Sprawlcast

With 40+ new communities being built on Calgary’s outskirts, city hall is struggling to reach them all with services, including transit. We look at how Calgary's new city council is tackling an old problem.

Can local journalism be... joyful? You bet it can. Sprawl editor Jeremy Klaszus catches up with roving election reporter Asad Chishti to reflect on Calgary's 2025 election and why we covered it the way we did.

Mayoral candidates are bickering about which arena deal was best and who got fleeced. The Sprawl dug into how the $1.2B deal for Scotia Place—which has city hall putting up $853 million—got approved by council with no public debate. (Most of this episode originally aired in 2023.)

Fort Calgary's anniversary has traditionally been celebrated as the city's "birthday" but this time city hall isn't celebrating. Is this historical awareness—or amnesia?

Calgary’s urban tree canopy coverage is among the lowest in Canada. We dig into why—and what city hall is doing about it.

In the 1970s, a new freeway cut one side of Calgary off from the other. We dig into why the city remains divided when it comes to amenities and infrastructure on each side of Deerfoot Trail.

We dig into a 60-year fight against density by the reservoir shores in southwest Calgary. It's a saga about class, conservation and community politics. History is repeating itself at Glenmore Landing—but with some new twists.

Will municipal parties strengthen local democracy or undermine it? We speak with some of the candidates and parties that will be on the ballot—and dig into how the 2025 election will be different.

City hall's decision to close Inglewood's swimming pool left many Calgarians scratching their heads. We dig into why city council cut inner-city pools in the first place after oil prices crashed a decade ago.

When it comes to rail projects in Alberta, the Green Line is one piece of a larger puzzle. We dig into who's been setting the agenda when it comes to these projects—and to what extent they are complementary or competing with each other as Calgary city hall's Green Line plans collapse.

A week after the groundbreaking for the new Flames arena, city hall cut the Green Line nearly in half. We dig into the Green Line's delay-plagued history—and how one city megaproject has affected the other.

Where does our water come from—and how is climate change altering that water source? We zoom out from the feeder main that broke in June, following a drop of water from the Rocky Mountains and glaciers west of Calgary, into the pipes beneath our feet, and out the taps in our homes.

City hall went big—and is feeling the pinch. We dig into what it really cost to build a new convention centre building and what it means for the city's finances.

It's not unusual for Alberta governments to tinker with municipal election laws. But Bill 20 is far more than the usual tinkering. We dig into the evolution of municipal elections in Alberta and look at what Bill 20 means for local democracy in Calgary—and beyond.

Should neighbourhoods set their own direction? Should city hall impose it from the top down? Or is there a role for both? We go to Inglewood, Calgary's oldest neighbourhood, in search of answers.

As the debate about blanket rezoning heats up in Calgary, we dig into the Sprawlcast vault for a deep-dive on NIMBYism. Full transcript on our website at sprawlcalgary.com.

Canmore town council nixed plans for two developments that would cut into critical wildlife habitat and nearly double the town's population. Then a court order forced the town to backtrack. We dig into what happened—and what it means for the Bow Valley's future. This episode is Part 2 in a Sprawlcast series. Read a full transcript of this episode on The Sprawl's website. This episode is a collaboration with The Narwhal, an independent news outlet that dives deep to tell stories about the natural world in Canada. Drew Anderson contributed research and reporting.

We dig into the decades of controversy around Three Sisters Mountain Village in Canmore, which is being spearheaded by a Calgary developer. This episode is a collaboration with The Narwhal, an independent news outlet that dives deep to tell stories about the natural world in Canada. Drew Anderson contributed research and reporting. Read his article on the Three Sisters saga on The Narwhal's website. A full transcript of this episode is on the Sprawl website. This episode is Part 1 in a Sprawlcast series.

Two years ago, progressives were rooting for Jyoti Gondek to defeat Jeromy Farkas in the race for mayor. But numerous Calgarians who voted for Mayor Gondek have found themselves in agreement with Farkas more recently—and disappointed by the mayor on files like the arena deal. We speak with both Farkas and Gondek, looking at what's changed since the last election and what's taking shape for the next one.

We dig into a deal that's less transparent—and far more expensive—than the 2019 one. We also follow up with with city councillors who campaigned against more subsidies for the Flames, but voted "yes" to hundreds of millions more.