If you've read the "About" you'll know I live in Calgary, AB. A few words about Calgary - population, roughly 1 million people. Area: 726.5 sq KM. It's a masterpiece of Urban Sprawl, if such a thing is to be valued. Calgarians are proud of the fact their city is "bigger" in land area than New York. Strictly speaking this isn't true, but urban sprawl is one of the many major issues that remain unaddressed by local politicians. Currently in Calgary we have a Quimby for Mayor, Dave Bronconnier, whose success can only be accounted for by his nickname, "Bronco". He campaigns with a platform of environmental concerns, these apparently based on the fact that he personally takes his bottles in to be recyled.While currently in his 3rd term in office there is still no recycling policy in place in Calgary, citizens are merely encouraged to recycle, making Calgary the only major North Amercan city to not have one. Bronconnier believes Calgary has a world class transit system, by which he means your chance of being stabbed or mugged while on our transit system is as great or greater than any other major North American city. In terms of getting around public transit is poor to extremely poor, most points in the city being a minimum of 1 hour away, further on weekends, evenings and holidays. Transit is for those who can't afford cars or parking, or have impaired driving convictions, and the use of it is explicitly discouraged by civic policy.
To return to the topic of urban sprawl, which, despite being ignored, is still a major issue for the city, Calgary builds entire neighborhoods without access to shops, stores, schools, libraries, and in many instances sidewalks. It cultivates and encourages a dependance on automobiles, and lobbies for provincial funding to widen already double lane roads, build overpasses, and otherwise fritter away our natural resources and tax dollars. Constantly enroaching upon the countryside, the city expands exponentially, schools open in suburbs while those in the center of the city are closed down, there are no incentives to restrain or govern growth, what is a pasture one month is a suburb the next, all of which demand water, sewage, maintenance, more roads and upgrades, and so it follows that each year property taxes are hiked and the city returns to the provincial governent to beg for more funding, improvements to roads, build new hospitals while perfectly good old hospitals are torn down,. . .
In short, it is the very model of unsustainable living and bad ecological practice. No one on city council has read or even heard of Jane Jacobs, if they had she would be dismissed as a kook or a liberal.
There are, however, many concerned and somewhat like minded citizens that live there, many of whom in desperation campaign against obviously poor planning and policy. Last years election saw almost a dozen people campaign against Bronconnier for mayor, most, due to their lack of political background and vocabulary, were dismissed by the media as "fringe" candidates.
While on the topic of media, Calgary has 2 newspapers: The Calgary Herald & The Calgary Sun. Both tabloids, but the Herald likes to style itself the serious newspaper, while the Sun targets "the working man". Both specialize in articles that highlight the dangerous world we live in, and if short locally on murder and rape will happily dig through the archives to publish cold cases, or import misfortunes from other cities and countries. Of course it's not all murder and rape, there is plenty of room for the automobiles, entertainment, & lifestyle sections, but the front pages are invariably filled with the collected wars, misfortune and misery of the world, with the occasional "upbeat" article so you don't abandon your subscription and move into a bunker. While it pains me to observe, this formula is the standard for almost all North American newspapers.