Tackling big issues during an amazing year

After a brief summer hiatus, I've returned to the Calgary Herald with my monthly column. Here is the full text of my September column:

What a summer it has been. I remember standing on a stage in Olympic Plaza on New Year’s Eve, talking about how 2012 would be the year of Calgary. Has this ever proven to be true — especially over the past few months.

The centennial Calgary Stampede brought the city together as an amazing celebration of community. And we continue to celebrate the 100th birthdays of institutions like City of Calgary Recreation and the Calgary Public Library. Festivals like the Calgary Folk Music Festival and Globalfest had their best year ever.

And everywhere, Calgarians are feeling great about their city. According to a recent Angus Reid survey, Calgarians feel they have the highest quality of life of any major city, and an astonishing 90 per cent of us think this is a city on the rise. Heck, we’re even happy with our city government — the number of satisfied people is 20 percentage points higher than in Vancouver and almost triple that of Montreal.

I was reminded of all of this when I took a brief vacation with some old friends to the London Olympics (just a holiday for me, minimal official duties, no taxpayer funding). It was wonderful to see that great city at its absolute best and to feel a real unity of purpose among the people.

Interestingly, one rarely heard the word “volunteer” during the Games. The 70,000 plus people who gave freely of their time (more than 240,000 applied) were called Games Makers, because it was truly them who made the Games and who made, and continue to make, their community.

Even more interesting, 40 per cent of the Games Makers had never volunteered for anything before. I know that, having caught the bug, they will continue to work for the betterment of their community, just as all the Team ’88 volunteers did here in Calgary.

Now, London was starting from a different point. They needed the Games, in some ways, to bring their community together, and to provide a sense of optimism in difficult times.

Thankfully, our times are not as difficult here, and we are very lucky to have such a rich history of volunteerism and community-building on which to build.

So, while big events like the Olympics can be galvanizing (and certainly many Calgarians have been suggesting it may be time for another Games bid — something worth a broader discussion), we can still be working together every day to continue to make our city better and better.

That’s the impetus behind the 3 Things for Calgary program. A group of dedicated volunteers is encouraging all Calgarians to do three things for the community this year. Have you thought about yours yet? Remember, they could be big — like joining the board of your local community association or taking on a new volunteer role — or small, like raking your neighbour’s leaves or inviting people on your street over for some hot cider.

The important thing is to share; don’t be shy about how you’re making the city better. Talk about it, and encourage others to do the same. Thousands of Calgarians have committed to their three things, and I hope you will as well.

That same spirit of improvement will also inform the upcoming legislative session at City Hall. This fall will be about putting the pieces in place for significant long-term change. Over the next months, you’ll be hearing a lot about a new city charter — a negotiation with the province to recognize the importance of Calgary and give the municipal government the powers we need to provide essential services. If it goes well, cities will see a streamlined and more responsive government, with a minimum of inter-government bickering and buck passing.

You’ll also hear a lot about fundamental reform in two of our most important departments — Calgary Transit and planning. Transit is currently in the middle of a major program — RouteAhead — to create, for the first time, an integrated 30-year capital, operational and customer service plan. We welcome your ideas, and I encourage you to visit routeahead.ca, where you can be the director of transit and tell us how you would spend the budget. Or look for the colourful RouteAhead bus around town and on your route.

You’ll also have the chance to give us your ideas on how to make our planning process work better and make it easier to build great stuff. More to come on that later.

2012 has certainly been the year of Calgary. But we’re not done yet. Have a great autumn!

- Mayor Naheed Nenshi