't want to live in the NE or SE. The deep SW was too far and transportation was already an issue. That left the west side of town, or the NW. We just really liked the NW.
4. my house has a view of the mountains. For a prairie boy that was a major drawing card.
5. transportation routes to the places we generally go (west or north of Calgary) is actually great from Tuscany.
6. other than schools (which weren't there when we bought, but are there now), most services that we want and utilize are relatively close by.

The Pros:
1. it's a quiet lifestyle, which I personally prefer. I'm not much of a people person so being around crowds doesn't do it for me.
2. cost of living is pretty good. Modern home means energy efficient. Taxes are reasonable.
3. transportation is generally pretty good
4. most neighbors are of a similar type (ie have kids) so my kids aren't isolated.
5. can sent the kids our to play in the backyard without having to watch them too closely. You can't do that in a tower.

The cons:
1. the commute. While it isn't that bad really, it's 80 minutes out of my life every day that I'll never get back.
2. sporting facilities are far away, and lacking in general. By that I mean hockey rinks for myself and the kids. Too many players chasing too little ice time.
3. 13 continuous years of road construction on my commuting routes is really starting to annoy me.

Ideally we would have chosen to live in a community like Varsity or Dalhousie but as I mentioned earlier the cost of houses was jsut too much to justify. I have nothing against 'urban' dwellers and as a matter of fact I love coming down to the beltline periodically to see what's happening. If it weren't for the kids I could see myself living in one of the new towers for sure.

People with families will almost always choose the suburbs simply for the open spaces and privacy they provide. The City should be commended to trying to encourage grwoth in the innner city but it will be next to impossible to eliminate growth of the suburbs. There are just too many people who either want to live there, or can't afford to buy a house anywhere else. If you cut down on too much choice, people wil simply go elsewhere (Cochrane, Airdrie etc) which will jsut compound the problems.