General Rating for this project

  • 1 Great

    Votes: 132 86.8%

  • 2 Very Good

    Votes: 11 7.2%

  • 3 Good

    Votes: 3 2.0%

  • 4 So So

    Votes: 4 2.6%

  • 5 Not Very Good

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6 Terrible

    Votes: 2 1.3%
  • Total voters
    152
UrbanWarrior said:
Yeah the only two American metros within 500 000 of Calgary's metro that have us definitively beat in all measures of nightlife/fun are Portland and Austin. They earned it.


Edit: haha whooops, well it turns out that Austin is 2.2 million and Portland is 2.5... so I guess my original comment stands. ?
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New Orleans (1.2 million)? Nashville (1.9 million)? There are probably countless mid-sized cities like Charleston (800,000) and Portland MA (500,000) that are regional tourist destinations with big arts and entertainment scenes.

In Canada, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Quebec City could all credibly claim to have better nightlife scenes than Calgary.
 
Silence&Motion said:
New Orleans (1.2 million)? Nashville (1.9 million)? There are probably countless mid-sized cities like Charleston (800,000) and Portland MA (500,000) that are regional tourist destinations with big arts and entertainment scenes.

In Canada, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Quebec City could all credibly claim to have better nightlife scenes than Calgary.
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New Orleans and Nashville for sure, Charleston..maybe though Charleston is busy with tourists it's night life is fairly tame. but those are outliers due to being mega tourist cities. I can see where you're coming from with Ottawa and Quebec but not Edmonton, it's pretty about on par with Calgary's. What I have found with Edmonton and Ottawa is there are more students, so it's a different kind of night life, especially Ottawa. When I was younger and lived there I spent a lot of time around the Market, it was my go to hang out, but last time I was in Ottawa and at the market I found myself less impressed with it. It's busy but it's not a diverse type of night life, piles of drunken students. Hull is just a shell of what it used to be. To be honest I prefer Calgary's nightlife. Quebec punches well above its weight. Very impressed. Night life for people of all ages, and lots of options.

I think UW's right about the other 20 or so U.S. cities within 500,000 in population. Cities of similar size that aren't tourist hotspots like Buffalo, Hartford or Sacramento, etc.. don't have the the night life Calgary does.
 
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Silence&Motion said:
New Orleans (1.2 million)? Nashville (1.9 million)? There are probably countless mid-sized cities like Charleston (800,000) and Portland MA (500,000) that are regional tourist destinations with big arts and entertainment scenes.

In Canada, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Quebec City could all credibly claim to have better nightlife scenes than Calgary.
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Edmonton could not claim that within a shadow of an argument as they literally only have one street with decent nightlife, Whyte Ave, and Jasper Ave being the only other isn't even as active as Inglewood's 9th Ave. On top of those two, we have like 6 more areas of activity. At least Ottawa is beautiful, dense, and multi-nodal (activity areas wise) with lots of students downtown (though even its own people refer to it as "the city that fun forgot"), but the argument could be made. Quebec City is right though, and I totally forgot about Nashville (even though I've been there several times ? ) and New Orleans (because I thought it was bigger).
 
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My original comment was a joke (just to be clear). I don't really care how Calgary compares to other cities. It's all about how we compare to ourselves and that we're moving in the right direction. We don't have an entertainment district like the ByWard Market or anything that has the activity levels of Whyte Ave. If everything comes together with the arena, Green Line station, and related developments in Victoria Park, perhaps that will become something approximating a Dundas Square-type area with flashing billboards, 24-7 activity, etc. But, for now, our entertainment options are more spread out. To be honest, as a former downtown Toronto resident who despised all the "905ers" coming downtown on Friday nights in their stretch-SUVs and vomiting all over the sidewalks, I can think of worse fates for a city than having a nightlife on the tame side.

As an aside, it's funny how Ottawa is referred to as "the city that fun forgot". I guess they'll never be considered fun when Montreal is only a 2 hour train ride away.
 
If Calgary licensed Stephen Ave so you could walk between venues with open liquor I think it would immediately become a nightlife mecca.

As a university student, i did find Edmonton's nightlife better. The student population living right next to the main bar drag really helped that out- Calgary is too much of a commuter campus to generate the same nightlife hype.
 
