However, I hesitate to put too much emphasis on that. I was in the right place at the right time, made the right decisions, knew the right people, and allotted a lot of my time to this.
Everyone here engaged in Unsprawling is capable of contributing and leading in the ways that I have so far, and I see it as my mission to bring that out in people.
My Background & My Perspective
Though slightly outdated, I still identify with the opening lines at my first public speech to Council. I’ll spare you the deception that a now 21-year-old has much of an illustrious background, but what I have done is—of course—important, and shapes how I interact with the world.
I’m a born-and-raised Calgarian, who’s lived their whole life in the same house juuust a little too far away from Downtown to be considered inner-city. I also identify as neurodivergent (Autism + ADHD oh yeah it’s as fun as you think it is), queer, and trans (non-binary).
I got “really good grades” at my Arts-Centred Learning high school, truly, but had no idea how to filter my various passions into a committed pathway. Our society says you can be anything, as long as you have no aspirations of being everything (see above, neurodivergence and queerness). Graduating in the Class of 2020 didn’t help either.
Home prices were just beginning to spiral out of control, every millennial I knew was crippled by student debt with no job security. I just couldn’t see myself putting that kind of investment in myself with no confidence that I would succeed. So I chose to do an apprenticeship. Build stuff, learn things. get paid.
I’m almost a 4th-year apprentice Cabinetmaker, pausing this career path earlier in 2024 to remove myself from a working environment that saw me as valueless… uh, I mean to focus on community-building. Blue-collar work is incredibly thankless in Calgary, a city with high expectations for work and low expectations for decorum.
Though I carry the skills I learned with me still. Working a manufacturing job made me entrepreneurial, or maybe it was playing that pizzeria game on Roblox as a kid. Working in construction made me curious about development, the investments that folks were making in Calgary, and the policies that govern them.
Going to post-secondary for cabinetmaking was an absolute blast. Doing projects that I had more executive control over, more art direction. Challenging myself and having fun with it as I went. Then I’d come back to work where none of that mattered.
50-hour-weeks. Poverty paycheques. Micromanagers with no macromanagement skills. Cheap, fast, and high-quality demanded simultaneously. Independence and obedience demanded simultaneously. Creativity was a 4-letter word, and definitely not something I had energy for by the time I got home.
I had to change gears because I was slowly becoming ground by their horrible teeth. There was just no future for me.
I’m currently attending UCalgary as a first(ish)-year student, looking to apply for the Multidisciplinary Studies program, where I’ll get an Arts degree studying probably both Urban Studies and Communications & Media Studies.
I’m still not sure how I’ll “make money in this dog-eat-dog” world. Perhaps just someone who can tie enough skills and enough people together to add value to the world in a way it will reward me for, sans dog cannibalism.
What I love & want to improve about Calgary
Calgary is a big small city that’s on the precipice of becoming a small big city. I love how friendly and helpful our people are here, how collaborative and creative we are. I love how much I’ve been able to learn and grow in the past year of working alongside some of our great activists.
I love our hardworking culture, the pride we take in our city. This isolated little oasis at the bottom of a bowl. Where the rivers meet, where people come together to lift each other up.
We’re a young city with a lot of problems that aren’t so hard to solve compared to, say, Houston. But we’ve got problems.
My biggest want for Calgary right now would be more permissible land use. Rezoning for Housing was a good start, but I want to see neighbourhood businesses permitted in our zoning. It’s the only way that cities have ever been successfully built — incrementally, and chaotically.
Only those with the connections, policy experience, and leverage to take on massive capital projects have the freedom to create opportunities when development is this difficult to navigate. It’s bad for people, it’s bad for communities, and it’s killing our City, as this potential goes unrealized, while demand pressure flings new developments and their debts further across the horizon.
What inspired me to join?
It probably all leads back to NotJustBikes, and of course, the limitations of NotJustBikes’ cynicism. It’s easy to be cynical about the way things are in our city. But we need to start thinking critically, constructively, and creatively instead.
I had been led to Strong Towns Calgary and More Neighbours Calgary by my flowering interest in city-building, urban activism, and politics. Humane Cities was a new name on urbanist YouTube at the time. So you could say Alex inspired me! Talking about local issues in Calgary, having the generosity to make his community a more informed and engaged place through positivity and curiosity.
I was excited and honoured to be asked to help set this up with Alex earlier this year, when we realized that Calgary’s urban activist movements needed to work together if we had any chance of sustainably and effectively reclaiming space in our media climate.
What are you hoping to achieve with us?
Unsprawing can’t be yet another advocacy movement. Yet another Urbanist YouTube channel. I want this gathering of talent to create real change. A force for connecting folks together, collaborating toward a common goal, and communicating our message to a broader audience.
I want Unsprawling to help more Calgarians become more curious about their city. More informed, engaged, and activated in their communities — understanding their place in our city, and how to reshape it in a more ethical image. Together we can create a Calgary that is more productive, safe, inclusive, and sustainable.