Collaboration keeping Calgary’s Centre City Clean to the Core

On Thursday, January 26, The City’s Clean to the Core team celebrated five years of helping make the Centre City a more livable, thriving and caring place. Made up of over 15 City of Calgary departments and dozens of external partners – including community organizations and businesses throughout the core – the program is a shining example of how partnership and vision can produce action and results.

Roads Operations Manager Dan Jones links the Clean to the Core program’s initial start-up in 2006 to The City’s exponential growth and the near-daily responsibilities his business unit’s employees were faced with.

“We started looking at all the work we had to do,” says Jones, “and then we put that information together with other business units to see how we were all coordinating our efforts. We were able to take that argument, go to Council, get extra funding and then take that back and use that funding to really devote our efforts to keeping things clean.”

Five years later, Jones attributes the success of the program to the relationships he’s formed across City departments, with Centre City Business Revitalization Zones as well as private businesses in the city’s core.
“I’m most proud of the collaborative relationships that have formed with the other Business Units. It’s really helped our people to see how everybody’s role comes together. We play one small part but we all work together toward the same end.”

Cathy Taylor, Clean to the Core Project Manager, Centre City team says enhancing safety, adding vitality and making our Centre City an exciting place for everyone wouldn’t happen without this level of teamwork - collaborations at The City, individual citizens and supporting organizations.

Clean to the Core is a collaborative effort of the Calgary Police Service, Calgary Fire Department, Emergency Medical Services, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Gaming & Liquor Commission, Animal & Bylaw Services, Calgary Transit, Parks, Roads, Environmental & Safety Management, Land Use Planning & Policy, Development & Building Approvals, Corporate Properties & Buildings, Law, Recreation, Community & Neighbourhood Services, 3-1-1, Centre City Safety Impact Team and Centre City Implementation.

The Clean to the Core program also works with community partners and downtown businesses to implement real and sustainable change in our community.

For more information, please visit centrecitytalk.com.

Clean to the Core celebrates its fifth year in Calgary's Centre City

Clean to the Core team fifth anniversary, at the Epcore Centre.

Today, Clean to the Core team is celebrating its fifth anniversary helping to make our Centre City a more livable, thriving and caring place.

Clean to the Core was launched in 2006 with a few brooms and a can-do attitude. Now, it’s an example of how partnerships and vision can produce action and results.

The Clean to the Core team is made up of over 15 City of Calgary departments and dozens of external partners including community organizations and businesses throughout the core.

“The team’s success stems from its collaborative approach," said Cathy Taylor, Clean to the Core Project Manager, Centre City team. "We’re all working together, towards the goal of enhancing safety, adding vitality and making our Centre City an exciting place for everyone.”

Calgary’s Centre City
Calgary’s Centre City is an important area. Home to over 6,000 businesses, 34,000 Calgarians, over 25 public parks and hundreds of events - it’s the economic, cultural and social hub of our city.

In 2007, City Council approved The Centre City Plan, a comprehensive and strategic long-term vision for the future of our Centre City. The Centre City team brings leadership, focus, action and awareness to collaboratively achieve and sustain the Plan’s vision of a livable, thriving and caring core.

Calgary’s Centre City includes the Beltline, Chinatown, Downtown, East Village, Eau Claire, Stampede Park and Downtown West.

For more on Calgary’s Centre City, read their blog at centrecitytalk.com or visit Calgary.ca

The Calgary Food Committee hosts CALGARY EATS!

CALGARY EATS! is an opportunity for Calgarians to eat and buy a wide range of local food.

This free event provides a great opportunity for citizens to learn about what The Calgary Food Committee does and to share ideas about how we can build a food system to best sustain our great city.

There will be two panel discussions, live bands and fun interactive activities for adults and kids alike. This event is going to be tons of fun so don’t miss out.
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ant Hill Building in Kensington and includes farmers, chefs, local businesses, gardeners, community groups and many more fascinating food lovers.

Visit www.yycfood.com for more information, or register for the event on Facebook via The City of Calgary's page.

Renting out your parking spot information

Have you considered renting your parking space to make a little money?

Several websites are now promoting people to rent their parking spots at their residence, but what Calgarians may not be aware of is that this is against the law.  Parking stalls are intended for the resident of that dwelling.
Essentially renting your stall is a different land use then what the development was approved for.

According to Land Use Bylaw 1P2007, a Parking Lot – Grade is defined as: 

• Where parking is provided for vehicles for a short duration, independent of the provision of any other use: and 
• Where vehicles are parked at grade

This use is not allowed in any residential districts; parking lots occur in commercial, industrial and special districts.

“The rules do not support Calgarians renting out their parking spaces, as this could cause planning impacts where cars intended to be accommodated in a given house are displaced into neighbourhood streets causing parking spill over into the community,” says Mark Sasges,  Chief Development Planner with The City.

