Community Discussions: Where We Live I

To answer the question, “How far from work is too far to live?” our discussion group looked at a broad range of perspectives:
How is our health or relationships affected by working outside of our community?
Do we choose this? Or are we just buying into the package that the provincial government, developers, and corporations mandate, and which media sells?

It is a multi-complex issue. Specialized work can take us far from our families for long stretches at a time. But if the work gives us purpose and the pay is satisfactory, time away from home is more manageable. On the flip side, consider the perspective of one individual in the discussion group, who is sixty, and who spent the past eight months sleeping outside after her rent doubled to $1300. As it is with people of modest means, she had little choice but to live close to where she works, as her work was finding food, a place to wash, and other resources that we cannot be far from. Overall, it was felt that work is too far from home when we feel burdened by the absence of family and neighbourhood ­ or when we come to miss them too little. In measurements of time, travelling over half an hour to work by public transit may be too far. Eventually, the ritual daily commute gets us thinking that our wealth, food, water, and even our love is elsewhere, rather than right where we stand. Our land, no longer sacred, becomes a stranger to us, as the wealthy claim it as their own. To reconcile the distancing, communities can reorganize and customized. Micro communities can choose specific ownership styles, home styles, business styles, land to grow food, and other resources to be distributed among the members. Net Zero communities aimed at eliminating waste are recommended. Ultimately, we must bring back a sense of ownership, not just of land, but of our own life expressions. We do this by asserting that our work, community, and environment reflect our values. It is another way of getting closer to home. As it sits, our cities are not viable. Without pragmatic and reflective change, our cities are at risk of collapse, like a house of cards on a crumbling foundation.