It's 28 days to Calgary's election and I already feel like I'm going to fall over

What surprised me most here is that Elections Calgary plans to shut down its counting centre at 1 a.m. after the polls close Monday, leaving advance ballots for councillor uncounted, and won't resume until 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. One of my working headlines was: NO RUSH! #yyccc

The Sprawl is doing a funding drive and I can’t recommend it enough. Essential Calgary journalism. www.sprawlcalgary.com/sprawl-birth...

The Sprawl has the best coverage of Calgary municipal politics and is celebrating it's 8th Birthday today. Go read up on your local ward election races to inform yourself. And if you can, sign up as a member. We've never needed independent journalism more than we do now.

Today is @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social's 8th birthday!! Hard to believe. We've come a long way since 2017... www.sprawlcalgary.com/sprawl-birth...

I gotta say, I miss the days of Twitter when I could post election-related stuff on *one* platform rather than 16 or whatever

NEW STORY: The push to 'conservatize' Calgary's public school board. Six CBE trustee candidates have campaign materials that look identical—so we took a closer look. #yyccc #ableg

My latest for @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social, on six CBE trustee candidates that have campaign materials that look identical and are campaigning on "common sense leadership" to "save our schools." www.sprawlcalgary.com/cbe-election... #yyccc #ableg

Livestream. Live stream. One word or two?

It's true and it also reminds me of a funny CBC Wiretap episode wherein Howard Chackowicz declares his living room a nation-state called Howardville

Nothing like driving the wrong way down Macleod Trail in downtown Calgary to wake you up in the morning. Whoops!! 😇

ALBERTANS: will you be voting for an independent or party-affiliated candidate on October 20? @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social founder @klaszus.bsky.social says voters aren't exactly sold on municipal political parties: youtu.be/IC0hg-j_TME?... #abpoli #ableg #yyc #yeg

This is good work @klaszus.bsky.social. Gives Calgarians perspective on housing and tells us other nuggets about the mayoral candidates, their supporters, and their approach. 🗳 So glad I'm a patron of the @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social. 📰

My weekend dispatch in @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social. Blanket rezoning under fire as Calgary election season kicks off www.sprawlcalgary.com/blanket-rezo... #yyccc

We're hosting a Ward 4 forum on Sept. 16! www.tgcacalgary.com/ward-4-candi...

Gotta say, livestreaming the Ward 8 forum went pretty well! Kept it simple, streaming from iPhone. Even used iPhone's mic. Did some nifty lower-thirds too. Streaming tonight's mayoral forum at 6pm. Subscribe to @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social's YouTube channel! www.youtube.com/@sprawlcalgary #yyccc

Have not done this in like eight years so we'll see how this goes... go easy on the livestreamer! First one of the season. 😆 #yyccc

What I want is aggressively limited internet. Max 45 mins a day and then that's it, sorry, time's up. And/or: an internet that is only the NFB website. Or maybe you can only read news at a certain time of the day, a 15 min window, and then the window closes. Unlimited constant access is a drag.

More than 500 people a day are already checking The Sprawl's Calgary election candidate tracker—and we're just getting started. Read more in my latest dispatch for @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social.

Very excited about the new Kobo-Instapaper integration!

Larry Heather just filed his nomination papers for another Calgary mayoral run... so you know this municipal election is going to be a real one!

we used to build household shrines to Going On The Computer and it's no coincidence that as we abandoned these we started straying further from god's light

Taking The Sprawl's pop-up press to the Bridgeland farmers market this aft. There 3:30pm - 5:30ish. Stop by to say hi, make a print and snag @calgaryhester.bsky.social's new zine, hot off the press. She sent it to me this aft and I'll have copies up for grabs!

Nice to see my bus out there! In the past couple of days, I caught glimpses of these two @calgaryartsdev.bsky.social Art Buses, featuring the work of #yyc artists Presley Mills & La Güita!

Sluggish summer days, man. Walking around Hillhurst rather listlessly and recall walking in the exact same place, feeling the same way, almost 20 years ago when I worked one summer for CBC Calgary. The more things change, etc.

