Calgary in 30 and 100 years.

As most of you are aware, I spend my days working for the City of Calgary, which can be pretty cool at times. In my past lives, I've worked with stockholders in mind, now I work with Citizens in mind, and there are some differences. The things that I see being developed or are about to happen are things that could affect you and me: changes to the Transit website, software that runs the 311 operations centre, whatever. This is where it get's sort of cool.

I bring this up because I happened upon a nifty project that the City is working on, a project I'm not sure ANY city in North America is doing. It's called ImagineCalgary. What its trying to do is invent a crystal ball to look into, once there's a basic suggestion of where this city is going, we can be proactive and try to mitigate any nasties that might be around the corner. I know, I know, sounds sort of wishy-washy. But once you get beyond the initial palpable superficial appearance, it could be cool. Given what's happening to our city recently, what the heck is this town going to look like in 30 or 100 years? Check out this futuristic newsletter for a glimpse of what some people think.

Here's where I see Calgary in 30 years:

• Calgary's population is holding steady at around 1.2 Million people. Not considered to be "booming".
  
• Calgary is performing particularly well in the tech industry, fuelled initially by the oilpatch, the city's IT sector is significantly diverse.
• Calgary's LRT (Light Rail Transit, our train) extends further into the south and NW, and NE, but now sports a new SE arm, meandering its way clear down to just west of McKenzie Towne/Copperfield.
• Calgary has the gorgeous new sportsplex her athletes have been starved for. A 55,000 seat football / soccer / athletics stadium. The Stampeders continue to draw 40,000 per game.
• The Flames are floundering. After winning 8 Cups in 12 years, Coach Jarome Iginla is fired.
• AAA baseball has returned to Calgary. The new Calgary Cannons play at the 15,000 seat Foothills Park.
• Professional European soccer sees no fewer than 60 Calgarians playing for their starting eleven. Clubs Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Werder Bremen, Valencia, and Glasgow Celtic are all captained by Calgarians.
• Calgary's new airport has been opened for 5 years and is still home to the mega-airline WestJet, who have announced 5 additional European destinations.
• The average home will cost $420,000, which includes the new Calgary communities of Airdrie, and Okotoks.
• Calgary is feverishly preparing bid for 2040 Olympic Summer Games.
• Calgary continues to be viewed highly as a major tourist destination. The massive Calaway Park adds its third roller coaster, and second major water park.

Anything to add anybody?