Plan of attack: The Airport Tunnel

Posted 36 weeks 4 days ago | By Jesse Semko | The City Blog

City planning. Whenever these two words are used in Calgary I have to bite my tongue just to make sure I don’t break into laughter. That’s because we’ve done a terrible job planning how this city should be. Take the economic boom of 2005 through to 2008 as an example. Not only did none of our city planners apparently foresee the boom. They also didn’t properly prepare for the population explosion that came with it, leaving Calgary to play catch up on infrastructure development, with projects such as the Westward LRT expansion only now...

read more...

A Letter from Mayor Nenshi to the Calgary Media

Posted 51 weeks 6 days ago | By Jesse Semko | The City Blog

Facing scrutiny for having a private firm pay for his plane ticket to a recent Toronto visit Mayor Nenshi responds to the media and the citizens of Calgary. Mayor Nenshi Responds to Question Concerning Toronto Visit   I am currently in Toronto speaking to many people and meeting with the local and national media. This is an excellent opportunity for me to tell the story of Calgary, reinforce our important role in the country, and even encourage more business to come to our city. After one day, I’ve received much positive...

read more...

Chris Anderson speaks at Mount Royal University on the Next Industrial Revolution

Posted 1 year 1 week ago | By Jesse Semko | Culture Snacks

I was fortunate last night to check out a talk by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, at Mount Royal University. As part of their Legacy of Ideas series, Mount Royal is bringing in a bunch of big-name speakers like Anderson and Malcolm Gladwell. I highly recommend you check this series out, since each speaker is at the forefront of ideas that are quickly changing how we live and do business.   Take Anderson for instance. He’s a seriously smart guy. Aside from...

read more...

Calgary Home Value Assessments: A Good Economic Sign

Posted 1 year 4 weeks ago | By Jesse Semko | The City Blog

I got my property assessment in the mail yesterday from the City of Calgary and was happy to see that it had gone up. No, I’m not crazy. Nor do I like to be taxed. It’s just that for the first time in two years the value of my home appears to be on the way up; at least according to the City, which has the typical residential property increasing by eight per cent in the 2011 property assessment that was mailed out to Calgarians this week. The City reported that the typical single-family home has a median value of value of $410,000 in 2011, an increase from $...

read more...

Making Calgary Pedestrian Friendly

Posted 1 year 30 weeks ago | By Jesse Semko | The City Blog

Great cities aren't born. They're built. Slowly. So Calgary might be forgiven for not being the most pedestrian-friendly place in the world. Sure, navigating the downtown with the aid of the LRT and Plus-15 Walkway is a relative breeze, but after you leave the core, the rest of the city is nothing but roadways and open space. Indeed, Calgary covers 745 square kilometers, which is roughly the same amount of turf that eight million New Yorkers live on. And while facts like this often cause Cowtown to be chastised as being the poster child for poor city planning and urban...

read more...

View Digital Issues

Upcoming Events