Many of us live in cities. Cities aren’t very much like Merville. They are big, fast paced, only have bears in gay bars, and shun those that wear large yellow gumboots as fashion anomalies. They aren’t a place where everyone knows your name (including an alcholhic mail-man/barfly). They also aren’t really a place where Ms. Jones/Smith/Whatever, who’s lived down your dirt road for as long as you can remember, brings you and all her other neighbours homebaked apple cobbler every Dec 4 of every year like clockwork.

In cities, community seems far harder to come by. It’s very difficult to have a community in a city of 2 million. It’s even trickier when people are constantly moving in and out of homes, too and fro in their jobs, and all the while keep their heads down to divert any potential conversations from their neighbours. Because if you don’t know someone, they could be crazy or worse, creeepy. And the last thing anyone wants is to be locked in a conversation with a crazy and/or creepy person. Because, as a wise man once said: “Creepy guys ruin it for everyone.”

Even in a large neighbourhood like the Drive, it’s tricky to really know anyone outside your circle of friends. Proximity enhances friendships that are already formed but rarely seems to lead to new ones altogether. There’s just too many people who are too temporary.

So how do we build a community in an urban environment? That my friends is the subject for a later post – or perhaps comment?