With its progressive mayor and recent examples of exemplary architecture and urbanism, you'd think alternatives to sprawl would be an easy sell in Calgary. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong, says Christopher Hume.
A dramatic footbridge by Spanish architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava and a mixed-use neighborhood (Garrison Woods) built on a former military base in Calgary's east end, are among the small steps that demonstrate an alternative to the anonymous sprawl that occupies a reported 95 percent of the area's population growth. But achieving these successes wasn't easy, notes Hume.
"A proud City of Calgary featured Garrison Woods on the cover of a recent planning document. The irony, [mayor Naheed Nenshi] pointed out, is that the neighbourhood everyone loves broke 'every single rule' in the planning book. Getting it done took more than a decade as the city fought its own requirements every step of the way."
"At the same time, developers continue the discredited and ruinous 'multiplication by subdivision' approach that has turned the outer reaches of Calgary into endless tracts of cookie-cutter housing."
“Why do we persist in building stuff people don’t want and that doesn’t work?” Nenshi asked planners at a recent conference.
"It’s a good question;" says Hume, "one most Canadian cities, Toronto included, would be hard-pressed to answer. Everywhere one looks, planning rules are stuck back in the days of freeways and shopping centres."
FULL STORY: Like Toronto, City of Calgary struggles to become more urban: Hume
Young Candidates Ride Anti-Sprawl Rhetoric to Mayoral Victories in Alberta
On Monday, Calgary elected anti-sprawl crusader Naheed Nenshi to a second term as Mayor. And in Edmonton, 34-year-old Don Iveson, "an up-and-coming hot shot of the same vein of progressive politics", was elected to replace the city's retiring mayor.
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Growth Plan Debate Heats Up in Toronto
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National Parks Layoffs Will Cause Communities to Lose Billions
Thousands of essential park workers were laid off this week, just before the busy spring break season.
Retro-silient?: America’s First “Eco-burb,” The Woodlands Turns 50
A master-planned community north of Houston offers lessons on green infrastructure and resilient design, but falls short of its founder’s lofty affordability and walkability goals.
Delivering for America Plan Will Downgrade Mail Service in at Least 49.5 Percent of Zip Codes
Republican and Democrat lawmakers criticize the plan for its disproportionate negative impact on rural communities.
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Balancing Bombs and Butterflies: How the National Guard Protects a Rare Species
The National Guard at Fort Indiantown Gap uses GIS technology and land management strategies to balance military training with conservation efforts, ensuring the survival of the rare eastern regal fritillary butterfly.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service