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Are the “Thirtysomething Generation” falling out of love with Red Deer?

Published

8 years ago

4 minute read

Are the Thirtysomethings falling out of love with Red Deer?

The thirties are the new twenties. Young people are waiting longer to get married and start families. At one time being 30 and single was not cool, but now it is the accepted norm. Has the city of Red Deer changed with the times?

Red Deer has several areas of the dreaded “rush hour” disease, like bigger more metropolitan cities. 32 Street at 7:45 is horrible, Gaetz Ave, at 5:00 is nightmarish. If these thirtysomethings were looking for the big city metropolitan lifestyle, they would have moved to Calgary and Edmonton. One thirty something mother, previously from Calgary, mentioned her love of Red Deer while in her twenties, and early thirties starting a family, but now in her mid-thirties, she loves her neighbourhood but has fallen out of love with the city.

Another thirty something parent, has found it distressing, having to be commuting all the time. There is seldom enough time to pick up and drop off her school age, sports playing children. It no longer takes only 5 minutes to go to the school, go home and have supper and then another 5 minutes to drive to a sports facility. Collicutt Center is off 32Street, one of the worst streets for rush hour traffic, and downtown, home to many sports facilities, is notorious for rush hour traffic after school and games.

These thirty something parents live on the south side of the river, and on paper it looks like short distances and easy commutes but in reality it has the issues of big city traffic.

When the city completes all 5 high schools along 30 Avenue, expands Collicutt Center, off 32 street and 30 avenue, especially after finding the Dawe Centre too old to twin, and after all the shopping centres along 30 Avenue are completed the residents living in the southeast will think they are living along the Deerfoot in Calgary.

If we expand on this issue, and also look at the north side of the river, it becomes increasingly apparent why the population decreased by almost 800 residents, last year just on that side, alone. While the south side has to deal with rush hour traffic over short distances, the north side has to deal with cross city rush hour traffic. While approximately one third of city residents live north of the river they do not have a high school and only the Dawe recreational complex. The south side, do not forget, has 6 indoor ice rinks, 3 aquatic centres, and will have 6 high schools, and there is no plans to resolve this issue, even with the opening up of almost 3,000 acres for development on the north side of the city.

Thirtysomething parents are also increasingly being relied on to look after their aging parents. This older generation, including yours truly, are living longer, and if they cannot live independently, there is little chance that they will be living in Red Deer. Many have started throwing in the towel, and checking out of the city.

Last year while the population of Red Deer shrank by 900 plus residents, towns like Blackfalds and Penhold grew. School registrations may have stagnated in Red Deer, but grew in areas beyond the city limits.

Has Red Deer abandoned the thirty something families, and is that why the thirty somethings have fallen out of love with Red Deer? Will this issue be addressed during the upcoming municipal election? Maybe, it is not for me to say.
Thank you.

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From MSNBC host Rachel Maddow to businessman and television personality Mark Cuban, a slew of media leaders divulged what they got wrong this past year in a Semafor article published Monday.

Media missteps included NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein underestimating the impact of inflation on politics, Fox News anchor Dana Perino incorrectly predicting Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce would get engaged and CNBC financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin not putting “DOGE and the pairing of Elon [Musk] and Vivek [Ramaswamy]” on his 2024 Bingo card, according to the piece. Despite the variety of answers, one topic — Joe Biden’s lack of mental acuity — seemed to sit at the top of the list for many respondents.

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Other examples of the media downplaying concerns over Biden’s mental acuity include The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg rushing to the president’s defense after co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Biden could have a “senior moment” on stage prior to the debate and MSNBC analyst Mike Barnicle describing members of the Democratic Party as cruel in July for trying to oust the president from the 2024 race.

More recently, former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza apologized in a YouTube video posted in December for waiting too long to investigate concerns that Biden’s mental acuity was deteriorating, admitting that as a journalist he should have “pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being.”

American talk show host Brian Lehrer made a similar apology in his response to Semafor: “Many callers to my show said Joe Biden was in no shape to run for re-election. I mostly dismissed it as ageism. Then I watched the debate.”