The Attitude of Development

In every community I have been to which is trying to redevelop itself or get through a hard time there has been one overriding commonality in the way they think, and it is something a lot of people don't get.

They don't need other people to feel sorry for them, or tell them what is wrong and how to fix it, they just need other people to listen to them. They live in their community everyday, they don't need to be reminded what is wrong with it. This is something that everyone has trouble getting over when they go to a new place.

Think about it another way.

If there is something you think is really bad, then there must be a ton of things that are really good for the local residents to still want to live there! Those are the important things that should be focused on and built on. They may not be things that you can see right away. You can easily see crumbling buildings, or vandalism, but you can't immediately see a strong supporting community, friendly neighbours, cheap rent or diverse opinions and ideas. It is not until you start talking to people and actually listening to what they say that you can begin to see those things. Too often people come in to a community, take a quick look and do too much talking and not enough listening.

What do you like best about your community? What do you want to see happen?

The reason this is so important is because everyone is taught the Type-A solutions to problems. We are taught the status quo, the prevailing thoughts, the consensus in school and university. Now if a community appears to be struggling it is probably because the prevailing ideas are not working, and a change is needed. Be dynamic! Innovative ideas are needed which you can only discover by talking and listening to what different people have to say. Only then will you broaden your perspective.

Its the difference between "you should do this" and "what can I do for you?" or "what do you think of this?" It is something that everyone struggles with when entering a new community, but I think the faster you can change that mindset the greater the impact you can have and the more help you can provide.

Cheers,
Michael

Creating Culture to Create Development

Right now I am interested in how arts and culture relate to community development. How can it be used to stimulate local economic development, create employment and build a community?

So often the things I have been reading have been about how thriving arts and culture scenes make those cities the need-to-be places. Or how important arts and culture is to a city for attracting businesses and people to want to locate in the city. Recently in my spare time I have been reading Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class. This is his first, widely cited and hugely influential book on the development of many cities. In it he develops a Creativity Index which is based on three indexes: a Bohemian Index, a Gay Index and an Diversity Index. These are used to predict a cities standing in the creative economy. Essentially the cities with the highest concentrations of the super creative bohemians - artists, writers, musicians, designers; strong LGBT communities; and open to new immigrants are the cities that will be the most creative.

It all makes sense that cities and neighbourhoods with more people from different backgrounds with different perspectives will come up with innovative new ideas that wouldn't develop in a more homogeneous environment. I also realise that creative people like local musicians or artists attract people who want to walk past a mural painted by their neighbour be able to go to their local bar and hear the guys down the street play.

I get all that but then so what? What am I supposed to do with that?

It seems that we are too busy talking about the importance of Arts and Culture, rather than looking at how to create, foster, and grow it. There seems to be very little on this. Florida's indexes show where creative cities are, but what came first? The creative economy or their or the gay bohemian immigrant? From my experience so far, politicians and planners and great at saying 'Oh look! We have a cool arts scene. We need to use it to promote our city.' It seems like something that cities stumble upon, rather than consciously build themselves.

Florida an member of the creative class who says that "We want a place that is not done". Creative types don't want something that is already done, they want to be able to create it and shape the area that they live in. That is part of who they are.

To me the conclusion should be that cities need to realise that they can't force a vibrant arts and culture district to happen. It has to be created by the creative people who are in it. If I had the answer I would write a book and travel around giving speeches, but I don't unfortunately.

In the long term I think it starts in schools and with kids. There needs to be more effort to encourage students to be creative and come up with innovative projects, answers and solutions. Right now the focus is on getting "the right" answer. Beyond that I think the most can be done at the community level by community leaders. For example: adaptive uses of schools and other public facilities in off hours to allow arts/ cultural groups access to space.

Population Densities

I just drove the two and a half hour drive from Toronto to London, Canada and a couple weeks ago for the Canada day weekend I drove all the way to Ottawa. These trips reminded me just how vast, and sparsely populated Canada is.

Consider these two trips: A) Toronto to London, Canada and B) Dhaka to Tangail District, Bangladesh.

A) Toronto to London is 200km approximately and it takes about 2 hours 30 minutes.
B) Dhaka to Tangail is about 85km, and it takes between 4 and 5 hours.

Part of the difference here is traffic, part is the state of the road and cars. Traffic is horrendous in Bangladesh, almost all the time, while in Toronto is only bad at certain times. The traffic problems are based purely on the number of people.

A) South-Western Ontario has a population of 2.5 million and an area of 37 thousand km squared.
B) Meanwhile, the Dhaka Division (which both Dhaka and Tangail are located within) is roughly the same size, at 31 thousand km squared but has a massive population of 46.7 million!!

The difference between those is almost incomprehensible. SW Ontario has a density of 6.7 people per square km, while Dhaka Division has a density 22 times greater at 150 people per square km. This is the problem that I had trying to describe the rural areas of Bangladesh. It is rural in the sense that it is mostly agriculturally based, and it is less dense that the cities. But in terms of people it is not rural by Canadian standards.

