Well, we haven’t done this in a while. No guests on this episode of Your Neck of the Woods, just Jason and I chatting about things going on in Calgary, Alberta, and the world. We’ve had a provincial budget affecting priorities right here in Calgary, the relaxing of COVID pandemic restrictions but not before civil unrest leading to the historic and potentially infamous depending on your point of view; declaration of a national emergency, uncertainty about the revitalization of downtown, the push for an official municipal bird, and most tragically a war in Europe.

While offering significant funds for municipalities only a few million for downtown revitalization in Calgary. Of course, this has us talking about the fate of the downtown strategy and different ways cities can raise funds including cryptocurrency and a tech tax while balancing having a business-friendly environment. Look for a full episode on this soon. 

On a related note, we dive into potential uses for the old Central Library and a police processing centre. These provide incredible commercial opportunities as well as the potential for a home for mental health services even if this is less likely. One other note on the core we are still seeing weekly protests even as health restrictions have eased significantly, we discuss not only these but of course the convoys and blockades especially in Ottawa which led to the first invocation of the Emergencies Act.

Locally we are also now looking at adopting an official city bird. The list of candidates includes everything from pigeons and magpies to the northern flicker and blue jay. Starting April 1 and going for a month you can vote for your favourite! We’ll have the link for you as soon as voting opens!

Of course, we couldn’t have a conversation about what’s going on in the world without discussing the tragedy in Ukraine. This has affected so many of us both directly and indirectly. The images and scenes we’re seeing are absolutely horrific and we can only hope peace and Justice return soon.

Be part of the conversation by following @JMcGregoryyc on social media and send us your comments, questions, and even suggest topics using the hashtag #YNOTW

We are all citizens. That’s the motto that encompasses everything you need to know about Citizen Brewing Company. In this episode on Your Neck of the Woods Jason and I continue our series highlighting local business stories as we go behind the mic with Joel Field head brewer at Citizen Brewing Company, a Calgary craft brewery and pub that prides itself on social responsibility and offering something for everyone.

With a background in biochemistry, brewing beer seems natural for Joel even if he started out selling speakers. If you have an interest in craft beer this episode is definitely for you, you’ll definitely learn a lot about beer and brewing. Joel and the production team at Citizen pride themselves on offering something to everyone’s taste while producing the varieties craft breweries have come to be known for.. in a similar vein Citizen offers robust vegetarian options in its pub fair, alongside seasonal and special brew offerings such as those around Pride or in support of people with MS.

We recorded on International Women's Day which was a special day at Citizen part of their proceeds went to the Pink Boots Society which exists to assist, inspire, and encourage female beer professionals through education. This emphasis on giving back extends to the brewing process as well Citizen gives their spent grain a second life, they donate all spent grain to local Biodynamic farms and small animal farms such as pigs and chickens. In addition, they’ve teamed up with 250 breweries to donate profits to clean water charities.

Jason and I have talked about supporting local for a long time especially as we continue to recover from the pandemic and Citizen is a fantastic place to do so! They have food and drinks for everyone to enjoy and do everything they can to make Your Neck of the Woods a better place!

Check out Citizen Brewing Company @citizenbrewingcompany on social media 

Shop citizen merch and order beer online at

https://citizenbrewingcompany.com

Order food for delivery on DoorDash and Skip the Dishes!

Learn more about the Pink Boots Society at

https://www.pinkbootssociety.org 

Be part of the conversation follow @JMcGregoryyc on social media submit your questions, follow updates, and suggest topics. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #YNOTW!

A place to feel at home, connect with people, and work peacefully at your own pace. That’s the vision Jordan Schmuszko and his family started the Joyful Java Cafe. This week on Your Neck of the Woods we talk to Jordan about Joyful Java as well as The Village Lifestyle Centre in Brentwood an important home for made-in Calgary businesses and community events.

The Cafe values great, fresh home-cooked food and a community atmosphere where you can connect with people, work, relax and feel at home. With large tables that include power outlets as well as quieter spaces where you can get the cafe atmosphere, but something more private. All of this speaks to the value placed on the family by Jordan and his family in particular. They want Joyful Java to feel like a place where you’re treated and fed like you’re at home. Something that adds to this is a location that lends itself to being a “hidden gem” spread by word of mouth but we all agree with the COVID situation getting better it’s time for Joyful Java to become more people’s secret spot.

