Raise the Hammer

Hey nowhere, glad you decided to step up and put your two cents in.

You said "I'm a little worried or anxious as to what is to become of those of us that aren't farmers but don't enjoy living in densely populated areas and at the same time enjoy some of the other benefits of larger cities?" I'm not sure if you can have it both ways. You said you're "totally opposed to sprawl", but if a lot of people want the lifestyle you're talking about, then sprawl is the end result.

I sympathize with where you're coming from, though. The thought of living in the country appeals to me sometimes, even though I'm no farmer, and it really appeals to a good friend of mine and he's no farmer either. Buying a big property with one little house on it up Highway 6 or some place is still possible, and as long as you're smart about it - maybe putting up a windmill for electricity and putting in a vegetable garden and/or a small orchard - it doesn't have to be bad for the environment.

It will definitely be expensive, though. That's kind of where sprawl developments step in: they promise that kind of out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere living, where your kids are safe and a field is just a ways down the street, but for really cheap. You end up with a kind of downtown neighbourhood, minus the shops and services, transplanted into the wilderness.

As far as traffic goes, I'd like to live in a city where stepping out on the street, even carelessly, isn't an automatic death sentence.

When it comes to big cars, my opinion is, go ahead and race it on a track somewhere. Just don't commute to Toronto every day with it. The problem is not taking a road trip once every year or two, the problem is when all of your normal, day-to-day activities - driving to work, picking up some milk, going to the library - rely on driving, sometimes long distances.