Quote:
Originally Posted by Distill3d
hey, every time i come back to my hometown there's some new suburb like Bridle Ridge or Coral Hills or something like that. its like seriously, Calgary should put out a sign "Welcome to Calgary: All Your Suburbs Belong to Us!" instead of Hidy and Howdy.
|
As opposed to what city where subdivisions don't exist? Where is this magical city?
If you're thinking of Vancouver - a reminder that while Vancouver was growing its downtown population (admirably) by about 40 000 people over the past 20 years, the rest of the region grew by over 600,000. Guess what, most of that was in sprawly subdivisions in Surrey or other such urban utopias in the lower mainland.
In the GTA, the vast majority of new population in the past 30 years has gone to the 905 region - mostly in subdivisons in 'cities' like Vaughan, Mississauga, Markham, Aurora etc, even while downtown population is on the rise.
Calgary's also had a surge of residential population in the core of late, and seems to be hitting that critical mass where reurbanization is accelerating. However, like ALL cities in Canada, while it is growing up - it is inevitably growing out too.
As for unicity, I think it's a model that has worked well and will especially serve Calgary well into the future as the city becomes smarter about growth. Calgary's subdivisions still leave a lot to be desired, for sure, but on the whole, because they are all under the control of one entity, they are meticulously planned, are relatively comprehensive, and can be thought of as part of the greater whole of the Calgary region. As a result, you don't get leapfrog development, 25 different development standards in the region, and new communities for the most part have LRT, or are planned in areas where the LRT will go (which serves the unicity rather than stop where a jurisdictional boundary happens to fall).
Another positive consequence of the unicity model is you don't have disparate municipalities undercutting eachother's tax bases and competing for lucrative employment uses. Look at what's happened in Greater Vancouver and Toronto - so much office space has fled to suburban municipalities in the past 20 years, it's ridiculous. Now each city has horrendous employment sprawl, while Calgary remains extremely centralized. In Calgary, when employers flee the central business district, they land about 4 blocks south in the Beltline! (which is technically classified as 'suburban office space').
Fragmented regions like the GTA have a much more difficult time controlling suburban development, because amongst the various municipalities in the region trying to attract development, including residential and employment growth, it seems to be a race to the bottom in terms of development control, design and thoughtful growth. Exhibit A: Vaughan in the GTA! As bad as the worst possible subdivision or employment park is in Calgary - it's far, far better than what is being built in areas like Vaughan.