Are you living in a liveable neighbourhood?  By this, I don't mean, is your house in a safe neighbourhood?  A liveable neighbourhood is what most of us lived in at one time, over 30 years ago.  Unless you were in a rural area, you likely didn't have to drive to actually live in your neighbourhood.

If you're under 30, you may have grown up going to the big box stores, filling up at the mega filling station and perhaps passing a corner store now and again.  

If you're over 30, you might remember the corner convenience store, local grocery store, filling station, furniture store, drug store, bank, etc.  It's really not that long ago.  And yet, it seems we are eons away from those insular neighbourhoods now.  

Even living in the downtown core isn't a guarantee that you will have all amenities at your convenience.   

We've become a mobile society.  Most families have at least one vehicle and a great percentage has at least two.  With mobility, came options.  Our local grocer, who kept his small store open for his neighbours and was likely a family run affair, became replaceable with larger stores, a little farther away, but within driving distance.  When more and more people started driving to get their groceries to save themselves some money, the local grocer found he was unable to compete and eventually closed the store. So, now you have to drive to get your groceries.  You were also able to drive past the local filling station that couldn't compete with the large oil companies, to get your tank filled at a lower price, even though the gas at the local filling station likely came from the same place.  Eventually, local filling stations were not able to remain viable.  Banks too have consistently closed local branches in favour of centralized larger branches.  Now you have to drive to the bank too! Big box stores have replaced the family owned operations and have priced those operations out of business.  

So, what does that mean for the average consumer?  You have to drive almost everywhere, for anything you need.  And for the neighbourhoods, this becomes a problem as more traffic makes neighbourhoods even with amenities close at hand, less liveable.  More vehicles, more speed, means more danger to residents, especially children; as if the loss of our ability to live in our neighbourhoods wasn't bad enough. 

The next time you see a multi-box store complex being built, think about the implications to your life and the lives of your children. If you’re out shopping anyway, go to your local green grocer, farmer’s market or local craftsman.  Do what you can to support your local economy and your neighbours. 

What we've done to date on this has not been impressive, what we do in the future can be invaluable to our children’s children. 

What sort of things could we do that would make our neighbourhoods more liveable – or work towards those things that provide sustainability?  Can we do it?  It would certainly be worth it!