Hi

Been reading alot of headlines lately about crime in Calgary and read on another forum of a women who was advised by other calgarians not to go downtown at night.

We are moving there next month and this is worrying me. Can anyone let me know just what the crime is like in Calgary. We have 2 children and really thought Canada was going to be a safer place to be.

Can anyone recommend a nice family area in or around Calgary to live.

Thanks for you help

While the population has been growing crime has been going down in Calgary for years.

Stats from Calgary Police Service

...........................................Number of Offences
...........................................Year-to-Date
...........................................2006.....2007...2008

HOMICIDE............................44........41.. .....59
ASSAULT..............................5956...5275 ....5383
STREET ROBBERY.................784 .....915 .....750
COMMERCIAL ROBBERY.........308 ....256 .....256
BREAK AND ENTER - HOUSE..2708.....2315 ....2393
BREAK AND ENTER - SHOP....3379 .....3047 ....2561
THEFT OF VEHICLE............... 5377.....5979 .....5644
THEFT FROM VEHICLE...........8805 ......9269 .....9239
MISCHIEF OFFENCES...........9798 .......9709 ....8745

The only stat up is homicide - but that increase is due to some gang violence.

People get paranoid.

Has anyone seen the Michael Moore movie "Bowling for Columbine." Forget the philosophical discussion about the movie. Remember when Moore went to Toronto by way of comparison with US cities. He was able to walk into houses without knocking on the door, and be greated in a polite fashion. In the states he couldn't get past the security doors and gun toting home owners.

Canada is safe.

Of course if you're the victim it's different!

A lake community:
McKenzie Lake
Bonaventure Lake
Sundance LAke
Lake Bonavista

I enjoy living in Lake Midnapore with my wife, dog and 3 young kids!

Hi dalaney,

We'd agree with triumphguy's suggestions although there are many, many more very nice communities to choose from.

We have not felt even the slightest sense of threat since moving here from the south east of the UK, where we often felt trouble was near at hand. Just perceptions?...maybe...but we believe you will quickly sense that (outside the NE of Calgary) there is little to be concerned about. That's not to say you should drop your guard or that you should stop doing the sensible things you might do in the UK to protect yourself and your family, but this is a good place to live and to bring up your children.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.

We've been in Calgary for almost a year, never felt threatened or unsafe. Been downtown 3 maybe 4 times since we've been here and its like any large city. There is very little need to go downtown unless you live or work there.

Plenty of nice communities to live in, mainly in the South. The part to avoid is NE...........Forest Lawn, Marlborough

We've lived downtown and now in the burbs and never felt safer anywhere in the world than Calgary.

There's little in downtown Calgary to be worried about. You see homeless people (shock horror!), some of whom inevitably look a bit scary if you're not used to seeing them, but they're generally a non-threatening bunch and some are actually really friendly, nice people if you ever get talking to them. Even when begging it's generally 'excuse me sir' 'thank you' etc. That's really about it. I've yet to see a proper fight or any type of violence or thuggish stuff that we'd often see back in Britain.

In a nutshell, people are a tad paranoid over here and the media, like anywhere, aren't too responsible when it comes to headlines and selling papers, advertising etc. There are murders like anywhere else, but on the whole this place is very, very safe in comparison to the rest of the world. Being advised not to go out at night downtown is just overkill. Even the NE isn't bad copmpared to some estates in the UK and elsewhere. I've driven down the worst parts of the NE and was like 'is this it?'. If you look at the serious crime stats you'll see it's actually spread out across all quadrants of the city, not just the NE. That's another Calgary myth.

Thanks for all your replies, you have certainly put my mind at rest, and thank you for you tips on nice family areas to live. I must say the lake communities do look nice.
What are the other areas you suggest? Getting there
What about the places outside Calgary like Okotoks or is this too much of a commute as will be working downtown.

As a new family coming to Calgary - you will very likely not choose to live anywhere too near the downtown core - and therefore anything that happens there will not affect you anyway. Reports of it being a dangerous hellhole are vastly exaggerated - and compared to most mild market town in the UK, it's really quiet!

