Surging oil wealth, a huge provincial surplus, and a booming real estate market make Calgary the new "centre of the universe" in Canada.
"The city boasts the highest GDP per capita in the country. In its concentration of corporate head offices, Calgary is second only to Toronto. Office space runs at the national high, fetching more than $40 a square foot in the most desirable buildings -- when it can be found. Last year, rents soared 49 per cent. Yellow cranes hover over the downtown cityscape...[s]ome 19.5 million square feet of real estate is currently under construction or being marketed, 6.7 million square feet of it downtown.
The residential housing market is also aflame. Resale house prices rose more than 18 per cent in February over the previous year, three times the national average. Ten years ago, the sale of a million-dollar house was rare. Now it's commonplace.
With no sales tax and a flat provincial tax, Alberta, with zero debt and a budget surplus of more than $10 billion, has become a wealth magnet."
FULL STORY: Swingin' Calgary

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan
The plan provides a comprehensive framework for making San Diego’s transportation network more multimodal, accessible, and sustainable.

Walmart Announces Nationwide EV Charging Network
The company plans to install electric car chargers at most of its stores by 2030.

Seattle Builds Subway-Sized Tunnel — for Stormwater
The $700 million ‘stormwater subway’ is designed to handle overflows during storms, which contain toxic runoff from roadways and vehicles.

Feds Clear Homeless Encampment in Oregon Forest
The action displaced over 100 people living on national forest land near Bend, Oregon.

Is This Urbanism?
Chuck Wolfe ponders a recommended subscription list of Substack urbanists and wonders — as have others — about the utility of the "urbanist" moniker.
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