Renting parking stalls also runs counter to crime prevention principles as residents become unsure of who should and shouldn’t be entering onto their own or their neighbour’s property.

Enforcement of this law is complaint driven, if there are no complaints then there is no enforcement. Property owners are given an opportunity to voluntarily comply with the Bylaw prior to the City of Calgary proceeding to issue a violation ticket. Violation tickets can range from $1,500 to$3,000.

Occasionally, there are complaints of businesses renting out parking spaces but this is not very frequent.

West LRT track construction information

Watch how construction crews construct rail along the eight-kilometre West LRT route in Calgary, Alberta.

Three sites recognized with Calgary Heritage Authority plaques

The Calgary Heritage Authority (CHA) presented plaques to three of Calgary’s historically significant sites at today’s Council Meeting.  The plaques are presented biennially to sites of historical significance to Calgary’s development. Evaluations are based on the significance of the architecture, history and context of the sites.

“The plaque program allows us to recognize important heritage sites throughout Calgary and share the stories of special places in our neighbourhoods,"  says Scott Jolliffe, Chairman of the CHA.  “When people know about places in their communities, they often feel more connected to them and recognize their value and importance in making their communities unique.”

The three sites that received plaques are:

Earl Grey Elementary School
Address:  854 Hillcrest Avenue S.W.
Earl Grey Elementary School opened in 1968 along with five other schools in Calgary due to growing enrolment in the post-war, baby boom era. The school was designed by the well-known Calgary architect Bill Boucock, who also designed the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller. The exterior designed was modern design utilized innovative techniques and materials for its time. The interior incorporated an open-area classroom layout, a novel philosophy for elementary schools during the 1960s and 1970s. Originally, half of the classrooms were arranged in a large flexible space that surrounded a library in the centre.

While the present building dates to 1968, the original Earl Grey School was built in 1912. The present facility replaced the original two-storey sandstone building.

Cliff Bungalow School
Address:  2201 Cliff Street S.W.
Built in 1920, Cliff Bungalow School is one of several bungalow-style schools that were constructed between 1913 and 1920. The modest design was adopted as a cost-effective alternative to the earlier sandstone schools. This rough-textured brick building originally had four symmetrical classrooms, a teachers’ office in the attic and play areas in the basement.

The school is situated along the base of Mount Royal in an area that was part of a large Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee) encampment at the turn of the 20th century. Initially called the 22nd Avenue Bungalow School, it was renamed Cliff Bungalow School in 1927 and the surrounding neighbourhood took its name from the school. By 1988, the school was surplus to the needs of the Calgary Board of Education and the facility became home to the Montessori School of Calgary and the Cliff
Bungalow-Mission Community Association.


King Edward School
Address:  1720 – 30 Avenue S.W.
This large three-storey sandstone building was constructed in 1912 during Calgary’s pre-First World War economic boom. It was built along with three other sandstone schools in Calgary that year.

The school has served a variety of community functions throughout its history, including cadet training during the First World War and as a venue for community social events such as card games and dances. Notably, the school’s first principal, William Aberhart, later served as Alberta’s first Social Credit premier from 1935 to 1943.

King Edward School was constructed using rock-faced sandstone originally included 19 classrooms, a large ground-floor auditorium and separate entrances for the boys and girls. Given structural cracking and safety concerns, the west wing of the school was partially dismantled in 1978, using much of the original sandstone in the reconstruction. The school was closed to students in 2001 due to declining enrolment in the area.

 For more information about the heritage planning and the Calgary Heritage Authority, visit  www.calgary.ca/heritage

Public input wanted for Crowchild plan

If you travel by foot, bicycle, transit, or automobile near Crowchild Trail we want to hear from you.

The City of Calgary’s Transportation Department has begun a long-term transportation study for Crowchild Trail that includes a review of the corridor from 24 Avenue North to 17 Avenue South, and a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) corridor study from 16 Avenue North to Glenmore Trail South.

“An average of 106,000 Calgarians use this corridor to get where they are going every week day,” says Julie Radke, Senior Transportation Engineer with The City of Calgary. “We want to hear from all users regardless of what mode they use to travel through the area. We will incorporate their feedback into our planning study.”

The study will update the 1978 plan for Crowchild Trail and align it with the 2009 Calgary Transportation Plan (CTP) and new land use planning initiatives in advance of future development in the area. The study will also capture opportunities for improvements along the corridor for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists. As a part of this process, The City is looking for feedback from Calgarians who travel on the corridor and has posted an online survey to collect input from them.

The survey will be open from Monday, January 23, until Friday, February 4. For more information or to complete the survey, visit www.calgary.ca/crowchild .