Gian-Carlo Carra

Gian-Carlo Carra is 40 years old and a citizen of both Canada and the United States. Gian-Carlo was raised in Calgary and New York City and that helped form a deep passion and understanding for the importance of human-scaled urban neighborhoods.?

Gian-Carlo was elected in 2010 to serve the people of Ward 9 in Calgary and he firmly believes that empowered communities are what drive a city to achieve monumental success. And he knows Calgary is destined for greatness but we need to overhaul how we communicate and relate to each other in our neighborhoods first—and we need to restructure how City Hall works to better serve our neighbourhoods.

In his three years of service to the citizens of Ward 9, Gian-Carlo has already made significant progress in shifting the dialogue at city council, within our civic administration and also within his Ward 9 neighbourhoods. Gian-Carlo’s commitment to empower the citizens of Ward 9 remains steadfast.

For a list of Gian-Carlo’s Notices of Motion, please see below.

The early years

Gian-Carlo’s mother, Elizabeth Saarinen, was born in Inglewood (Ward 9) in 1940, the youngest of five siblings in a family that had emigrated from Denmark a decade earlier. His father, Dalmo Carra, born in 1931, was the first child of Italian immigrants to New York City. An English teacher and professor of piano at the Manhattan School of Music respectively, his parents spent their summers with the Saarinens in Calgary.

Consequently, Gian-Carlo grew up spending the winters in New York City – going to public school and appearing regularly on Sesame Street – and during his summers in Calgary – riding through Inglewood with his brother and sister and the neighborhood kids on their banana-seat bikes and taking frequent family camping trips into the mountains.

The obvious differences between New York and Calgary, the similar challenges confronting the neighborhoods he called home in both cities and the powerful lessons of scale that he learned traveling between the two by passenger train, helped shape Gian-Carlo’s understanding of the world.
University years

Graduating in New York City from LaGuardia High School of Music, Art, and the Performing Arts (Fame) with an art diploma in 1990, Gian-Carlo took another grade twelve year in Calgary at Western Canada High School, matriculating into the University of Calgary in the fall of 1991. He went on to get his BA in History (1996) with a concentration in North American social, political and economic history.

He has been a leader in the Calgary competitive ultimate touring scene from 1997 until his retirement from competition in 2009. Additionally, Gian-Carlo led the creation of junior (under-18) ultimate in Calgary. He coached Calgary’s first junior team to a national championship in 1997 and took the first ever Junior Ultimate Team Canada to a bronze medal at World Championships in 1998.

By 1999, having traveled extensively and worked in a variety of industries including construction, restaurant and hospitality, Gian-Carlo was ready to pursue a career.

Professional years

In 1999, Gian-Carlo took a course in urban design theory from the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. This was his professional epiphany. Always concerned with the interaction between human societies and the physical environments, the discovery that there was a vocation such as urban design changed Gian-Carlo’s life.

A frequent contributor to that urban design theory class was Calgary planning legend Harold Hanen who mentored Gian-Carlo, encouraging him to pursue a professional path dedicated to helping Calgary become a great city of strong communities its citizens wanted it to become. In the fall of 2000, Gian-Carlo began his Masters in Environmental Design/Urban Design and at the same time began his service to the Inglewood Community Association. Later that fall Hanen died suddenly of cancer.

A couple of years later, another of Gian-Carlo’s community mentors also passed away, Calgary architect, Inglewood stalwart and one-time alderman, Jack Long. Gian-Carlo’s career as an award-winning urban design professional and as a community activist has been shaped by his fundamental belief in the principles of design-based civic engagement that both Hanen and Long advocated for.
Family

This July Gian-Carlo celebrated his sixth anniversary with his wife, Barb Carra. Barb and Gian-Carlo met in 2003 playing ultimate frisbee at the University of Calgary as both were finishing their master’s degrees. A three-year long distance relationship followed as Barb moved to Ontario to do her PhD in data analysis and spatial statistics, working with Alberta’s Foothills Research Institute Grizzly Bear Research Project. Married on July 21, 2007, Barb completed her PhD and now works for Cybera, a not-for-profit technology research agency. Barb and Gian-Carlo are the super-proud parents of an amazing little guy named Vance Urbano, born in 2012.
Carra in City Hall

Carra in City ?Hall

Gian-Carlo was elected in the 2010 to Council for Ward 9. He has since spearheaded numerous projects to improve the quality of life for Ward 9 residents in their neighbourhoods, and is working closely with fellow Councillors and the Mayor’s office to bring desired change throughout the City and region. In his first term in office, Gian-Carlo brought his expertise and desire to create a great city. This past year, he provided crucial input to the following committees:
•Transforming Planning Steering Committee
•Standing Policy Committee on Planning and Urban Development
•Standing Policy Committee on Transportation and Transit
•Gas, Power & Telecommunications Committee
•Intergovernmental Affairs Committee
•Land and Asset Strategy Committee
•Calgary Parking Authority
•Inter-Municipal Committee (IMC) – Chestermere
•Regional Transportation Steering Committee

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