Calgary Everyday

Here’s my letter:

Madame Mayor, Councillors;

Calgary is at a tipping point. Do we continue to develop car-dependent suburbs like it’s the 1940s, or do we recognize - as an increasing number of citizens and experts do - that the suburban experiment has failed, and align our urban planning accordingly?

Calgary ranks a pitiful 13th out of Canadian cities in walkability. While the central core and the Beltline offer a high WalkScore of 91, as a whole, we rank a very low 39.

As anyone familiar with the studies put out by Strong Towns knows, low density suburbs and shopping malls are financially unsustainable because the tax revenues are too low to pay for the infrastructure maintenance, expansion and upkeep.

Adding more car-dependent “communities” to the edge of the city — a term I question because a bunch of houses in a field is not a community, and people who want a suburban house to get away from other people are inherently anti-communitarian — increases costs on everyone else, not least of which is increased traffic. We know that we can’t just keep adding lanes infinitely because of the problem of induced demand.

It’s clear that a future based around gas-powered cars is untenable, for climate reasons; but planning around *any* kind of cars is likely a bad idea - I doubt we can replace all cars 1:1 with electric vehicles.

Plus, even though these developments are supposed to relieve pressure on an overheated housing market, people who cannot drive a car, and who cannot afford to buy and maintain a car, are effectively shut out of these areas. Are we ok telling people that there’s an unstated tax of $20-30,000+ for the privilege of participating in society?

Climate change is going to change Southern Alberta in a lot of ways. We need to preserve water and arable land, not waste more of it on tract homes with mandatory lawns. We need an untouchable green belt, even encourage light agriculture within city limits.

We need to take bold steps to embrace what works, and reject the status quo. Albertans are not timid; lay out the facts and give us a plan.

We need to look at success stories like:

The Swiss rail system and its legendary reliability and punctuality

Amsterdam’s bike infrastructure including smart intersections - we’re going to need this soon. (And yes, people bike in winter.)

Montreal’s Metro

The REM and SkyTrain - built out quickly and inexpensively, using elevated, separated rights-of-way with no mode crossings

Carfree streets and areas like Montreal does in the summer, Barcelona does year-round, etc. It’s a huge boost to businesses! (Honestly 17th ave could and should go carfree, with just bus lanes & new protected bike paths)

Encouraging higher density everywhere, like older North American and European cities - they don’t need to build condo towers because the majority of their streets are mid-rise, densely packed rows of apartments

And these streets often have ground-floor or corner retail. Coming from Montreal, the lack of corner stores in walking distance is absurd.

Ditch single-family-only zoning for residential neighborhoods. Calgary is desperate for missing middle plex housing (preferably Montreal style with individual entrances!) And that allows for light business use (groceries, cafés, local services and shops)

With the exception of noxious or heavy industry, allow mixed-use offices & light industry in residential neighborhoods too

When we build or redesign neighborhoods, kill cul-de-sac style winding streets, narrow the lanes and use raised crosswalks with corner bump-outs, extend the grid system from the older core, lower the turning radius at corners, lower the speed limits, and eliminate slip lanes - all of which will make it faster to navigate while reducing speeding and traffic deaths.

As we’ve seen this summer: Shade is essential. We need to plant more trees, eliminate heat islands, and maybe think about mandating covered arcades and awnings at street level.

Commit to public housing both with new city-owned infill housing units, and encouraging nonprofits to create more housing co-ops (like Montreal’s Milton-Parc coop) and housing options for people looking to get off the streets.

All of these are small, proven, pragmatic steps that can make Calgary more affordable, walkable, and livable.

I urge you: Do the difficult thing, don’t lock us in to more unsustainable, low-density, car-dependent development. It’s a failed experiment and a ponzi scheme. Build more housing downtown, build over the train tracks, expropriate part of the Stampede lands, convert office buildings to mixed-use, upzone single-family neighborhoods. Anything but more “communities” that end up atomizing Calgary.

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