Calgary Tourists "Where are all the people?"

Drive, walk or cycle around Calgary and you will quickly be asking yourself “Where are all the people?” Whenever I go for walk I am almost always alone. Often the only people I meet are those out walking their dog.

Quip: In 2022, “The Last of Us” a popular post-apocalyptic drama on HBO was filmed in Calgary. I can’t help but wonder if they chose Calgary because it already has a bit of a post-apocalyptic sense of place. Just kidding!

I sometimes wonder what Europeans, Asians and South Americans (whose city streets are full of people, vendors and traffic pretty much all the time) think when they visit Calgary and find our streets uninhabited for the most part.   

Stephen Avenue Walk Calgary’s signature downtown main street lacks the pedestrian traffic (from October to April) most tourists would expect to find everyday, year round in a major city.

7th Avenue Calgary’s Downtown Transit Hub is also devoid of people most of the time.

Stephen Avenue Walk looks much more animated in the summer with patios, especially at lunch hour.

While numerous attempts have been made to enhance Stephen Avenue Walk it is still devoid of the pedestrian traffic most tourists would expect of downtown pedestrian mall.

Sure, in the summer on a nice day the pathways are full of people, but during the week you pretty much have them to yourself. And even on a nice day in the middle of the summer neighbourhood streets are devoid of any street life.

Quip:  I rarely see any of the porches enjoying Calgary’s brilliant sunshine and often wonder why so many people have their blinds are closed tight so nobody can see in and they can’t see out. What are they doing that they don’t want anyone to see??????

In the downtown, I can jay-walk across any street or avenue anytime except rush hour. The downtown plaza and parks are empty except at lunch time in the summer or if there is a festival or a special event.  Downtown’s Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall is deserted for most of the day, unlike the signature streets in most cities.  Even the +15 elevated walkway isn’t that busy anymore.

Quip: Downtown lacks the critical mass of tourists to create the everyday street life associated with signature pedestrian streets in other cities. 

Downtown Calgary’s 7th Avenue is the Transit Hub for four legs of the city’s light rapid transit as well as dozens of bus routes, yet it is devoid of any pedestrian animation most of the time.

While downtown LRT stations are busy at rush hour on weekdays, there are few people in the evening and weekends.

Calgary’s outdoor retail, restaurant, patio streets – Mission, Beltline, Inglewood and Kensington are busy on the weekends, but you can shoot a cannon down them during the week and not hit anyone.

Head to the shopping malls and they too seem empty much of the time unless there is an Apple store or a Tim Horton’s (Canada’s Starbucks) and then there is always a line-up. 

While Calgary has lots of patios, even more because of COVID, they are empty most of the time. If it is a little chilly or windy, we head inside.  We haven’t adopted the Scandinavian culture of sitting outside with blankets or the French culture of sipping a coffee for hours on the street facing the traffic enjoying the fumes and people watching.

Quirk: The shopping mall food court is conceivably Calgary’s equivalent of a European piazza or town square for most of us, most of the time.  

Calgary’s City Hall plaza is empty pretty much year round. In fact, most of Calgary’s downtown plazas and parks lack the urban vitality you would expect in a major city.

Calgary’s Bow River Promenade can be very busy in the summer, but for most of the year there are relatively few people compared to say San Antonio’s River Walk or Atlanta’s Beltline or New York City’s High Line.

The Peace Bridge, Calgary’s signature pedestrian bridge doesn’t attract tourist or locals in the way signature pedestrian bridges do in other cities e.g. Dublin’s Ha’penny Bridge or London’s Millennium Bridge.

Chinatowns around the world are typically animated with people and merchants on the sidewalk at all times of the day and week, but Calgary’s Chinatown the streets devoid of any animation most of the time.

Downtown Calgary’s massive The Core shopping centre with its 2.5 block long glass roof, two department stores and 100+ shops also lacks the vibe tourists would expect in major urban shopping centre.

Last Word

So where are all the people. They are at the mega indoor recreation centres, fitness studios, playing in our 7,000+ parks and green spaces or walking the dog (100+ dog parks). They could also be busy cleaning and repairing their big houses and doing yard work as Calgary has one of the highest home ownerships in the world at 73%. Or they have gone to the mountains.

Most Calgarians would rather stroll along a nearby pathway next to the river or in a park than wander the streets of their neighbourhood. Rather than hanging out at a street patio, they hang out on their backyard deck or even the private rooftop patios that most new residential towers have.

Calgarian love their privacy. Urban living in Calgary is much more private compared to the rest of the world.

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