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O

October

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A thread dedicated to life in Calgary, whether living here or just visiting feel free to use this thread to post about upcoming events, shopping, sports, dining and neighbourhoods in and around the city. I figured this could be a somewhat similar thread to the 'Watercooler discussion' thread on SSP.
 
To start things off here I haven't seen general thread for life in the city so I figured Id make one, if there already is one someone correct me to I don't completely embarrass myself.

For a first post here I thought I bring up this, the city is looking to hold a 6-week long winter festival in the city from early January to mid-february, (hopefully to make -40º weather a little more bearable). More details are in the works but from the couple articles I read it appears to be your standard music, arts and sports. The festival will be Called the Chinook Blast. I think it's all quite a good idea considering we are a winter city for the most part and we don't really do much in the winter to celebrate it. Im all for the cultural development of the city and our 8 months of winter is extremely under-utilized, if we ever want to be a true hotspot for tourism in Canada and not just a gateway to the rockies, festivals like this are important.

CTV Article

NarCity Article

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Sounds similar to the Glow Winter festival which was concentrated on Stephen Ave this year. It was held a month before the lock down and was well attended. The restaurants and merchants did very well. Sadly, it will probably be their peak period in 2020 having missed out on Stampede and victims to a nonchalant summer.
However these are different times. The Chinook Blast might attract locals who will have had enough of cabin fever come January. I don't think it will do anything to attract tourists. Until people feel comfortable travelling on planes again, we will not be a destination. If and when, flying on planes returns to normal, people will most certainly be going south again in the winter.
 
I do as well, hopefully i'll get to enjoy a couple weeks of it while I'm back in town on Christmas break.
 
One of the many things that sucks about Covid, is that we have missed out on so many of the usual festivals. I have a feeling the Chinook Blast will fall victim to Covid, just like the Stampede, and Folk Festival, etc..
 
The Chinook Blast artwork is pretty cool. I didn’t get pics of it all, but I do love the idea of this festival. I’m glad the city did it.

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We were out Sunday around 6-7 and the turnout was pretty good - tons of families; anything much higher and we wouldn't have felt safe given pandemic and really mediocre mask wearing compliance.

It was nice that there were smaller things, like smaller vertical display screens showing whatever, mixed throughout the 3rd St / 8th Ave festival grounds. It made it feel more like a coherent festival even if there were really only a handful of big pieces. They should have closed 3rd St; the sidewalks were unnecessarily crowded and there was perhaps one car per minute.
 
That has already happened, and continues to improve happen and improve.
 
They ditched the increasingly-garbage "data driven" methodology (if you recall, last time it penalized the Beltline for having **too many** restaurants). Just talked to some folks.

Summary:
Best Heritage (pre-1950): Cliff Bungalow
Best Mid-Century (1950-75): Charleswood
Best Late-Century (1975-2000): Millrise
Best New (post 2000): Garrison Woods/Green
Best Future: University District

Best Walkable: Beltline
Best for Nature-Lovers: Lakeview
Best Accessible: Varsity
Best Lake Community: Lake Bonavista
Best for Seniors: Mission
Best Hidden Gem: Greater Forest Lawn

Best BIA: Kensington
Best Industrial: Manchester

The listing also has runners up, and discussion. Overall, a much more reasonable list, although almost all of the communities have above-average house prices. (But I guess you don't see too many $15 places on their best restaurant list either.)

The only one that's baffling is Best Accessible, which talks about the community having a lot of bungalows, signalized pedestrian crossings, and is close to the University which has 'universal design elements' on it's 'accessible amenities'. But there are tons of communities with single-level dwellings and pedestrian crossings, and these sound like they have a lot of overlap with amenities for seniors. The University has accessible features, but I'm not sure what having 400 accessible lecture halls on your doorstep does to help you if you're not a student, and it's not that close; it's great that there aren't stairs in the way of the convenience store in Mac Hall, but it's like a kilometre and a half away.

To my mind, Best Accessible should go to a community like Rundle, which is bordered by virtually all major services (a hospital, a major mall and a big-box precinct, a public rec facility, a high school, supermarkets at the NW, SW and E edges of the community) and has an LRT station and a MAX route (and even ICE service to Airdrie/Cross Iron), plus for drivers is adjacent to a freeway (16th), with both the Deerfoot and ring road a couple of interchanges away.
 

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