The second week in October I attended a conference in Calgary that was put on by the Tamarack Institute. The conference, or “gathering”, as they preferred to call it, was called the Communities Collaborating Institute: Leadership that Transforms Communities.
The week was spent listening to very interesting speakers talk about collaborating at the community level to solve problems like poverty and homelessness. Although I found the conference was very strong on academic, theoretical information, I came away inspired to see what I could do within my own community.
Part of the week also included a walking tour of a neighbourhood in Calgary. Our group was privileged to have the Alderman of the Inglewood area give us our guided tour. Gian-Carlo Carra, who is an urban design professional, as well as Alderman, gave a passionate talk on the history of the area and plans for the future.
He made me think about how different the area I live is from Inglewood. He also made me realize how much we’ve lost as we drift, or rather – careen unthinkingly – toward the Canadian dream of suburbia.
You see, when I walk, or drive, around the area where I live, I realize I have streets surrounding me, those streets belong in a subdivision, the subdivision belongs in a ward, the ward in Sherwood Park and the Park in Strathcona County. But what I miss is having a neighbourhood.
When I grew up, in a sleepy little town about 40 minutes northeast of Edmonton, we had back alleys. No one had a large garage dominating the front of their home. I knew my neighbours and I knew if they caught me smoking out behind the red shed on the baseball grounds, there would be hell to pay because my parents would find out before I got home.
My mother had perogy making parties with the lady next door. I had a crush on the boy who lived in the house behind ours. When we couldn’t face one more boring summer day, we packed up a picnic lunch and went for a hike down the railway tracks. We walked home from school every day, and if the weather got too cold during the winter, someone was bound to offer a warm ride home.
Was it an idyllic, Leave it to Beaver kind of existence? Hardly. The bullying that occurred at school was atrocious. After 25 years of marriage, one neighbour left his wife for her best friend, there was a drug-related murder and everyone knew the mayor was a bit of a lush.
But there was no denying the sense of belonging to the neighbourhood. Or in this case, the town. There was no denying that, good or bad, we had community.
As I look around me today, I see so many issues in society that tell me people miss community. People miss that sense of attachment and belonging – specially in the suburbs.
These days the suburbs are created by developers. They are required to include a certain amount of space for parks and schools. But where are our halls? Community leagues? Places to gather?
If I want to find out about my area, where do I go? I can look in the local paper, but the information is specific to the entire County. That is a very large area. There are no central areas where people congregate, especially if you don’t have young children. Right now, the only areas that fit that bill are parks. There at least, young parents have an opportunity to connect with others in their geographical location.
Where do I learn that the work going on in the park across the street is to rebuild the trails? How do I let it be known that I don’t want a sidewalk bylaw?
In an attempt to get to know our neighbours, my husband and I took our barbeque out to the driveway, cooked up some hot dogs and threw out some “Free hotdog” signs. People drove by. People walked by and avoided eye contact. Kids pointed. The people who stopped were almost exclusively the youth. Two very nice young men, about 16-18 years old pulled up in a truck and spent time chatting and chowing down. A Nana and her three granddaughters stopped by on their way to the park, and one of our neighbours came by with his wife and kids. It’s a start, but I’m at a loss as to how to encourage community in an area that is so unconducive to human interactions.
As society moves forward, I think we are at risk of losing something very important if we don’t figure out a way to feed and grow our need for each other.
Suggestions? Thoughts? What has worked for you?
