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Big Idea 2012: Get Engaged in Your City

Posted 1 day 17 hours ago | By Avenue Staff | The Big Idea

Something seems to be happening in this city and we at Avenue want to be part of it and encourage it. Maybe you’ve noticed it yourself: people are becoming Calgarians. We don’t mean lots of people are moving to Calgary — that’s been happening for a long time now. We mean people who have moved here are describing themselves as Calgarians. They are taking part in the city and believing that involvement here is part of who they are. Alberta writer Andrew Nikiforuk once described this as the difference between the boomers and the stickers...

Nenshi Bolsters Toronto's Love for Calgary

Posted 19 weeks 6 days ago | By Craig Palmer | The Big Idea

Since the beginning of the week, Mayor Nenshi has been touring eastern Canada as part of the Be Part of the Energy campaign to help bolster the nation’s love for our city and entice businesses and workers to set up shop here. While in Toronto on Wednesday, September 21, he took some time to chat with the Toronto Star. The Star inquired about our libraries, commuting,...

Calgary Makes Top 5 in The Economist's Livability Rankings, So What?

Posted 23 weeks 4 hours ago | By Todd Andre | The Big Idea

It's that time of year. When there is no hockey, school hasn't started and we no longer have summer vacation to look forward to, The Economist's livability survey is updated so journalists can squeeze an easy story out of a no news environment. Living here is so good we have time to weight the opinions of the world's number one economic publication. Thankfully, Calgary comes out smelling like roses, finishing fifth overall in the...

Calgary Economic Development invites us to “Be part of the energy”

Posted 33 weeks 1 day ago | By Vanessa Annand | The Big Idea

We’ve heard about the labour shortage looming on Calgary’s horizon for months now. This morning, Calgarians found out that the best way to rejuvenate the city’s work force is to look beyond the city limits. Calgary Economic Development, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and partners in the private sector (including Avenue’s parent company, Redpoint Media Group Inc.) are launching a new campaign this morning: “Be a part of the energy.” The campaign will encourage people and businesses from...

The Arts in Calgary and The Walrus

Posted 33 weeks 2 days ago | By Craig Palmer | The Big Idea

On June 17 The Walrus published Calgary-based freelance journalist Nancy Black’s Dalton Camp Award-winning essay Dismantling the Scarecrow: An exploration into Calgary’s cultural coming of age. The essay begins by describing Alberta as isolated – more of its own country, rather than a province – but notes change may be on the horizon. Black writes that Calgary...

Hip-Hop Artist Transit's New Video Pokes Holes in Cowpoke Image

Posted 36 weeks 1 day ago | By Todd Andre | The Big Idea

The first time he got our attention, local rapper Daniel Bennett, a.k.a. Transit, was trying to change how we view popular music, now he’s trying to change how outsiders view Calgary. Bennett and his longtime musical partner Dave Wallace (from Victoria) first captured the media’s attention by creating a pop song in 8 hours just to prove that it could be done with ease. It took them under 8 hours to produce “Lights, Camera, Action!” and it took off, garnering more than 500...

“Calgary”: First Single Released From Bon Iver’s New Album

Posted 38 weeks 1 day ago | By Vanessa Annand | The Big Idea

Bon Iver doesn’t paint a bad picture of Calgary’s winters (or any other season for that matter) in its latest single, “Calgary.” If the song is a portrait of the city at all, it’s an abstract one. Sure, the line “There's a fire going out” might be an oblique and dismal reference to the Flames, but it’s a stretch. Although the band is no stranger to the ode — consider the title of its debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago — the...

Moving From Suburbanism Towards New Urbanism

Posted 42 weeks 2 days ago | By Avenue Staff | The Big Idea

Gian-Carlo Carra, Alderman for Ward 9, was elected to Calgary’s City Council in 2010. Alderman Carra grew up in New York City, spent his summers in Inglewood, and moved to Calgary permanently in 1990, where he received a BA in History and a Masters of Environmental Design from the University of Calgary. Here, Alderman Carra talks about the failure of our inherited suburban development model and how we can change it to make the city a more walkable, sustainable, and livable place. Emerging out of the Second World War with a ramped-up industrial base, a...

Moving From Suburbanism Towards New Urbanism

Posted 42 weeks 2 days ago | By Avenue Staff | The Big Idea

State of the Arts: Terry Rock and the 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada Bid

Posted 46 weeks 1 day ago | By Todd Andre | The Big Idea

Terry Rock, President and CEO of the Calgary Arts Development Authority (CADA), sounds off on critics of Calgary’s culture, offers a glimpse of the city’s thriving arts scene and ponders how the 2012 bid to become the cultural capital of Canada will help strengthen our artistic credibility. How do you all think Calgary’s arts and culture scene might be misunderstood on the national stage? Even...