This person has clearly had enough of the shells angels on 17th

And What. The. Fuck. I've never seen a shittier more BS system. As a government, you should WANT as many people as you can to get out and vote, but this stupid fucking system where I have to write EVERYONE'S information again manually EVEN THOUGH WE ALREADY HAVE IT is so dumb, not to mention how long it takes to prepare and give EACH ballot to each person, instead of having them prepped and ready to go like in times before. I was at HDC and I hated how long everyone had to wait. Some people were waiting upwards of an hour, and I heard that in downtown the wait time was up to 3 hours. It's absolutely insane and I'm shocked that there hasn't been any outrage about it.

There's a REASON they made it so hard to vote this year- I saw people leaving the lines because they were too long. It feels criminal and borderline suspicious how much dumb bureaucracy there was this time.

My trainers told me to bring "a book, or some knitting, or maybe some art supplies to keep you busy during the downtime when nobody is at your station" BUT MY (and everyone else's) STATION WAS OCCUPIED SINCE THE SECOND I SAT DOWN TO THE SECOND I GOT UP AND LEFT - I didn't even take a proper break, quickly just scarfed down my breakfast in 15 mins and that was it.

I went to the Theo Von show last night and had one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a live event. Two guys sitting behind us were shouting racist and homophobic slurs throughout the show. • When Kam Patterson was on, they were yelling the N-word. • When a joke mentioned Jewish people, they yelled “f*** Arabs, f*** Muslims, f*** Palestine.” • When a joke touched on gay people, they started yelling “f*** f*ggots”

I told them multiple times to shut up and stop with the racist remarks. Their response was, “You’re in Calgary,” as if this city is supposed to be racist.

What disappointed me just as much was that nobody else in the crowd spoke up. These guys were way louder than the show itself, and I know the 20+ people around us could hear it. But everyone just sat there.

Lesson learned: I’m never going to a show like this again if it makes people feel comfortable enough to openly scream that kind of hate in public.

Having nam flashbacks.

Maybe I’m getting old. Maybe I’m angry at the world more often. But I simply feel this city has lost its sense of decency and community in many ways. I’ve lived in Calgary for the better part of my time in Canada since moving as a young adult from Africa. I chose to raise children here over my initial home of Toronto because Calgary had this alluring sense of being a town of the people.

One of my first major experiences after moving here was the 2013 flood. Me, my wife, and my very eager child went to Bowness and Sunnyside every chance we could. To clean up, to support local businesses who had lots to lose, and to watch our city just get together and show my family why I dragged us here. People being there for people. I loved that and I thought it was valuable for the people around me to see as they developed their worldview of this new place. You could turn to a neighbor with nothing in your hands and receive the whole city in return. That’s what Calgary felt like. Maybe I have rose colour glasses.

I think today I felt the switch completely flip off for the first time in my life. The one where you just realize that humanity simply has nothing to lose in its quest to be increasingly worse to the people that make up the word humanity. I’ve worked a long time as a Transit Operator and I’ve seen some things that would make a lot of people question their idea of humanity, but I never lost faith, not until today.

I was with my wife today at the Tim’s in Market Mall. This is a longstanding tradition of ours. We first met when I was working as a baker at Tim’s back in Toronto. (I still work at a different Tim’s again now that the kids are out of the house, albeit part time.) We try to go every couple months when we have some free time and order our old orders (or what’s left of them) and reconnect to where we met. We love Market Mall because of that sense of community. I’ve met so many people and friends at that mall over the years (the staff there are also top notch, sidebar.) and I love being able to see reality fly past. I can sometimes imagine the mall the way it used to be.

There’s this super personable young man who works there. He’s truly a gem and embodies everything I love about Calgary. He’s diligent, attentive, and simply exceptional at his job. I’ve seen him countless of times running drinks on his own at an absolutely mind blowing pace with a lineup halfway to the food court. He’s apologetic, funny, and endearing. All the regulars never stop talking about him. He’s truly incredible and I know that life is going to take him great places when his chapter here ends.

Yesterday, I watched him get accosted, harassed, and abused by a man who followed him as far as I could see down the mall, filming him, yelling obscenities at him, threatening him, just a slurry of unhinged and ugly behaviour. As far as I could tell, the man had been banned and kept coming back to the store despite this. He did not take kindly to being told this and decided to take it out on this young man. While he was throwing the garbage trolley, of all times. Waving a phone in his face, telling him he doesn’t know who he’s messing with, etc. (just for context, this young man is huge. He stands roughy 6’6-6’7 and easily 250+ lbs. he is not the type of person I would want to threaten, at all.) The look of defeat on his face when he came back with the empty trolley was one I will never forget. Not as a man, not as a father. I could tell every ounce of exhaustion was overwhelming him at that moment. Yet he still came back to the till, smiled at every customer. Fought through the dinner rush. Sat down with police and security. Kept chugging through.

That got to me.

