It seems like every fall in Calgary there is a cry by some hardy “patio people” to leave our sidewalk patios open in the winter like they do Scandinavian cities?” This year there is even more pressure to keep them open with need for social distancing thanks to COVID.

As someone who managed the patios on Stephen Avenue for 10 years, my experience was that once late September comes, just a few diehards want to eat and drink on the patios. Obviously, Stephen Avenue might not be the best place for winter patios as it gets no sun on the sidewalk from October to May.

However, a City Centre walkabout (10th Ave SW, 17th Ave and Kensington) Saturday October 10th late in the afternoon when the temperature was a sunny and balmy (+20C) I found that other than the Ship & Anchor, most patios were empty with only a few having people at one or two tables.

Stephen Avenue Walk pedestrian mall Saturday Oct 10th mid afternoon, beautiful weather. Patios are mostly empty.

The Ship & Anchor and National on 17th Ave SW have year-round patios that are popular on nice winter days as it gets lots of sun.

What does that tell you?

If the patios aren’t busy on a nice Saturday afternoon in early Fall, what are the chances they will be busy in the middle of winter when it is -10C or lower. Yes, we get Chinooks, but they are unpredictable and often the temperature rises to a comfortable temperature for only an hour or so in the afternoon. People love to say one thing and do another i.e. say they would use patios if they were open in the winter, but then rarely do.

In reality, there is probably only small number of people who would actually use outdoor patios in Calgary in the late fall, winter and early spring and they are all at the Ship & Anchor as soon as the weather is appropriate. Let’s give the restauranteurs and bar operators some credit - if there was sufficient demand for outdoor patios, they would be lobbying to kept them open, but they aren’t. They know the cost to winterize and operate the patios wouldn’t be offset by their use.

A 2020 Calgary Business Improvement Areas’ survey of patio operators found 50% of patio operators would consider winterizing their patios. However, 54% indicated the cost would be in excess of $30,000. The cost-to-benefits justification just isn’t there.

I recently spent 17 days in Victoria B.C. and rarely were the outdoor patios being used. This photo of the Cactus Club patio was taken at noon on Friday on a nice day. While the inside was busy, nobody was on the patio.

Scandinavian Winter Patio Experience

Calgary’s John Gilchrist, spend three weeks in Scandinavian cities in January, albeit 20 years ago, and his memory was that outdoor cafes and bars were very well heated and canopied in Stockholm, with few outdoor winter patios in other cities. He also observed it is less windy in Scandinavian cities than Calgary especially during a Chinook. He postulated one of the reasons Scandinavians might embrace the outdoors more than Calgarians in the winter is because they are further north, so enjoying some sunlight would be more motivating for them.

He suggested I contact Tony Totino, a former Calgarian who now lives in Oslo Norway to get his perspective. Totino offered the following view:

“To be honest, I don’t think Scandinavians actually embrace the outdoor winter street cafes idea at all. That sounds a bit more like Switzerland or perhaps alpine France. In winter, Norwegians are obsessed with cross-country skiing. In the wilderness areas surrounding Oslo on any given weekend in the snow months there are more people out skiing on the hundreds of kilometres of prepared ski trails than walking in the downtown. The trails are dotted with seasonal cafes that serve coffee, hot drinks, waffles and warm sweet buns etc. So if you want to sit in an outdoor cafe during winter in Norway, you’ll have to ski there.” He added “Copenhagen is not a snow city; its weather is more like Vancouver’s than Calgary’s.”

So in Oslo embracing winter is more of a recreational experience, rather than sitting on patios in downtown. That is the same in Winnipeg where the popularity of The Forks’ warming huts is for the skaters enjoying the 7.5 km skating trail. Yes there is an outdoor eating drinking area but it is linked to the large indoor space where people can easily go and warm up.

Gaelan Taylor who grew up in Calgary and went to university in Edmonton and now lives in Berlin agrees with Gilchrist that darkness is an issue for northern Europeans, “surprisingly it gets darker in Berlin earlier than Edmonton, MEGA dark, it is really depressing. But Berliners and most cities in northern Europe have a secret weapon Calgarians don’t – Christmas Markets and Gluhwein. Once November hits, all the markets open and they become the defacto place to meet – no need for patios when you can walk around a market with a hot cup of mulled wine! After Christmas, Berlin feels extra gloomy compared to Calgary with its sunny, crisp winter days.”

