I find it amusing how we live in two different worlds on Bowen. There is the theoretical world of what we could or should be doing with our community and, on that level we fight like cats and dogs. Then there is the day-to-day practical level where luckily we seem to get along quite well. The problem that we are now facing is that these two worlds are starting to bump into each other a little too often. The most recent example was the debate over the appropriateness of the all-weather playing field at the school. While half of the population saw it as a reasonable project the other half objected to it for an amazing array of reasons. At the end of the day it appeared that the field simply represented an affront to Bowen’s traditional values.
For an outsider to determine what Bowen’s traditional values are and who is affronting them we should take a look at the various groups who hope to represent Bowen’s citizens and attempt to influence public policy. The most vocal, I would say, is the Eco Alliance. They’ve been around for a long time, supporting the Islands Trust and fighting would-be developers. Their traditional foe has always been the Improvement Association. This is a group who would like to see Bowen get ahead in the world. Over the years they have seen many excellent development proposals that got quashed by the tree huggers who seem to pop out at the last minute and kill anything that could be considered progressive. For the general populous, having these groups to argue the pros and cons of the issue of the day has been pretty handy. We knew the bias of the speaker and got both sides of the argument.
But now we have a group called True Green. At last count they had 76 members, which is quite large by Bowen standards. Most of their positions are simply good community building ideas. They’re in favour of community festivals, community gardens, ageing in place, safer walking and cycling paths along roads, greenways and affordable housing. So what differentiates them from the Eco Alliance? According to True Green “Well-meaning efforts to ‘keep our island small’ and preserve and protect our unique culture have created unintended side effects. A culture that draws energy from opposition to change has frequently split the community; rejecting change has left us with a predominantly large-lot, low-density zoning and a crisis of affordability that has already eroded our cherished economic diversity and character.” That’s quite a statement. If I were a member of the Alliance I might be tempted to retort, “A culture that has resisted inappropriate development has repeatedly united the community against suburban style neighbourhoods.” But I’m not a member of the Alliance so I’ll let them defend themselves.
The point that True Green does make however, is that the old solutions aren’t good enough any more. We all know that to create some affordable and senior’s housing we are going to have to accept higher density development in Snug Cove. We realize that large acreage lots are eating up the forest and greenways. We know that our carbon footprint is very high and before long we could be called to task for it.
The addition of True Green to our public advocacy groups will probably be good. Both the Alliance and the Improvement Association represent worldviews that have been around for a long time. I see the True Green group as representing a newer perspective that is possibly more representative of the views of the younger families that have arrived on the island in recent years.
Take the artificial turf as an example. I had no reason to support it but I analysed the issues involved and decided that it made good sense. As soon as I wrote my opinion I was inundated with arguments. It would cost too much, it was environmentally wasteful, it meant that trees would be cut down, it was urban, it was un-Bowen, only 5% of the population would use it. As I heard the laments I realized that they were representative of the old guard, be they supporters of the Eco Alliance or the Improvement Association. I doubt that very many supporters of True Green opposed it.
On the other side of the coin virtually all of the True Green founding members enthusiastically promoted the Cape Roger Curtis Neighbourhood Plan. Considering how unenthusiastic the vast majority of islanders were towards the plan, it makes you wonder how broad the support for this new group will be.
At the end of the day ninety percent of us aren’t members of any group. We listen to what they have to say and figure things out for ourselves. When we agree with them they congratulate themselves on how well they persuaded us. When we disagree with them, they lament that they didn’t get their message out. So for us it never hurts to have another perspective to consider.
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