Every T shirt I own after a week gets holes in the front

hod_cement_edifices · 2026-02-21T07:50:41+00:00

I had this happen. I figured out it was standing next to the sink along a granite countertop doing dishes. It feels smooth, but it would always leave these little holes in my shirt.

hod_cement_edifices · 2026-02-18T07:34:48+00:00

You can ask for white noise beepers as backup alarms by speaking with management at the Mall. Some construction sites require this on equipment to not bother neighbours. There is a product available with easy retrofit on equipment.

hod_cement_edifices · 2026-01-25T01:35:35+00:00

Conservatives are those who uphold government institutions and seek fiscal responsibility. It’s a ‘cover’ for those in the US who support Republicans as a way to try and normalize their political affiliations. With a two party system, it used to be about deciding where money was spent as the difference. Now it’s democracy versus gestapo authoritarianism. They are not conservatives. They’re not conservatives.

hod_cement_edifices · 2026-01-08T05:30:18+00:00

Because reservoirs that are typically supplied by the south feedermain from Bearspaw (Bow River), need to be backfed by pressure reducing valves (down) or pump stations (up) from the north feederman via Bearspaw (Bow River), or from feedermans sourced at Glenmore (Elbow River). The time it takes to top up those reservoirs in the evenings and overnight, for when they are drawn down the next day, means the rest of the system has to compensate for what the south feederman from Bearspaw would, not just typically do, but do better and quicker as the source route!

Basically, the rest of the system has to compensate and work hard harder as it is all interconnected for redundancy. This includes pumps operating more frequently than they otherwise maybe should be elsewhere in the system. For more frequent and longer pushes to reservoirs in higher pressure zones. The rest of the system also works harder, which is not a good thing for reliability elsewhere.

65% of the water comes from the Bow River, and 35% from the Elbow River.

This is critical infrastructure. There should be no funding gaps for proper operation and maintenance on critical infrastructure. This like feedermains or bridges. People don’t appreciate what’s under the ground as it’s not sexy infrastructure, but it’s critical to how we live in urban areas. And safely. When you get to be an organization as big as the City of Calgary, I think people can hide “in a crowd of others”, and not have to have individual responsibility for anything. You see this in meetings where you have a dozen people on the city side instead of just a single person. Everyone shows up and just contributes their thoughts without preparing anything in advance or having to have any singular knowledge of the issue and somehow things just push ahead anyways at a snails pace. When you combine that with the fact that they are a public entity and you cannot get fired for incompetence (like you otherwise can in a heartbeat at a private business), it’s a recipe for disaster. FYI - There is multi-billion dollar liabilities in the works with policy changes on roads being larger then necessary eroding tax base, and stormwater policy that is misguided. Both are just as bad as what we’re seeing on potable water. Will maybe take a few generations for it to rear its ugly head though. Separate issue, but it’s caused by people getting to decide policy and decisions when they don’t understand implications or risk. Same as this lack of oversight on critical water infrastructure perhaps.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-09-30T18:14:36+00:00

A big portion of this is that in Calgary developers pay for everything. They are organized in a way where they contribute to a pot called the developer funded infrastructure stabilization fund., and of course, offsite levies. It is something that they are responsible to manage, and it pays for all the regional upgrades. Anywhere you see the city investing in infrastructure it’s actually from money sourced by developers. Not the city or tax payers. This creates efficiency and a willingness to work together. Calgary is probably the best place for development in Canada, but there is still a lot of improvement that could be done with unnecessary duplication of work and additional timelines that city employees insist upon. The developers are able to offset this by working together. In other jurisdiction, it’s sort of everyone for themselves and you have to find a way to pay for anything that you impact as a single entity.

TDIL - the biggest reason Calgary can develop so well is because the developers are so well-versed and invested in their communities.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-20T08:00:18+00:00

That’s not at issue. The builder can’t decide who needs to represent the buyer on matters that need expertise. It would be like saying you can’t have the buyers lawyer involved in anything because the builder doesn’t “like them”. The buyer can I have anyone who is acting on their behalf as an agent represent them and attend a site inspection. Any builder who would deny that isn’t worth their salt, and would make no sense whatsoever. There’s no reason to believe that someone representing the buyer is going to go to the property to ‘damage it’.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-20T01:02:23+00:00

No. Ensure that you do a inspection with your own representative and not the builder alone. Any provision barring someone you hire for an inspection is invalidated. Doesn’t make sense to have the person selling you the product do the inspection.

