In the News

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Ward Profile: Ward 8 Part 2

This week, we bring you the final entry to our 2012 Ward Profile series. We’re capping it all off with one of Calgary’s most unique wards, Ward 8. Read all about the ward’s extreme demographics and Alderman John Mar in last week’s Ward 8 Part 1 to get up to speed.

What’s Happening in Ward 8?

West LRT Construction: While the West LRT line isn’t scheduled to open until early 2013, the lengthy project is seeing the beginning of the end. Road crews began permanent paving of the roadways in the construction areas, and the first test trains have been running for over a month.

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Ward Profile: Ward 8 Part 1

Our final ward profile brings us to Central Calgary’s Ward 8 and Alderman John Mar.

Ward 8 is home to a portion of the Downtown Core, which explains much of the ward’s demographics. The ward is also home to the Stampede Grounds, Edworthy Park and 17th Ave SW.

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Ward Profile: Ward 5 Part 2

This week, we bring you the second part of our Ward 5 profile. Read all about the ward’s demographics and Alderman Ray Jones in last week’s Ward 5 Part 1 to get up to speed.

What’s Happening in Ward 5?

Airport Tunnel Construction: Ward 5 is arguably the second most affected by the construction of the controversial Airport Tunnel. The tunnel will extend from Airport Trail to 36 St. NE, and will bring a significant amount of traffic from the airport into Ward 5. Ward 5 residents have long been supporters of the $400-million project.

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Ward Profile: Ward 5 Part 1

This week’s ward profile brings us to Northeast Calgary’s Ward 5 and Alderman Ray Jones.

Ward 5 is a small ward in North East Calgary, bordered to the north by McKnight Blvd, to the east by the city limits, to the south by 16th Avenue and to the west by Deerfoot Trail. The ward is home to Sunridge Mall, Village Square Leisure Centre, McCall Lake Golf Club and The Peter Lougheed Centre.

Ward 5 contains the communities of Castleridge, Coral Springs, Falconridge, Horizon, Monterey Park, North Airways, Pineridge, Rundle, South Airways, Sunridge, Temple, Vista Heights and Whitehorn.

The Alderman | Ray Jones

Alderman Ray Jones has lived in Calgary’s Northeast community of Rundle for nearly four decades. An avid sports fan, Ray has long been involved in his ward, predominantly through volunteering with various Community Associations and sports organizations. Ray got into politics in the early nineties, and is currently serving his seventh term.

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Ward 1 Profile: Part 2

This week, we bring you the second part of our Ward 1 profile. Read all about Ward 1 demographics and Alderman Dale Hodges in last week’s Ward 1 Part 1 to get up to speed.

What’s Happening in Ward 1?

Bowness Park Redevelopment: Over the next three years, Bowness Park will see a series of major, much-needed improvements to accommodate the large number of people who frequent the park. Amenities such as a central pedestrian area, a new café, a new park entrance bridge and improved parking will be added in phases through to 2015.

Northwest LRT Extension: Work continues on the final station in the NW LRT line extension to Tuscany and Rocky Ridge. The station will feature two Park-and-Ride lots and is scheduled for completion in 2014.

16th Ave Bridge Rehabilitation: Two major bridges along 16th Ave NW are currently being outfitted with new traffic barriers, sidewalk widening and other improvements. The bridges, over Shaganappi Trail NW and Bowness Road NW, are scheduled to be complete in November 2012.

University City: While technically in Ward 7, University City will have a large impact on Ward 1 right next door. The development of 4 residential towers is well underway at the Brentwood LRT station, north of the University of Calgary. Two 18-storey towers, a 12-storey tower and a 14-storey tower are planned for the Transit-Oriented development. Demand for the condos is high; the first two phases sold out in a matter of days.

To find out more about Calgary’s Ward 1, check out VoteCalgary’s Ward 1 Profile Page. Feel free to make a request for the next Ward Profile, or continue the discussion in the comments. Thanks for reading!

