Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13
The Greenbelt is what kills us when it comes to lack of density, for better or worse. That, and the ridiculous expanse of land, thanks to Mike Harris. Gatineau has some huge gaps as well, with Golf Clubs in the west and nothingness between the airport and Anger, followed by another stretch of nothing to Masson and Buckingham.
That said, the inner Greenbelt to me seems far denser than Calgary or Edmonton. Clusters of towers in quite a few spots. The "urban" downtown neighbourhoods stretch further as well, roughly 13kmx6km, while Calgary, there isn't much outside Downtown and the Beltline (3kmx2km) and Edmonton, a bit more expansive than Calgary (maybe 4kmx3km).
Full disclosure, I've never been to Calgary or Edmonton, but they do seem more like American Cities, with a tower cluster Downtown and a sudden drop to single family outside the core. But yes, they are far more compact as they don't have Greenbelts and they've grown by annexing areas outside town bit by bit instead of amalgamating with rural counties far and wide, which encouraged further sprawl in Ottawa (and Gatineau).
|
You should visit before making such claims. Calgary has infill occurring at insane levels that are hard to keep track of. There are 3 new inner city neighbourhoods concurrently under construction now on previous institutional or brownfield sites: University District, Currie Barracks, East Village. Inner ring suburbs are all seeing massive intensification. In some ways this multifamily residential boom is bigger than the crazy oil glut days of '08 with so many office towers. In fact Calgary's new home builds are now 60+% multifamily. There is far more to the inner city outside of Beltline and DT. Across the river is not all SFH's any longer. Sure there are some but the density has increased dramatically. Kensington, Mission, Bridgeland, Marda Loop, Inglewood, Ramsay, Sunalta, Hillhurst, Killarney.
As for Edmonton, they're making strides too. The old airport is being made into a massive new inner city community.
Edit: completely forgot about Quarry Park in Calgary (also new community on old industrial land well within city limits.