Calgary Journal Online

When I think about growing up in Calgary, the first thing that comes to mind is my mother telling me about how when I was a kid, she used to look out her kitchen window and watch the horses on the hill. Now, when I look out her kitchen window I can’t imagine how that was even possible. The city stretches as far as the eye can see, and it’s hard to imagine what it might have looked like with nothing there. And I’m really not that old, so that wasn’t very long ago.

Having grown up in Calgary, local psychologist Chris Hammer has seen many changes to city, most relating to the population boom. Since Hammer was a child, Calgary has grown from half a million to one million people.

Photo: James Paton/Calgary Journal

We know why the city has grown so fast; it’s all about the money. But unlimited money and unbridled growth causes some problems. The ones that strike me the most are the large divide between the haves and have-nots, and the new reality of gangs.

As the city has grown, certain neighbourhoods have become increasingly ghettoized, while the number of millionaires’ mansions has grown in the more privileged quadrants of the city. There has always been this divide, of course, but it has become much more pronounced over the past 20 years

When I was young, you didn’t need to fear the possibility of being wounded or killed in some crossfire while strolling downtown, or sitting down to enjoy your lunch. This doesn’t happen a lot, mind you, but it is a reality that never existed when I was growing up.

Even as little as 10 years ago, I remember a presentation by the Calgary Police Service, who at the time had assured the audience that there really were no gangs in Calgary; rather, there were transient groups of people coming together for short periods of time trying to simulate some semblance of a gang. But now Calgary is a big city and the gangs are here. No mistake about it.

I think about the difference in experiences between my generation and the younger one growing up in Calgary now. I watched in awe as the city grew exponentially, and I observed as the problems compounded. They know of nothing different. To them it just is what it is: a city of a million people, with all the inherent problems of a big city.

Photo: supplied by Chris Hammer

Despite the problems of rapid growth, I still love the city, and I have no desire to leave. Native Calgarians from my generation will know what I’m talking about though, when I say that I miss the days of Stampede Wrestling and Ed Whalen, of CKXL Radio, of safer streets, and of getting anywhere in the city within 20 minutes. In spite of the incredible changes over the years, it is still home, for better or for worse, and there’s a certain unexplainable pride in being one of the few “born and bred” Calgarians still living here.