Transforming Calgary: 15-Minute City Design vs Life-Style
The latest utopian idea bantered around by urbanists worldwide is how to plan and develop cities so one’s weekly needs are so close-by you don’t need a car or rarely use it. LinkedIn News included it as one of their Big Ideas that will change our world in 2021.
However, I believe creating a 15-minute city is as much rethinking how we live our lives, as it is rethinking how we design our cities.
Small, niche infill developments along Caglary’s older main streets providing more and more amenities within a 15-minute walking distance.
City Centre vs Suburbs
The concept of a 15-minute city, must be adapted to the unique culture of the city. In Europe it is easy to create 15-minute neighborhoods, as their historic city centers are centuries old, so they were never designed for cars in the first place. When Paris or Barcelona mayor’s say they want eliminate cars, it is not in the suburbs, but their City Centre, i.e. the pre 1950’s city that they are referring to.
In fact, most people living in our City Center already live in 15-minute neighbourhood, but to transform all 200+ Calgary neighbourhoods would be difficult and may not even be desired by many.
In fact a 2018 survey of Calgarians by ThinkHQ found that while 78% of Calgarians found the idea of living in a “complete community” (another term for 15-minute city), only 6% considered it the most important consideration when purchasing a new home and 41% considered it as one of their top 3 considerations. FYI: The top three considerations were price, amenities of the house/condo and quadrant of the city.
What was most surprising was that 49% of those surveyed thought they already live in a “complete community.”
In fact, 49% of Calgarians think they live in a “complete community.”
Most Calgarians living in the City Centre already have access to their everyday needs within a 15-minute walk.
Advantages of 15-Minute City
Unquestionably, there are several advantages of a no-car city. The two biggest being - healthier citizens (more walking, even if it is just to a bus stop) and less pollution. Another advantage is affordability as the cost of owning and operating a car (or two for many Calgary families) is one of Calgarians’ largest household expenses. If you are looking at buying a condo, you can save yourself $25,000+ if you don’t need a parking space.
A 15-minute city, means a decentralized or less segregated city - the exact opposite of Calgary which is very downtown-centric and has strict segregated land uses dating back over 70 years. Calgary is a post 1950s city, which meaning most of our growth has happened after the car became of the dominant form of transportation. Calgary’s population was only 139,105 in 1951, seventy years later it is 1,370,000; this means 90% of our city’s development is car oriented.
Or, is it?
Seven characteristic of a 15-minute neighborhood is being close to:
Basic Food/Medical Necessities
K to 12 Schools
Community Gathering Places
Diversity of Housing
Good Sidewalks
Safe Streets
Less Segregated Zoning
School Reform Needed
One of the biggest areas where Calgary could increase is walkability is by the provincial government restructuring the school system.
Do we need two school boards or would one be more effective? Should children go to the school that is the closest to where they live?
Should all new schools be modular so classrooms can be added or subtracted as a community’s school population grows and declines – as we know it will.
Are Calgary parents overly safety conscious, to the point they feel compelled to drive kids to school when they could walk or bike?
Walking to school for children has huge benefits, not only in physical and mental health, but also in developing friendships, learning independence and discovering the joy of walking. We need to teach our children they can walk to places and not to expect to hop into the car to go everywhere.
The unintended consequence of children being driven to daycare and school every day, is many never learn to walk for everyday activities.
The provincial government and Calgary School Boards need to radically rethink how we build and manage schools in the future. Modular schools would provide more flexibility as enrolment grows and declines and merging the two school systems would create greater efficiencies.
Segregated Zoning Changes
The community of Ogden was built in the early 20th century at what was then the edge of the city so people could live near CPR’s Ogden Yards, which was the city’s largest employer at the time.
In pre-1950s Calgary, it was common to allow people to live close to where they worked. In Ramsay and Inglewood you can see where houses were built next to industrial sites i.e. Calgary Malting and Brewing, Lilydale poultry plant and Dominion Bridge factory.
The same thing in Ogden next the CPR rail yards.
Post 1950s, Calgary became a segregated city due to land use bylaws that separate residential development from commercial and industrial.
These bylaws resulted in the majority of Calgary’s housing development, first west of Mcleod Trail and then west of the Deerfoot Trail and commercial (warehouses, manufacturing and industrial) east of them, with office development downtown.
As well, retail and restaurants development happened in malls vs. community main streets. And small community grocers were replaced by huge national grocery stores.
Fast forward to the 21st century - most new communities are master-planned as “quasi 15-minute communities,” i.e. a centrally located retail centre with a grocery store, drugstore, cafes, restaurants, fitness, medical, professional offices and speciality stores, accessible by walking, biking or a short drive. Schools, playground parks and pathways exist throughout the community.
Unfortunately, the schools and adequate transit don’t get built until the new community is nearing completion and they lack segregated bike lanes.
In this Google Map image you can see how Macleod Trail divided the city into an industrial zone on the east side and residential zone on the west side. This east/west divide which started early in the 20th century continued into the 21st century.
