Well, I moved out of Calgary to a small town of 6000 people 70 miles away back in November 2003 for a few reasons.

One of them being "My Home of 51 years" has "lost its way of the past" and had become a different in tolerable city.

I sensed this happening back in 2001 and now in 2006 the place is what I imagined it would become.

Here's the story of today.

http://calsun.canoe.ca/SAP/Home/

Under pressure
Calgary Sun August 31, 2006

Mayor Dave Bronconnier is right in one respect.




“The sky is not falling” in Calgary, despite a crime spree that has hogged headlines this summer.

Still, we suspect the nefarious acts of a random selection of bad guys is making civic politicians and our hard-working police service very nervous.

We know it’s making many Calgarians nervous and you can’t blame them for that, even if the chances of becoming a victim of violence remain slim.

The majority of Calgarians who responded to a recent poll say they don’t feel safe in the downtown core.

While we don’t dispute Bronconnier’s claim “Calgary is good and it is safe,” it is important to understand the importance public perception can have on such things as our tourism industry and even the economic health of our downtown, which, for the most part has become an invigorating place to visit and to live.

In the face of such repercussions, it isn’t enough to throw up our hands and blame the situation on the fact our phenomenal growth has put us in the same league as other big cities.

All we have to do is look at cities such as New York, which turned around its own crime spree, to see this is a problem for which there are solutions.

As Bronconnier points out, money isn’t the issue. Our police have been handed an extra quarter billion dollars to clean up the streets.

The police should be sweating over this. It’s going to take a lot of hard work on their part to curb this dangerous and disturbing trend.

But they shouldn’t have to shoulder all the responsibility.

City and provincial politicians have to work harder — and work together instead of butting heads — to come up with a coherent plan.

And we’d suggest the mayor and Premier Ralph Klein delay any trips to drum up even more migration to this province.

They’ve got enough work to do at home solving the negative consequences of runaway growth.

It isn’t as if we couldn’t see this coming. We’ve had projections of phenomenal growth and the pressures it would bring for almost a decade now.

And we’ve been through a boom before.

Calgary experienced the same benefits and problems during the notorious days of the last oil boom in the ’70s.

Surely we learned something from that.

No one wants to be Chicken Little. But we shouldn’t be head-in-the-sand ostriches either.

We must get a handle on this before it gets out of hand.

 

We moved for economic reasons as well better living conditions.

 

I moved from a small town in central Idaho (3000 people), to Las Vegas, for two reasons. One to get away from my cheating ex-wife and her rich boyfriend, and two, because there are good jobs in Lost Wages. Now that I am over my ex-wife, I hate the city, and am going to move back to Idaho soon.

The violent crime rate in Las Vegas has skyrocketed, in the last five years. The driving here, is getting just plain stupid. Summers suck with a capital S. I don't gamble or play golf, and I dislike illegal aliens, what the hell am I doing here!

 

Moved 10 miles west because I couldn't afford the housing in my home town. Other than moving to near by places it would have to be because I fell in love with a place (South Carolina) or work.

 

I have moved because of school, because my parents got divorced, and because I hated where I was at. My last move was an escape move, from Connecticut to here. Now, I am planning another move to a more rural area so I can get my business off the ground. I like this area, though, so as long as it doesn't get too built up, I probably won't move again.

 

Chasing the kitty.

 

I went to school in a small town I fell in love with it, one day I'll live in a small town again, My wife was transplanted from her town cause she married me, Another freind moved from chicago to seattle cause of a kickass job. And some people let nature/FEMA figure out where they get to move to

 

i'm ready to move myself! reasons, too much developement or should i say over developement! low income cluster housing going up everywhere!!
none of my neighbors work!!!!!
i come home after a long day of work and they're all relaxing on their back decks enjoying the sun and listening to music! as they are all section 8!
the state pays their rent, they get food stamps they get clothing allowance fuel assistance and free medical, so why work!!!

 

My town job is (was) at a warehouse in a town of around 6500 people. This company is a Fortune 500, and it was the largest employer in the county (around 9000 people). About 500 worked there. Last June, it was announced that the company would be shutting down operations there and moving them to a larger plant. They went out of their ways to tell us that we were all welcome to transfer to this new plant, and the rumor was that they "had to have" 75% of the workers from here go there, or they would be in a world of hurt. By my best estimate, there are less than 50 who are actually going, and the vast majority of them are supervisors and leads who are either too close to retirement to look anywhere else, or simply of the "posterior smooching" set who want to find new and better butts to kiss. Most of the workers who decided to stay here said that they preferred the small town quality of life, that they had roots and family and friends here, and that they would not move simply because the company wanted or needed them to, even if it meant taking a pay cut to do so.

So not all people are willing to uproot and move at the drop of a hat. And I am proud to count myself amongst them.

 

Divorce did it for me. When my ex and I seperated, I knew she'd be on the phone six times a day and if I was anywhere near her, she'd be at my door 24/7. When I left, I traveled 1400 miles before I stopped. Ain't Missouri grand?

 

Mil1ion- The link goes to today's paper, not yesterday's, but I get your point. All major cities seem to have more and more problems. I can't tell if things are really getting worse, or if I'm just becoming one of the grumpy old men I remember years ago, saying, "What's this world coming to?" To cut directly to the chase, I personally think that western civilization has had their moment, and that we will soon be second-rate nations, and it will be someone else's turn (China?). All great civilizations rise and fall; I think the cycle is getting shorter, just like all other changes. Or maybe you actually want to know why people move? I left CT after 27 years b/c my then-girlfriend, now wife wanted to be closer to her mother and I said, "Sure, why not?" Now we are looking to move out to the country- South Carolina- b/c I want to spend my last days on some acreage out in the country, not wedged in the suburban sprawl that FL has become. We want 4 seasons again, but not too cold, and we want to get away from fast food joints, drug stores, car lots, and traffic! The cost of living has sky-rocketed here (my homeowner's insurance alone is $300 a month!), and for what my house is worth today, I can buy half a mountain in the boonies.

 

getting out of the military is what brought me to here, i was living the nice life in europe, now come back to either a rat trap or a very boring town. i settled here because of a supposed job offer from a relative which still hasn't really came through, then i get hit with cancer, so i am kinda of stuck here with my cancer treatments, so it really sucks!

but thank goodness i did get stuck here, the doctors are excellent and vanderbuilt is only a couple of hours away where i had to have some complicated surgery from a very good specialist, so i guess its one of those things.......

anyways, the reason we (my wife and i) don't like it is because we like the going out atmosphere, the nice walks along the streets and the nite club scene, which thhis place has none of, thats why we loved europe so much.

so hopefully my new job with the Fed Gov will come through and we can leave here and move back to europe until we are ready to settle down, then we will get our nice home away from it all, or maybe better to buy it now before there are no more.