Community - Priorities

After speaking with several members of my community I learned of what people in the area thought of the issues with the busy road as well as how much effort everyone was willing to put in to resolve the issue. There are many options for this problem, and all of them cause money and will end in an inconvenience for someone. Depending on whom I spoke with and where they lived changed their position and how desperate they are to see the problem solved. People at the bottom of the hill are free of the problem, but still part of the community, and still very involved. 

However some solutions that have been presented would cause traffic to be redirected towards the bottom of the hill and reduce activity on the problem road. As soon as other members of the community realize that the problem could be theirs they are suddenly not so eager to help, for obvious reasons.  In many situations the members of a community participate for their own benefit or to help others until their neck is on the line. Members of the community who live in different areas of the neighborhood away from the road are more than eager to give ideas, advice, and their time to help resolve this issue, but when they are at risk of inconvenience they immediately jump ship.

A community is only as good the people who form it. Without good intensions there will be no people and therefore no community. Without a desirable goal no one will want to be part of the community, and it will fail. What makes a successful community?  It is essential to listen to everyone’s voice, and be cautious and understanding of the majority’s interests and position on the issue. Values are a key piece in the drive for this community. This community values a safe, helpful, and convenient neighborhood.  This issue with the road takes away from that value, and so the community tries to help solve it, but without the help of the city nothing can really legally be done to solve the problem.

Everyone is very supportive within this neighborhood and is willing to help to the extent that they are not inconvenienced. Everyone’s priority within the group is the direct the traffic away from the neighborhood. Not just the top because everyone tries to help for the better, but the most important and highest priority is themselves.  If they are in danger of being inconvenienced then the community’s goals are split and essentially they are no longer a community. A community’s highest priority is to satisfy the common goal of the community without upsetting too many members along the way.

My Community - Signal Hill

A community that I am involved in is my neighborhood, the signal hill community. It is a very good neighborhood with many great people. The neighborhood has many walking path areas, a lot of facilities, such as a recreation center, soccer fields, hockey rinks, baseball diamonds, parks, and schools. It is middle to high economic status neighborhood as fairly high finances are required in order to own a home in this neighborhood. This is typically a good thing because it means all of the neighbors are hardworking peoples and contributing members of society. This is important in a community in order to have similar goals for community development. Since most people within the neighborhood have similar concerns this will direct community development in a mutually satisfying direction.

                Currently there is an opportunity to enhance the quality of life within the community. There is a road running through the neighborhood connecting the shopping center to the east of my neighborhood with the main road and neighborhoods west of my community.  This means that thousands of cars pass through that area, making life very inconvenient for people who live on that road as it is very noisy for long hours, and it is also very difficult for them to get out of their own driveways. 

                I personally do not live specifically on that road, but very close to it and so I consider that area to be part of my community. So obviously to enhance the quality of life in this community something must be done about this road. I have attended several community meetings where members of the community come to offer reasonable opinions on ways this could be fixed. Several ideas offered by the community are to seal the west access to the neighborhoods so that those people are forced to use alternate routes to get home. Another is to install gates and passes so that only certain people (the people who live in signal hill community) are able to use the road. There were a few other ideas, but they were kind of unreasonable. The environment was very positive, helpful, and open minded which helped lots of opinions to be shared. In the end, the board (which for my neighborhood is the city of Calgary and the alderman) took all ideas into consideration, but no concluding solution was made. Now it has been about 8 months and still no word on solutions or decisions.

                This is a very involved community but has yet to be empowered since the community has no power on its own to shut down a road, or show any sign on influencing the city board to do so. This can have negative effects on a community when it sees that its efforts have little or no effects, people get discouraged and contribute less to future efforts in community development. It is great to have an involved community, but without empowerment no development will take place.