Calgary’s 15-Minute Suburbs
In my walks in other communities I am also finding there are perhaps more 15-minutes places to live in Calgary than one might think – Aspen Woods, Marda Loop, Varsity, Lakeview and Acadia. While Calgary’s late 20th century suburbs are often portrayed by urban planners as being car-oriented, some offer more amenities within walking and cycling distance than you might expect.
Millennial Jeff Trost bought a townhome in West Springs right on 85th St SW, which has become his main street with all the amenities he needs just a five minute walk away – Co-op grocery store, Mercato West, Shoppers DrugMart, Orange Theory Fitness, Starbucks, three major banks, dry cleaners, liquor stores, UNA Pizza and several other restaurants and pubs. He can also hop on a bus and in 7 minutes and he is at the 69th St LRT Station and then downtown or at Stampede Park.
Mike Crowe, a senior loves living in Midnapore where he bikes 15-minutes for groceries and go to the gym. The lake 5-minutes to walk, pub 20-minutes and train station 24-minutes. In the winter he averages about 14-km per day walking to his various activities. He loves that he can cycle downtown or Inglewood and only having to cross one road (at the end of his street).
Bruce McKenzie who works downtown shared, “my wife Susan and I chose Aspen Woods because it was near our children’s school. Surprisingly, we can walk (10-15 minutes) to the Aspen Shopping centre for everything we need during nice weather.”
From Livingston to SETON, from Aspen Woods to McKenzie Lake there are many places in Calgary where you can live in a 15-minute neighbourhood if that is what you want.
Quarry Park is a master planned community that incorporates an office park, retail centre and a mixed-use recreational centre surrounding by multi-family housing. It has a network of pathways that for walking and cycling as well as access to park space along the river. It has been designed to add density in the middle as the community evolves and when LRT arrives. (Photo Credit: Peak Aerials)
West Hillhurst A 15-minute community
A benefit of COVID has been more people are walking in their community and discovering it has more to offer than they perhaps realized.
In my case, I have discovered while I can’t walk to a major grocery store in 15 minutes (that would take about 20). I can also walk to a baker, butcher small grocer and medical necessities in that time. And there are a couple of cafes and restaurants with outdoor winter patios.
Queen Elizabeth School is within 15 minutes (for me, but not for a parent and young child) and offers K to 12 classes. In addition there is Briar Hill Elementary and Madeleine D’Houet School junior high bilingual school.
As a far as community meeting places, there are two dog parks, nine playground parks and the Bow River pathway within 15 minutes. I also have the West Hillhurst recreation center just a few blocks away. And we do a traditional main street/hub - 19th Street at Kensington Road that is adding new shops every year.
We definitely have a diversity of housing, from affordable to assisted living, from infill to luxury, from single family to multi-family. And for the most part our streets are pedestrian friendly, some would argue crossing Crowchild Trail is dangerous.
The new Sunterra Market has helped make West Hillhurst a more complete community and Calgary a 15-minute city. Sunterra has several locations in Calgary. Blush Lane an urban format organic grocery store has opened several locations in both inner city and suburban communities. There are also several unique neighbourhood grocers like BITE, in Inglewood, Bridgeland Market, in Bridgeland, The Bowneian Grocer, in Bowness, Italian Centre, in Willow Park and Italian Super Market, in Tuxedo Park. Lina’s has a Market Cafe in Tuxedo Park, Mercato in Mission and Supermercato in McKenzie Towne. In addition, Chinatown has numerous small grocers, as do many of the northeast malls. All of these urban grocers help make Caglary a more 15-minute city than many people realize.
Last Word
One of the benefits of COVID has been people are walking in their community and discovering their community has more to offer than they previously appreciated. Walking definitely takes more time, which most of us have as a result of COVID i.e. we are not commuting to work as often or at all. We are also not driving kids to extra-curricular activities, play dates and we aren’t driving to the gym or meeting up with friends across the city etc.
Creating a 15-minute neighbourhood is about making choices. How many people have a perfectly good fitness facility, yoga studio or dog park within a 15 minute walk, but drive to one further away because they like it better, or want to meet up with friends? How many parents drive by perfectly good schools to get their children to a specialized one?
Walking or cycling isn’t always practical, because you are combining the trip with three or four different destinations. Walking to the local store or even the park, with young children can take forever and as they get older most kids have specialized activities outside of their community.
Perhaps Calgary’s urban design isn’t the issue when it comes to being a 15-minute city, but rather our preferred lifestyle of driving when we could be walking or cycling. I know I am often guilty of that more often than I care to admit.
Note: An edited version of this blog was published in the Caglary Herald’s New Homes + Condos section on February 20, 2021.
If you like this blog, you will like these links:
Urban Living: 49% of Calgarians Think They Live In A Complete Community!
Calgary: The World’s Most Walkable City Centre?
Walk Score vs Life Style Score