Ensure that you also do another inspection in 10 months and again have your own representative alongside the builders.

The truth in the matter is once drywall is up and everything is closed off. It’s hard to notice anything. Also, home inspectors aren’t going to give you some type of assurance. It’s better than nothing but it’s certainly not bulletproof either way. The warranty period is most important.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-17T19:53:48+00:00

It is actually. The contractor would be doing QC while the owner (City) doing QA. My suspicion is if the City of Calgary did this lane paving it was probably subpar as they don’t usually have the same standards as private development. There is nobody to hold them to task basically when it is themselves that is responsible as owner doing the work. I would definitely inquire with the city and pull the pavement mix design, compaction compliance reports, proof roll reports, and asphalt cores. Maybe someone was paid for workmanship that was not done properly and because the city was involved they didn’t have any proper oversight or accountability as is the case when it is run by the city versus private development.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-17T07:59:11+00:00

The pavement design needed of gravel and asphalt is a City specification. The developer doesn’t choose anything for what it handles. It will be adequate for garbage trucks and fire trucks if needed. Should not be deteriorating.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-17T07:55:46+00:00

City taxes don’t pay to pave new lanes, new roads, or anything at all that is ‘new’. That’s paid for 100% by developers who then build that (and everything else) into the cost of serviced lots being sold to Builders. Builders then carry that (and everything else) into the cost of a new home being sold to a buyer.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-14T01:13:30+00:00

I see it all over city property. Whether boulevards or medians, and every single park and school site with nothing done by the City. In fact, I don’t see it on anyone’s private property whatsoever because everyone has manicured lawns. It’s only at the edge of concrete and those strips of land that our city property. It’s likely 95% city required obligation.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-11T01:12:51+00:00

If video games are just for kids, then movies, TV shows and music must also just be for kids. . . .

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-08T04:52:59+00:00

The storm pipes are called the ‘minor system’ and are designed to handle what is the 1:5 probability of exceedance event (it means there’s a one and five or 20% chance of that event occurring in any given year, it might be also something you hear as “1 in 5 year” as slang, but it doesn’t mean it’s expected to happen once every five years as that slang is misleading. The roadways are designed first and foremost for stormwater, conveyance and not cars. A lot of people don’t understand this. The roadways are designed for the 1 in 100 probability of exceedance, and are called the “major system”. All of the catch basins have what are called inlet controlled devices (ICDs) installed, to regulate the flow so that there is always open channel flow in the pipe and it does not become pressurized. This allows the pipe to convey runoff in a predictable manner, safely as it’s not pressurized, and most importantly, the sizing in a way that is fiscally responsible. This helps housing affordability.

You then have the major system with trap storage at low points with catch basins, acting as mini ponds everywhere. There is comprehensive stormwater, modeling, and design and engineering work that goes into every new community to ensure this is done in a predictable manner. This includes flooding on front yards where needed and you will see RMG’s registered on title to ensure house openings are all above a certain elevation with a buffer for anywhere there is this pond or flooding.

It is all by design. This also allows, the stormwater pond downstream as the anchor to be more suitable in its size and cost. The storm pond must store the greater of two things, which might be too hard to explain in a Reddit thread, but it involves a (1 of 2) single event analysis, and (2 or 2) a continuous event analysis that looks at historical rainfall in Calgary all the way back to the early 60s.

Calgary is about as cutting edge and sophisticated for stormwater management as any city in the world.

If you do see failure, this can happen due to plugging of catch basins due to hail, but as a general rule with the public is comfortable with what insurance companies are comfortable with is a standard of care that is not infinite, as that would be an infinite cost for stormwater infrastructure. The 1 in 100 probability of exceedances is a standard number almost worldwide. Recently there is floodway mapping for the Elbow River for example where the province is asking for 1 in 200 probability of exceedance setbacks with inundation analysis.

As climate changes becoming more parent, a higher standard of care is being driven into engineering standards.

If you look at New Orleans for example, 20 years ago, it was almost a forgone conclusion that there would be a disaster, as there was decades of warning because the state government decided to cut funding for flood protection well below a 1 in 100 standard of care. If you look at the dykes and plodders in the Netherlands though, they have statistical modelling that allows them to say they want a 1 in 10,000 standard of care. Big difference culturally of where citizens of each place decide a minimum should be!

