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A lot of these issues describe Calgary (where I'm from), but we have the advantage of near limitless land to develop (everything north, east and south of the ci
by Mikeb85 7y ago
A lot of these issues describe Calgary (where I'm from), but we have the advantage of near limitless land to develop (everything north, east and south of the city is basically flat farmland, not even particularly productive farmland at that) and the local oil industry's near collapse has caused rents in the city centre to plummet. 20 years ago this article could have described our city nearly perfectly but even today is pertinent. The biggest obstacles to development are still bureaucracy and cartels, but thankfully at least some of their power is reduced by the relatively poor economy and tons of space.
- selimthegrim 7y agoIs this similarly true of Edmonton/rest of AB?
- Mikeb85 7y agoNot sure the exact dynamic in downtown Edmonton WRT landowners and whatnot, in most of my visits there it seems like most businesses are slightly more spread across town than in Calgary (probably because their city is split up by a massive river valley), and like Calgary they do have a lot of space to develop as well (most of Alberta east of the mountains is relatively flat). Their economy is a little more diverse in the sense that they have a lot of government officials. It's a nice city but they have bitterly cold winters (even though as I write this there's snow on the ground in Calgary and a snowfall warning for all of southern Alberta) and less tourism than Calgary. The rest of AB is basically smaller agricultural towns, with a few oil towns that are basically glorified work-camps (Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray) and then a few mountain towns that have their own crazy dynamic due to national park regulations.