hello to all,
On my Edmonton, i drove through Calgary to fill up the car with some fuel suddenly noticing a new sign 'heart of the new west'. I began to ask myself why? calgary has been suffering an identity crises since day 1. ive witnessed calgary 'grow' since the early 80's, seeing the construction boom, olympics, listening to the media beefing it up like it was the second coming of christ, and so on. however i'm still baffled why its such a great place to live. sure, there have been the few who have cashed in with the oil boom in oil rich alberta, so all of a sudden a false excitement in regards to a good life. so everyone thought that moving to calgary would make you rich. its all bs! there are only a handful of people in calgary making real money and for the rest of the wanabees stay, and keep pretending or move to a better place. calgary lacks the soul that a real city inherets from various factors of growth, calgary grew from the truck stops on the trans canada highway(16th avenue) and then sprawle's out from there. The lack of urbanism and culture is evident while driving around the hyped up 17th avenue and downtown core, the false sense of 'dynamic city' is apparent when taking a cruise at 7pm looking for a place to mingle with new friends and cultural stimulation. please mr. brochonier, quit the bs that calgary is a 'city of smiles' when in fact it is the 'city of phonies'. please calgary new and rich does not justify the fact that a city is so great. other factors such as character, community, heart, soul, diversity can all contribute to a well rounded city, all of which calgary does not possess. drive 2 and a half hours north and there you will find edmonton. at first glance edmonton seems to be run down and older that its couterpart from the south. however spend a little time there and you will realize that life is actually fun. people dont fake the smile, and people dont always talk about money, they are just themselve. I have attended festivals, retaurants, hockey games, coffee shops, museums and various events throughout the few years ive spent there then it then it dawned on me that calgary really was a bunch of cowboys after all.
