Quote:
Originally Posted by Waye Mason
What's your read on the back yard issue? My understanding is places like Bay & King area of Toronto, where they have had fabulous success with condos, but they don't get really dense or get families, they get 25-55 y/o single yuppies in a 1500 sf luxury condos, one per residence.
I've talked to a couple development folks here and in T.O. that say the density with families comes from townhouses with tiny back yards, basically, hydrostone style, or "all of old Toronto".
So we need both, but are people in Calgary really moving families downtown into towers? I'm interested because I hear this is really hard!
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I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same here...I don't have the census data near by. I think part of the mentality is that you can't raise a family in a condo - only a house or town house. I don't agree with that...but I have heard rumblings that there are a lot of young families moving into condos in the centre city with very young children (I'd guess...typically no older than 4?).
The problem that parts of the centre city in Calgary face is that there is no school site for the east side of downtown (near city hall - where I live). There are in the beltline, central portion and west sections of the centre city. So I am only guessing but if people live in the east parts and then need to school children, I'd guess they are moving into the central/western portions closer to schools.
The great thing about the centre city is that we've got a very good mix of housing uses. So we have everything from single family houses, duplex, semis all the way up to Townhouses, low-medium and high density (and rise) multi family. So there is a good mix of housing. I think HRM has a good mix in the regional core, but it could be more.