Another thing about that location, the home of Rocky Mountain College is that it’s not only home to Joyful Java but also a unique local business community. The Village Lifestyle Centre is the heart of this family project. The Village acts as a home to 25 local businesses all with direct benefits to the community including fitness, education, lifestyle, groups, classes, and activities as well as an event hall! There’s really something for everyone! All the tenants at the village are sublets providing an affordable space to grow your business all attached to this community and family value.

The Village and Joyful Java are a perfect example of a project and people absolutely committed to a bright future right here in Your Neck of the Woods! Let’s get the word out and grow this community with deep roots in Calgary! With everything going on in the world we could all use another place where we feel safe and at home.

Check out Joyful Java downstairs at 4039 Brentwood Road downstairs, visit their website https://www.joyfuljavacafe.com and follow @joyfuljavacafe on social media 

Learn more about The Village at their website http://thevillagecalgary.ca and follow The Village: Brentwood’s Lifestyle Centre on Facebook 

Be part of the conversation, submit questions, suggest topics and get the latest news on Your Neck of the Woods. Follow @jmcgregoryyc and use the hashtag #YNOTW

This week we had the absolute pleasure to have a conversation with someone who’s been part of the political, business, and media spheres in Alberta. This week on Your Neck of the Woods we chatted with the President of the Alberta Enterprise Group, former Calgary radio personality, and former leader of the official opposition as leader of the Wildrose Party Danielle Smith. With so much happening at all 3 levels of government and with the state of political discourse in Canada, there was so much to cover.

Now the host of two podcasts Danielle opens up with the state of spin in journalism where it’s more important to maintain a narrative than provide balanced reporting. This has of course made new and democratized media far more prominent and important (we here at YNOTW couldn’t be happier). This led to a discussion of the messaging surrounding the pandemic which could be called muddled and misinterpreted, where the vaccine was understood to minimize spread, as opposed to prevent severe outcomes. This combined with the wartime stance many governments have continued for 2 years has contributed to the strain we’re seeing.

Of course, at some point (hopefully soon) the pandemic will end and we’ll have to reckon with the bloodied, beaten, and broken state of our public health system. We chat about solutions to capacity issues that the “stress test” COVID offered. We can’t be in our homes and live with the month-long waitlists anymore. We all agree there needs to be a shift toward preventing illness and balancing universality and choice.

The economy and environment were also major topics. An oft-ignored part of this debate is net-zero vs. zero emissions. This is a space where there’s room (especially for conservatives) to offer unique, economically sound solutions. In her role with AEG among others Danielle (and myself) are boosters of nuclear energy as the future of a thriving Albertan and Canadian sustainable energy sector. With so much innovation there’s every reason for tomorrow’s leaders and opportunities to come from Your Neck of the Woods as long as we don’t get in our own way

Check out Danielle’s podcasts and newsletter at https://www.daniellesmith.ca 

Follow everything going on with the show and be part of the conversation by following @JMcGregoryyc on social media and using the hashtag #YNOTW

Part of what makes doing the show so much fun is all the interesting people that I get to talk to. It would be hard to find somebody more interesting than Melba Seto. Polyglot, altruist, survivalist, adventurer, not to mention businesswoman and maker of “adventure soap”. She just happens to be the first in what I hope to be a recurring feature on Your Neck of the Woods where we showcase and amplify local business owners. Melba is the owner and founder of Bowness Soapworks, as you might guess they sell homemade soap. It’s a business with its roots in Melba’s love of the outdoors hand an idea that sprung out of an Airbnb with some exceptional touches. When guests wanted to know about the soap, they got during their stay Melba had the idea to not only sell this soap but make all kinds of different scents and partner with other local businesses to create custom soap that they could sell.