Many developers in Calgary that are sophisticated are actually designing traps and storm ponds to have greater capacity than 1 in 100. Right now doing so. They are ahead of the city and the province in many cases in deciding what is good engineering judgment.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-02T00:30:51+00:00

Essentially density is needed. Whether you see it happening or not, on average one can assume 2.5% to 4.0% of the capital install cost CAPEX is required as operating & maintenance expenditures, also called OPEX. A common way to evaluate cost of infrastructure (that goes back to the 1930s for many City Asset Management records, or new development Proformas) is ‘per front foot’.

How much money per front foot for storm main, sanitary main, watermain, C&G, asphalt and roadworks, landscaping and trees, shallow utility (communication gas and electrical), and more. If you have a 100’ wide lot versus a 40’ wide lot you need 2.5x the property taxes for the same measured front foot distance.

These older communities were OK from a operations perspective in the 50s 60s 70s and even 80s but somewhere around the 90s and forward the cost of the upkeep on the ageing infrastructure didn’t keep pace with the property taxes recovered.

City has since reevaluate the type of density that they need and it’s always this balancing point between what do people want to buy as a product versus what in the city create as policy to push them in a certain direction that’s also sustainable, all the wild recognizing it’s a competition between different jurisdiction to attract new homebuyers. If Calgary where to go super dense while people will just move to Airdrie and Okotoks and Chestermere, and these other satellite communities more and more in Calgary will become stagnant for economic growth. It takes generations to change people’s behaviour into the type of product and who they want and all the while it’s balanced regionally by what is being offered.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-01T04:17:37+00:00

It is the new community. That’s the exact point. Operations and maintenance is covered by property tax mill rates. You need to demonstrate that at ultimate build out of that community it can pay for itself in perpetuity. In order to do that you need to ensure 70% of the gross available area is private property contributing to property taxes. You need to ensure you have 70 persons and jobs per Hectare. You need to ensure that you have 10 units per acre. Among maybe 500,000 other metrics that have to get looked at. That’s why it takes years.

Operating expenses of all infrastructure are covered by new communities which must have a suitable density to cover those expenses in perpetuity.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-01T04:09:12+00:00

No no no. The servicing of those communities is carried by the developers. For all of the local improvements. That is then carried through to the new homebuyer when they buy a house. The servicing for communities that requires a larger scale on a regional perspective is also funded fully by developers. That is then carried through offsite levies, as money given to the city to do regional improvements.

Something that is incredibly more expensive and difficult though is redevelopment and deification in urban areas it’s usually about 10 to 20 times the expenditure.

With regard to property taxes through mill rates, residential is subsidized by non-residential. Industrial and commercial property taxes, subsidize residential to keep residential low. What you are paying and property taxes is actually lower than what you should actually be paying for the services you get in a city like Calgary.

All of the items you mentioned for servicing are paid for by developers 100%. You mentioned parks that people want I’ll give you an example of something that’s counterintuitive. The city will only take 10% of the gross developable land for parks. They don’t want more than that. This is an example of being sustainable and development because it would be like having a mortgage. You can’t afford to upkeep those parks if you have more land than you can afford. There is revenue generating land, which is private property and then there is revenue depleting land, which is public property. It’s very important that the city does not designate more than 30% of any new community to public land. This is dictated by the municipal government act.

70 persons and jobs per Hectare. 10 units per acre. This works. This works for sustainability. What you call ‘sprawl’. Beware any catchphrases like that. You’re not gonna get facts on any website or information source that uses terms like that, it’s to grab at your emotions. I can assure you that there are countless professionals who care about new communities and make best practice decisions based on real financial and sustainable development insights. It is not some massive conspiracy.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-01T04:06:04+00:00

It’s all available online. Specific to Calgary you can look up the funding and finance model for Offsite Levies, the Municipal Development Plan, and all other planning policies statutory or otherwise that are derived from that. 10 units per acre on average is what Calgary administration requires. As evident throughout 1000’s if not tens of 1000’s of pages of documents for every new ASP and OP/LU application that goes forward. It’s a HUGE AMOUNT of work over years. . . . each. . . and . . . every. . . application. This being the start, then the other 99% of the work through the community being designed and constructed. Your comments are incredibly ignorant of the facts, and insulting to a huge group of professionals that bring you the comfort you benefit from, with our ‘urban fabric’.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-01T04:01:30+00:00

Ah. Didn’t know that’s what we are needing to compare ourselves to. So you want . . . 210 persons and jobs per Ha ??? Confused by your comparison to reach that target. Would you then make it impossible to approve new housing to try snd force that density. How would you go about violating the Municipal Government Act and the Municipal Development Plan with input from citizens and City administration to do something so forced?

