US equivalents of Calgary?

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I'm really impressed at your attempt to engage with and analyse the data. I'd say it sounds fairly accurate.

For the record, I am too. Typically, I completely disagree with most of dc_denizen's posts, but I've found his contributions to this discussion to be good faith and interesting.

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

But you aren't making any of those same adjustments for metro Calgary.

its true that I shouldn't remove airports and industrial , I just found the amount of these uses in SLC City surprisingly high

but the demographia number do exclude wilderness from the Calgary UA, I was attempting to do the same and come up with an apples to appples comparison for Salt Lake County.

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by Pavlov

For the record, I am too. Typically, I completely disagree with most of dc_denizen's posts, but I've found his contributions to this discussion to be good faith and interesting.

Thank you!

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

its true that I shouldn't remove airports and industrial , I just found the amount of these uses in SLC City surprisingly high

but the demographia number do exclude wilderness from the Calgary UA, I was attempting to do the same and come up with an apples to appples comparison for Salt Lake County.

OK, I understand. Fair enough. It is really difficult to compare the typical metro density statistics.

I'd summarize my position (after considering your useful posts) as something like this:

Calgary's inner city is substantially denser than SLC's (say, the central ~15-20% of the metro). The non-inner city areas of the two metro areas (the other 80% of the metros) is probably very similar in terms of density. This results in Calgary being overall denser than SLC, but probably only something like 1.5 times more dense (all while acknowledging that this is a very inexact science).

[dc_denizen]

sounds about right, assuming you exclude Oream/Provo which are separate urban areas that contiguously border SLC.

[Pavlov]

I think I've already said but I'll say it again: this discussion (and the streetview tour it spired me to take) really opened my eyes to SLC's wealth of lovely, established, dare-I-say lush SFH residential areas. It changed the way I think about that city.

[Atlas]

Provo/Orem (Utah County in general) has a different culture compared to SLC, which is what explains why it looks different in street view. Where SLC is a more cosmopolitan city with a good deal of remnant 19th/20th century urbanism, Utah County is homogeneous suburbia where Mormonism is absolutely dominant. Provo has a small downtown but that's pretty much it. Lehi, on the northern end of Utah County, is a case study in awful (or total lack of) urban planning. It's a sea of shiny tech office parks, new strip malls, and new SFH with no public transit (yet).

Sorry to continue the thread derailment haha

[Kenneth]

The comparison has to be with US cities proper, of similar population. Now it is comparable to Dallas, San Antonio and San Diego

[MolsonExport]

What is the Canadian equivalent of Jacksonville? Toronto?

[Docere]

How dare you mention Toronto in the same breath as...Jacksonville.

[Razor]

This one is tough, because you would have to find a relatively small American metro who's coming of age was in the past 30 years or so..Most of the newish Sunbelt cities are substantially larger then Calgary to compare apples to apples..That, or the ones that are the same size are far older resulting in a different urban make-up..I guess Honolulu may be the best example so far..I too can see the Denver comparison, but being that it's almost 2x Calgary's size, it's not apples to apples. If we are throwing out metro figures and only looking at style, Rocky mountain culture, OVERALL skyline etc.Then sure..I think Denver is also much older too right?..I may be wrong on that.

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by Razor

This one is tough, because you would have to find a relatively small American metro who's coming of age was in the past 30 years or so..Most of the newish Sunbelt cities are substantially larger then Calgary to compare apples to apples..That, or the ones that are the same size are far older resulting in a different urban make-up..I guess Honolulu may be the best example so far..I too can see the Denver comparison, but being that it's almost 2x Calgary's size, it's not apples to apples. If we are throwing out metro figures and only looking at style, Rocky mountain culture, OVERALL skyline etc.Then sure..I think Denver is also much older too right?..I may be wrong on that.

IMO Austin is a good comparison.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by IluvATX

IMO Austin is a good comparison.

Austin indeed has a nice skyline, and although it's a fair bit larger then Calgary, it's still roughly in the same weight class. I'm just not convinced that Austin punches waay above its weight in the same manner that Calgary does.. Having said that, Austin does look a little larger then it is on paper though. It has a nice concentration in it's core. I can see where you are coming from when you drew the comparison.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Razor

Austin indeed has a nice skyline, and although it's a fair bit larger then Calgary, it's still roughly in the same weight class. I'm just not convinced that Austin punches waay above its weight in the same manner that Calgary does.. Having said that, Austin does look a little larger then it is on paper though. It has a nice concentration in it's core. I can see where you are coming from when you drew the comparison.

This depends on what your standard or metric for a 'weight class' is. I feel like we're constantly holding American cities as the standard for the weight class, hence why we say Calgary's skyline 'looks' like that of a city 2-3x its size.

But if Austin were a Canadian city, it'd probably hit about its weight, if not a bit under (Vancouver has a more developed skyline with only 500-600,000 more people). Really Austin is just a few very tall condos with terrible street interaction and some smaller office buildings.

[dc_denizen]

Lol ok

[Nite]

for a US Calgary analog, the city has to be one that punches significantly above it's population class.
I can currently think of only 3 cities to match that criteria. they are:

Seattle, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City

these 3 cities have a national reputation that above their population class.
Austin doesn't seem to be a good analog to Calgary because it's in a states where it's the 4th most important city.

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by Kenneth

The comparison has to be with US cities proper, of similar population. Now it is comparable to Dallas, San Antonio and San Diego

Municipal boundaries are meaningless in this comparison

Calgary has no suburbs, the municipality is the same as the urban area and the metro (80-90% of the land area is nonetheless suburban)

As discussed above Salt Lake City urban area has a similar shape , density , and population , split amongst 20 independent municipal governments

If anything to me Calgary looks like Salt Lake City if they plopped a shorter version of downtown Houston into the middle of it, instead of a bunch of Mormon temples and state capital buildings

[CaliNative]

Probably many have said Denver. The proximity to the eastern wall of the Rocky Mountain front range, the importance of energy and mining in the local economy, etc. Denver comes closest. In terms of skyline rank, Denver has a pretty significant skyline for a city of its size, so at least matches it's rank. Calgary probably punches a bit higher, but Denver is gaining. The energy slump has hit Calgary more than Denver, since D. Is far more diversified, and has the government capitol functions as well.

[isaidso]

There isn't a good US equivalent of Calgary. It only makes sense (somewhat) if you don't look at population and look at the role each plays in each country. In that respect, Calgary's equivalent in the US is Dallas. They're the #4 metro in each country, each represents a big western centre with a 'western' culture, and each has a large corporate sector. That's where the similarities end.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by isaidso

There isn't a good US equivalent of Calgary. It only makes sense (somewhat) if you don't look at population and look at the role each plays in each country. In that respect, Calgary's equivalent in the US is Dallas. They're the #4 metro in each country, each represents a big western centre with a 'western' culture, and each has a large corporate sector. That's where the similarities end.

What you stated seems correct, but I think that the OP was only looking at skyline "heft"/proportion in relation to size of the city. Not to take the focus off of Calgary, but two other Canadian metros, (Edmonton and Vancouver), also have 'bigger city" looking skylines in relation to their respective sizes as well.