Calgary is a boom town and it feels very different from Winnipeg. Calgary's prosperity and phenomenal growth is being fueled by the oil industry and you can feel the energy and optimism in the city even as you descend into it. When I was in Calgary I got a sense of progress and confidence from the people and the city itself. Not smugness (it's not been successful enough to become like Toronto), but an honest confidence. As I drove the city I saw new development everywhere. I joked to Mike that I wanted him to take me to the slums - after seeing new homes and buildings everywhere I wondered if they had any old ones. I'm sure they do, but I didn't see any. Calgary is beautiful too; the rivers, the mountains in the background, and the rolling hills/parks/trail systems. And don't get me started on the mild weather.
Ambrose College, where Prov has their satellite counseling program taking place, is in the downtown and so Mike (who works for an oil company) and I commuted down there by taking the bus. Why did we take the bus? Well, besides the obvious ecological benefits, its mostly a cost thing. It costs over $450 to park in downtown Calgary, per month. Calgary's downtown parking is the most expensive in Canada. This results in Calgary having the highest amount of bus commuters in Canada as well. In Calgary over 250,000 people take bus trips everyday. Even if all of those people were doing two trips (work and back) that would still be over a 10th of the population (Calgary has about a million citizens)! You see lots of professionals on the bus, something that is more rare in Winnipeg.
Every time I come to Calgary I dream about moving there. Ah, to be near the mountains, to enjoy the high wages, to be in the center of prosperity and wealth! It sounds too good to be true. But Calgary has its dark side. Housing is incredibly expensive there, it's difficult to find a decent detached home in a decent neighborhood for less then $300,000. That's a lot of money for someone who is just moving into town. They also don't have rent controls, one of my classmates, a single mom told me that she had to move back in with her parents because her apartment rent went from $900 a month to over $1500 in less than a year. Crisis lines are incredibly busy dealing with all the fallout from this other side of prosperity too. One (just one) center got over 90,000 calls in 2007. When financial trouble hits, relational problems are usually not far behind. Yes, Calgary is beautiful and I enjoyed it alot. When I arrived back in Winnipeg I felt both sadness and relief about leaving Calgary at the same time. Would I move there? I don't know. But I sure want to visit again.
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3 weeks ago
4 comments:
I know so many people in Calgary and area who are working 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the rent and groceries. So many people commute from bedroom communities outside of Calgary. Average commute? Nearly 2 hours. So even though they are not paying Calgary's housing prices necessarily, they are paying in other ways. The bus doesn't come out that far unfortunately.
Trying to get into the housing market for the first time at this point is almost hopeless. You can take a 40 year mortgage but even then, the payments are so high you can't have a life! All your money goes into the house. BC is close behind Alberta in this area and the trend is moving East so be prepared! It's headed your way, Mark!
If I could talk John into getting out of this province so that we could have a life with a house and a yard and possibly even a dog, I totally would. We may not have PST, but really, it's just not worth it to live here anymore. All we do is live to work. I want to be someplace where we can actually enjoy living at the same time.
While what Michelle said is true - we were lucky enough to get into the housing market at the right time and though it is difficult to make ends meet at times, we love the things that Calgary offers us. You are so right about the energy, optimism and honest conidence that the most of Calgarians have. I find that you get that sense especially in the downtown core, and with Ambrose being right downtown you would have felt it. Funny that that is where the homeless people also live (yes, we do have them, as well as people who are struggling mightily to make ends meet, crime and even gangs in the Northeast - I don't think you can have a large city without these things, unfotunately.)
We love the fact that it is less than an hour to the mountains, where we can enjoy hikes or snowshoeing. I love that as I am driving into or out of our community I can see the mountains on the not so distant horizon. They are so magestic and all I can do is thank God for them and the beauty that He created.
Oh, and as far as the housing market goes - it is definitely evening out and prices are becoming more responible.
Know that any time you and the family want to visit, you have a place to stay here with us.
I just can't leave my name because I know I would get royaly landbasted :) Plus I have family there. OK I may have left too many clues now. I will wimp out and go anonymous to say Calgary still feels like a redneck cowtown/wannabe cosmopolitan city.
-ducking-
Hmmm . . . I'm curious to who "-ducking-" is . . . One of my cousins at a Calgary family gathering once described Calgary as "a city without a soul." Boy did my Calgary relatives get mad at him! I think he was talking in relation to art and history.
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