Takin' it back to the old school, 'cuz I'm an old fool who's so cool: Part 2

About a week ago I addressed the recent school closures in Edmonton in this post's predecessor, unsurprisingly titled "Takin' it back to the old school, 'cuz I'm an old fool who's so cool: Part 1." In that post, I posed and answered the first of two questions on the topic: what's causing these closures? Below, in a manner no less rambling or nonsensical, I will pose and answer the second.

2. What can be done to prevent school closings?

If, as I posit in my first post, these closures have resulted from a combination of the homogeneity of the neighbourhoods in which the schools are being closed and the general trend of suburbanization that Edmonton is undergoing, the answer to question 2 is theoretically simple:

• increase the number of residents with children in the affected neighbourhoods
• increase the diversity of the housing stock in the affected neighbourhoods to hedge against future demographic shifts of the magnitude that resulted in this round of school closures

Practically, however, it's a complete nightmare, mainly because if there is one thing that Edmontonians hate more than school closures, it's density infill development (which is the only way I can think of in which you could increase the diversity and abundance of housing stock in a neighbourhood). It's kind of funny, because I have a feeling many of the very same people who are raising a big stink over these school closings would be dusting off their grumpy pants and marching over to the community league if somebody wanted to build some condos in their neighbourhood. I'm not saying that either of those actions are generally right or wrong, but I am saying they're inconsistent with one another on some level.

Which brings me to what I think is really the root of the problem: the stigma that most Edmontonians attach to any density level or housing format that isn't strictly single-family, and the logical inconsistencies that result from this. For most people, it seems that infill projects aren't evaluated on their individual merits; they're simply bad. The brouhaha that ensues after every successive round of school closures in some way illustrates this, I think, because the topic of infill -- which is really the only thing that can reverse the trend of these closures -- rarely, if ever, comes up.

I don't think people fail to make this link because it's conceptually difficult; I mean, it's obvious, to me, that a neighbourhood with a 40-year-old school is going to need at least a few more residences to sustain that school if only because families simply aren't as big as they used to be. I think that this doesn't come up because Edmontonians inhabit an environment in which the popular discourse says that "infill/density = the great satan," and as a result are much less acquainted with the positive attributes that infill can bring.

So, in my opinion, the root-cause solution is simply to change the long-ingrained thinking of 1 000 000 people, a good portion of which are stubborn Ukrainians.  If this sounds like a tall order, that's probably because it is, but I'm of the mindset that all this would really take is one good project: one in which the neighbourhood is properly consulted; a reasonable amount of density and diversity is achieved without simply plopping a 30-story tower in the middle of a bunch of bungalows; a pleasant, lively and rejuvenated neighbourhood results; and, hopefully, an ailing school is saved. I think a project like that could show Edmontonians that infill can do more for a neighbourhood than increase traffic and make parking harder.*

In summary: infill is what can stop school closures, and residents need to understand that so they can encourage it in their neighbourhoods instead of banding together to stop it.

*I think that while kids in most cities have nightmares about the boogeyman, children in Edmonton have nightmares about not being able to find a parking spot or getting stuck on the Quesnell bridge. I can just see a kid in Oilers pajamas asking his mom to check under his bed for construction on 114 st.

Comments

[ch]

Take it easy on the Ukrainian cuts, Ignatieff.