Perhaps the lesson to be learned is winter fun is usually combined with physical activity that allows people to keep moving, rather than sitting for long periods of time.

Calgary’s equivalent to Norway’s cross-country ski trails would be WinSport’s Canada Olympic Park where thousands of Calgarians go to ski and snowboard in the winter.

Ironically, they had to suspend the sales of season passes in the third week of October this year due to unprecedented demand and the need to allow for social distancing.

Or perhaps Bowness Park with its skating rink, fire pits and café with outdoor patio, or Canmore Nordic Centre.

If Calgary wants to create an “urban winter experience” it should probably be along the Bow River pathway from St. Patrick’s Island to Prince’s Island. It would make sense to have warming huts all along the pathway so walkers, runners and cyclists could enjoy them for a bit and then continue on. Or perhaps Olympic Plaza would be a good place to start, with its skating rink, ample room for food trucks, easy access to transit and lobby of Art Commons could be converted into a huge warming hut with a Christmas Market like feel.

One of the most popular winter walking spots in Calgary is the River Park promenade. It would be a great place for some warming huts and fire pits. Thousands of Calgarians visit the city’s 100+ dog parks everyday.

Calgary’s Canada Olympic Park is a popular spot for those who love to ski and snowboard.

Calgary is home to hundreds of neighbourhood ice rinks, as well as the historic Bowness Park rink. Link: Calgary Skating Rinks

Facing Reality

Since the 1988 Winter Olympics various Calgary organizations have tried numerous times to create a major Winter Festival. Every attempt has failed - be it at Olympic Plaza, Fort Calgary, Canada Olympic Park or along Stephen Avenue. Why? The weather is too unpredictable, either it’s too cold or too hot.

I expect Calgary’s winter people are heading to the mountains most weekends, or heading to the community ice rink (there are over 100 of them) leaving the indoor people to wander the malls or the +15 system walkway on cold days in the winter.

For many years Calgary tried to emulate other cities with a downtown “First Night Festival” on New Year’s Eve. And every year the attendance was disappointing as the weather wouldn’t cooperate. And, restaurants like River Café in Prince’s Island Park which has a lovely patio that it could easily keep open in the winter, closes the entire restaurant every January/February.

Is there a message here? Calgary’s climate is not conducive to urban outdoor winter activities.

The skating rink at Olympic Plaza is rarely very busy. Over the past 30+ years it has not been the catalyst for creating downtown winter vitality as one would hope.

Perhaps the reason Olympic Plaza skating rink isn’t as popular as one might hope is there are hundreds of neighbourhood rinks like this one in Briar Hill that offer skating opportunities in the ‘hood.

Chinook Blast

Calgary has experimented with “Glow” a winter light show that has been quite popular in attracting Calgarians to come downtown for one weekend in the winter. The results have been so encouraging that Calgary Tourism and the City of Calgary announced plans in early 2020 for a six-week winter festival – The Chinook Blast – from mid-January to the end of February 2021. The plan was for upwards of 55 community arts and recreation groups to link existing and new events across the City to create a major winter festival.

However, these events will be more indoors, than outdoors, and unfortunately the planned launch in 2021 may have to wait until the COVID pandemic is over.

The Glow festival was a huge success in attracting people from across Calgary to come downtown and enjoy the light shows, ice sculptures etc. True urban/winter vitality is when people hang out in a public space without special programming.

London Experience

We were in London, UK in November/December 2019 and were impressed with how the city embraced winter with lots of outdoor lights that made the streets seem warmer and more appealing. Their version of a Christmas Market was a huge Stampede like midway in Hyde Park. And instead of snow they get rain.

Last Word

While on one hand I applaud the efforts of those championing the idea of more winter patios along Calgary’s pedestrian streets, we need to face the reality that in Calgary, there are only a small number of people who would support winter patios as most of the winter people are out skiing, skating and walking the dog.

Note: An edited version of this blog was published by LiveWire Calgary - Embracing Winter - Hoisting a beer vs skating, skiing and shoeing.

If you like this blog, you will like these links:

Calgary: A Winter Arts Mecca?

Yellowknife: Winter Fun & Games

Calgary: Are We Winter Wusses?

Embracing Winter: Calgary vs Northern European Cities