Nenshi-watchers, eat your hearts out. While Toronto libraries face the spectre of cuts (or at least endless speculation about them), Calgary is forging ahead with a new central library, to be constructed on the site of parking lot in its depressed East Village. Last week, Calgary’s city council approved a site and committed $175 million to the new library, which will serve the growing city of 1.1 million-strong city. With construction set to begin in 2012, the new library will replace the city’s current 49-year old central facility, which was built when Calgary was only a third of its current size. Calgary’s library is the second-most used system in the country, according to a 2009 annual library report to the community – yet ranks only 25th in per capita funding and receives as little as half per person from the city of what Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal give their libraries. The city had the option of repairing the existing central location – which needed $53-million in repairs – but opted instead to build a new building. This is the second urban-renewal project Nenshi has announced for the neighborhood: In February, he revealed plans for the National Music Centre, a 135,000-square-foot building set to be constructed a few blocks away that will house a performance hall, recording studio, radio station, and exhibition space honouring Canada’s musical heritage. The cultural facility will come with a $135 million price tag, and the city hopes to see shovels in the ground late this year or early next, for a 2014 opening. For all the fuss in Toronto, our libraries haven’t gone without investment: Our own Central Reference Library, opened in 1977, is undergoing a five-year, $34-million facelift, set to be completed in 2012. All the same, Calgary is about to boast some serious bragging rights with the bibliophiles of the nation.