Living City

Premiering on CBC on Thursday, February 5, The Nature of Things is showing Living City: A Critical Guide. This looks like an interesting examination of our Canadian cities, a topic I’ve been thinking about and keenly interested in the last couple years. I don’t usually go out of my way to watch The Nature of Things, but will for this one.

(Via the critical and informative CentreCityTalk!)

Filed under: Calgary , Calgary, canada, cbc, cities, city, documentary, television

Calgary Public Libraries

Borrowing at all-time high for Calgary libraries.

Who knew that the Calgary Public Library was so busy?

A couple years ago I got a library card for the first time so I could borrow a couple of Jacques Cousteau videos. (This one, and this one, if I remember correctly.) I took both of them back late and never renewed by card the next year. I may still have a fine of a dollar or two. Maybe it’s time to get a new library card. What do you thinK?

(Via Hedge Society)

Filed under: Calgary , Calgary, library

Calgary is Awesome

Check out Calgary is Awesome, a blog written by an attractive cast of local contributors, showcasing all that makes our city great. Also check out the newly relaunched Club Mumble for more interesting stuff.

Filed under: Calgary , blog, Calgary

Housing affordability in Calgary

There’s a good article in the Calgary Herald from the weekend that talks about the increase in housing prices in the city and how they’ve impacted those in the middle incomes and those looking to buy their first piece of property. People have had to change their expectations about what they can expect to afford. Also, I found it interesting that Calgary has a higher rate of home ownership than any of the other large cities in Canada. I’ve noticed that from the people around there is more pressure to get in early and buy something. They seem to echo that trend that home ownership is very important.

Personally, I fall in the category of those who earn not quite enough and came to the city just a year too late. 2 years ago as the prices were starting their steep upward turn, I was just finishing university and working through a couple different contract positions in smaller companies. At the time, I still had a decent amount of debt I wanted to begin paying off and had nothing in the way of savings. I didn’t own a car and my equity would have around $-15000. I’ve been saving and paying off debt since then and by the end of the year should have just a small student loan and maybe, if I’m diligent, 5% downpayment for a house saved. On my own though, I still don’t have enough income for a place other than a single bedroom apartment.

Not that I automatically think I must buy a house or condo. There are a lot of factors that should impact such a decision. I’ll go over those in a future post.

Filed under: Calgary , Calgary, Calgary Herald, housing

Riding the Length of the C-Train

Notes and Stories from my travels to the extents of the train lines. Consider this a piece of psychogeography.

6:05 PM – Waiting for the next train to come after just missing the previous, a guy, late 30’s, early 40’s asks for 35 cents with which to get transit fare with . He is unshaven like myselft and says he just got out of the remand center. I tell him I only have loonies and give him one.

I intend on working my way thru the Boards of Canada albums on my iPod, The Campfire Headphase, Geogaddi, Music Has the Right to Children and Trans Canada Highway.

6:15 PM – Train leaves Dalhousie. Going down this stretch I know well, past the buffaloes on Shaganappi that pass too quickly to get a good glimpse, the train shakes side to side, the roughest part of the NW leg. Dayvan Cowboy on the headphones reminding me of the video with the guy falling from the balloon miles up. Is this a similar trip?

Filed under: Calgary , ctrain, geography, psychogeography

Blog Calgary Part 5

There are a bunch of things that need to come together for something like this to happen here in Calgary.

1. A publisher to make the connections with people, get support, keep people organized and be the driving force to set the direction and tone for the site
2. Two or three editors to organize the writing staff, edit and brainstorm content and be responsible for the day to day of posting.
3. 20 or 30 writers to bring content on a semi regular basis. Each of them could have their areas of expertise and interest and would only have to publish 2 or 3 posts per week for the site to have an abundance of interesting content. Some may be photographers and artists too, not just writers. They would share with the city the things they are reading and doing and places they are visiting. They would be our guides. They couldn’t stay anonymous either because the readers need to get to know them and relate to them. Readers need to see that the writers of the blog are just like everyone else, just citizens of our city.
4. Some good web designers and technical guys or gals to create the site, set it all up and maintain the technical aspects. (Including hosting, site design, archives, etc)
5. People to read on a daily basis, get involved in the discussions and commentary, share the site with their friends and neighbors and make it their own, just as they make the city their own each and every day.

