Sprawlcast

Calgary cartoonist and author Teresa Wong is the author of the 2024 graphic memoir "All Our Ordinary Stories." Her great-grandfather came to Calgary more than a century ago—but the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 kept the rest of his family from following. Now Wong has created a new piece of artwork specifically to be printed on The Sprawl's Pop-Up Press in homage to Chinatown. Jeremy Klaszus speaks...

All grew up in Calgary—but only one stayed. Featuring Don Stewart of MacLeod's Books (Vancouver), Céline Chuang of Paper Birch Books (Edmonton), Rodney Clarke of The Paper Hound Bookshop (Vancouver) and David Sidjak of Sigla Books (Calgary).

A slowdown on sprawl? New councillors consider it as Calgary city hall reckons with a looming $49 billion price tag for infrastructure over the next decade.

After opposing Calgary 2026, Mayor Farkas considers 2038. We speak with the mayor about what changed—and ask city councillors what they think about the prospect of another Calgary Winter Games.

A decade ago, under Mayor Nenshi, city council started work on a bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics. It went downhill from there.

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.

As the Bow Valley gets filled with development, a critical wildlife corridor is being threatened. We dig into Canmore's effort to resist two new housing projects that are expected to nearly double the town's population. This episode is Part 2 in a Sprawlcast series about Three Sisters Mountain Village, and is a collaboration with The Narwhal. Drew Anderson contributed research and reporting.

Coal mining drove Canmore's economy for nearly a century. But as the Canmore Mines struggled in the 1970s, speculators saw a new business opportunity in what was then called the Canmore Corridor: tourism. This episode is Part 1 in a Sprawlcast series about Three Sisters Mountain Village, and is a collaboration with The Narwhal. Drew Anderson contributed research and reporting.

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 nex...

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.