Columnists
The new community
Did you hear about the new development they’re planning for Toronto? Waterfront Toronto—a joint venture of three levels of government— awarded a contract to start the process of developing 12 acres of land in Toronto’s east downtown waterfront to Sidewalk Labs. That company is owned by Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.
The aim of the experiment is to try out new ideas in urban living and build a prototype ‘neighbourhood of the future.’ It is expected to include features such as self-driving taxis and buses, light rail links, “modular” homes, removal of waste by robots, and weather mitigation. Sidewalk Labs is going to spend $50 million on an initial year-long consultation process before submitting a detailed blueprint to Waterfront Toronto. It all sounds very Jetsons.
That weather mitigation bit could prove a challenge. “Mitigation,” of course, is a loaded word that can cover anything from duct taping holes in screen doors to putting a dome over everything. But even if Sidewalk Labs were to come up with an app that it claimed could stop the water from flooding, the winds from swirling, the ice from freezing and the sun from baking, I would lay my money on the weather.
All in all, though, it sounds like a fun project. I’m a little bit envious of Toronto. But why should I be? Wellington is just as ripe for fresh development ideas. We already have one proposal sitting on the table for “modular” housing— the proposal by Wharf Lane Developments and Wellington United Church to redevelop the old Dukedome site for affordable housing, made in reponse the County’s call for submissions, I sure hope the proposal does not move from the table to the shelf.
We could go a step further and dream up more proposals for a ‘neighbourhood of the future’. But just like a song has to have to have a “hook” to keep the listener humming the tune, so too does a development. For example, the County is known as a foodie (and drinkie) hotspot. Why not build a neighbourhood around a fresh food market that would specialize in niche food lifetyles. Monday could be vegan day, Tuesday could be gluten-free day, Wednesday organic day, Thursday non-GMO day, Friday superfoods day, Saturday beer and wine day, and Sunday all the kale you want at one low price day. Well, it’s just an idea: we could always throw in free dial-up Internet.
The real question the Sidewalk Labs people will want to answer is not just how to get a development going, but how to build a successful community from it. I have a few suggestions to make on that score. To begin with, you would have to have it within walking distance of stores and services. You would have to have all the stores and services you needed—a bank, a drugstore, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a hardware store, a bakery or two, a hair salon, a coffee shop or five, and several dairy bars and restaurants—at your fingertips. You would want a community filled with willing volunteers who knew the importance of preservation of their town core; an activist newspaper, and a good public library. You would want to know your neighbours, and to make eye contact and say good day to people when you crossed paths in the village. You would want know that if you drove your car into a snowbank, the first passer-by would stop to help.
Of course, it would also be nice if you had housing that people could afford to live in, housing that people actually lived in year round, a better transportation service, a few more stores, and a garbage disposal system that didn’t charge you for the gift of your garbage. But heck, no place is perfect.
If that sounds a little familiar, there’s a good reason. I’m describing Wellington, now. For better or worse, it’s a community. No matter how many high-tech features it may sport, the Sidewalk Labs project may or may not become a community. At the least, with all the burdens of urban working life, and with people retreating more and more into their smartphones and digital interactions, what a “community” consists of is going to mean something different than we have come to know.
We have a community here in Wellington. We should never undervalue it. Therefore, as much as I am attracted by the prospect of having my weather mitigated and my garbage moved by a robot, I’m going with the community I’ve got.
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