This has grown into a business with dozens of distributors throughout Calgary, several partner businesses with custom soap and now a Soap Club, and unlike fight club we definitely want you to talk about Soap Club. This is a program where every month not only will you receive soap from Bowness Soapworks but goodies from various other businesses that have joined the Soap Club! I’ll have a link for this at the bottom of this description. Melba isn’t just building a community with roots in our Rocky Mountains that are part of the Bowness Soapworks logo, she is committed to giving back to her community as an avid blood donor and advocate for inclusion. So much so that we have our first offer in podcast history if you donate blood and show your proof of donation to Bowness Soapworks by March 4, you’ll receive a free bar of soap! Donating blood can help so many people let’s get out there is a community save some lives and get some free soap.

In the future, Melba even wants to offer survival skills courses along with her adventure soap to pass on the skills she learned in the cadets of the armed forces and has an avid outdoors person. Personally, this seems like a fantastic idea to me we’ve all seen through the pandemic how important the skills of being self-sufficient can be when times get tougher, how much we all learned about planting our own gardens, baking bread, [even with all her skills Melba hasn’t quite mastered this one apparently] and many other things we haven’t been used to doing especially living in a city like Calgary. The work gets tossed around a lot but this really was inspiring talking to someone who does so much right here in Your Neck of the Woods and is one of the reasons that such a great place to live!

Follow Bowness Soapworks @bownesssoapworks on social media to follow Melba’s adventures and see the adventure soap being made!

Join the Soap Club here: https://bownesssoapworks.com/pages/subscriptions 

book your appointment to give blood here: https://myaccount.blood.ca/en/donate?_gl=1*68jwt2*_ga*MjczMjkxNjIxLjE2NDQzNDE3NDQ.*_ga_YHMRKTXXVD*MTY0NDM0MTc0My4xLjAuMTY0NDM0MTc0My4w&_ga=2.262258373.837423881.1644341744-273291621.1644341744 

Follow everything going on with Your Neck of the Woods submit your questions, feedback, and be part of the conversation by following @JMcGregoryyc on social media we want to hear from you!

If there’s one thing we’re learning from the pandemic it’s the importance of local businesses in our communities. Most of the time this has taken the form of calls to buy products and services locally to support your community. Of course, it’s much easier to support local the more local businesses we can foster. Terry Rock CEO of Platform Calgary and our guest this week on Your Neck of the Woods is hoping we can shift towards “build local” and “work local”.

Platform Calgary is an organization looking to foster local entrepreneurship by providing a 1 stop shop for business owners to start, grow and find investment opportunities for their company all in one beautiful building downtown. We take some time to chat about the programs and opportunities offered at the Innovation Centre when it opens later this year as well as where Calgary might be going as a city. Terry sees Texas as a good comparable for Calgary. A resource economy that’s also attracting talent and emerging in the tech sector. Our city seems well-positioned to thrive again with a concerted effort.

Cities that attract and retain talent aren’t just looking to attract large business headquarters to create jobs they create those 5000 jobs at home and the culture shift can feedback to the corporations. Another advantage Calgary can have is our vibrant food and culture sectors, both of which our guest has had a hand in. I’m happy to say this led to some great restaurant recommendations I’m excited to try!

So give this chat a listen whether you're just looking for some delicious new food or craft beer to try or an aspiring entrepreneur looking to get your company off and running cause it’ll be invaluable either way. Your Neck of the Woods has a bright and thriving future coming and organizations like Platform Calgary want to be part of the culture change that will make it happen!

To learn more about Platform Calgary as well as its programs, services, and partnerships go to platformcalgary.com and follow @PlatformCalgary on social media.

Be part of the conversation suggest topics, submit questions, and get the latest updates by following @JMcGregoryyc on social media don’t forget to use the hashtag #YNotW

If you were to look at Calgary 30 years ago it would certainly look very different from Calgary as we know it today. That’s when this week’s guest on Your Neck of the Woods Shane Wenzel became involved with the company named after him by his father and began helping build our communities. Jason, Shane, and I chat about his early years at Shane Homes moving from drawing and comic books to working on job sites always with a strong work ethic instilled by his parents. Back then building lots for homes could be 40 feet wide or more.

