{"id":3065,"date":"2013-12-11T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T21:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2013-12-11T16:34:34","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T23:34:34","slug":"livability-demands-acceptance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/","title":{"rendered":"Livability Demands Acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Howard Blackson<\/a>, Urban Designer and Principal of Placemakers, once said that community character is like pornography: hard to define, but you know when you see it. The same holds true for livability. Definitions of livability may include a range from mobility, housing, cultural, educational, and entertainment opportunities to features such as safety, quietness, good public services, housing affordability, job security, and availability of green space. However, livability may denote dissimilar ideas depending on personal values. Can we blame them?<\/p>\n

Attempts to accommodate these dissimilarities into one basket have resulted in meaningless definitions of livability. Perhaps we are better-off making a broader definition, rather than an individual one. Still, trying to reach consensus on such a definition may seem the natural path, but this would not calibrate the appropriate mix of those dissimilarities mentioned before. If\u00a0we\u00a0exploit opposing ideas and constraints with the societal goal in mind, we can create better outcomes based on shared experiences that shape a community.<\/p>\n

This ultimately means that there will be compromises to personal interests, more specifically private development rights, in order to advance livability. The likelihood of Edmonton becoming a livable metropolis hinges on, among other things, its people\u2019s ability to embrace an approach to private development rights that is inclusive to everybody.<\/p>\n

In Canada, private development rights have their foundation in the British common law system.\u00a0A property owner has the right to explore the land for his\/her own benefit in exchange for civic obligations, such as paying taxes. The government, through urban planning and other tools, ensures that other people with these same rights will not impinge one’s private rights (e.g. ensuring property values and privacy are not impacted). The role of urban planning is to find balance, vis-\u00e0-vis, evaluate the potential adverse effects of private development rights against the overall greater public interest.\u00a0 The interference implies that city-building is not laissez-faire, but also implies that \u201cbalance\u201d does not necessarily mean equal shares of public\/private development rights. Future planning practices\u00a0including\u00a0new zoning frameworks<\/a>\u00a0will need to\u00a0step away from protecting personal interests\u00a0and start truly embracing a diversity of interests.<\/p>\n

Acceptance of this diversity of interests will build and promote better and perhaps more livable communities.\u00a0In my previous article on Edmonton\u2019s Suburban Identity<\/a>, I suggested that small-scale business incubators, live\/work units, and other residential-related uses may be a start to allow Edmonton\u2019s new neighbourhoods to be more integrated with the city. In many communities, this would require residents to be open to new ideas and opinions. Would it be a perfect shift? Far from it, but as Jane Jacobs liked to say, great cities are federations of neighbourhoods. Perhaps, acceptance is what will patch them up together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Societal<\/a>
Societal livability starts with the shared experiences that shape community. Photo by Marcelo Figueira<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howard Blackson, Urban Designer and Principal of Placemakers, once said that community character is like pornography: hard to define, but you know when you see it. The same holds true for livability. Definitions of livability may include a range from mobility, housing, cultural, educational, and entertainment opportunities to features such as safety, quietness, good publicContinue reading “Livability Demands Acceptance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8133,"featured_media":3244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[119,55,76,52,53,83],"class_list":["post-3065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-neighbourhoods","tag-city-building","tag-community-2","tag-edmonton","tag-neighbourhoods-2","tag-urban-planning","tag-urbanism"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLivability Demands Acceptance - Spacing Edmonton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marcelo Figueira\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/\",\"name\":\"Livability Demands Acceptance - Spacing Edmonton\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/12\/LarryWong_EJ8647157.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-12-11T21:20:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-11T23:34:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/#\/schema\/person\/e1be02866e9fb2524cf26b5ce2841a1c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/2013\/12\/11\/livability-demands-acceptance\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/12\/LarryWong_EJ8647157.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/edmonton\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2013\/12\/LarryWong_EJ8647157.jpg\",\"width\":619,\"height\":339,\"caption\":\"The words \u201cNo Homeless\u201d were spray-painted in three spots on the exterior walls of the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in Terwillegar Towne. 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