87% of Calgarians say they are happy when asked about 8 key areas in an annual survey by the Calgary Foundation.
Every year residents are asked to weigh in on items like education, arts and living standards.
Overall the city received a grade of B minus on the vital signs report, which is slightly lower than previous years.
Calgary lost some points when it comes to affordable housing, which in turns affects the city’s homeless population.
Executive director of the Calgary Drop-In Centre Debbie Newman believes more work needs to be done between agencies and government to help ease the housing crunch.
“We need to work closer with the government to identify a housing strategy for all the people that are living in poverty,” Newman says. “Not only for people that are living in shelters but are on the cusp of being homeless”.
The city scored some points due to the fact that it has the highest average income across the country.
On average a grade level of B was given in the areas of lifelong learning, education and on the environment.
Despite some improvements in civic engagement the city was also rated a B minus in the area of community connections.
Jeff Dykstra believes that grade can be attributed to the June 2013 flood.
“It was a natural disaster, there’s not much we could have done about that, “he says. “In terms of the cleanup it was amazing the way the city came together.”
1500 Calgarians participated in the survey, one of the hot topics in this year’s poll was transportation.
Some residents are still struggling with long rush hour commutes, but Heather Roach thinks Calgary is on the right track to improving congestion clog ups.
“I think that they’re doing something with Macleod Trail and the ring road is almost finished, it’s all positive. “ Dykstra says “It just takes time, nothing happens instantly.”
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