I live in Ottawa, Canada, the Nation’s Capital (we don’t spell it Capitol as Americans do…). Actually, when I came here, I moved to a small city - a bedroom suburb of Ottawa - called Nepean. The commute was not long, and it went through greenspace. The price of the house was in my range, and there was parking for our two vehicles. Also, the city of Nepean was debt-free and had a pay-as-you-go policy. Then, for political reasons, Ottawa reached out and amalgamated all the surrounding communities, covering them with debt and bloated bureaucracy, for little or no gain to anybody except some politicians.

Then recently, we’d begun hearing from people who live near the downtown, what wasteful, uncouth schmucks we suburbanites are with our big/multiple vehicles and polluting commuting and our filthy habits of maintaining lawns (all those chemicals). Never mind that most of the urban whiners would no longer be able to afford their own apartments and condos if we suburbanites all moved downtown and drove property values through the roof….. most of us are where we are because of decisions made by other people (specifically city planners and politicians) long before we arrived. So, in a Letter to the Editor that was too long to get published, I responded to one of the uppity, smug ones… whose name I’m free to publish because it was already published in the newspaper.

Editor:

Letter-writer Pat Croteau sounds single, urban, and self-righteous as s/he berates us suburbanites for our car-using ‘lifestyle choices”. The smugness is appalling, given that Croteau most likely chose an urban home and then allowed that decision to constrain all the other aspects of her/his lifestyle. (Making a virtue of necessity?) Many suburbanites, on the other hand, made choices and had choices made for them that then dictated where they would live and what transportation they would use.

Some neighbors go rockclimbing and kayaking on weekends, which demands a car. Moreover, they need their own car, not one that’s rented from one of those downtown co-op, share-a-car schemes, because they need it to be reliably available. Other neighbors have two kids, and the daddy manages a fast-food restaurant, while the mommy works nursing shifts, so they have two vehicles. Soon, they will join most of my other neighbors, ferrying their kids and kids’ sporting gear to hockey rinks, riding lessons, ski/snowboard lessons, etc., all over the landscape.

My wife and I were skydivers and instructors for many years. We needed a van that could carry our gear and that we could sleep in, until we got a trailer that could be placed at this dropzone or that… none of which are reachable by bus. Mr./Ms. Croteau is safe from ever testing his/her physical bravery because her/his urban lifestyle precludes trying skydiving or kayaking or any other out-of-town activity that involves toting equipment.

Ms/Mr Croteau is also safe from developing handyman skills like my other neighbor who bought and fixed up (over several years) a country “cottage” where he and his wife spend most weekends. His wife, by the way, is a Real Estate rep, so they have multiple vehicles. My wife, by the way, is a sales rep, so she needs a vehicle.

Meanwhile, we visit downtown museums every couple of years to see if anything has changed, take in a couple of Ottawa Little Theatre and NAC [National Arts Centre] productions per year and have our fill of that for a while, visit a few downtown restaurants … when not breezing through to get to the really good restaurants across the river [in Quebec]… and the rest of our lifestyle occurs around our suburban home.

Semi-finally, since we moved to Ottawa in 1998, I have changed employment location three times and my wife has done so five times. Mr/Ms Croteau would have us limit our employment opportunities to ones that were on direct bus routes? Or have us move house every time one of us changed companies or had our company move offices?  Finally, living where we do, and having a car, we can go pick up an amazing pizza from Mountain Station Pizza [a country pizza joint that piles on huge amounts of fresh ingredients, and was featured on a local tv segment] when the urge moves us - Pat Croteau can’t do that. I think Croteau should lose the superior attitude about his/her lifestyle choices that have mostly been made for him/her.

That’s the way I see it, anyway.

Copyright 2008