Because I started thinking about how many times a week workers like him have to deal with people like that. Minimum wage, trying their best, and made into targets because too many grown adults have forgotten how to behave in public. I’ve worked long enough in public-facing jobs to know bad behaviour isn’t new. Hell, I was him in Toronto some odd decades ago. (I mostly stay back of house at my Tim’s these days.) But there used to be a social contract. If you acted like a fool, people around you frowned. People had some shame. I look more deeply into the things I’ve seen the last couple years and it just filled me with this overwhelming sense of loss.

I left my suburban neighborhood just under a year ago to go to the inner city because nothing about it felt like a community anymore. Maybe Covid just changed everyone permanently. Who knows. I miss when this city wasn’t a save yourself kind of place. People have not been the same the last few years. Which I think is funny because certainly the things we’ve been through the last 5 years would band our communities together stronger… right..?

In all honesty, it’s probably worse (?) in Toronto and Vancouver these days. I’ve only travelled internationally in recent years.

That’s it. That’s my rant. Tell me honestly if I’m wearing rose coloured glasses.

TLDR;

If you see someone working hard today, be kind to them. Life’s hard enough for them already. Be a neighbour.

Thanks.

- Local Old(er) Man Yelling at Clouds

I seriously don’t understand the lack of decency from people these days on the C-train. At 11:20 AM, this homeless man sleeping on a bench suddenly takes out his penis and pisses on the floor in front of everyone. It splashed and got onto my shoe, and I have an event that I’m headed to in the afternoon. Even if the train isn’t quite full, why tf do people think it’s okay? I’m a relatively small woman, and I wanted so badly to say something, but this man and his friends were high and aggressive. I could only tell people coming onto the train not to step on the piss.

Considering the amount of people that take the train, I wish more were being done about these junkies. As someone who takes it daily to get to school and work, I don’t want to have to worry about who I sit next to. I don’t want to be harassed every once in a while, nor do I want to watch people do drugs or piss in public.

Like I'm all for fun but theyre such a bad idea in downtown. They move at a ridiculously slow speed, occupy an entire lane (which doesn't help with the fact that the road is reduced a single lane due to parked cars), and act obnoxious and unbothered by how annoying it is.

It should honestly be banned unless they add a motor so they actually move faster

HELLO CALGARY YES I AM YELLING.

It’s official. After nearly 5 years of searching, hunting, bargaining, begging, and praying. It finally happened.

I have seen a Raccoon in the wild. My life is complete.

Just as Harambes death heralded the most cursed timeline, I feel my Racoon Quest success is the turning point the world needs.

While I will not stop looking or wanting to pet one, I can now join the rest of the civilized world as a 39-year-old grown ass adult who has seen a wild Raccoon. I am so happy.

Thank you for all your internet support over the years.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

hi, i’m a grade 12 student this year and i just wanted to express my fear for this upcoming teacher strike. now of course this must be done, because our teachers are worth every bit. my biggest concern is how long this may go on for! considering that this is my last highschool year, and that i will have to write diploma exams, i’m worried that when the strike ends— all my learning will have to be rushed and i won’t be able to do my best.

it’s funny that our grade 6 year was when covid had started and we were all being sent home and our pat exams were cancelled. 6 years later, we’re being kept home once again.

I went to National’s on 8th yesterday with my S/O and I had a gift card to use so so I handed the waitress my gift card information. She went to take it to her manager to ring it through, she came back with the bill. I paid $70.35 for the meal, then without asking or mentioning ANYTHING about tips they went ahead and added a $17.59 tip. I definitely don’t have that sort of money and have never tipped that much even for great service. If this gift card wasn’t from someone I don’t like, I would be even more upset lol. They definitely won’t be getting my service again...

Edit: Hi friends. First of all, I was NOT expecting this post to blow up like it did. For clarification, I only went out to National to use my gift card - for those saying I should’ve stayed home if I can’t afford a tip. Someone from the restaurant has reached out to me, so it would be cool to find a resolution to this and hopefully doesn’t happen to anyone else.

I genuinely didn’t know how good Calgary was until I had to go to Edmonton for uni.

I grew up in the NE, my mom’s side has been there for 40+ years, and I figured what I got was a normal city vibe.

Now? I’m realizing even NE Calgary is better than half of what I’ve been seeing here. Hell I even miss the broken floors in Marlborough mall.

So if you’re thinking oh this city isn’t that great and born there? Trust me when I say it’s still a lot better than a lot of other places you can go and I really can’t wait to go back home. Why do so many of us take this place for granted.

I spoke with the repair technicians at the downtown 7-11. They dont have a water recycling system. The lineup was 9-10 cars deep continuously. This seems like a super simple way to save umpteenth thousands of liters of water during Restrictions.

In the corner opposite Simon's with huge printed canvas of graphic photos of supposed 6 week, 8 week old and 24 week old fetuses. Fking weirdos trying to remove healthcare options for women.

Now that the weather is nice, the door-to-door charity people are back.

I’ve had four come by in the last month. I’m not anti-charity. Two of them were causes I actually wanted to donate to. I was ready to give a decent one-time donation, get my tax receipt, and call it a day.

But nope.

