Calgary Civic Census 2015

[speedog]

Originally Posted by fusili

People often forget that a lot of utilities in the burbs go through the inner city to get to pump stations, treatment plants, power stations etc.

Case in point, West Memorial Sanitary trunk line. The line had to be upgraded through Bowness (that is the construction you see happening on 16th avenue by the Bow River) as the line was hitting capacity. But Bowness hasn't been growing for 10 years- it was actually increased usage from places like Valley Ridge and Crestmont (and Cochrane IIRC) that were adding to the capacity. A utility upgrade in the inner city was entirely due to increased usage from the suburbs.

Same goes for roads, power lines, water lines, storm water, fire stations, etc

If we add 10K people to the inner city we have to upgrade infrastructure in the inner city to serve them (generally). If we add 10K people to the suburbs we have to add the infrastructure in the suburbs AND the inner city to serve them. That is the fundamental reason why density makes sense, it requires less infrastructure per person than low-density areas.

This concept isn't hard.

So let get this straight, adding 10,000 people in the Bridlewood area is going to require increased infrastructure in the inner city? How so?