Calgary or small town
 

Hi all

Looking to gain some thoughts, advice and discussion regarding where to live in Calgary. We have two teenage daughters 17 and 14 years old. My wife and I hope to have jobs in the city. We are trying to decide whether to look at living in the city or choose small town life such as Cochrane or Okotoks.

A few thoughts we are having are;

What is the commute like in the winter months?
If we were to live out of the city, what are the public transport links like for daughters to get into city?
Is it the same education authority for Calgary and outskirt towns?
If we initially choose an area to rent but then decide to completely move areas, are the schools helpful with the move?

Steve

Re: Calgary or small town
 

We spent ages looking at calgary property last night, not helped by mls not returning any rentals :confused:, problem with site maybe? Or are rentals scarce as hens teeth!

Bit worried about commute as we read one place 16mile from calgary would be far too long a commute so this thread will be interesting.

Plus once past the rental stage can anyone suggest acreage areas within commute, only stuff we found was around the 1.5 million and looked like it was inspired by the Dallas era:D

If we move its with 2 teens 12 and 15 by then, have read lots on teens not wanting to go, but thats not our problem. Does anyone actually have teens in calgary and how are they going with it all whats the social life for teens etc .

Re: Calgary or small town
 

A 16 mile commute is hardly the end of the world, but if you're 16 miles from city limits, and then have to drive across town to your place of work through all the commuter traffic, that might not be quite so much fun. It'll all depend on your tolerance of traffic and what amount of time you're prepared to spend in a car. Until you've got a destination (job) it'll be nigh on impossible to know where's best to live.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

Hi all,

We live in Okotoks and like it here very much. That being said, our working lives do not require that we commute to downtown Calgary in rush hour and if that were the case then, on the basis of the likely commute time, we would probably choose to live in Calgary itself. On the other hand, can see from other posts that you intend to join the CPS and your OH hopes to continue her nursing career. In both cases, it may well be that your shift patterns make the commute to Calgary from Okotoks entirely feasible. Outside of rush hour and inside the speed limits, you could probably get from Okotoks to downtown Calgary in 50-60 minutes. For your OH, a journey from here to Rockyview Hospital (for example) in the SW and again, outside rush hour, is maybe a 35 to 45 minutes drive. There is also a hospital being built on the southern edge of Calgary that, once operational in a few years, could provide a very easy commute from Okotoks (20 minutes or less).

Okotoks does not yet have any public transport as such although there is current debate on starting up a bus service to link with the light rail service in Calgary. Don't expect an immediate decision on that. Do expect it to happen eventually. Link to article on front page of this week's Western Wheel (our weekly local paper in Okotoks)...
http://www.westernwheel.com/

Lots of education articles in the WIKI to browse through...
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Category:Education-Canada
...but believe the straight answer to your question re education authorities is "no, Calgary takes care of Calgary and other municipalities take care of their own" but others more expert will no doubt give better answers.

Also, there's an obvious Okotoks bias to this response...I feel sure the Cochrane contingent on BE will be on in due course to give a view from that side of things. It also strikes us as a nice place to live.

Hope this helps. Our blog (see link in signature line below) will give you a taste of life here in Okotoks and Calgary - at least in the way we experience it. Feel free to have a mooch and best of luck with your plans.

Eamonn & Janet.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

MLS will not return any rentals in Alberta, it's primarily a homes for sale site.

Here's what a Google search for House Rentals Calgary returned. http://www.google.ca/search?num=50&h...ry&btnG=Search

Lots of people commute year round from places like Okotoks, High River, Cochrane, Bragg Creek, Airdrie without any major issues, all of these places are beyond 16 miles from downtown.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

Hi,

Eammon makes some good points, what I would add however is it's far more likely nursing ops will be at Foothills than Rockyview. Alternatively you could find they appear at Peter Locheed. Either way you're looking at an extra 20-30 minutes travel.
My personal take on it is IF you want to live outside Calgary and Nurse in a hospital, FORGET Okotoks:p. Think along the lines of Chestermere, Airdrie, Cochrane.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

What about the new yet to be built South Hospital? :confused:

Re: Calgary or small town
 

As you said:p

Re: Calgary or small town
 

Yes, would agree that if nursing work takes OH to NE or NW Calgary, then Butch's suggestions re Airdrie, Chestermere and Cochrane become that much more appealing than Okotoks without negatively impacting commute times to downtown Calgary (assuming that is necessary for CPS work). Otherwise, Okotoks should be OK.

Our personal preferences (and it's all about that really) would put Airdrie and Chestermere beneath Okotoks, Cochrane and southernmost communities of Calgary, as places to live but we found that out by driving around them all, extensively - something we'd recommend to anyone heading over. Hopefully, our expressed preferences don't cause a rant from those who prefer to live in other areas (each to their own, eh!).:D

Eamonn & Janet.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

But "Uncle Ed" has promised it will be built. :p

Re: Calgary or small town
 

Well all those cranes on the southern edge of Calgary where the hospital is due to be sited are building something...let's hope it's a hosi! For the benefit of the original poster, I think I read that the first phase of the hospital will be operational in 2011 with further phases to follow, so clearly it's not a whole bunch of use to you now but might be worth bearing in mind IF, upon investigation, you thought it might be a good future work location.

Eamonn & Janet.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

Yes, there's plenty of those!:D De Winton has some recently built acreage properties. It's not far past the southern edge of Calgary. Likewise around Okotoks but again depends on your tolerance of commuting and need (or otherwise) to be, for example, in downtown Calgary at 8.30am.

Actually, have visited the ranch and house used for the filming of Dallas. Quite a fun afternoon, having grown up with Dallas on in our household every week!

Eamonn & Janet.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

My personal preferences :p

Outside Calgary:
Millarville\Pridis\Bragg Creek
Black Diamond\Turner Valley\Longview
Cochrane
Chestermere
Okotoks
Airdrie (I would NEVER live there in reality).

Inside Calgary:
South of 17th east of 14th north of the river west of 4th
Kensington
Bridgeland
Beltline
Tuscany\Arbour Lake
West of Sarcee North of highway 8 South of COP
Silverado
Mackenzie
Evanston\Kincora\Sage Hill

Re: Calgary or small town
 

No one ever seems to mention Langdon out to the East of Calgary - it's basically a dormitory settlement, smaller than Chestermere/Okotoks/Airdrie/Cochrane but I think a lot of the houses out there have 1/4 acre lots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langdon,_Alberta

Here's a good little guide to where some of the much smaller "communities" are outside Calgary within the Municipal District of Rocky View: http://www.gov.mdrockyview.ab.ca/Vie...e-ec9809e2422f

There is also the MD of Foothills to the South.

If you're looking for an acreage at all, I would tend to avoid the Balzac area to the north of the City as it is all due to be concreted over in the next few years with a humungus shopping mall and business and industrial parks.

Re: Calgary or small town
 

LOL
Isnt that basically whats happened to Airdrie, Chestermere (to a slightly lesser extent), Okotoks and Cochrane already?