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Plan to stop meltdown could be the trigger

An independent agency of the federal government, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) was created, at least partly, to bolster public confidence in the Canadian financial system. OSFI, which reports to the minister of finance, was also created as the sole regulator of banks and primary regulator of insurance companies, trust companies, loan companies and pension plans in Canada. In other words, its fingerprints are on every bill and coin considered currency of the realm and those fingerprints will soon be found all over a mortgage near you. OSFI is seriously concerned about a U.S.style housing meltdown happening in Canada and has laid out new proposals in a draft document for mortgage underwriting that, if put into law as a whole, could actually precipitate a meltdown rather than prevent it. The proposals include, among others: Requiring borrowers who are renewing their mortgages to be requalified; that a borrower’s likely income and repayment capacity in retirement be considered when qualifying; the cash back element (incentive and rebate payments) of a mortgage should not be considered as part of a down payment; and limiting home equity lines of credit (HELOC) to 65% of a property’s value, that not all HELOC be at the maximum and restricting interest-only HELOC product. Read more Source: Calgary Sun  Source: Myke Thomas 

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Calgary house prices jump 4% from last year

Calgary posted the second highest year-over-year gain in home prices in April, according to the MLS Home Price Index released Friday by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

The index in the city rose by 4.02 per cent in April from a year ago, behind Greater Toronto, which saw a hike of 7.85 per cent.

Greater Vancouver saw an increase of 3.69 per cent followed by the lower Mainland, 3.43 per cent, the Fraser Valley, 2.73 per cent, and Greater Montreal, 2.3 per cent.

At the national level, the index rose by 5.24 per cent from April 2011.

“Calgary is also now seeing prices begin to advance in earnest, supported by a strong economic outlook, recent gains in in-migration, and strong full-time job growth,” said CREA.

According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, the following were benchmark prices and their year-over-year change in April in the city: apartment, $243,400, 0.08 per cent; townhome, $276,300, 2.68 per cent; single family, $422,100, 5.47 per cent; one-storey single family, $389,400, 4.51 per cent; two-storey single family, $461,600, 6.31 per cent; and composite, $379,200, 4.23 per cent.

Read more Source: Calgary Herald  Author: Mario Toneguzzi 

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Vote Calgary Ward 1 Profile Part 1

This week’s ward profile brings us to Northwest Calgary’s Ward 1 and Alderman Dale Hodges.

Ward 1 is a large ward in Northwest Calgary, bordered to the east by Crowchild Trail and extending all the way to the city limits in the west. Ward 1 is home to amenities such as Canada Olympic Park, the University of Calgary, Market Mall and Bowness Park.

Ward 1 contains the communities of Bowness, Canada Olympic Park, Cougar Ridge, Crestmont, Greenwood Village/Green Briar, Montgomery, Rocky Ridge, Scenic Acres, Silver Springs, Tuscay, University of Calgary, University Heights, Valley Ridge and Varsity.

The Alderman | Dale Hodges

A long-term alderman, Dale Hodges’ professional history can be summed up in the same breath as City Council’s history, as he has been serving Ward 1 as alderman since 1983. With his tenth term underway and nearly 30 years as alderman under his belt, Dale brings decades more experience to the table than any other member of council. Dale keeps his personal life quiet, though he is often touted as a pillar of his community.

As alderman, Dale has been largely focused on the construction of the Northwest Rec Centre, the extension of the Northwest LRT to Rocky Ridge, and the recent $10.5M redevelopment project in Bowness Park.

Dale currently serves on:

Standing Policy Committee on Planning & Urban Development

Vice Chair – Standing Policy Committee on Transit & Transportation

Vice Chair – Gas, Power and Telecommunications Committee

Chair – Land & Asset Strategy

Corporate Pension Governance Committee

Calgary Parking Authority

Subdivision and Development Appeal Board

Inter-Municipal Committee (IMC), Foothills

Legacy Parks Fund

Ward 1 Details

Ward 1 is one of the slowest growing wards in Calgary, though it has the third largest population in the city. The ward’s three largest communities – Bowness, Tuscany and Varsity – account for nearly 50% of Ward 1’s population.

