Love thy neighbourhood as thyself

[Mille Sabords]

Good article by our own version of Christopher Hume, Ken Gray. Stylistically he veers more into caricature and exaggeration while Hume is squarely of the school of irony and sarcasm, but Gray can be just as effective.
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Love thy neighbourhood as thyself
Ken Gray
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, July 11, 2008

Those lucky people in Sandy Hill and Lowertown. They have the Bytowne Cinema. That's a real asset to the community -- a downtown theatre. So too, the folks in Old Ottawa South who can walk to the Mayfair.

Those are real places that draw real people to worthwhile events. They are community assets. The theatres create a street scene, making the community vibrant and safer. And on the Bytowne's Rideau Street, gawd knows with its druggies, poverty, disease, panhandling, petty crime and Councillor Georges Bédard, it needs a healthy street scene.

I walked past the former Elmdale Theatre in the old west end the other day, now a church, and wished it were the Bytowne. I'm sure the folks at the church are very nice and doing wonderful things, but a movie theatre without movies in my neighbourhood, to a cinema devotee like myself, lacks a soul. Instead, I must jump in a car and drive to Rideau Street for a worthwhile film. You can walk from my house to the new Great Canadian Theatre Company, but to go to a movie, especially the Hollywood variety (punched out though they are, like General Mills manufactures a box of Cheerios) you must journey out of the core to the Hell Lucifer Octoplex in the suburbs.

All this meandering has a point. It's about oil. As oil becomes precious and environmental consciousness reigns supreme, our neighbourhoods will become more important. That's because we'll be living there rather than travelling.

Thus love thy neighbours. You're going to be seeing a lot more of them for the globe just became a lot bigger.

With apologies to the Disney people, it's not a small world after all. It was, once. Jet planes brought Europe within the range of North American travellers. The car created amazing individual mobility at a very low cost. So the Disney folks were right then, but not anymore.

With oil in the $140-a-barrel range, mobility has been severely restricted. In the United States, resales of SUVs are increasingly difficult with demand plummeting. Meanwhile, Toyota can't produce enough hybrid batteries to keep pace with demand. Ford is slowing production of SUVs and pickup trucks. And some U.S. air carriers are becoming economically unviable. Air Canada will lay off 2,000 employees.

So your neighbourhood matters. It always did, but if you are like most Ottawans, you just didn't care. Yet logic dictates that if you are travelling less, you'll be spending more time in your community. You will have new demands of your neighbourhood.

This will be particularly difficult in the suburbs.

If my considerable time spent living in them is any guide, there's not much to do and few amenities unless residents drive. But in a new high-priced oil universe, motoring is expensive. So the corner store will get more business, at least at first. The bargain at the far-off mall doesn't look as good when you add the price of oil to it.

Businesspeople will respond to this new demand. In fact, some companies such as Canadian Tire are changing their corporate strategy. The retailer announced recently it will emphasize small stores with expert advice and good service. Home Hardware is already there with independently owned shops in some neighbourhoods. Grocery stores will find ways to fit into suburban neighbourhoods rather than into retail power centres. Entertainment will take on more nuance than the video shop on the corner.

In fact, all the things you do at the mall -- maybe even just hanging out -- will move to your neighbourhood. With high gas prices, people will demand to play, shop and maybe even work within walking distance of their homes. The 1940s neighbourhood will reappear.

In some places they never went away. Some of the older parts of our community are now experiencing considerable development intensification because some people want to dump their big homes as they age but also want to be able to walk or drive a short distance to their shopping and work. Back to the future.

There is a large role for the municipality in this rebirth of the community. Soccer moms are driving their offspring for miles to get to games or activities. The city and the community must provide fields and pools and the like so that neighbourhoods can be self-sustaining. Business will respond to market demand but politicians and bureaucrats will need to be nimble to recognized these needs and move accordingly.

Suddenly, your city councillor will become the important politician because he or she caters to your community. With the rise of the neighbourhood will come a corresponding increase in interest in municipal politics. The community will triumph.

And, oh yeah, would someone bring back the old Elmdale Theatre? I miss it.