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I was six when I left it (am 29 now) and haven't been back since (no family ties to Calgary or Canada) but how is Calgary, the city where I was born, these days? For obvious reasons my memories of it are rather hazy (I only remember certain things like the Calgary Tower, Calgary University, the Zoo, Heritage Park (was it called that even - some sort of recreation of an old town with a working train, I think), Shaganappi Trail, Varsity Acres, Dalhousie Crescent, Foothills Hospital, Panda Daycare Centre etc etc. My dad and my older brother have been back once or twice for business and also holidays and said it's changed a fair bit (gotten a lot bigger?)

I hope to make it there one day, but also to BC which many people have said is very, very beautiful indeed. But there will always be for me a sort of 'link' to Calgary - it's where I was born, after all.

   

Welllll, calgary still wants to be EDMONTON, when they grow up! But everyone else seems to recognize the futility in such an exercise. Waaay back when Ralph Klein was duh Mayor of calgary, he made a very wise decision and built a super-highway to EDMONTON) in fact WE have recently named the hi-way after your queen) so that all the deprived citizens of calgary could commute to EDMONTON in record time and take care of all their important business, as well as any serious shopping or sight-seeing, since there is no cultural or night life in calgary and isn't expected to change any time soon! So I guess you haven't missed much as calgary hasn't changed at all since you moved away.
Now, lest anyone think that I am slagging calgary, I must say this in defense of our developmentally challenged sibling. To see calgary in all it's glory can only be done by looking at it thru your rear-view mirror!

   

PRH, this is a typical Edmontonites response when asked anything about your hometown, do'nt believe it, it's just jealousy and bitterness, I would suggest that you visit Edmonton first and then come back to your city of birth and make your own decision, you will see how rediculous and bitter these poor Edmonton souls are in their assement of Calgary.... anyway I think you will probably be blown away with Calgary when you finally make it back, our metro has grown to over 1.1 million people, the downtown skyline has also gotten alot bigger, Heritage Park is the same, the Zoo has expanded to include an African Exibit, the Rocky Mountains are their same breath taking selves, the construction in the city is just insane, the city is a magnet to young people from across the country, we were declared the new centre of the universe within Canada by the CBC, the wealth in this city is also insane, the average house price is 325,000, the LRT has a 220,000 people ridership per day(near the top in NA) and has expanded, the Stampede in July is probably the best time to come, the whole city gets into it, anyway brother I hope you make it back to your city of birth, maybe you'll even want to stay awhile, there's lots of opportunity to do very well here if your the right person, and with you being a native Calgarian we could sure use you, there's not enough of us.... take care brother and GO FLAMES GO!!!!!!! (next year)....

   

BTW, the Calgary wants to be Edmonton part of Yogi's comment is really sad, I'm a native calgarian and have only been to Edmonton twice in my life, we have a sports rivalry but that's about as far as it goes, all I ever hear from Edmontonites is comparisons to Calgary, and to tell you the truth I and most Calgarians I know do not know a whole lot about Edmonton nor care(not in a bad way), Edmonton seems to look to Calgary where we really do not look to Edmonton other than when we play them in sports....

   

I left 2 years ago and visit less and less sorry to say but you about covered everything in Calgary other than an increase in population . nothing has changed . Really no joke . Other changes are , new hospital , all the schools shut down , the old general hospital was blown up , the saddledome , they no longer plow sidewalks or roads in the winter , Aug 16th river race , and electric avenue is now the 17th av Red mile , what used to take 20 min to get across the city now takes over 1 hour , 13 av and 11 av now have 12 sets of traffic lights from 5th to 14 st going one way and 8 the opposite , they no longer display polar bears at the zoo , many big corps have moved there from the east , there is less water in the Bow River , and all big ticket items are very expensive (Houses , cars , property taxes) bottle neck traffic , and that is all and everything about Calgary .

   

And PRH, when you do come back make sure you stop and visit Canmore in the Rocky Mountains, it's very clean and has better vistas than Banff, Banff is alright but it's kinda dirty and very touristy and transient.....

   

actually both me and Canmore are very nice and are the only things Calgarians have to look forward to other than Bragg Creek , powder face trail , Kananaskis Chesterslew and maybe Sylvan Lake and Pine Tornado lake .

   

Are you the guy who serves me at the A&W in Banff??? Or the guy who cleans the toilet at the Shell station, cause if you're the one at the Shell your not doing a very good job, it's filthy!!!!

   

Alot of us own property in Invermere, as the crow flies it's about the same distance to there as Banff, let's hope they pound that highway through the mountains so we can by-pass Banff completely....

   

by the way Edmonton doesn't boast and I too have only been to Edmonton a handful of times ... but it has much more to offer than Calgary but looses in choice due to significant differences in annual temperatures . Currently the metro 2001 census puts Calgary roughly 15,000 people above Edmonton .

   

As far as Pine and Slyvan lake are concerned, no thanks, they just do'nt rate....

   

I do not care about Edmonton, I do'nt mean to disrespect the place but to me it's just not very appealing, I hope it does really well but it's a non-factor in my life....

   

anyway PRH I understand that special feel of where you grew up and the sentiments . If you have a chance and really want to absorb the city take a bike with you , start from Nose Hill Park and head down through to Bowness park , then Edworthy through downtown , south through to Glenmore reservoir and the Weaselhead . Backtrack and continue on through the SE bird sanctuary
and several other parks along the river to bring you to Sundance and Mckenzie then back up to Fish Creek park . It is almost all paved bicycle path .

   

Back to your question; "How is Calgary."

Over the past 12 years under a Liberal Government the city has seen an influx in homeless people, living under bridges and taking shelter any place they can. (Basically, that can be said for all of Canada)

Calgary has grown up in the suburbs and the downtown core has been going through a revitalization. It still has all those tunnels that link all the downtown office buildings, which tends to make you feel like a gerbil after a while.

Both Calgary and Edmonton are all great cities with wonderful, friendly people. Both have much to offers visitors.

Edmonton offers the West Edmonton Mall where you can get lost for a week. Lots of Parks and new housing projects in the North West.

I would have to say Alberta is the #1 province in Canada. B.C. would be #2

Of course you have the odd backward cowboy redneck that thinks his city is the greatest, mostly because they can't afford a Greyhound bus ticket to see the rest of the country.

   

The bike path through Fish Creek got parts of it destroyed last year during the June floods, many of the bridges were washed away and will not be replaced for a few years..... you could go for a Bobsled ride at Canada Olympic park, that is better than any ride you could find in any amusement park on this planet, also PRH, try and ignore the negative comments about Calgary, some may be half true but you have to realize there is alot of bitterness cast towards our city within Canada, Calgary has so much going for us right now and people resent us, we are not the typical socialist Canadian city, you could say we are an island of capitalists surrounded by a sea of socialism, I know England has quite the socialist bent to the place so you too might leave here with a bitter taste when meeting our citizens, but try and keep an open mind, we are a very young city(barely 100 yrs old), and are not very urban yet, but we're working on it, you could say we are almost American in our nature due to the heavy influence from our brothers to the south, they came to Calgary many years ago to help us develope our Oil industry and have had and continue to be a heavy influence, the highest number of Americans living out of their country anywhere in the world is Calgary, almost 1 in 10..... anyways come home brother and visit your city, it really is a wonderful place....

   

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