Such is obviously not the case these days, so much of our conversation centres around what city building looks like now as opposed to what they looked like in the past. A common thread then and is bureaucratic and ideological stubbornness from city planners, of course, this bumps into the pressures of a housing market that demands both customizability and affordability. An excellent example of this was the debate around the Guidebook For Great Communities (now the Guide for Local Area Planning). We discuss the importance of complete, connected communities balanced with clear communication and what the market is telling you.

Contrary to the narratives we sometimes hear our guest says that we’re not seeing a move away from single-family homes but rather they’re becoming more popular. This is both a result of increased diversity popularizing multi-generational homes and the widespread adoption of work from home thanks to the pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, once again it shapes our conversation as we talk about the changing face of cities if we continue to work from home and no longer need to be as close to the office and can be in a more comfortable space but also the rise of digital media and what we’re currently binging.

If the face of our city is fundamentally changing it’ll also mean downtown will need to be more of an entertainment hub so once again we agree that it’s time to put ideology aside and work collaboratively, time will tell if this is what we get. This was a refreshing, honest look into where our city is, where it’s going, and how your neck of the woods gets built along with one of the people whose hard work and dedication make it happen!

Follow Shane on social media @ShaneWenzel and follow Shane Homes @ShaneHomes

Be part of the conversation by following myself and Your Neck of the Woods @JMcGregoryyc on social media and use the hashtag #YNotW

Well, we're back after our break for the holidays and they couldn’t be more glad that we record the show indoors because Your Neck of the Woods has been dropped in the deep-freeze the last couple of weeks. For our first show back, Jason and I had the pleasure of chatting with a once political rival in the form of Ward 1 Councillor Sonya Sharp. Sonya graciously took some time to come on the show and talk about what her priorities have been in serving as your Councillor up here in Northwest Calgary as well as to give some great insight into the biggest civic story right now, the termination of the Event Centre project which happened to occur over our holiday break.

I must say what a refreshing change of pace it is to have someone representing us who makes being open and honest and human such a big priority. This is something I was aching to see and I know many of you listening were as well. In addition, Ward 1 is going to be receiving some additional traffic signals to promote road safety, so far, I must say I’m fairly impressed. From local priorities we move on to the big news of the day here in Calgary the arena we have discussed so much on the show will no longer be happening in the form that was presented, that is despite being weeks away from construction beginning. While Calgary Sports and Entertainment were the ones to officially terminate the deal; to call administration and the Mayor’s new asks to approve the project strange would be an understatement, they were the proverbial mouse given a cookie asking for far more than their glass of milk. Then the lacklustre efforts it would seem from the timeline given by Councillor Sharp tell me that one side, the other, or both were merely getting cold feet and looking for the nearest unlocked fire door. Council is meeting on Tuesday to hopefully give us some answers although given the city’s habit of keeping this kind of information in the black hole that is the in-camera session we may never know. As far as the future of the project many council members like Sonya seem to be largely in the dark as we are except for the fact that city officials have said they are searching for a new partner to continue the project. Needless to say, all three of us share skepticism that as reliable and financially available a partner could be found. Wiser words were never spoken then the words we’ll see.

On the lighter side this week the conversation not only turned to holiday plans which on the whole were scaled back in no small part due to the Hoth-like temperatures were currently experiencing as well as continued frustrations from Covid 19 but also to Sonya’s journey from the University of Lethbridge through the building industry, to her time as a lifeguard, to city administration and small business owner, to Council itself. Needless to say, an interesting path already with some absolutely entertaining anecdotes from Councillor Sharp’s time in university. An absolutely fantastic conversation from somebody not only representing Your Neck of the Woods but who grew up here as well. Many thanks from a fellow St. Francis Brown and fellow ULeth Pronghorn. We definitely look forward to having you on the show again.

You can follow Sonya Sharp on social media @SonyaSharpYYC to follow updates from city Council and Ward 1 as well as community events and projects. If you need to get in touch with Councillor Sharp follow the link and fill out the contact form, we hear this is the best way to reach her:

https://www.calgary.ca/citycouncil/ward-1/warddefault.html?redirect=/ward1 

We want you to be part of the conversation so if you have topics, you want us to discuss, questions for guests or any feedback follow me on social media @JMcGregoryyc and don’t forget to use the hashtag #YNOTW