The Sprawl

Thanks Rose!

Charles Daniels’s stand against racism: How Alberta history is repeating itself | The Sprawl In 1911, province feared ‘dark tide’ of Black immigration.

In the 1910s, when Charles Daniels was denied his seat at the Grand Theatre in Calgary, Alberta feared a "dark tide" of immigrants flooding its borders. "The rhetoric of today resembles the rhetoric of those years," says Cheryl Foggo. #ableg

Calgary's original winter games: The dizzying Stampede ski jump | The Sprawl Look up—look waaaay up.

Here's a fun bit of local Calgary history! A ski jump off the Stampede grandstand that would launch skiers "like from a catapult." The Sprawl has the story. www.sprawlcalgary.com/calgary-vict...

A little free library full of books and some folded paper zines.

Leaving some @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social Olympic zines in Parkdale today!

Should Calgary press play on a future Olympic bid? | The Sprawl After opposing 2026, Farkas considers 2038.

In 2018, Jeromy Farkas called the Olympics “the ultimate politician vanity project.” Not anymore! In the new Sprawlcast, we speak with Mayor Farkas about how his position has changed and why he's thinking about the possibility of a 2038 bid (with caveats).

Listen and/or read! #yyccc

Why Calgary said no to the 2026 Olympics | The Sprawl Late promises and little trust.

"These Olympics could have been here in Calgary!" Yes, they could have been. But there are good reasons why they weren't. The Sprawl revisits how Calgary's 2026 bid effort collapsed. #yyccc

What Calgary's Olympic past can show us about our future | The Sprawl In fractured times, we can come together.

New edition of The Sprawl kicks off today! We're going to look at how hosting the Olympics—and not hosting 2026—has shaped Calgary. But we're also planning some fun in-person pop-ups. Stay tuned for more details on Analog Week!

A bleak day in the news biz. Support local journalism, folks. @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social and @livewirecalgary.bsky.social are out here working hard for Calgarians. It's easy to take local journalism for granted but I urge you: please don't.

In 1914, Charles Daniels, a Black CPR employee, was denied his rightful seat at The GRAND Theatre (then the Sherman Grand). His refusal to accept injustice led to one of Alberta’s earliest documented human rights cases.
Here's the @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social:
www.sprawlcalgary.com/calgarys-unk...

Always great reporting from The Sprawl and with the scathing report on the priorities of council/city admin the last 20 years, the name has never felt more on the nose.

Spread thin: How urban sprawl is stretching Calgary Transit to the max | The Sprawl A new city council tackles an old problem.

Finally got around to this episode of the @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social cast. It's time we got rid of the free fare zone. I like hoping on it for a few blocks, but ultimately, inhibiting fare enforcement on 7th avenue is damaging our transit network. #yyccc www.sprawlcalgary.com/calgary-tran...

Thanks Christina!

Thanks Lindsay!

How ​‘strategic amnesia’ led to Calgary’s water pipe disasters | The Sprawl A costly example of a common pattern.

Calgary city hall knew that a crucial water pipe could blow. But the ways in which city hall *didn’t* know—or kept itself from knowing with clarity—are perhaps more telling. #yyccc

I really had fun making this comic about some of @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social's 2025 highlights. Our great year was made possible by folks who value local journalism. And it's because of your support that I get to make comics about Calgary. Thanks! Looking forward to more comics in 2026!

Thank you Calgary! A word of heartfelt gratitude | The Sprawl You made 2025 an extraordinary year.

That's a wrap! The Sprawl is signing off for 2025. Thank you Calgary for supporting our independent journalism!

Already the case for us (although I haven’t written up any kind of policy statement thingy)

Re: Halifax transit or Calgary's?

Spread thin: How urban sprawl is stretching Calgary Transit to the max | The Sprawl A new city council tackles an old problem.

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. #yyccc

Funny looking guy with black Sprawl toque

New Sprawl merch! Stay warm and support independent Calgary journalism at the same time. Snag a Sprawl toque! square.link/u/HJlazKze

See how Calgary city council voted on 2026 budget decisions | The Sprawl Transit, housing, climate—and more!

Still updating our #yyccc budget tracker today with more info!

—Ward's motion to cut $2M from city housing strategy

—Wyness's motion to fast-track new development + $24M fire hall on city's northwest edge

—Johnston's motion to cut city hall's software subscription budget by $10M

And more!

Glad to hear it's useful! We will keep adding to it today and tomorrow.

How Calgary’s new city council overhauled the 2026 budget | The Sprawl See how councillors voted on key decisions.

BUDGET TRACKER! We are wading through Calgary city council's 2026 budget amendments—so you don't have to! See how councillors voted on transit, housing, the Old Y and more. We are still updating this list so stay tuned for more! #yyccc

Hey, where’s my bus?! Calgary Transit regularly cancels scheduled trips | The Sprawl Riders on 33 routes affected by budget crunch.

If you've noticed your Calgary Transit bus mysteriously disappear recently... you're not alone. We looked into why some peak-hour trips are disappearing—and what it says about the bigger challenge facing Calgary's transit system. #yyccc

Alberta cities seek autonomy as UCP floats more reforms | The Sprawl Smith offers to take tax power from municipalities.

At the recent Alberta Municipalities conference in Calgary, Premier Danielle Smith floated the idea of taking tax powers from municipalities. They aren't into it but do want the province to start collecting its own portion of property taxes. #yyccc #ableg

What we learned covering Calgary’s 2025 election | The Sprawl Can local journalism be joyful? You bet.

“I think the bottom line is whatever you pay attention to grows. And I think we were paying attention in sort of an anti-cynical way.” What we learned from covering Calgary's election—now that we have a little much-needed distance from it!

What is Calgary’s population, really? | The Sprawl A surprisingly vexing question.

"Think of it as Opening Day at city hall: the swearing-in of the new city council." Come for the baseball metaphors, stay for the deep dive on why it's so difficult to pinpoint Calgary's population, thanks to a dearth of census data. #yyccc

This is indeed good news! ☺️

Calgary’s bizarre low-turnout, high-turnover election | The Sprawl Relatively few Calgarians made big changes.

NEW: Calgary election analysis! You have to go back a quarter-century, when Calgary's population had yet to crack a million, to find a mayor elected with so few votes, writes @klaszus.bsky.social. #yyccc

For the past year, I've been doing an embedded "ethnographic" study of Calgary's election. As a consequence, I've mostly kept quiet about it. It'll still be months before I have qualitative results to share, but in the meantime, here are some results from our pre-election survey. #yyccc #yycvote