Education Minister Jeff Johnson is set to announce next week a slate of new schools for Calgary and other hyper-growth areas in Alberta, helping stem the school shortage problem plaguing the city’s deep suburbs.
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Tag Archives: suburbs
MCKENZIE TOWNE
In the dozen or so years since becoming a Calgary neighbourhood, McKenzie Towne has established itself as a bustling community with a family friendly atmosphere.
“I love the neighbourhood we live in, we live in a cul-de-sac and there’s a lot of kids the same age as my children,” said Angelina Wong, who along with her family of four has called McKenzie Towne home for the last nine years.
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Two Tales, One City: City says sprawl doesn’t work
To get a sense of why a homebuilder uttering the words “suburban development freeze” rankles city planners and some aldermen, pull out the Herald’s Homes section and open it to the sales map.
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Suburb builders feeling squeezed
Two tales of one city – Part 1 of a 2-part series on the debate over inner-city versus suburb development in Calgary. Read the city’s perspective on Monday.
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AN AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE
With all the trappings of the big city yet still closely tied to its country roots, Airdrie presents the best of both worlds in many ways. And judging by the regularity with which homes in the city are being sold, it would appear that the homebuying public is in agreement.
According to CREB®, MLS® sales activity in Airdrie improved by nearly 23 per cent in 2012, with an unadjusted single-family benchmark home price of $336,000 in December, slightly lower than the previous month, but higher than levels recorded in 2011. The annual average benchmark price in 2012 for Airdrie totalled $334,133, a 3.6 per cent increase over 2011.
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Author speaks on Fort McMurray identity
“If you’re off by yourself, the normal rules do not apply,” said Malcolm Gladwell, inaugural keynote presenter of the Northern Insights Speaker Series, Wednesday at MacDonald Island Park. “You may not want to be as isolated as you are, but it’s a gift.
“You’re not a suburb of New York,” he continued, explaining the region is free to grow and shape its image without external influences pressing in. The highway that separates Fort McMurray from the rest of Alberta may be a nuisance more often than not, but it also provides a sort of cultural buffer, isolating, but protecting the region within.
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‘Cityscape’ approved as name of new northeast suburb
“Cityscape” is likely to join Legacy, Walden, Silverado and SkyView Ranch in Calgary’s ever-growing list of unusual suburban community names.
Calgary Planning Commission has unanimously approved the proposed name for a suburban community at Country Hills Boulevard N.E. and Metis Trail, despite the municipal naming committee’s objections.
Terry Wong, chairman of the city’s advisory panel on street and neighbourhood names, said he had concerns about Cityscape’s geographically “agnostic” and possibly confusing name if people started dubbing it “City.”
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Schools in older neighbourhoods compete for kindergarten recruits to boost enrolment
On the last day of January, Bowcroft School in Bowness will stage a showcase of their German bilingual program, featuring singing, riddles and a play from a dark, but funny, classic story called Max and Moritz.
Not only is the student performance billed as a delightful evening at the school, it also plays a crucial role in Bowcroft’s efforts to promote itself and encourage new parents to sign their children up for kindergarten.
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Staples: Old neighbourhoods must loosen up to attract new families
Edmonton’s old neighbourhoods need young families to keep their schools full of children and to create ready customers who spend at local businesses. But land prices are far cheaper on the outskirts. Young families can get more house for their dollar as a result, so the lure of the suburbs will pull new homebuyers in that direction.
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Staples: New suburbs aren’t more important than Edmonton’s best farmland
EDMONTON – Edmonton city council has never once protected a plot of prime farmland from suburban development.
That is about to change, but exactly how much land will be preserved is the subject of a fierce fight. It pits private rights against the public good, a multinational property company against a community group, neighbour against neighbour. Fortunes both small and large are on the line.
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