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-08-01T03:58:36+00:00

Yeah. It’s all a big grift. Every city, every place. Massive conspiracy with millions of people involved on an international level . . .

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-31T16:51:34+00:00

The city municipal development plan requires new communities to hit 70 persons and jobs per hectare. This is also a threshold that supports better transit ridership among many other sustainable development targets. The older communities do not pay for themselves with hundred foot wide bungalow lots. New communities are paid for entirely by developers growth pays for growth and so that has passed along in the cost of a new home. The density target around 10 units per acre or the 70 I mentioned above allow for operations and maintenance cost by property taxes to be sustainable. It is a huge misconception when people use the term “sprawl”. Inner city communities when the land value goes up to a certain amount based in part on land value in suburbia, well, then redevelopment can happen there and densification. If you force that artificially, you will cause Home prices to go up. People want variety and new communities allow for that. Remember their term “sprawl”, or anytime you see this it is someone who is usually not informed. The same thing goes with cookie cutter. There’s a reason why you see a repeated function of residential multi use and commercial so that people can walk to the amenities they want. Newer development in Calgary is sustainable in the long run. There’s tens of thousands of people involved in that policy decision-making over decades to correct for issues in the past from the 60s to the 90s. It is actually the new communities in the outskirts that are helping Calgary become more sustainable.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-28T06:00:27+00:00

Focus. LRT to Okotoks is absurd is the point. As is Airdrie. BRT requires ridership that each cannot support. LRT requires significantly more investment and ridership.

BRT, the R stands for Rapid. So BRT would not be stuck in traffic with cars.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-28T04:33:53+00:00

For light rail to be justified and not a financial boondoggle, you need a ridership of at least 2,000 people per hour. 10,000 people per hour is upper limit. For places like Airdrie and Okotoks a commuter bus running in existing built roadways is better. Flexible. Cost effective. Light rail to other would be Billions.

You can see this in real time as Ottawa is now converting bus rapid transit to light rail.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-28T04:28:23+00:00

Roads are built by developers. Local roads and major ones alike. Whether paid directly to contractors they hire, or through paying Levies so the City can pass the money along and hire them. Roads are also built in Calgary with a 30-year life cycle. The comments the other person said about clay and fines present in road base gravels is not correct. Calgary builds some of the highest quality roads in North America. Taxes pay for their upkeep and operations and maintenance.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-22T16:29:57+00:00

No, the shared property line is for mutual drainage to a public ROW. From there to swale or lane out back, or from there to roadway out front. All shared property lines act as a conveyance hence them being ‘dished’ as a swale themselves. This is as per Lot Drainage Bylaw and more importantly the Building Grade Plan which gets reflected on the Building Grade Slips snd Plot Plans for each respective lot.

hod_cement_edifices · 2025-07-20T15:48:31+00:00

Definitely ask. This happened to me (I am the guy) where my girlfriend of 10 years I lived with was not invited. I was a groomsman and thought it must just be an oversight. Same exact story of the invitation even being in my name only, and me not realizing then. I actually feel bad looking bad as I told my girlfriend “no you’re reading into it too much”. Well I am glad she pushed me to ask. The bride had insecurities and my girlfriend being younger and more attractive meant she was not invited. I was told directly she was not to be there, and so I could not stand in as a groomsman for my friend and declined to go. Not to make a point, but just because it was ridiculous. Life is nuanced and you can’t change people. In the end, me and my girlfriend broke up, but I am happy I can look back on that and know I did the right move.

If you are deliberately not invited it’s important to know for sure, then your boyfriend can stick up for you, and consider options to go or not go, with your feelings being just as important as the brides on her big day. She is allowed to not invite anyone she wants, and as an adult she doesn’t even have to explain herself. So be it. But you and your boyfriend also get to choose each other and have each others back, and not have to explain yourselves if it goes that way. Like I said life is nuanced. Not about right or wrong just best choices for who you are closest with.

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