Community Discussions: Where We Live II

1. How far from work is too far?
It seems this is of more interest to people who are from smaller towns. Those who have lived in Edmonton and Calgary for a while just get used to traffic, while those from Vancouver and Toronto see less congested roads.

Would love to live close to work, but inner city is too expensive and there is not much green space near transit. Want to raise children in safe neighbourhoods, but these are in the suburbs, where public transit is poor.

Used to be able to go to school, play sports, and shop in your community. Now you can’t.

Rent hikes prevent people from putting roots down and living near work. How much choice do you have living near work when you are mid to low income?

In Berlin (Germany) the public transit is inexpensive and accessible (can walk to). Many people, including families, do not have a personal vehicle.

Many people’s jobs require a car and the ability to drive on a moments notice around the city throughout the day. Many people change jobs often, should you have to move each time?

Ideally should be able to get to work walking or a short bike ride. In reality for most, riding public transit to work should take less than 30 minutes. Suggestions on how much time it should take driving to work ranged from less than 10 minutes to as high as 20 minutes.

2. How do we reconcile the contradiction between where we live and what we know?

Ideal village with almost all amenities doesn’t exist, the choice isn’t available.

Need to price energy at real cost.

Planning departments need to be re-energized.

Would people accept living near factories? Living near factories would encourage citizens to demand more eco designs. How responsive would factories be? People moved to the suburbs in the first place to get away from the factories.

Significantly increase the number of community gardens.
In each village within the city, need to reconnect with food and work. Revitalize food festivals and nature festivals. Create workplaces that constantly strive to minimize waste, pollution and disturbance in the community.

Each ideal design for new communities seems to morph into a watered down version resembling the same old communities it tried to be different from.

Communities need to accommodate multiple income levels.

There needs to be transparency and accountability between City Councillor donation sources from developers and the approvals from Council to build new sprawling communities. Decisions are about money. The few people with money seem to be making the big decisions.

Divest ourselves of the big box amenities and invest in more amenities sized for the community.

3. In the very long term are cities viable places to live?

Not as they are now.

Will have to grow more food within the city. Will have to grow animals’ food in the place where the animals live.

Increase densities to make public transit more viable.

Keep waste in communities, not in landfills outside of the city, so communities have an incentive to minimize waste.

For cities to become more sustainable, citizens need to make intentional decisions, politicians need to become leaders, and we need to re-tell past success stories for inspiration. We need to take advantage of another window of opportunity to make real changes. Jane Jacobs warned us to change 50 years ago, but we didn’t listen. Will we this time?