If this was to really succeed, it would mean that there is a growing and active readership who are passionate about the city. It would mean that other media in the city including the daily papers, TV and radio stations would watch the site for discussion and dialogue and grassroots observations occurring that they are not able to create themselves. This site should break news and be at the forefront of everything occuring in the city.

There are enough people in the city that spend a lot of time online and would read such a thing on a regular basis. The Calgary network on Facebook has 176, 409 people. Even if 10 or 20% of those people visited on a regular basis, the site would be a huge success.

So someone please step up and make this happen. There are some great companies in this city. Surely we can do something of this magnitude too.

Filed under: Calgary

Calgary Blog Part 4

Here are a few websites that I visit on a regular basis that have a Calgary spin. (In no particular order)

Bike Calgary shares stories, tips and news about cycling in the city.

Calgary Arts Development blog covers some of the art scene.

Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Center Blog has good stories from the folks that volunteer and run the drop in center.

Uppercase gallery, books & papergoods located at Art Central

CJSW blog covers music. Best radio station in the country.

The Company of Wolves covers Calgary street fashion.

LazerFangz photographs Calgary parties.

Speed Theory Cycling Team runs out of the shop around the corner from my house.

Q Blog and Urban Scrawl are blogs by writers at the Calgary Herald (whose site I find generally find exhausting and messy, but that’s for another time)

Calgary Urban Initiative is a non-profit that keeps an eye on growth and development in our city.

This is just a start.

Filed under: Calgary

Calgary Blog Part 3

Here’s a few websites that are doing great things in the area of local and city blogs. Check them out and get an idea of what is possible.

Gothamist (and the -ist network of city blogs) “The marvelous, not-to-be-missed Web site Gothamist.com – a crystal ball that reflects everything worth knowing about this city” – Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review

BlogTO which is a part of the Fresh Daily network. “Freshdaily is Canada’s source for hyper-local arts, music, film, fashion, food and news coverage. We currently publish web sites in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. Check out what’s fresh.”

Outside.in is “the best way to discover the people, places, and conversations in your community.” This site has huge potential. Also get acquainted with Steven Johnson and the book that spurred the development of this project.

Spacing is a great magazine about Toronto, but they also keep a pretty active blog on things happening in Toronto.

Gaper’s Block is a nice looking site about Chicago.

Filed under: Calgary

Calgary Blog Part 2

This might all sound a bit jumbled, but I’ve had some problems getting my thoughts organized. There’s so much to touch on here, so I’m going to start to dump it and approach it from a lot of angles as I continue to write about this. Bear with me as I begin.

We’ve grown up accustomed to using the web to find anything.

This should also translate to all things local.

I want to be able to log onto one site to find out things happening in my city.

I want to share with others the hidden gems within the city that I visit on a regular basis.

What I really want is to have something like ffwd, our local, free, weekly paper, but publishes many times each day. I want to be able to visit the website a couple times a day to see what’s happening, because news and events in the city happen at that frequency, not at the frequency of once a week.

What would having this cause? We have things to discuss with our friends. These things that everyone either knows and loves, or has no idea of, suddenly comes out into the public consciousness and can be the topic of discussion, dialogue. It’s a way for people to connect.

Maybe that’s it. I want a group that becomes a way to draw people together into community. I want people to read and see the discussion and feel like there are great things happening in this city. (Because there are great things happening) I want people to feel like they are a part of this city and the things happening in it. If citizens are aware of the things happening here, and feel a part of it, they would also become better citizens too, taking a personal interest in the future of this place. They would feel that the things happening here are tied with their futures too and feel compelled to participate and make things the way they want to see them.

Some of these things happen in people’s blogs, but there is a place for these to be aggregated and edited. Published content usually gets a level of quality that you don’t get with random people’s blogs. But websites have the ability to bring in more content than is possible when printed space is limited and there is a greater cost.

Filed under: Calgary

Calgary Blog – A website about Calgary

Calgary is lacking a website that covers our city. From what I’ve been able to find, we just don’t have one.

In the next few days I’m going to organize my thoughts on this and explore it more. I’ll explain why we need one. I’ll show you some examples of what is happening in other cities. I’ll describe different approaches to this problem. I’ll lay down the challenge for someone to get to work and make it happen. (Maybe it’s already in the works right now? Let me know!) Finally, I’ll take up the challenge myself and begin to contribute in the way I think I can right now – by posting more often on stuff happening in my neighborhood and in the parts of the city I visit.

I’m hoping these posts drift to the top of some google web searches and is used as a catalyst to start something in our city.

Filed under: Calgary