Creating a community beyond the
statistics
By Michael J Morris
When Moneysense magazine does its annual ranking of the best places to live in Canada, it's not talking about characteristics that make a community appealing to visit that make it one of the best places to live.
That may be appealing but according to an article by Mark Brown of Moneysense, it considers "good access to medical care, low crime, good public transportation and yes, nice weather..." and "above all, the best places in Canada have to be affordable."
When Moneysense issued its 2014 rankings In March, showing that Cranbrook had plunged from the 51st best city in Canada in which to live, to 151st out of 202 surveyed, it seems to me, there was very little public discussion, about the huge plunge in the rankings.
Maybe now, with a municipal election looming on November 15, those who want to serve the community will pay some attention to Cranbrook's ranking and use it to come up with BIG IDEAS to make Cranbrook a better place to live, work and play.
One of the likely reasons that the city plunged so far is that in the previous rankings Cranbrook was the "most densely populated city for medical doctors" in Canada with five for every 1000 persons, according to Moneysense. That's sure not the situation here today, and I would hazard a guess based on my anecdotal research that the family doctor shortage looms large with voters.
Yes, there has been some activity on this front, but still some buck passing among politicians about who is responsible to lead the way in attracting and retaining family physicians.
Yes, the weather is nice here, and relative to other communities, I assume the crime rate may be lower, and for sure there is lots of room the majority of the time on buses cruising around.
I am not really qualified to comment much on housing affordability, but every time I look at residential property prices, I say "Wow, I could buy a nice place in Orlando, FL for half the price."
St. Albert, AB, outside of Edmonton was ranked as the best place in Canada to live and I was intrigued to learn that according to Moneysense "The numbers, though, don’t begin to describe the appeal St. Albert holds, especially for young families. At a time when some cities seem to be going to war with kids looking to play a little shinny on the street, St. Albert stands out as a place where cars don’t always come first. Street hockey is encouraged and if you want to close the street for a neighbourhood party, go right ahead. Give the city 10 days’ notice and they’ll barricade the street—the city’s Neighbourhood Watch and Citizen’s Patrol teams will even bring the food."
Now, that's my kind of place to live where kids are really important.
I loved playing street hockey as a kid growing up in Chapleau ON and let me leave you with part of a column my lifetime friend Harry 'Butch' Pellow, now one of Canada's foremost architects wrote about the games for my own blog: "Games usually started immediately after school and lingered well after the merchant families parents arrived home from work.Some evenings that was quite late. Generally speaking though darkness imposed a limitation and there were very few lights on the street to create a safe level of illumination. In the absence of a puck there were alternate missiles however including a half size can of Carnation milk, Klik or Spam cans and other similar sized items from the nearest garbage bin ..."
But we played without the sophistaication of the St. Albert plan and as a vehicle approached, someone would shout "CAR" and the game was interrupted momentarily.
Maybe, just maybe, if we thought as much about a community as a place to play as much as a place to live and work, we would be headed in the right direction. St. Albert seems to think so.
Thanks Butch for the memories. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
By Michael J Morris
When Moneysense magazine does its annual ranking of the best places to live in Canada, it's not talking about characteristics that make a community appealing to visit that make it one of the best places to live.
That may be appealing but according to an article by Mark Brown of Moneysense, it considers "good access to medical care, low crime, good public transportation and yes, nice weather..." and "above all, the best places in Canada have to be affordable."
When Moneysense issued its 2014 rankings In March, showing that Cranbrook had plunged from the 51st best city in Canada in which to live, to 151st out of 202 surveyed, it seems to me, there was very little public discussion, about the huge plunge in the rankings.
Maybe now, with a municipal election looming on November 15, those who want to serve the community will pay some attention to Cranbrook's ranking and use it to come up with BIG IDEAS to make Cranbrook a better place to live, work and play.
One of the likely reasons that the city plunged so far is that in the previous rankings Cranbrook was the "most densely populated city for medical doctors" in Canada with five for every 1000 persons, according to Moneysense. That's sure not the situation here today, and I would hazard a guess based on my anecdotal research that the family doctor shortage looms large with voters.
Yes, there has been some activity on this front, but still some buck passing among politicians about who is responsible to lead the way in attracting and retaining family physicians.
Yes, the weather is nice here, and relative to other communities, I assume the crime rate may be lower, and for sure there is lots of room the majority of the time on buses cruising around.
I am not really qualified to comment much on housing affordability, but every time I look at residential property prices, I say "Wow, I could buy a nice place in Orlando, FL for half the price."
St. Albert, AB, outside of Edmonton was ranked as the best place in Canada to live and I was intrigued to learn that according to Moneysense "The numbers, though, don’t begin to describe the appeal St. Albert holds, especially for young families. At a time when some cities seem to be going to war with kids looking to play a little shinny on the street, St. Albert stands out as a place where cars don’t always come first. Street hockey is encouraged and if you want to close the street for a neighbourhood party, go right ahead. Give the city 10 days’ notice and they’ll barricade the street—the city’s Neighbourhood Watch and Citizen’s Patrol teams will even bring the food."
Now, that's my kind of place to live where kids are really important.
I loved playing street hockey as a kid growing up in Chapleau ON and let me leave you with part of a column my lifetime friend Harry 'Butch' Pellow, now one of Canada's foremost architects wrote about the games for my own blog: "Games usually started immediately after school and lingered well after the merchant families parents arrived home from work.Some evenings that was quite late. Generally speaking though darkness imposed a limitation and there were very few lights on the street to create a safe level of illumination. In the absence of a puck there were alternate missiles however including a half size can of Carnation milk, Klik or Spam cans and other similar sized items from the nearest garbage bin ..."
But we played without the sophistaication of the St. Albert plan and as a vehicle approached, someone would shout "CAR" and the game was interrupted momentarily.
Maybe, just maybe, if we thought as much about a community as a place to play as much as a place to live and work, we would be headed in the right direction. St. Albert seems to think so.
Thanks Butch for the memories. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
Full disclosure: I am not now and never have been a member of the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society; however, I did conduct a workshop for its members for which I was paid.
Food for thought, Michael!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stewart.My mother, who taught school for 36 years maintained that when we enter into the child's world, we are not entering a strange land. In fact, we are homeward bound!
ReplyDelete