I think it would be really cool to develop most of those parking lots (and build maybe a handful of parking garages) and produce a legit main street where the buildings get progressively "older" the close you get to heritage park. So they can be more modern towards 14th and traditional as you approach the park. I'm normally pretty against making buildings look old or building in traditional styles, but in the case of heritage park it could probably work.
I've biked there a few times with my kid. Sometimes we get ice cream and hang out for a bit, and ride the trolley, but don't actually pay the entrance fee and enter the park itself.
Absolutely agree and we need to make this more obvious and transactional. There should community funds tied directly into unit approval. It's a shame that we are still relying on 2019 census data that shows many Calgary neighborhoods losing residents when that's no longer the case. There needs to be a mechanism, tying development to funding that makes the funds flow as new residents are added and not every half a decade/decade when they redo the census. The CBE is asking for that from the province and I think the city should do the same. We know the unit/bedroom counts, it's not that difficult to make estimate of population change.
There was an attempt to do that. Before the last election the fund was raided for projects for communities not having much if any redevelopment. A big project was Vivo iirc, in Gondek's ward that Gondek had not otherwise secured funding for. Sunalta I think was another beneficiary, but would have to go back and look to be sure.
The guy Sean Chu defeated by a margin of 0.2% (Daniel Kelly) would have voted in favor of this project.
livewirecalgary.com
Don't forget Ward 7, Wong voted against this and he squeaked by in 2021 with two other candidates in Heather McRae and Erin Waite splitting the vote against him while almost getting the same # of votes as him
Wong won because there were like 17 candidates in Ward 7, and they were all mostly saying the same things. To his credit, he was the only candidate of all those who came to my door. Sometimes in a crowded field, that little bit of extra effort pays dividends when people are largely undecided amongst a field of relatively unknown candidates.
DJ Kelly was also at that event.
True, but there is also Carra who squeaked in by ~160 votes over a candidate who definitely voted against this. And Penner barely won Ward 11 due in part to some vote splitting among more conservative candidates.
I hope a fiscally responsible conservative runs and wins.
The inevitable problem is that is impossible, as someone credible who doesn’t understand municipal government will always undercut the reasonable person’s tax promise.
