Community Development Vs. The Strawberry Pop-Tart

Just to prove you can relate anything to community development I am going to relate community development to my favourite meal for breakfast, a strawberry pop tart. The pop tart is sweet, convenient, relatively inexpensive and if you look at the overall shape of a pop-tart you will see that it is rectangular in shape, has finely defined edges, these edges possible cut by a machine or as I like to think a highly trained ,rapturous in spirit, culinary or pastry professor named Susan, but this doesn’t matter. What is important is the connection, the relationship, the cohesion, the romantic fusion of the pop tart and the idea of community development….. Ok this is actually a lot harder than I had first thought. I honestly thought I could get something out of this and it is possible I can. Community development is far more complex than the delicious convenient pastry known as a strawberry pop-tart and even more complex than the blue-berry. Perhaps community development would have a more accurate and promising relationship with a more complex edible food, maybe something with layers, something sophisticated, something foreign, hard on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside……. a Danish?!!..

Note to self: do not write on blog after forgetting to eat breakfast

Mighty Neighbourly, Mighty Neighbourly

I was thinking the other day about how organized and structured Canadian and North American communities have become in the last century. Now if my mind is accurate, which I believe is, I travelled to Asia for 6 month back in 2005 and the community lifestyle was a little peculiar to me. Walking down the busy streets of Kuala Lumpur I entered a shop which comprised of tacky western rip-off clothing and over priced souvenirs ( I say over priced because in Asia everything is over-priced until you start bargaining and you learn from experience never to pay asking price). I started browsing the store because I was bored and felt like spending money on random rubbish to entertain myself before my flight next day to Indonesia ( I once bought 2 high voltage tazers for under 10 US dollars), needless to say you can find some pretty interesting things in the run down street vendors. I found nothing, the shop keeper keep on asking “what size are you?! What size are you?!” and I simply ignored him and let stereotypical pompous western mentality work its charm in the highly populated Muslim community. What I found so interesting about this shop and the hundreds of others akin is after the salesmen recognizes that the customer is not interested in any of his knock-off apparel over-priced miscellaneous items he will attempt to take you to his competitors shop to buy his merchandise. In Canada this practice of supporting your competitor would be frowned upon by the even the most novice businessmen and in no way would be taught in a public/private institution.
That being said it is possible it was all a trick or a scam like many things in Southern Asia… TUK-TUKs my god what a frustrating way to get back to your hotel, who knows, maybe they have an alliance with other shops keepers or maybe its family run and he was simple trying to take me to his cousins shop and after they would split the profit, but the idea of supporting your neighbour is a nice thought, right?

People don't appreciate what they have

People don't appreciate what they have. Every day I thank... well i don't thank God, but I thank science and chance for not only making me human, a creature able to comprehend its own existence, but put in the top percentile in terms of wealth. 20% of the population having 80% of the wealth... does that seem fair? well no it doesn't but because of this we have lots of extra time to sit about and write in blogs all day.. But WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO? complain... complain complain complain... ah this traffic is terrible! oh look that person didnt wash their hands(haha)! our political system is terribly corrupt! It seems that no matter what situation we are in we complain that we don't have enough... ok, ok i'm starting to rant but this is tantamount to the issue of community development i promise. So here it is. When does a communtiy decide it has enough resources, enough abilities and enough facilities? Can a community ever been sustainable? I understand the idea behind community sustainable, to create a community that is a constant cycle of growth, well not growth... but nurture.. nurture so it does not rot and turn to ash.. but i also believe that in order to have a sustainable community the community and the individuals that reside within the community need to look at what they really need.. and im talking about NEEDS here not WANTS. Do we really need a $5,000,000 hockey when the number of schools in are community is at an all time low? Communities are stuck in idealogy that they need to be in a constant process of development in order to be looked at as successful to other communities and this leads to inappropiorate spendings on non-effective resources and facilities. Why not hold on to that money until you actually need it?

Carts Of Darkness

I recently watched a documentary film called “Carts of Darkness”. Murray Siple's feature-length documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk.
Although this activity is illegal and condemned by the city of Vancouver it is obviously a release for members involved and encourages friendship and comradery between people in the homeless community. These people can’t afford a skateboard or a ski pass to the mountains and rely on what is free to create leisure. What do you think about this? Below I have provide a link to the movie, (it’s really entertaining, so watch and comment on it if you have the time)
It’s pretty entertaining to watch these guys go straight down the hills of North Vancouver. I would honestly pay money to watch a bunch of them race…. Perhaps a homeless cart racing league could be very interesting.

copy and paste the link below into your browser if you want to watch the movie


http://www3.nfb.ca/webextension/carts-of-darkness/

Professional Sports Teams and Community Sustainability

Community sustainability can greatly be improved by introducing a professional sports team to the infrastructure of a city. A sports franchise can bring a sense pride, cohesion, and spirit into a community. I enjoy looking at the Winnipeg Jets to reflect this issue. The Jets folded in 1996 due to the high price tag of a NHL players. Even to this day people in Winnipeg are so patriotic and full of joy when they talk about the Winnipeg Jets, one might think that they might of won the Stanley Cup, but this is not the case at all. One can almost say that the jets have formed an underground secret NHL ghost franchise that still exists in the eyes of winnipeger’s. Winnipeger’s still believe in the Jets and celebrate them on their coffee mugs and t-shirts even though they have been out of action for 14 years and the Winnipeg area no longer exist the spirit of the old team still brings people together into a community.

Mixed Income Housing

Mixed Income Housing can be very beneficial to a community. It can provide many opportunities for many disadvantaged and financial unstable families and allows them to have a relatively normal life without the deprivations of limited resources and opportunities from living in a ghetto. The problem with mixed housing is that not everybody is on board for the idea. The rich or middle class fear mixed income housing because they attribute poor people with crime or a decreased in equity to their homes. It’s true that a poor neighbourhood is more dangerous than a middleclass neighbourhood, but that is only because they lack opportunity. If the poor had the chance to change their lives I believe that they would. The idea of mixed income housing sounds like an utopia way of thinking, but it is one thing to agree with the idea of it and another to have it in your backyard. I don’t believe the middleclass people would be in favour of this idea based on the prejudice and stereotypes of poor communities.
Would you be in favour of a mixed incoming housing project in your community?