As we look to the future of our region, we ought to cut the rhetoric and take an honest look at what we most cherish
Bob Ransford
Sun
Quality of life. That’s what it is all about. When Vancouverites express their concerns about the impacts of new development or about how change might threaten their neighbourhoods, they are simply expressing fears about perceived threats to their quality of life.
It’s no surprise we are so protective of our quality of life. Let’s face it: we have a quality of life worth protecting.
After visiting four major U.S. metropolitan centres since the beginning of July, I have returned home with a certain renewed sense of awe about the kind of urban lifestyle we enjoy.
Our setting plays a big role in the kind of urban quality of life we enjoy. Our little temperate corner of North America is spared the hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, long frigid winters and sweltering, humid summers that afflict a lot of other North American cities. The esthetic beauty of our natural setting is a formidable backdrop for man’s urban creations.
We have also managed to create and maintain a relatively good quality of life in our urban metropolitan region by avoiding a number of mistakes made elsewhere. We don’t have a concrete labyrinth of freeways bisecting our city. For the most part, we’ve avoided segregating different people in neighbourhoods — except for the results of disastrous social engineering that have created a village of misery in the Downtown Eastside. We’ve done a pretty good job of protecting our air and water quality, so far. We’ve also kept sprawl at bay — but only just — with the Agricultural Land Reserve serving double duty as an urban growth boundary.
So, when we look at the future of our metropolitan region, we need to first clearly cut through all the rhetoric, catchphrases and buzzwords and look at what people cherish the most and are willing to fight hardest to protect.
Forget words or catchphrases like “sustainability”, “ecological footprint”, “affordability” and the like. It really is about quality of life. It is about maintaining our quality of life today and ensuring that future generations will be able to enjoy the same quality of life without making sacrifices greater than those we are willing to make today.
That’s the bottom line that politicians and policy-makers need to focus on when they are listening to a fearful public.
At the same time, when we speak about our concerns, desires, fears and ideas about our homes, neighbourhoods and our region, we need to be honest about what we are trying to protect.
There is little to be gained by erecting scarecrows or by elevating basic fears to hysterical rhetoric.
Perhaps a good place to begin adopting a realistic approach to a dialogue about our urban future is with Vancouver‘s debate about EcoDensity.
Once again, putting aside the catchy brand name, EcoDensity is all about protecting the quality of life Vancouverites enjoy, especially those who live in the city’s first-ring suburban neighbourhoods.
The phrase EcoDensity immediately engenders fear among many. Ironically, the main thrust of the EcoDensity initiative is aimed at addressing the same issues that create that fear.
EcoDensity is about protecting our urban quality of life by embracing a development pattern that is less reliant on the automobile and that makes walking and cycling easier for people and justifies greater investment in costly transit infrastructure.
It is about not only calming local traffic, but reducing automobile traffic overall as part of reducing our impact on the environment.
EcoDensity is about creating more complete communities by having more affordable and diverse housing within walking distance of shops and services, parks and amenities.
It isn’t about creating expensive high-density enclaves, but rounding out existing, primarily single-family neighbourhoods with a range of housing choices.
EcoDensity is about providing the kinds of infrastructure that makes neighbourhoods livable — like more parks and local amenities and civic utility infrastructure that is greener and has a reduced impact on the environment.
If we were to list all the things people cherish in Vancouver and all their fears about what future change might bring, then match that with a second list of the outcomes Vancouver’s innovative EcoDensity initiative is attempting to achieve, the matches would be impressive.
Rather than elevating our fears to a level of hysteria about EcoDensity, we should be calling on city officials to roll out the details of the EcoDensity initiative even faster so that the fears can be alleviated. After all, we need to protect our quality of life.
Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with COUNTERPOINT Communications Inc. He is a former real estate developer who specializes in urban land use issues. E-mail: [email protected]
© The Vancouver Sun 2007