We live in Vancouver now eh? 🌧️

How many km of cycle tracks are in downtown Calgary? Finally got stats from city hall. They'd told me 20km but that is lane km (counting both directions). There are 9.9km of cycle tracks downtown, 10.7 if you include Mission. Story now updated with correct info! #yycbike

Who says you can't print in the rain?! Had a blast this weekend at Calgary folk fest. It's also Historic Calgary Week, which is why we put this plate on the press today. Thanks to everybody who stopped by to get inky! #yycbike #letterpress

Oof—made a stupid mistake in this story, saying the downtown cycle track network is 20km (what city hall told me). It is not! It's way lower. Should have verified. Thanks to readers who flagged this. Story updated with correction. Will update w/ correct number when I get (and confirm!) it. #yycbike

The boom and bust of Calgary's bike lanes. City hall set a goal of building 30km of cycle tracks by 2020. Today we have 26km. #yycbike

Just one more interviewwwwww

Man Calgary's downtown cycle tracks are in rough shape these days. Here is a "pothole" this morning on 8th Avenue. (I put the brick back in but still big hole there so.... ???) #yycbike

Love this story because it disrupts typical, toxic “evil driver” urbanist narrative. There are plenty of reasons that humans who happen to be travelling by car are not cycling—large families, unsafe infrastructure, peer pressure, etc. It’s important to leave a ‘lil space for positive interactions.

Hi, yes, g'morning. This is awkward. But targeting a reporter - hi! - with surreptitiously obtained photos and details of her tooling around town is an attack on the public's right to know. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

In this week's @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social dispatch I wrote about life on the other side of burnout (and the CBC following up on our recent reporting!).

@mtamblyn.bsky.social Any word on a read-it-later replacement for Pocket on the Kobo? Experiencing severe Pocket-Kobo withdrawal over here!

My wife and I argue lightheartedly about if I should re-up old Sprawlcast episodes in summer. She says YES: you have good episodes with a long shelf life, and many podcasts do this! I say NO: silence is better than a rehash and makes it more of an "event" when a new episode does drop. Who's right? 😉

The Sunday dilemma—whether or not to go out for a dead-tree Sunday New York Times at Daily Globe News or Caffe Beano. Not close to me and not cheap. Still...

Of all the prints I've done on my pop-up press, this has to be one of my favourites so far. A little piece of Calgary Stampede history. Look closely and you can see the aeronaut under the balloon, astride the rail!

Some good news to share this morning! Thrilled to see The Sprawl shortlisted for five @albertamags.bsky.social awards. Congrats to all nominees!

Whenever the Calgary Stampede rolls around I have the Johnny Cash song "Stampede" in my head. "There's just one word I don't want to hear..."

Cities should never stop building light rail. Always have a project in construction, always have the next project in planning phase.

This is a weird-ass week. Canada Day yesterday. Stampede Friday. Can't figure out which days I'm working and which I have off! (I think I'm working today but this remains unverified... ???)

'My husband's an advisor to me': Premier Smith defends spouse attending a confidential government meeting on Calgary-Banff rail, which would connect with the Green Line downtown #ableg #yyccc

Calgary's Green Line was originally supposed to open in 2026; now, with $1.44B spent and no track laid yet, the goal is 2031. Read all about it in my zillionth Green Line dispatch. #yyccc #ableg

Well, time to update the ol' Sprawl #yycvote candidate list... with charges of fraud?! Yep. Police have charged Nathan Mizera (CBE trustee, wards 1 & 2) and Shawna Easthope (councillor, ward 1) with fraud re: Discover Bowness. Have reached out to both, will update the list if/when I hear back.

The Green Line will be the death of me.

Just listened to this.. lots of Indigenous inclusion & history (which might be why the city wanted to ignore this anniversary?)

What does the 150th anniversary of Fort Calgary mean in a time of truth and reconciliation? I dug into it for the new Sprawlcast. Some timely listening/reading on National Indigenous Peoples Day (and, in Calgary, Neighbour Day).

Yup. Quote: "Calgary’s urban canopy coverage is among the lowest in Canada, at 8.25%." Great SprawlCast by @klaszus.bsky.social & @sprawlcalgary.bsky.social. Look for the tree equity map in the transcript.