Bowen Bulletin

“So, how long have you lived on Bowen?” asked the oldtimer. “Why do people keep asking that?” replied the newcomer. It’s an interesting phenomenon that causes considerable social stratification on Bowen. When newcomers meet other newcomers they latch on to each other like soulmates on a liferaft. “What’s with these people? If you haven’t lived here for twenty years you don’t count.” If the oldtimer had answered the question honestly he would have said “Because most folks don’t last more than a few years and I want to know how much to invest in you.”

I don’t know if this happens in other small communities but I assume that it does. Some people are transient and some stay put. The transient ones are good at making friends. Those rooted to the ground warm to people more slowly. They invest a part of themselves establishing a friendship and they feel a sense of loss when those friends leave. After a few rounds of making and losing friends they get a bit more selective about whom they let into their lives. A part of their selection process involves determining how likely it is that their new acquaintance will stay put long enough to make a long-term friendship possible. If they find somebody that they like who has lived on Bowen for ten years and their paths have just not happened to cross, its cause for celebration. If the person has lived on Bowen for two years they approach things a little more cautiously. Odds are that their new acquaintance will move away within the next three years. I don’t know if this is statistically true, its hard to find real numbers, but I know that is how it feels.

There is another aspect to this concept of settling in. When people first move to Bowen they sit back and try to get a feel for how things work. Before long they join a church congregation or the recycling depot or the Music Association. Then they move up to the Arts Council or the Eco Alliance or the Improvement Association. After about three years the real go-getters are on the board of their group or the Rec. Commission or one of the Municipalities advisory groups.

This is where they get dangerous. They still don’t realize after three years that Bowen doesn’t operate like the rest of the world. Between three and five years is when total frustration sets in. On the practical side is the realization that BC Ferries treats their clients on minor runs with very thinly veiled contempt and only third world countries would tolerate the condition of our roads. On the ideological side is the fact that nothing ever gets done. Year after year seniors and affordable housing are just around the corner. Next year we’re going to have a waiting room for ferry riders. A community hall, a performing arts centre and a municipal hall are all being worked on. Everything you could possibly want is being worked on but after living here for five years all you’ve seen is a new recycling depot and enough consultants’ reports to sink the ferry.

Then something very subtle starts to happen. You read in the paper that you are being invited to join another action oriented initiative that is being launched and this time you just can’t get excited about it. A few years later you read about another new group working on the same thing and you smirk. A few years after that and, when you read about yet another attempt, you secretly hope that it doesn’t go anywhere. This is when you realize that you no longer wish to change Bowen, Bowen has changed you.

You no longer strive to be the last car to make it on to the ferry, you enjoy getting in the line-up early enough to go look at the boats in the marina. You don’t mind the horrible roads so much; you enjoy the excuse to drive more slowly. The high ferry fares mean that you have an excuse to go to town less often. Conversely you don’t mind the new shops and services that have opened up in the last few years. They make life easier and seem to somewhat mollify the newcomers who always want more of everything.

So, if you’re relatively new to Bowen you may not be able to figure out why we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on reports and never actually do anything. The truth is that we are doing things; it’s just that they’re being done very, very slowly. For the most part it doesn’t really matter; most of our problems are beyond our local control or available budget anyway. But our Municipal Council listens to all the different concerns and commissions consultants to give us professional advice. Then when we find out how the pros would handle it we typically reject it.

We had a transportation study that told us to link up our coastal roads, a ferry marshalling study that told us to put roads in the park and a Snug Cove plan that advocated 800 housing units in the Cove. There’s a considerable gap between what our high priced consultants tell us we should do and what the majority of Islanders will support. So if you’ve been waiting five years for something to happen and it hasn’t happened yet, don’t worry. In five or ten years you’ll probably change your mind about it anyway.