An Introduction – Why I’m Obsessed with My Community: Part 1

This is Part 1 of a 5* part series of posts about my thoughts on the urban design of our community.

• Part 1. An Introduction
• Part 2. Oops, All Cars
• *A Tangent About Cars
• Part 3. Isolation and the Status Quo
• Part 4. Finally, Why I’m Obsessed With My Community
• Part 5. What’s Next?

Over about the last 2-3 years, I have become VERY interested in urban design. In addition to leading me on a straight path to joining the board of our community association last fall, it has also helped me to learn a LOT about the way cities work (and often, importantly, what’s going on when they don’t).

Probably the best outcome (in my opinion) of this interest and starting to get more involved in the work of the community association is how excited I am to share what I’ve learned about how to strengthen the local sense of community. The biggest barrier to accomplishing this is definitely that society has become much, MUCH more distributed than it was before the internet. The layout of our suburban neighbourhood isn’t doing us any favours in this department, and the cold weather in the winter certainly doesn’t help either.

Our Community

I know that there is a lot going on in the world trying to divide us these days, but I’m feeling very positive and excited about the future of the community of Convent Glen / Orleans Wood. Our neighbourhood is full of friendly and interesting people, and our lives aren’t getting less busy anytime soon. However, I think it’s increasingly important that we think about and invest time and energy into what’s going on close to home.

International politics seems to be laser-focused on tearing society apart at the seams. At the federal level, the next election is shaping up to be a messy and mucky slap-fight that highlights the worst of our political systems. Meanwhile, we’re fully in the midst of a provincial election that feels like a foregone conclusion where Ottawa is a political outlier and often an afterthought in the province where voter apathy tends to be the runaway winner of most elections.

All of this has really put in sharp contrast for me that local (and especially hyper-local) politics is really the most useful outlet for my own interest in making our little corner of the world a better place. The first step is that we (me, you, our neighbours, and local community leaders) need to agree that it’s important to put in energy talking about local issues. This way, we can shape the future of our neighbourhood to see us through the turnover our community needs to grow and flourish now and into the future.

I don’t mean this to say that I think our neighbourhood is falling apart, but I do think there is value in organizing and making sure we are ready to welcome a little (or a lot of) modernization when the opportunity arises. If we start thinking about it now, we can make sure that we are actually setting aside appropriate city budget for these priorities each year to make the best use of our space.