Employment in Ward 1 is slightly below average, likely due to the large senior population as well as the student population of the University of Calgary. Ward 1 also has the 2nd largest population that works from home, and a large population that takes transit – not surprising considering the Northwest LRT runs along Ward 1’s border.

On the housing front, Ward 1 has by far the largest population living in communal housing, and the 2nd largest population living in multi-family developments. Home ownership is slightly above average and vacancy rates are slightly below average.

Explore more Ward 1 Demographics here.

As new census data is published over the coming months, check back at VoteCalgary.ca to keep up to date.

Stay tuned next week to find out what’s happening in Ward 1.

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Builders keeping eye on affordability

There’s something different about housing lots in Calgary’s new subdivisions this year.

They’ve gone from tumbleweeds rolling across empty land to places where construction workers are busy with hammers and saws.

Ballooning housing construction starts have already seen triple-digit percentage increases during 2012 — including a 207-per-cent swing in April compared to the same time last year.

Although that spells good news, it may come with some challenges, too.

The upside is obvious. Increased construction means the city’s housing industry is in recovery mode.

And more people making big-ticket purchases, such as new homes, is good news for the overall economy.

The challenging part is related to supply and demand — and in this case, there’s an imbalance.

When construction starts were moving at a snail’s pace in 2011, the lack of work meant some tradespeople had to look elsewhere to ply their craft.

Now that the market is on the mend, qualified people are becoming scarce. So for those still in Calgary and with the know-how to build a new home, their wages are on the rise.

Read more Source: Calgary Herald  Author: Josh Skapin 

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The Limits of Density

Density is all the rage these days. Urban economists, some of whom could be heard extolling the praises of "sun, skills, and sprawl" just a few years ago, now see increasing density as the key to improving productivity and driving economic growth. In his story for The Atlantic, "How Skyscrapers Can Save the City," Harvard University’s Edward Glaeser put it this way: "As America struggles to regain its economic footing, we would do well to remember that dense cities are also far more productive than suburbs, and offer better-paying jobs ... tall buildings enable the human interactions that are at the heart of economic innovation, and of progress itself." Well-intentioned planners and preservationists drive up prices when they stand in the way of taller and taller buildings, he argues. Overly restrictive height limitations not only impede economic progress, but make cities less, not more, liveable.

There can be no doubt that density has its advantages. In general, denser cities are more productive, more innovative, and more energy efficient. But only up to a point.

The key function of a city is to enable exchange, interaction, and the combination and recombination of people and ideas. When buildings become so massive that street life disappears, they can damp down and limit just this sort of interaction, creating the same isolation that is more commonly associated with sprawl. As Jane Jacobs aptly put it: "in the absence of a pedestrian scale, density can be big trouble." Skyscraper canyons of the sort that are found in many Asian mega-cities, and that are increasingly proposed in great American cities, risk becoming vertical suburbs, whose residents and occupants are less likely to engage frequently and widely with the hurly-burly of city life.

Edward McMahon of the Urban Land Institute cuts to the chase, differentiating between density and high-rise buildings in his recent post for Citiwire, “Density Without Highrises?”. If the pendulum originally swung too far in the direction of sprawl over the past 50 years, the risk today is that it is swinging way too far back toward high-rise skyscrapers. "To oppose a high-rise building," he writes, "is to run the risk of being labeled a NIMBY, a dumb growth advocate, a Luddite — or worse. Buildings 20, 40, 60 even 100 stories tall are being proposed and built in low and mid-rise neighborhoods all over the world. All of these projects are justified with the explanation that if density is good, even more density is better."

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Source: The Atlantic Cities  Author: Richard Florida