You said it, "Success is of course relative." I'm a life long Calgarian, but I'm young enough never to have known the previous incarnation of the EV in its more prosperous times. I'll never forget taking a wrong turn near the St. Louis when I was fairly new driver 10-12 years ago and seeing a crowd of crack heads and drunks shambling around the cul-de-sac like they were a pack of zombies. Not very PC of me, but then I'm not very PC. You had to have experienced it for yourself, that is the only way I can describe what I saw.
So, in my lifetime I've seen the East Village go from dilapidated no-go zone to moon scape as most of the buildings were abandoned, levelled or both. Now to see promising new life brought to what little remains of that old world and to see a handful of elegant (if largely monochromatic) new towers rise out of the wasteland, you have to call it a success. Even if everything froze as it was and no new development occurred for years to come, you'd still have to call it a success. I really hope that's not the case obviously. The future of the neighbourhood is quite exciting. Once the Green Line is running nearby, once the library and other amenities are in place, once the improvements to the Stampede Grounds are complete, once the river walk and other park space is complete and once the remaining empty lots fill in we're going to see the East Village as one of the jewels of our city.
It won't just be another Kensington or 17th ave, areas that have plenty to be recommended for, the East Village is going to shift the focus of the city back to it's source at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow. So much of what makes our city great and what makes Calgarians proud of our home will either be in the East Village or immediately adjacent to it. (Inglewood, the zoo, the commercial core, the Stampede grounds and the performing arts centres to name a few, along with many new establishments are all going to be right there.)
Which leads me to one little quibble. East Village is a dumb name for something so pivotal.