The first phase of the Rivers District plan involvedrevitalizing the historic neighborhood of East Village, which spans 49 acres between Fort Calgary and the downtown business core, and is centrally located along the banks of the Bow River. It’s actually the place where downtown Calgary first began – where Indigenous people and American and Canadian fur traders first met to do business. Over time, the area had become increasingly industrialized and then later neglected, and East Village had become associated with vacant lots. The idea of bringing East Village back to life as an urban village resurfaced in 2005, as an idea and a discussion involving the City of Calgary, urban planners and the public. Two years later, city council created CMLC to revitalize the Rivers District, starting with East Village. “The City of Calgary had identified the potential opportunity that existed in East Village,” Clare recalls. “The community sat right on eastern edge of downtown Calgary. It was also flanked on two sides by two rivers – on the north side, by the Bow River, and on the east side, the Elbow River. There are not many areas in the city that have that proximity and access to the two rivers. From a land perspective, it had a lot of opportunity and a lot of value.” “The problem was that it had been really stagnant in its development for a number of years,” she adds. “There had been development in the 70s, 80s and 90s and very little since then. There were a lot of vacant buildings and surface parking lots.” The main reason the area had OCTOBER 2022
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