Right to Community - It's Time

“Dull, inert cities … contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.”

For anyone who hasn’t read Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities, from which the quote above is taken, you should. Her writings on cities proved pivotal over the decades as communities evolved during numerous challenges.And now Canadian cities face a new set of hurdles to overcome. Jacobs, who spent the latter part of her life in this country, would surely have been a prescient voice if she were still alive. She detested all those urban renewal projects that called for the destruction and rebirth of neighbourhoods. She preferred the route of abolishing zoning laws in order to create dense, mixed-use neighbourhoods that would inevitably be more responsive to citizen engagement and be suitably sustainable at the same time.The United Nations estimates that 60% of the world’s population will be urban by 2030. The world has never witnessed such a transformation. Other countries that recognize this as the trend that will change everything have already begun the process of bringing cities and communities to a higher level of importance than ever before. Reasons for this are plenteous, but the key driver for change has been the understanding that if an increasing majority of your citizens live in urban areas, then everything from politics to policy, entrepreneurship to economy, will require the active support of cities if they are to prove successful.A couple of years ago in Calgary, I participated in a panel along with Naheed Nenshi, who at that point was staging an ultimately successful run to be mayor of the city. Though the subject primarily focused on international affairs, he reminded the audience that people choose where they live by city, not by country. Naturally people come to Canada for the many things it has to offer, but in the end they choose where they will settle down, and since 80% of this country now live in cities, such choices have clear implications.Consider what would happen if the federal government immediately shut down. You might not notice that reality for weeks. A provincial shutdown? Likely in a few days. But shut down a civic government and its effects would be immediate. In our communities are the services we require the most, yet under present accommodations they have the least ability to raise funds. Canadian cities receive a lower share of tax revenues than almost every other developed country. That says something about priorities. Ironically, in a nation that is rapidly becoming the most urbanized in the world per capita, we have a constitution that fails to recognize the importance of our cities and communities through legal authority. If Jane Jacobs were alive today, she would likely be issuing warnings that we are driving our cities to decay unless we provide them with the inherent tools required to get on with the job of progressing in an ultra-modern world.Why aren’t our communities gaining the attention that should come with their growth and importance? We have already spoken of senior levels of government reluctant to relinquish a power they have enjoyed since 1867. But perhaps much of it has to do with the lack of civic engagement often endemic in most of our communities. It wasn’t required to such a degree in times previous, when governments had both the revenue and the inclination to assist our communities to thrive. That scenario has obviously changed, leaving cities largely unequipped with the skills to organize in a fashion to demand their rightful place in the new Canadian context.Clearly, we have massive strength in numbers – 80% of the population – but a limited amount of clout in the historical context. It’s time we rose to the level of our ability. Presently this country has a $135 billion infrastructure deficit. That’s huge and getting bigger by the year so long as we don’t make the fundamental changes required. Most of that deficit resides right within our cities. We once entertained a national infrastructure plan that would help our communities catch up with their competition around the world, but this federal government is content with leave it unattended. We also dreamed of a national housing strategy that would provide resources to all communities for dealing with what has become an emerging crisis – but again, no help. We hope for green technology stimulus to carry us into the next century and create the new jobs of tomorrow. While provinces have made some investments, the feds … well, you know.How can Canada hope to be competitive and adapt by ignoring its cities? It doesn’t seem to matter because it’s the current practice. In reality we have permitted our communities to either become the breeding grounds for partisan intrigue or to grow disenchanted with politics altogether. It’s time we stopped entertaining either option as citizens. We require a smart shift in the tools and authority to be what we can be in partnership with other levels of government.Communities are ultimately about the interactions between space and imagination. We’ve languished too long, only partially dreaming of future community life that can be as prosperous as it is compelling. It’s time. It’s time to not only dream again, but to take up our rightful responsibilities as citizens in the communities where we live. It’s time to engage at levels we never have before.