Plan It Calgary: Chris Turner

I interviewed Chris Turner during day 1 of the Plan It Calgary public hearing.

Chris is the author of the book "The Geography of Hope: A Guided Tour of the World We Need".
http://www.thegeographyofhope.com/

City of Calgary information on Plan It:
http://calgary.ca/planit/

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• PlanIt
• Calgary
• hearing
• yyc
• cityhall
• planning
• urbandesign
• urbanplanning
• ChrisTurner

[devious222]

ultimately it is a choice between planning/vibrant communities, or people's desires/quality of life. Calgary has largely grown economically through land development and investment for those reasons as well. The overwhelming majority in the city opt for home-ownership if they had the opportunity...

so then, how do we create the best of both worlds? how do we have interesting/diverse neighborhoods without some of the restrictive implications of smart growth?

[GrantNeufeld]

The reason suburban "home ownership" is cheaper than higher-density urban developments is that the suburban developments are effectively subsidized.

Shift the property tax structure, the development costs and the fuel/transportation costs to more accurately reflect the real costs to society, the environment and the economy of the suburban lifestyle and urban will become cheaper and suburban more expensive, as they should be.

[devious222]

right, i completely understand. but what i was trying to point out is that there is a reason why suburban homes are subsidized and have been for so long in Calgary. it really helps the middle class and aspiring middle class to achieve what most of them desire (single family detached). its a supply and demand thing at the end of the day.. and if you reduce supply then your demand increases, things get really pricey (e.g. vacouver), and relative affluence goes down.

[devious222]

to a select few.. this, ironically only increases the income/class segregation in the city.. my parents, being immigrants, could much more easily afford home/property ownership and integrate into Canadian society much easier in Calgary largely because of the land-use patterns. yo have to realise that most immigrants want home-ownership and affluence and prefer this over a diverse neighborhood environment..

contd

[devious222]

As an architecture student, i do have the tendency to sway largely in the direction of mixed-use, vibrant, intense, and dense, cultural neighbourhood developments.

but relevant concerns need to be considered.. rhetorically, what is the vision for calgary?

I ask this because Vancouver and Portland (as mentioned in the video) are both now vibrant cities but at the cost of substantially increased property values.. sounds good, but at the same time what it does is limit a level of affluence (contd