AncientMariner

Hi Everyone,

I made the move from London about a couple of years ago. Since then I had been living and working in Ottawa.

I have just accepted a good offer to work in Calgary. I have been browsing forums and sites for information regarding nice places to rent in Calgary, however, most of the information available is for people who drive. Since I do not drive yet, I need to find a rental place which should ideally be;

-Within walking distance to major and frequent bus routes going to Quarry park area
-With in walking distance to groceries and shopping
- Relatively safe neighbourhood


So far, from my own research, I have singled out Willow park/South center mall area or anything around Chinook mall. Also been advised to avoid NE or SE areas. I am single in early 30's, not a party animal and prefer to stay out of downtown core areas.

I would really appreciate any help or advise.
Thanks all

justkidding

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the areas just to the south of Quarry Park - McKenzie Towne, Douglasdale or New Brighton. What kind of housing are you looking for?

Have you looked on Rentfaster.ca?

Also, check out calgarytransit.ca for bus routes.

Also, check on the off topic forum on calgarypuck.ca. They will be very helpful on there and it seems to be your demographic.

AncientMariner

Thanks for the info.
I am looking to rent anything from a bachelor 1 bed apartment or a nice basement apartment to a shared 2 bed apartment.

Yes, checking on rentfaster. Its a really useful site.

South of Quarry park looks as if its the edge of the city. I wonder if it would be suitable for someone who either has to walk everywhere or bus. Do those areas have shopping centers and major bus/LRT stations?

justkidding

Douglasdale and Mckenzie town have been around for quite a while bus service from either of those areas should be good.

Mckenzie Town is quite interesting.

Check out Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKenzie_Towne,_Calgary

Shard

Are you sure you don't want to drive? Calgary is built around the car, and gets considerably colder than Ottawa.

justkidding

Are you sure about that? The coldness, I mean.

Transit is pretty good here for getting to and from work.

Flossie and Jim

Quarry Park is quite a new out-of-downtown employment area by Calgary standards. The majority of transit in the City is downtown-centric, that is most of the routes converge on downtown. There are cross-town routes around, but these tend to be quite long-winded to get where you need to go!

Having said that, check out the residential areas along bus route 302. The 302 is one of the "BRT" routes - it is a limited stop express bus service that originates at McKenzie Towne and ultimately heads into downtown.

You could live downtown and reverse-commute out (subject to bus timings) - this would give you good transit access out in most directions to most things you need to get to. Otherwise you would probably want to miss out the bits in the middle of the route and also look anywhere south of Quarry Park - McKenzie Towne is fairly self-contained in terms of shops and services and it has a traditional mini high street with a big supermarket at the end of it.

The Calgary Transit route map is pretty neat and you can take a look at the other bus routes and their frequencies and go from there. Transit in the City is pretty well served during rush hour but check your bus times carefully for during the day, evening and weekend frequency as some routes are pretty poorly served outside the rush.

I have a work colleague who doesn't own a car. She says she can get around the city fine for commuting to work. Its more of a pain evenings and weekends when the buses thin out somewhat and some destinations are served by quite long, circuitous routes. Nevertheless she does manage it, but she says it can be quite time consuming!

UK IFA

When we lived in Calgary, many moons ago, we had an apartment in bow valley square and also lived down down, the transit system was fine.

buses where okay and the tram system was good.

Things may have changed

Shard

That's the point.

cheeky_monkey

i live in Mackenzie towne well New Brighton..just saying

Steve_

Bad advice. No doubt from someone who lives on the west side of the city where everyone thinks they're posh and they aren't. You're only posh if you live next to the reservoir or in a big house in Mount Royal. A cookie cutter house with a mountain view of someone's garden in the NW doesn't count.

Calgary has the highest per capita rate of car ownership in Canada, that should tell you something. If you really want to manage without a car, live in Douglasdale and take the bus. There are shops you can walk to, but I wouldn't want to be walking during the winter.

I have to say one my pet peeves is people saying avoid the NE, this is a totally ridiculous thing to say, it's a huge area and there will be huge housing development there as well. Yes near to downtown there are a few crappy areas in the NE and there's one or two other crappy areas in the city dotted about but the characterization of the NE being a ghetto is a joke.

Shard

OP, good advice here.

Almost Canadian

+1

AncientMariner

Thanks all for the advise.

@ Flossie and Jim, Particular thanks for the detailed advice.
302 BRT definitely seems to be a much more reliable form of transport for me. Now I have to choose between living at the downtown end of 302 or in Mckenzie Towne.

Mckenzie towne is certainly interesting looking for a Canadian town. Love the high street concept and design of houses. Looks like a nice quite area. Rent prices seem much higher compared to what I was looking at before or even downtown.

Is Sobeys a usual grocery store/super market? Does anyone living in Mckenzie town find the choice of stores/banks etc limited?

I suppose getting from one place to another in downtown would be much easier, more choice of shopping, at the expense of hearing sirens, loud traffic and the usual weekend riff raff.
Btw where do downtowners shop for groceries?

AncientMariner

Ok you have to brace yourself for this one. Hold on to your chair. I dont have a full driving licence.
I just passed Ontario theory test 6 months ago so I only have a learners G1 licence.