It's A Sad Year In Calgary.....

All you ever hear about it how amazing Calgary is, how it's turning into the centre of the universe (haha, Toronto!) and how Alberta is the richest province in Canada.

What you don't hear is this:

-You can hardly see the mountains in the distance through the newly formed smog that sits above the city, due to lax laws about emissions, etc

- we are having a MAJOR labour shortage, so simple things like getting coffee at Tims (I wouldn't know) have you sitting in line for 30 minutes behind 20 cars.

- the infrastructure of the city is so poor for the amount of people that move here daily, that the traffic and construction is OUT OF CONTROL. My daily commute to work, is about 40 minutes one way and 50 the other (25 kms each way).

- we have become one of the highest crime-ridden cities in Canada. I actually just googled "calgary murder capital" and stumbled across this rant from another fellow Torontonian/Calgarian. I will post the link to his blog because he seems to think exactly like me.....

http://www.jonwatson.ca/node/1024

One of the worst ideas implemented in Calgary? The fucking Drop In Centre. Don't even get me started on that one. Oh I know, lets spend a kajillion of the tax payers money and open a drop in centre for the homeless. That way, word will spread, and homeless people will come from ALL PROVINCES to live in this centre. Then, they can hang around, do drugs and ask every Tom Dick and Harry for a hand out... Ya. Let's do that. Cha-ching. Done. It's the biggest eye-sore of an area in Calgary, and it's EXTREMELY intimidating walking or biking on the paths that directly pass through it.

Oh man, here we go. I've started.

When I worked in the group home and a kid AWOL'd, we'd call the drop in centre to see if they went there. They couldn't even answer to our verification of their safety - because of FOIP (freedom of information protection of privacy). Why did this bother me so much? Well, the kids would go there and spend twice the amount of tax payers money because although they had a funded placement at the group home, they would get a spot at the effen Drop In Centre. Therefore, they didn't have to be accountable for their actions. And we wonder why the future of this new generation is going to shit. Ok, I am done.

I am this odd mix of an idealist,realist and cynic at the same time, but why can't a city grow in a healthy way? It's sad really. Things always have to go down the shitter when the population grows this quickly.

B.C, here I come. It may be more of the same, but at least there isn't snow. Snow = wrist slittage.