The drive to Ottawa really struck home this difference. When you turn off the 401 and head north on Highway 416, you are essentially driving through a forest for the next 75km until you reach Ottawa. Now imagine seeing 100-150 people and their homes, livestock, fields and shops at each km marker along the highway. In addition you have just left Dhaka, a city of approximately 13 million people, and are  going to the small city of Tangail (3 million).

Why does this all matter?

All I am saying is think about this when you are about to complain about not having a highspeed railway network or that it takes too long to get between cities. We simply do not have the density of people required to support all these things. Hopefully as globalization continues there will be fewer and fewer limits on the flow of people. Canada can only benefit from having more people to bolster its economy and life in its cities and towns. People from different parts of the world, with different world views, working and living together bring about new innovative and creative ideas. Which is exactly what Canada needs to be competitive in the global economy.

Cheers,
Michael

What Recent Grads Do

So I just had a conversation with one of my friends who is going into the second year of his bachelors degree. He was asking me about the life of an upper year student, and about life after university. Which got me thinking....

Over the past couple years I have met so many people who for whatever reason were breaking out of the mould. Some had dreams of bigger places, some just had a travel itch, but all were fed up with doing what they felt they were "supposed" to do.

This is all about doing something different, something you really want, not what everyone else wants or expects. When you are applying for a job you don't want to blend in, when you are working on a project you don't want to submit the same old assignment as everyone else. Think outside the box, be creative, follow your passion and dream, expand your boundaries...

What we are "supposed" to do usually consists of something like:

1. Graduate Highschool
2. Get a Bachelor's Degree and then if needed a Master's Degree
3. Get a Job
4. Get Married
5. Get a House
6. Get a Family
7. Put the kids through School and University
8. Watch the kids move out 
9. AND THEN travel

It is usually imposed on us by cultural ideas or what our parents did. But honestly, what kid wants to be exactly like their parents, or their grandparents? How about lets do the last step first!

We live in an ever more global and interconnected world. It is easier for us to travel around the world that ever before, it is easier for us to communicate with people on the opposite side of the world. Because of this our world is going to become ever more interconnected. It is so much easier it would be a shame to not take advantage of them.

One of my other friends showed me a link to WanderingEarl's blog:. I loved this article, why don't more people know about these other options? There is more than the pre-prescribed way to live your life. My friend is a huge inspiration since she had the guts to move to a new city and try to find a job, and when that didn't work, she looked somewhere else. Now in a couple days she is off to the other side of the world to teach math for a year on Mongolia!

One other thing that I don't understand is why these alternative lifestyles are often viewed as a waste of time, and escape from reality or a young innocent persons dream? As I said before - we live in an increasingly globalised world. Doesn't that imply that we need globalised people?

What happens in one part of the world (take for example the potential defaults of the US and Spain situations) affects all other parts of the world. What we need is people who are global citizens, people who know how different cultures work, and how innovative partnerships can be formed. When we collaborate we will be more successful than trying to do things on our own. Projects where the community collaborate together are the projects that are the most successful. And like it or not we are a global community now, so we need to start collaborating on a global scale. If you have a job, or are looking for a job, then the ability to bring your experience and knowledge of global examples, how to work with other cultures and people, or even your global connections to the table will make you very employable.

I couple months ago I went to a speach by Dr. Uma Nararyan at The University of Western Ontario. She was speaking about the darkside of microfinance, the side that people don't hear about in the news. She presented all the problems and no solutions. So, after her talk, I put up my hand and asked what we should do instead, and suggested things like working to work to get property rights, and the rule of law actually enforced. Why focus on the negative, focus on the positives and on the solutions (that is one of the most important things Dr. Graham Smith taught me)?

In response she proceeded to essentially ridicule me in front of everyone about how I could suggest ways to change microfinance after all the horrible things she has said about it. I pushed further, asking simply - ok, what do we do instead?A couple more wrinkles appeared on her forehead, and she simply told me to stay where I came from. Why did I think I needed to help the developing world?

For someone who has presumably spent a good deal of her life as a professor and guest speaker, travelling and talking to people around the world, I did not understand how her solution could be that I was not allowed to travel to her part of the world. We are becoming more interconnected, not more isolated, embrace it or be left behind.

Now about me. 

I am a fresh graduate from the University of Western Ontario's Urban Development Program. I was lucky enough to get a one year contract job in my field in community development. I took that opportunity when it came, but I am always looking towards my goal of travelling and seeing the world. I am saving up money and also learning to build a bike, so that I can travel by bike, or work in a bike shop while I travel. I am not writing this from experience, far from it, this is a statement of how I want to become experienced, and the types of experiences I want to have.

I haven't taken the leap of getting on a one way flight to somewhere on the other side of the world, but I know I want to, and I am inspired by my friends who have. Slowly I am working towards it, doing it my way, the way I want to. It is something which I think more people need to look at as a legitimate option and as a way to build valuable experience.

Cheers,
Michael