'Fighter
Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds' Olds upon discovering the
English countryside:
"I realized that the trees and fields, the
buildings and barns, the small villages and narrow winding roads all fit
together seamlessly, blended by time into harmony. No one thing intruded
on each other. Each fit the scene as though a natural process had ordained
symmetry."
Kind of sounds like what Brookswood and it's trees have become over
time.
This is what I want Developers and Planners to realize:
Development doesn't have to be Progressively Invasive.
You don't have to
destroy the character of a community by widening beautiful two lane
country roads everywhere. You
don't have to crush and tear things apart to build, and you don't have
to bulldoze everything and then leave a few sprigs behind in your wake
after replacing every tree on a lot with a 'Unit.' You can be more than
just builders plugging homes and
apartments into the earth, you can be sculptors creating something you
can be proud of, and finally rid yourselves of that nagging feeling of
discontent over what you are slapping together now.
My dad was a
builder. He and his crew made many of the cottages and homes in
Ontario's Cottage Country. Today's builders jokingly say they hate him
for it is always much harder to tear apart the places he has built for
they were always solid and true, and he guaranteed that not a mouse
could squeeze into them. Looking back at him I can say that he was a
craftsman in every sense of the word, he built structures to fit with
the land and he maintained that harmony. He built around, not through. He could teach much to todays builders, even the ones who THINK they are good builders.
You can
either create or destroy communities. It may eat a little more into your
profit margins, and may take more of an effort but I think it's worth it.
Maybe it's time to consider more closely your role in the community...
Maybe it's time to consider more closely your role in the community...
...and set the bar higher.
