Ep.13: 'Not your grandma's suburb'

The Confluence

Ward 12 Coun. Shane Keating has a bumper sticker in his office.

It says: "I do suburbs, but I do them right."

On this episode, host Annalise Klingbeil drives (and complains about an abundance of traffic circles) as Keating tours listeners around Calgary's deep south.

We travel through master-planned, mixed-use, compact neighbourhoods that Keating believes have been done right.

These aren't the Calgary suburbs of decades past, where single-family, cookie-cutter homes with double-car garages sit on large lots and amenities are a car-ride away.

The tour starts in Auburn Bay, which was Calgary's fastest growing community in the 2017 city census, and had 4,217 residents when Keating was first elected in 2010.

Today, more than 16,000 Calgarians live in estate homes, townhouses, apartment complexes, condos and duplexes in Auburn Bay on Calgary's southeastern outskirts.

In nearby Cranston and McKenzie Towne, there are another 36,665 residents who live in walkable, high-density communities that offer a variety of housing, retail and employment options on the city's outer edge.

Keating tours us through other communities including Seton — an area that's been transformed from gopher-filled farmland to the downtown of the 'burbs — Quarry Park and Douglasdale.

As he takes us through some of Calgary's fastest growing communities, Keating speaks about topics including sprawl, the Green Line LRT, living in the deep south without a car, and what's wrong with a closed-minded attitude about new suburbs, all while teaching us about the communities he loves.

As always, Kerianne Sproule makes us sound great. And, your feedback, advice, ideas, shares and iTunes and Facebook reviews are appreciated.