On the east side of the Elbow River bordering Mission sits a hidden gem – the community of Erlton. Here, pockets of vintage heritage homes along with architecturally pleasing townhomes and condo developments are tucked away along the east banks of the Elbow River, mere steps from the trendy streets of Mission.

"Erlton is one of Calgary's best kept secrets. I love living here. It's just such a small, connected community," said Viccy Grace, an area resident and president of the Erlton Community Association. She and her husband purchased and refurbished a century-old home on the hill in Erlton.

The ambitious master plan and vision for East Village, which was years in the making, is bearing fruit these days with an unprecedented level of construction taking place and more to come.

Two key blocks in the neighbourhood are the next big projects for Calgary Municipal Land Corporation, which is spearheading development in East Village.

Susan Veres, senior vice-president of strategy and business development for CMLC, says COPEZ has plans for the East Village Courtyard, which is before the City right now for permits, and it will include two rental towers of about 600 units, a mid-rise market product with about 100 units, and an office building.

The City of Calgary continues to hammer out details for its ambitious Green Line LRT route plan, but with construction slated to begin in 2019, residents in the city's deep south are weary of the wait. Many are wondering if the City should focus on improving other transit offerings in the area instead.

Talk of a CTrain arriving someday was a selling feature 22 years ago, when a future station site was built into the master-planned community of McKenzie Towne. More than two decades later, the promise of an LRT continues to feature heavily in the marketing of new communities farther south, including Auburn Bay, Mahogany and Seton, the farthest southern stop planned for the Green Line's 46-kilometre route.

Almost four years after the Calgary flood of 2013, flood-damaged areas have been rebuilt and efforts are underway to protect the city with new flood mitigation measures.

In riverside communities, such as Sunnyside, which was mostly saved from the raging Bow River by a berm constructed in the 1930s, obvious signs of flooding are mostly gone, but memories still linger.

"There are some people – you can see it in them – when spring melt starts to come, you can see them get anxious, (wondering) what is going to happen?" said Charlie Lund, chair of the Infrastructure Group, with Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Association's Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee.

It's no secret that affordable housing is hard to come by in Calgary.

Plenty of studies, including several by the municipal government, have pointed to this problem in the past. Yet none have been able to provide a comprehensive picture – until now.

Earlier this month, the City of Calgary released an unprecedented report called Housing in Calgary: An Inventory of Housing Supply, 2015/2016.

Beyond bricks and mortar, it's culture that speaks to the heart of the city. The annual Mayor's Lunch for Arts Champions is proof the arts community is not only alive, but thriving in Calgary.

This year's sold out lunch, held on March 22, once again brought together Calgary's business and art communities to recognize the important relationships that foster artistic achievement.

"We see leaders in our community create canvases for dreams to take shape," said Randy Ferguson, COO of Strategic Group, the Champion sponsor of the Mayor's Lunch. "That is what makes a great city. Not a good or a functional city, but a great city. One that people learn from, admire, and replicate."

Governments of all levels have been talking about ending homelessness for some time now, but Medicine Hat is actually walking the talk.

With a population over 63,000, Medicine Hat, for all intents and purposes, has put an end to chronic homelessness – a cycle in which individuals are perpetually stuck, residing in shelters, or worse, living on the streets for extended periods.

It's a goal seven municipalities across Alberta, including Calgary, vowed to accomplish almost a decade ago. But only Medicine Hat can claim success — outside of a handful of individuals who continue to use the city's shelter system on a long-term basis.

Good community design creates good feelings. It's those good feelings – a sense of connectedness, camaraderie with neighbours, a sense of belonging, and pride of ownership – that drives the must-live-here desire. And that's just what the developers of Harmony, a new sustainable, interactive lake and golf community located in the heart of Springbank, want to evoke.

"With Harmony, what we wanted to do was turn back the hands of time and focus on what community really is," said Birol Fisekci, of Harmony Developments Inc.

Fisekci is also the president and CEO of Bordeaux Properties the co-developer of the project, along with Qualico Communities.

Ascend to the summit of Nose Hill Park on a clear, sunny day and you'll have a spectacular vantage from which to survey the city. It's just one of the many parks in the city's northwest that Calgarians know and love.

As a quadrant, northwest Calgary is an area roughly bordered by Deerfoot Trail to the east, the Bow River to the south, Calgary's city limits to the west, and Stoney Trail to the north.

The northwest is diverse, in both demographics and geography. Several new communities now exist farther north and west of Stoney Trail and one of city's oldest neighbourhoods, Bowness, dates back to the turn of the 20th century.

Some public art is iconic: think Wonderland, the giant child's head that sits in front of the downtown Bow building or The Conversation, the statue of two businessmen talking on Stephen Avenue.

Others inspire or enchant: think the Women are Persons statues of the Famous Five in Olympic Plaza or Auspicious Find, the shape-changing 15,000-glass marble sculpture that sits in Prince's Island Park.

With 1,200 different pieces, these "moments of delight" that surveyed Calgarians asked for in public art, are everywhere, says Sarah Iley, City of Calgary manager of arts and culture.