In defence of Suburbia (well, kind of...)

                                                                               

Introducing > The Suburb of Ancaster

When we think of the phrases "walkable neighbourhood" or "active transportation" what often comes to mind is the revitalization of urban streets as opposed to suburban streets.  In Hamilton, like in many North American cities, walkable neighbourhoods are an urban issue - concerning the city core.  In our attempts to advocate for walkable neighbourhoods and active transportation we often exclude suburban neighbourhoods from the discussion. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm sure this is an issue in many larger North American cities: As living downtown becomes less of a pubic safety issue and more of a trendy convenience, it is suburbia that has to deal with the imbalance (i.e.: aging/inefficient/oppressive infrastructure).

I'm seeing this trend already in Hamilton.  Ancaster's situation relative to downtown Hamilton is a perfect fit for this scenario.  To most Hamiltonians, Ancaster is where the rich live.  They live in a sea of large stucco houses on either side of the 403.  They commute to work.  They live up on the Mountain, looking down on the rest of the city, a couple hundred feet below.  They are also probably arrogant, stuck-up, is what the going stereotype would suggest.

This passed Winter at the Hamilton Transportation Summit I met someone who works with the  Ancaster BIA and a newly formed group called Preserve Ancaster Village.  She told me all about the City's plans to widen one of the main roads which runs through Ancaster.  The City, she told me, plans to widen Wilson St. from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, cut down a bunch of trees which line the sidewalk, get rid of the grass barrier between the sidewalk and the road, and add roundabouts making pedestrian crossings almost impossible while making it easier for cars to speed through the suburb.

Knowing the amount of attention the once-neglected inner-city neighbourhoods of Hamilton have been getting in the past couple of years I assumed that not many Hamiltonian's were too concerned about suburban road-widening projects.

I was right - my new friend from Ancaster assured me that not many people were in opposition to the City's plan, nor did many people know of it.  Not only are suburban neighbourhoods not a fad (unlike rough inner-city neighbourhoods), but community engagement in suburbs is weak.

In the last couple of months I've been working with Preserve Ancaster Village.  Their current agendas include forming a group of citizens in Ancaster who will represent the City's opposition in the Wilson Street road-widening issue.  My involvement with Preserve Ancaster Village has been to help them efficiently organize and affectively communicate the groups' agendas.  This information will strengthen their argument when approaching City Hall. 

It's been pretty cool working with them, though the one thing that I have learned is this:

As North American's increasingly become city dwellers - moving from sparse suburbia into dense urbanicity - I feel as though suburban social issues will become neglected and overseen; just as issues in our inner-cities once did.

Whether a road is widened in a run-down neighbourhood in the inner-city or in an exploding suburb on the fringe makes some but little difference - it is a struggle either way, one where pedestrians and cyclists will have to deal with the consequences of being structurally oppressed.

So the question I am left with after all this is: do we punish suburbia or do we defend suburbia?