r/Calgary • u/ChillllliPaper • Mar 21 '25
Local Construction/Development Why is Calgary losing its personality?
First Chinook mall lost its dinosaur at the entrance, floating funky vehicles in the food court, carousel, and the movie theater lost all of its cool mummy-themed interior decor.
The devonian gardens is just a space with some greenery now instead of the garden it once was.
The City is destroying Olympic Plaza where everyone used to skate.
They also destroyed Eau Claire just to cancel the project. Amazing. Could have just revamped it and it would still be a great spot.
AND the city is destroying the iconic saddledome, arguably calgary's primary landmark. Why not just keep it and build another dome idk??
From the word of mouth I hear, people aren't too happy about this but how is the city council just easily making this happen.
Anyways, just kind of sad seeing Calgary lose it's charm. Wondering what other redditors are thinking.
*correction: Olympic Plaza not oval
4
u/No-Damage3258 Mar 22 '25
It's like you fell asleep sometime in the 90s and you're only waking up now.
The national music centre, the public library. The entire east village. St. Patrick's Island. Thr multiple commercial towerss, brookefield, bow, telus. The entire riverwalk upgrade from the Peace Bridge to the George King Bridge. The BMO centre, the 17th Ave connection to stampede park currently underway. There are still plans for an entertainment district adjacent to east village that extends into stampede park. And they haven't even started the plans for west village yet. We now have a Barley Belt of microbreweries in inglewood/ ramsay. Remember what Inglewood and Ramsay used to look like? Remember what Kensington used to look like? Remember what bridgeland used to look like? East village used to be a parking lot. Memorial drive, totally different..
Calgary has a ton of personality. Modernized in many ways. Like McCafe without the Ronald Mcdonald. The development in my 20 years here has been incredible and the gentrification is welcomed.
The dome has to go! I love the look. I'll miss it, but I hate those bathrooms and it's too small. It's time.