(But you do have to bear in mind that as the city grows, the 'old-timers' don't like to see any increase in traffic, road-rage, muggings, etc - so any increase is reported widely - and I don't doubt that in 20 years time, the levels of crime or nuisance will match that mild market town afterall )

what about the student from Brazil who was caught in crossfire in chinatown in the summer ? he is now blind in both i eyes i believe - until one of their 'own' (innocent bystanders) gets popped the good old boys will shrug it off as druggie/homeless/gang crime - while i agree it does beat urban UK in terms of assault, there does seems to an epidemic of gun crime, similar to the spread of knife crime in London, if this is constantly referred to as not a problem for the middle class burbs, and almost accepted as it seems to be now, how long before gangs clipping joe public in initiation rites etc

I'm a woman and I lived on my own in the Beltline area of Calgary for a year and often walked through downtown at night. I never felt threatened by people on the streets... although I wouldn't necessarily feel that way if I had to walk by the Cecil Hotel and surrounding area.

Most people are bashed up and/or killed by people they know. I'm sure the rate of people getting bashed up and killed in the suburban wastelands of any major Canadian city is actually very similar to any downtown core in Canada. It's just labelled differently and/or escapes media attention.

[QUOTE=hwp;7133787]I'm a woman and I lived on my own in the Beltline area of Calgary for a year and often walked through downtown at night. I never felt threatened by people on the streets... although I wouldn't necessarily feel that way if I had to walk by the Cecil Hotel and surrounding area.
QUOTE]

damn strait sistah

went to scope the place out for a brew last winter with the f-in-law, got within 100yds of the place and dverted to the crab shack opposite, i've drunk in some choice places but this was straight from a death wish movie

Freaky place.

I wonder what Tripadvisor has to say about it?

There was a piece recently in the Calgary Herald about the Cecil being too dangerous for the police.

Apparently they used to use it as a training location for undercover cops but in the last while it became too dangerous.

Regarding the unfortunate shooting of the young fellow from Brazil it has now been confirmed that one of those killed on New Years day was an innocent bystander. I wonder if that will actually make any change in attitudes toward these killings.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...ub=CalgaryHome

Hi dalaney,

McKenzie Lake has been mentioned and the adjacent (and more recent) McKenzie Towne is also quite popular. Well worth a look. Chaparral, Cranston, Auburn Bay are all very pleasant. Get in a car when you get here and just have fun having a really good tour around. It's great for confidence building.

Much as we love Okotoks, we have often said on here that if our jobs demanded that we be in downtown Calgary in rush hour, then we would likely move to Calgary instead (looking first at the communities mentioned above as we prefer the south of Calgary - many prefer the NW quadrant - each to their own) as that wouldn't be the friendliest commute at the busiest times. Outside peak...no problem whatsoever. In peak time, Okotoks to anywhere a little off the Deerfoot Trail as far north as Glenmore Trail, as a work location, would also be fine (in our view - our UK experience was 60 minute plus commutes to Central London) but the extra trawl into downtown would make it tiresome, as would driving from Okotoks to a C-Train station, trying to find a parking space and then continuing the commute from there.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.

The student (Jose Netto) was a total freak occurance (hit by a stray bullet downtown) and shouldn't be used as a springboard for hysteria. It happened, it's tragic, but you're as likely to be killed by any number of other freak accidents in Calgary. It illustrates gun crime CAN effect innocent people, but it's ridiculously unlikely. Also using the word 'epidemic' to describe a handful of shooting deaths is just crazy talk, as much as the newspapers love using words like that (look at the knife crime headlines in Britain!). There were more murders in Calgary one year in the late 70's than now with a population of a few hundred thousand people, and it's still around 30 people per year on average now, which is a pretty good stat for a city of over a million people...and only some of those are gang/gun-related. Some are domestics etc too. As for initiation rites...you may have been watching too many movies. This simply doesn't happen in Calgary. I find people who knock downtown watch too much OTT north american-style news and never spend any time downtown anyway. Oh, and homeless people tend to be victims of crime more than perpetrators.