There are a lot of good policy reasons to see the end of conventional, single-family-home dominated suburbia. It breeds dependence on cars, and causes us to build ever more roads and parking lots, covering more and more of our region in asphalt. But there are commentators who scorn the very idea of the suburban idyll – the privacy, the quiet, the bit of personal green space.
They need to step back and think, not about how to get rid of that lifestyle, but about how to make it available even more widely, in a post-suburban world. With Metro Vancouver rapidly densifying, including in what were once rural/suburban “outer suburbs” like Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge, and Abbotsford, more and more people do not have that bit of personal green space. Many of us live in condos or townhouses, and that number is rising rapidly.
But access to green space and quiet is important for everyone, more important now as our streets get busier and louder. Some ideas are already being implemented, but need to become more common. Those include pocket parks, trails and greenways through urban areas, urban gardens, playgrounds and sports fields, and dog parks.
Ideally, most of those should be available within walking distance of every townhouse and condo resident in the Lower Mainland. Two other major changes would make living in our increasingly urbanized world more pleasant, as well. First is better transit access to our large public parks.
Parks like Campbell Valley, Aldergrove Regional, and.