You hit the nail on the head. Calgary's nightlife is indeed quite spread out, and could be the result of the city limiting the amount of bars in a certain area. I don;t know if the city is still doing this, but a while back they were limiting the amount bars in a certain area, due to the previous issues with Electric Ave back in the day. As someone old enough to remember Electric Ave, it was similar to Byward Market or Whyte ave from a bar scene point of view.

I would say from an 'overall' entertainment perspective, Calgary's pretty good. As pointed out there isn't one particular area where the bars are concentrated like Halifax, Edmonton or Ottawa, but I'm good with it personally. It wouldn't hurt to allow a few more bars along 17th ave, but not having it primarily a bar scene is nice also.

Silence&Motion said:
My original comment was a joke (just to be clear). I don't really care how Calgary compares to other cities. It's all about how we compare to ourselves and that we're moving in the right direction. We don't have an entertainment district like the ByWard Market or anything that has the activity levels of Whyte Ave. If everything comes together with the arena, Green Line station, and related developments in Victoria Park, perhaps that will become something approximating a Dundas Square-type area with flashing billboards, 24-7 activity, etc. But, for now, our entertainment options are more spread out. To be honest, as a former downtown Toronto resident who despised all the "905ers" coming downtown on Friday nights in their stretch-SUVs and vomiting all over the sidewalks, I can think of worse fates for a city than having a nightlife on the tame side.

As an aside, it's funny how Ottawa is referred to as "the city that fun forgot". I guess they'll never be considered fun when Montreal is only a 2 hour train ride away.
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Silence&Motion said:
To be honest, as a former downtown Toronto resident who despised all the "905ers" coming downtown on Friday nights in their stretch-SUVs and vomiting all over the sidewalks, I can think of worse fates for a city than having a nightlife on the tame side.

As an aside, it's funny how Ottawa is referred to as "the city that fun forgot". I guess they'll never be considered fun when Montreal is only a 2 hour train ride away.
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Lol!

You're such a snob. :p
 
We keep coming around to it in many threads: the common difference between Calgary and cities with active nightlifes, more activated centres, and diffuse street life is the presence of large post-secondary institutions in the urban context. The nightlife Charleston had (when I was there) was a direct result of urban schools, and not the tourists (we were the youngest tourists there by probably 25 years at most attractions). And yeah, 1,000 students commuting isn't going to do it. In Charleston, one school requires all undergrads to live in campus housing (2,500), another has 32% in on campus housing (3,450).

Put in mandatory first year residence, and we know that many are rather captive audience consumers, set relatively flexible use restrictions to let businesses flourish, and all of a sudden you have a cool area (after 20 or 30 years). Calgary has around 10,000 less PSE spots than Edmonton. Plus Alberta has relatively low participation rates. Calgary could support another 25,000 person institution. Building a school and 25% housing along the somewhat undesirable CPR adjacent lots would work. Only issue of course is the province would need to be bought in on expanding by 25,000 spots (maybe around a $250 million a year ongoing investment to support programs like a super Mount Royal), and building some buildings (lets say $1 billion-$2 billion up front).

A pipe dream really.
 
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darwink said:
We keep coming around to it in many threads: the common difference between Calgary and cities with active nightlifes, more activated centres, and diffuse street life is the presence of large post-secondary institutions in the urban context. The nightlife Charleston had (when I was there) was a direct result of urban schools, and not the tourists (we were the youngest tourists there by probably 25 years at most attractions). And yeah, 1,000 students commuting isn't going to do it. In Charleston, one school requires all undergrads to live in campus housing (2,500), another has 32% in on campus housing (3,450).
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I agree, but a lot has to do with how bars are concentrated in the core. Calgary is not lacking in clubs, bars, venues but they do tend to be spread out over 17th, 11th, 10th and 8th ave.
 
Disraeli said:
I agree, but a lot has to do with how bars are concentrated in the core. Calgary is not lacking in clubs, bars, venues but they do tend to be spread out over 17th, 11th, 10th and 8th ave.
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And that lower market places are usually more ‘cool’. There is a very slow shift back to a balance but certainly our streets went very upmarket.
 
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