Brookman: City's communication lacking in reciprocity

Calgary Herald

30-05-2025

In the 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, the brutish southern sheriff tells his prisoner, 'What we have here is a failure to communicate.' To the sheriff, 'communicate' means he tells the prisoner what to do and the prisoner complies or suffers the consequences.
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Communication can be seen as an exchange of ideas that results in a mutually agreeable outcome.
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Municipal governments seem to now believe an effort to be more transparent and to communicate simply comes down to them telling the people what the government intends to do. When council says, 'We need to be more transparent,' it does not mean they are open to discussion, but rather only want to tell us what they have already decided.
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The disruption and ongoing work along 33rd Avenue in Marda Loop has become the subject of jokes across the city. Traffic is in chaos, residents are upset and businesses struggle, but the City of Calgary soldiers on.
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Last week, I attended a community presentation that involved two proposed buildings along 34th Avenue. One is shown as 16 storeys and the other is 18 storeys.
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Parking is proposed at 66 per cent, meaning one in three units will not have a parking stall. Never mind that this area was to have a maximum height of six-storey buildings. Never mind that many young couples own not one, but two cars or that the whole area is already crowded with cars parked along residential streets.
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None of that matters as long as city council has 'communicated' their intentions to the community. At the presentation, a City representative asked, 'What do you think?' When the responses were 'too tall and not enough parking,' he responded that, 'Everyone says that, but this is what the City wants.'
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This is nonsense, and no established community in Calgary is being spared.
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The City wants to establish a new committee to protect the urban forest, but then approves developments that begin with the demolition of charming old homes and the tearing down of hundreds of trees. Is this what communities want? Is this what the residents want? Is this transparency and communication?
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The answer is clear. This city hall is driven by an ideology of increased density. Never mind what happens to charming old neighbourhoods or established communities. Never mind about individual privacy or use of your backyards, and forget about parking in front of your own home.