Why I am really glad that I am now an urban village person

 

            My wife and I recently moved from a rural village to Westboro -- a very charming urban village.  Here are some of the reasons that I am really glad that I am now an urban village person. 

 

      This Westboro urban village has all kinds of owner-operated shops, restaurants, etc -- as opposed to chains.  Just like in charming, old-time Europe.  Each owner-operated establishment here is individually designed and built.  In addition, it is so important when the owner operates the store because then he or she takes the time and effort to chat up the shoppers and to treat them with interest and respect.

 

     Here we don?t have box stores, lined up for miles, one after the other after the other and each indistinguishable from the other except for the sign on the front.  And where each of the box stores looks as if it were constructed (with built-in obsolescence) to last only one generation or less. Here we have really good restaurants -- unique, individually owned and owner-operated.  In our last rural community, the nearby choices (all more than 6 km away) were the ever-so-familiar chain or franchise restaurants that litter the North American landscape. 

 

     Fifty or so years ago, the housing developers, thank god, did not build this Westboro urban village community.  Here we have a beautiful, diversified housing mix, small and big, new and old -- each house with a lot of individual charm and all built by different builders in different years and most renovated, upgraded or replaced over the years.  On our street and in our community, no one can say ?oh yes, you live in the blue spruce model? or in the ?red pine model? or whatever model and ?that we have visited your model house on neighbouring streets?.  That is to say, our urban village houses and homes are unique and each is very different. 

 

We also have many, many mature trees and most interesting gardens.  Down the street is one of the nicest public gardens -- the Maplelawn -- that I have ever seen and it is owned by the National Capital Commission and maintained by lots of volunteers, many of whom have volunteered there for years -- weeding, tending the shrubs, watering the plants, etc and chatting pleasantly with visitors.  And here in our urban village, it is amazing how many outdoor parks that we have with swings, slides, tennis courts, basketball facilities, soccer fields, wading pools, etc.  We are really, really privileged in that way and we have so many choices available. 

 

    Here we have lots and lots of local schools and the kids walk, with their friends, to and from their schools each day.  In our previous rural community, many speeding school buses were to be seen in the village in the mornings, lunch hours and afternoons -- bussing kids to and from schools located many miles away in the urban area.  In our former rural community, almost all the kids had to go ?elsewhere? to school. 

 

    Here, we also have many clubs and buildings offering fitness classes, seniors? activities, social activities, etc.  The choice among them is wonderful.  And we can walk to many of them. 

 

    When I look out on our urban village street each day, I always see many different people walking by -- not just the same 8 or so who would walk by our house in our former rural community.  And here there are lots of joggers and cyclists, many of them grey-haired seniors, taking advantage of the lovely outdoor environment.  In our previous rural community, I was almost the only jogger and one of very few cyclists. 

 

    Our urban village community here is on the river.  Yep, on the Ottawa River and it is beautiful and lined with all kinds of jogging, walking and cycling paths.  And the paths go for miles and miles in each direction, leading to Parliament Hill, the Chateau Laurier Hotel, the Rideau Canal, museums, hundreds of restaurants, yachting clubs, etc.  And there are many picnic tables and benches along the way. 

 

    There is an expression that ?life is a beach?.  If that is so, we have our own Westboro Beach on the Ottawa River within walking distance.  Yep, ?life is a beach? and life here, in our urban village, it is beachy, beachy good. 

 

    There is a diversity of people in this urban village that we did not have in our previous rural village.  There, when people aged, they then moved into the urban areas where seniors? homes and amenities were available.  Hence, there was a kind of ?glass ceiling? for aging in the rural village.  Here it is refreshing to see so many seniors and the elderly, out and enjoying life -- and not migrating elsewhere. 

 

    Here, in this urban village, we have many people from a wide range of different backgrounds -- and they all add so much to the diversity and richness of the urban village.  And, in keeping with that, we have restaurants specializing in so many different types of great cuisine -- e.g. Thai, Greek, Ethiopian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Lebanese, Italian, Mexican, etc. Here in this urban village we have a significant but very manageable population density which brings its own benefits -- as opposed to the population deficit in our previous rural community where it was a matter of seeing the same people over and over and over again. 

 

     Here there is an urban sophistication which is friendly, interesting, open, etc -- but interested in many issues and topics.  Here we have no skidoos and no ATVs. Yep, none at all. Simply amazing. 

 

    Here we have nearby an absolutely wonderful news shop with all kinds of daily newspapers (including NY Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, USA Today, etc) and thousands and thousands of magazines.  In our former rural community, we had to drive some 30 km downtown to find a similar shop. 

 

    Urban village people can be very friendly.  Soon after we moved in, a neighbour across the street introduced herself to us and said ?we will get you over for a glass of wine or two before we go off for our holiday in Europe in two weeks?.  The next-door neighbours too are very welcoming and we had another very good chat with them last evening.  Another person moving in to the neighbourhood dropped by recently for a visit.  In our first month, we were invited out for two dinners in the neighbourhood and some other outings too. 

 

    Unlike in our former rural community, we don't live ?way out there? such that, when family members and friends came to see us, they would say, ?wow that was a long drive? or ?if you lived in the city, we would see you more often?.  There were also many people who would not drive ?way out? to our rural home in the winter, they being too worried about going off the rural roads, getting caught in the snow or becoming stuck in a ditch.  

 

            Thinking of that, here in our urban village we do not have ditches. 

 

   And here in our urban village, we have municipal services.  No wells, no septic tanks, etc.  And, very importantly, we do not have the need for sump pumps that ran consistently and gave us heart failure in our rural community every time that there was a power failure.  Each of those power failures required that we get our sump pump hooked up to and drawing emergency power from some rural neighbour's generator.        

 

            Gosh, while gas prices are soaring, our gas purchases for our motor vehicles have plummeted in this urban village.  In our previous rural community, we filled up each car about once a week.  Here we might get a refill every six weeks or so. 

 

    If we want a taste of the good old rural life, we go nearby to the Parkdale open market and buy fruit, vegetables and/or flowers from the rural merchants who come into town to sell their produce.  Also nearby is the government's agricultural farm.  And along the adjacent Ottawa River, there are many geese, ducks, rabbits, etc. 

 

   Living here in this urban village of Westboro, ?we have arrived?.  We are absolutely thrilled with this urban village and our urban village lifestyle.

 

                  A new Westboro resident,  and so very happy to be here!