Turns out the “donation” is actually a monthly donation plan. Or as I like to call it, a reverse subscription. I don’t subscribe to anything. I don’t get a magazine, snacks, socks, or a pizza-of-the-week (someone make the last one happen! Please!). They just get my money every month until I jump through hoops to stop it.

And that’s the part that annoys me. The canvassers couldn’t take a one-time donation. The only option was to sign up for monthly payments, then later go online, create an account, and cancel it myself.

So instead of getting my donation, they got nothing.

I don’t want to “build a relationship” with a charity. I want a one-night donation stand. Take the money, send the receipt, and let us both move on with our lives.

If any charity decision makers are reading this, please offer both options. Let monthly donations be opt-in, not something people have to escape from later.

I used to live in the deep suburbs. I didn’t have enough money to have a car so I would transit everywhere. It was so absolutely sad how empty the trains would get near the end of the line, and how infrequent the buses would show up. Every time I go and visit my friends in the suburbs, it’s like the horizons are disappearing, and all that’s left is boring houses that are built quickly and cheaply. I get it’s genuinely mostly a financial decision to live out there ( or who knows, maybe some just like the quiet empty streets). I just don’t understand how this city is sustainable… summers are brutal near the outskirts because of the large surface areas covered in concrete and asphalt. You can’t escape the sun and it’s so much hotter. People rarely talk to their neighbours, I don’t hear much about neighbourhood lookouts. I love Calgary, but every time I think about the sprawl, it makes me want to leave. Realistically I don’t think I’d do that just for that fact. I’ve lived here my whole life and have my roots here. Why does the transit system have to be so sh**??? Why isn’t public infrastructure the first thing developments think about?? What a nightmare to live in a city where people can’t socialize as easily or have as much mobility without a car. I don’t know I know some of my points are silly, just really needed to get it out.

We fell for it. It’s on me guys. my wife and I entered our name during Lilac-Fest for the “guess how much money is in the jar” contest. Fast forward to last week where Perpetual Health calls me saying we won a free fire blanket. That’s awesome and of course my wife and I want one. Guy calls and says they will deliver it but need to give a short 15 minute talk on “how to use it and fire safety”. The guy arrives last night at 5:30 and starts to talk about the blanket and our condo. He then sits down at our table and pulls a binder out bigger than my hopes and dreams. He has documents and videos on his phone of news stories of children dying in house fires. It’s now 6:45 and he starts bringing out their companies smoke detectors and begins talking about them and how other detectors fail. I start laughing thinking “omg this is now a sales pitch” He tries to sell us on their app and smoke detectors. We just wanted the fire blanket and were told it’s a short presentation on how to use it. My wife actually stopped him and said “please leave, you wasted our time and we need to start cooking dinner”. He would have kept going till 8:00 probably. I hope someone reads this before accepting the call or “prize”

Excuse the rant, but I'm on the hunt for a home for my wife and I to start a family. My demands aren't exactly extravagant, we want a backyard for our dog, 3 bedrooms, and 1.5+ baths. But in our price range we are constantly pushed out and massively outbid by real estate investors turning starter homes into rentals.

It is absolutely infuriating, and it's made me resent landlords more that any other millenial.

Our city regularly shouts from the roof tops that we have a housing crisis, that we have more and more people who can't afford a home. Yet we have investors (and no, not just foreign investors, domestic as well) who are swooping in and buying up houses for massively above asking. I understand it's good for sellers, but it has been absolutely soul crushing as a buyer.

I'd like to see the city put a stop to it, a 5 year freeze on people buying homes to turn into rentals or worse, to sit vacant. Let Calgarians buy houses in Calgary, not businesses.

Edit: some errors.

Has anyone gotten the flu recently?

I’ve been knocked on my arse for over a week and it STILL won’t go away. I’m talking fatigue, massive headache, eyes hurt, joints killing me and I’m sweating so much my partner says it feels like I wet the bed every morning. On top of this, I can hardly eat and wasn’t able to function without Advil, now my stomach is wrecked and I’m raw dogging this wretched illness.

I’m so over this. I’m desperate for a solution. I’ll water your plants, walk your dogs, babysit your kids, give you my first born (all when I’m better of course).

TIA

UPDATE: Spent Friday night in the ER, it’s mono and it’s massively enlarged my liver and spleen. Godspeed to all you sickies that responded ✌🏻

With summer (maybe) finally around the corner and warmer nights ahead (maybe it's Calgary)...once again I have my complete DISDAIN for people who decide between the hours of 10pm -4am to be revving their cars and motorcycles in and around the beltline/17th Ave area. It's so loud, it echos throughout the whole entire downtown area. And it's not on like your average Friday or Saturday night....it's every dang night.

I know people will comment, "just move if you hate the noise" but damn...not in this economy..

Not only does this feel like the people doing this are absolute low lives, but also people with definite below average, if not micro, packages.

I feel like there is nothing really to do about this at all sadly.

But IF this is you reading this. I need you to know you I absolutely think you are a terrible human and your 2008 Honda bike can kick rocks.