When is a neighbourhood a community?

One of my first official duties as President of the GCA was to say a few words of congratulations to GNAG and the Glebe Report as we celebrated their 40^th birthday bash on June 21^st.  Both organizations had their roots in the GCA, which is just a little bit older (kind of like big sister status).  I read about the histories of the three groups and their contributions and activities over the years at the same time as I was gathering statistics about our neighbourhood and thinking about membership issues.

This led me to think about the difference between a neighbourhood and a community.  I’ve always defined a neighbourhood in terms its physical boundaries and a community in terms of its human interactions.  But this thinking was challenged when I attended the City’s public workshop on infill housing at the community centre on June 27^th.  As some of you might know, mature neighbourhoods throughout the City are seeing more and more infill development.  In some cases these add variety, diversity and interest, in other cases, infill developments push the extent of every rule possible and are completely out of keeping with the character of other nearby homes.  Allan Teramura, an architect who presented at the workshop on behalf of the GCA, Old Ottawa South, Ottawa East, Rideau Gardens and Dow’s Lake community associations, showed a number of examples of infill housing, some of which were nice and some, well, not so much.

But why was I bothered by the ones that didn’t fit in?  Was it just the look of them?  We’re all entitled to our own sense of style after all, why should that be any different in the style of house we decide to build?  I started to rethink my idea of a neighbourhood as only being defined by its boundaries.  In fact, I think what is also important is the amenities, if you will, house design provide in a neighbourhood.  Let me give you an example:  walk down any street in the Glebe and you will see a number of large trees (though sadly we are losing some of our ash trees), houses more or less the same distance in from the sidewalk (front yard setbacks), open porches where people sit by times and share stories of the day, a good sightline from your own porch of who else is on their porch, cars parked to the side or in-between houses (rather than in front-of-house garages).  These design characteristics contribute to the human interactions which make our community a great place to live.  Not all infills respect that.

The City is undertaking a study of infill developments to ensure they make a positive contribution to the character and quality of mature neighbourhoods such as the Glebe.  They are looking for ways to allow development while having compatibility with the established neighbourhood.  I think this study and any resulting recommendations will be incredibly important for us.  Done right, we will continue to have a lovely neighbourhood with new housing stock that reflects diversity in design and fits in with existing characteristics of the Glebe.  Done poorly, the face of our neighbourhood, and the human interactions which build our community, could be negatively impacted. 

Is this an issue that interests you?  The GCA planning committee is contributing to this study and we would like to encourage more Glebe residents to be knowledgeable about the issues and involved in the process.  You can read about the Urban Design Guidelines for Infill Housing to learn more, but you can learn the most by being involved!  Send us an email at gca@glebeca.ca or planning@glebeca.ca .

So, when is a neighbourhood a community?  In my opinion, when it creates the space for people to come together in organizations like the GCA, GNAG and the Glebe Report, that in turn provide more opportunities for the meaningful human interactions that make the Glebe such a great place to live.

See you in the ‘hood!

Christine

The New Art Festival in the Glebe

One of the things I love best about living in the Glebe is the variety of events throughout the year and the throngs of people who attend them.  The New Art Festival is one of the best, with so many talented and creative people showing off their skills.  I also really enjoy meeting other Glebites, those displaying their wares and those admiring. 

Glebe resident and artist Nicole Allen (www.nicoleallenart.com)
 



Nathalie Champagne Jewellery
 

 

Couldn't resist one of Nathalie's rings! 

 Everybody's favourite - The Pantry

 

 

Young admirers                  

 

 

Great Father's Day activity!  

                                          

 

First Avenue School parent and Panache Designs

owner, Martha Tobin, creates beautiful

scarves you can wear many ways and she supports two local

charities, Ecoequitable (www.ecoequitable.ca) and

Operation Come Home (www.operationcomehome.ca)

doing it!

 

Natalie Mezey, David Chernushenko's assistant

responsible for the Glebe & Dow's Lake, and Glebe

resident herself, with Mary Catherine Morin,

who creates beautiful jewellery from old silver cutlery!

 

Engage!

I am very excited to have been elected president of the GCA at Tuesday's AGM.  In my opinion, the GCA is one of the pillars that makes our community a great place to live (the others include GNAG, the Glebe Report, the Glebe BIA and its predecessor Glebe Business Group, the preschools/daycares/creative arts programming, the fantastic schools we are so lucky to have and many others).  I’ve had a number of roles with the GCA in the past and I’m looking forward to working with all the volunteers who devote time and energy to issues that are important to us as residents of the Glebe.

The GCA plays an important role as the voice of the community.  There are many decisions made by the City and other organizations (such as school boards) that affect our neighbourhood (a good example being the OCDSB idea to pave part of Mutchmor field for parking).  The GCA acts as a conduit to get information about these issues out to residents and then to feed information about impacts back to those organizations.  In many cases, the GCA advocates on behalf of the community when we think the negative impacts are unacceptable.

So, to me, I think the most important thing the GCA can do is to engage those of you who live and work in the Glebe.  That leads me to three questions that I will work on with the GCA Board:

1. How do we hear about issues in your part of the Glebe that the GCA should know about?
2. How do we get information from the City and other sources out to you, so that if there is something you are interested in, you will know about it?
3. How do we provide opportunities for you to be involved in the issues you care about?

Not everyone has the time to be on the Board or work on a committee (great if you do… call me!).  But on an issue you care about, you might have time to contribute in some way – doing research, making phone calls, putting up a poster, drafting a petition, commenting on a blog (hint!) or any number of other activities that contribute to effective advocacy.  

I’m hoping this blog will help with those three areas.  I’m not planning on blogging on a set time frame, but thought I would do so when I go to meetings or hear about issues I think some of you might be interested in.  The Board has talked in the past about the comment features on blogs as being one way to hear about what residents think, so I’m really hoping that you’ll use that feature.  And I don’t expect many issues to have unanimous opinions (such as the “kids not cars” and “parks not parking” sentiments about Mutchmor field). In fact I think we should look for all sides of an issue to be put forward.   If you have topic ideas, leave a comment.

My parting message for this blog is that the GCA wants to be fully engaged with its members.  We'll do our best to reach out in new ways, but to be effective, we need you to Engage! too.