Recently I read at least two articles about chosing a neighbourhood that supports sustainable living. These articles are geared towards home buyers and we are not going to buy a home soon but it's never too early to get informed. There are certain criteria that characterise these type of sustainable neighbourhoods and you can for example read up on them on the website of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. It's about being close to shops, school, community centres and work. It's about being able to cycle, walk or take the bus easily. It's about energy-efficient homes and finding a home that fits your needs. Just think about the health benefits once you have all those advantages!
There might be articles about this but I would like to see statistics on how many homebuyers do look for these features. I think, there are not many of these neighbourhoods available yet and people don't mind. Looking around KW the new neighbourhoods are farther away from stores and work places than ever before. They are like ghettos with illogical street systems that don't allow shortcuts by bike or foot, some of them don't even have sidewalks but they all have double driveways out the door and minimal garden space. The next bus stop is often many blocks or miles away. But these neighbourhoods seem pretty well populated, the houses sell. I would not want to live there, never ever. Such a move could only make my life more inconvenient. But my husband and I are also not addicted to driving. And to be honest, how many people would actually want to live in "walking distance" to amenities? What is walking distance for most people, a 100 metres or so, before they jump in the car and drive instead? How many people would be willing to carry their shopping home for a simple single kilometre, 1000 tedious metres? Can you imagine doing shopping for a family or three or four by foot or bike or bus? I can in Germany, I can't here in Canada. And don't forget, once you have a store nearby they'll be a fast food outlet or coffee store too and bang you have the litter with it. Want to live close to it? Surely not.
My parents live half a kilometre from a supermarket, bakery, flower shop, drugstore and a bank. And other stores are about 1 kilometre away. It's safe and easy to walk and bike there, with sidewalks and bike lanes and quiet residential roads. That's how I grew up. Sure enough, once in a week or two we'd go by car to a bigger supermarket and stock up there but my parents don't do that anymore. Now my mum shops more at the farmers market and supermarkets near work during lunch break. I wished. What do we do currently? We get our produce delivered which I love apart from the fact that the man rocks up at 5:30 AM on Wednesday. Otherwise I go shopping with the stroller in the evening or early Saturday morning, once a week. Occassionally I pick something up during lunch break where I spent an hour strolling the neighbourhoods of my office. But I can make it far enough to get to shops. Never mind our car in the parking lot. Depending on where I go shopping it's not pleasant to go with the stroller when everyone else around you drives but I still prefer the exercise over blasting out emissions.Would not it be nice if others did the same? By the way my dream home is located in the countryside,away from the buzz of the city. Yes, we will depend on a car but who says I am going to leave my home and garden every day. I know what you think, we have a child that will have to go to school. That indicates just how long I might have to wait for my dream home. Unless we find a pleasant little village with a job opportunities. That would do too.
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