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Put more simply, arrogance. A government that’s been around too long and has entrenched the party to a higher status than the electorate gets into these kind of issues about corruption, nepotism and surprisingly sloppy behaviour scandals. The Dreeshan types thrive, because they need to...

It's actually a good election to remember that right/left, progressive/conservative dichotomies may be useful to chat politics at a high-level, but voters are far more nuanced in practice particularly in a country as diverse and regional as Canada. NDP vote went all over the place, largely to...

I am not a fan of "contextually appropriate" arguments as it's so squishy - it can mean anything and is subjective. It also fails to account for how much change can and will occur in a place, essentially arguing that "what's here now is reasonably close to the best it can be so we shouldnt...

Oh man. 14th Street will be the real test - it's one of the shittiest streets in the city where no one is happy and pedestrian and vehicle traffic is both high 24/7. It's got higher density everywhere around it, but is also a reasonably significant cross-town route. Unlike the MacLeod Trails of...

One random thought I think every election about turnout is where is everyone? Turnout for the history of Canada has never been higher than the 75 - 80% (highest was 79% back in the 1960s). In more contemporary times, we have been typically in that 60 - 70% turnout range. We've had dozens of...

One of my favourite examples of 1970s transportation engineer over-building hubris is a full-block dedicated turn lane to support a total of 14 houses on a cul-de-sac on 24th Ave N. Not every intersection needs a cross-walk, but we definitely need a 30 to 40 car turning capacity to support 14...

It's been a slow-burn on Kensington but the needle is always pointed in the right direction. It's been an interesting journey for the area. From the early and mid-2000s perspective, Kensington was talked about in the lens of being top 1 or 2 urban communities - hip area, cool places, a bit of...

Perhaps the old London Drugs location in Mount Royal Village? Can't beat the Beltline - has just become an automated engine of urban growth. Amazing how far it's come since one of the first modern "urban" grocery store projects back in the early 2000s with CO-OP Midtown.

And this was a significant opportunity to change that context that was missed. It's most frustrating here because it's not an imaginary thing plopping a well designed development into the middle of nowhere. University District directly across the street proved appetite for high-density urban...

Thanks for posting - it's the row and semi-detached numbers that are most interesting to me as we are the absolute leaders there, far more if you measured per capita or as an overall rate of home production. More evidence that all the reforms for infills and incrementally higher density...

My main critique isn't about the looks of this building. My issue is that it's that it's wildly land inefficient, and unlike nearly every affordable housing projects in the country outside of Calgary - has a greater than 1 stall / unit parking ratio. These factors work together of course, but...

ah perfect - It's time for our annual hotel rumour thread bump. A proud local tradition as old as the Stampede itself.

1,200 students is bigger than I thought the SAPL program was, is there other students part of this too?

It's the kind of project that seems so obviously a decent outcome - cost-effective, dense, attractive - that you'd think we'd literally just copy-and-paste this anytime we need a new multi-family in any community.

And the 8th Street public realm upgrade starting construction this year. With all the conversions - on top of what was already the densest area of the city - it's awesome to see so much activity in one place.

I like the big shelters and don't know enough about their design to comment on the MAX-style robustness and cost-effectiveness for replacement. I am always suspicious of Calgary's fetish for angular plane-based architecture on public facility and infrastructure like bus stops, recreation...

There would be some overlap between the crew opposed to this development on grounds of traffic safety and those approved to safety improvements on 26th Avenue SW in the next couple years.

As an aside re: pipelines, I found this fascinating - although it's probably old news to the better informed: I just learned that we've done all this Canada east-west pipeline debate before, when we built the TransCanada gas pipeline in the 1950s. It's all the same debates - an economically...

Interesting update and strange communication style for Calgary Transit on the North-Central BRT projects - link here: https://www.calgary.ca/planning/projects/transit-north-central-brt.html?Location=28+Ave. Saw this under construction today, looks like a MAX-style canopy and station. But I...

These larger-scale infill projects are probably our next big planning thing to figure out. With the city getting closer to 2 million and dozens of kilometres from end-to-end, the demand of being so central will keep increasing. But each of these larger redevelopment sites have complicated (or...