Nature and the City

One of the best things about Edmonton is that is has still managed to maintain some of the possibilities of a natural world in the face of constantly expanding infrastructure. We have conserved the river valley, the mill creek ravine, and many more places that appear as they have for hundreds of years. Unlike other major cities where places like these are auctioned off to building companies and for the purpose of "expanding", Edmonton has managed to sidetrack. With that said, Edmonton has been expanding westward, eastward, north and south at an alarming rate, replacing the outlying farmers fields with new communities like Ellerslie. In this way Edmonton is destroying another kind of natural world.

To me nature in Edmonton consists mostly of whatever you can come upon on the bike trails and along the river and trees and bushes that line the neighbourhood streets. It is especially the continuity of trees along sidewalks all throughout the city that shows how this city pays homage to its natural beginning. This is what nature in the city means to me. Nature in the city is an attempt to pay homage to the past. So whenever I walk past a tree I try and remind myself, or at least imagine that the city looked a little more like this before its began its relentless expansion.

Catch Up #2

So far I feel sort of the same as I did the last time I blogged on how this course has confirmed suspicions or surprised or shocked me. Recently, the only moment that has affected me beyond how this course has been overall able to affect me would be the films of Trevor Anderson. I have to admit that my expectations towards an Edmontonian short film maker were not as high as the should have probably been. However, now I realize that even if I had set them high they still would have been exceeded. What wonderful films!

As well my concept of place and space was really stretched by the map project. To try and conceptualize some idea at first seemed to be an impossible or in the least difficult feat. However, after a discussion with a classmate I came up with the idea and the project was born. The idea of a concept really forced me to look beyond the simple landscape and try and interpret the land as a text. In this way my understanding has grown.

I think I've grown. I don't believe you can listen and experience something new without growing.

Goodwill (For Those of Us who Read Books on Paper)

If there was one business I would recommend anyone, it would be the lovely, always rewarding Goodwill. As a long time book lover and compulsive buyer of literature, I found a solace in the shadows of the Goodwill bookshelves that keep me from spending ludicrous amounts of money on books that I don't have and would stop at nothing to have. I've collected everything from Toni Morrison to Cormac McCarthy to Margaret Atwood all at rock bottom prices. One of my most memorable purchases was the Trainspotting screenplay in mint condition that I purchased for two dollars. As well, I found the Almost Famous and Traffic screenplays for the same price. How wonderful it was to find these things! I make regular trips to each one month after month, searching obsessively for my next addition.

Now why would I choose this place to write about? Well, for one, Goodwill does not have stores in a lot of the provinces (excluding...of course...Ontario) which makes the four locations that it has in this city very special :) . Also, as this is an English course, I am going to go so far as to assume that there are many people in this class which enjoy reading and purchasing books (this excludes those Kobo reading torrent downloading anti-literature crazy people who don't realize that they are supporting the death of books as we all supported the death of the music industry less than ten years ago, considering as well that buying used books does not take away to the supposed declaration that electronic readers will save trees....sorry if I sound a little crazy) and they would all, I'm sure, enjoy the smell and fantastic selection Goodwill offers.

Please go and support it :)

Step-By-Step

I move through Edmonton in a very orderly pattern. I always know my destination and how I plan to get there. Though there are times where this order is shaken, whether by a missed turn or wrong turn or the impossible construction detours, I tend to work my way towards the path I had planned on taking as quickly as possible. This is the case when I am both driving and walking, but is mostly a condition of my familiarity with the city. In other cities, I explore, that is, I don't know where I'm going or have a plan or path. If I knew the city I was exploring, I don't know whether or not I would follow a set path, but my guess is that I would. I have never considered moving against the city and/or have yet to feel that I move against it. I am not antagonistic, very passive. The only times I have ever considered going against the routine I described above is when I am frustrated with the conditions: traffic, construction, snow...I imagine that resisting  the flow would be somewhat futile, and in the case of driving, most likely illegal. Is it not uncomfortable to fight the circulation of a city? If I want my path to loving this city to become any more difficult, I might consider doing such things. With that said, I am starting to consider that maybe resistance would just be making the city my own and might actually facillitate my love of the city...I don't know...When I walk, I walk. When I drive, I drive.

Expectations

So far all of the expectations I had for this course have been unfulfilled and in a sense exceeded. Now...that doesn't really make a lot of sense, but I'll explain. I didn't expect that this course would have such a strong focus on the geographical aspect of text and the concepts of place and space, and in that way, my expectations for a essay based, classical literary English course have been unfulfilled. I did however find that, moving through the course, some of the experiences went beyond what I expected and exceeded what I would have expected had I expected the goings of the course thus far. In that way, expectations, which I did not have, would have been exceeded.

Experiences include:
        1. Maps (Crime Map, Sexual  Assault Map, Arcade Fire Map thing..., and Hypercities being my favourites)
       2. The talk about The Edmonton Queen, and further, meeting Mr. Hagen and hearing his response to the multitude of questions we all had)

Therefore, my suspicions, my many expectations have been exceeded and discounted, shaped and deformed, by this class. I am looking forward to the future. And the future literature. I hope my partners map isn't too far of a drive....or walk (as I think I might be out of shape...)

Conformity and the City

To say that the city reacts differently to minority groups than it has in the past would probably be to commit to a conclusion that is based on little solid fact. Sure, we have legislation in place and programs that are around to ensure a sense of equality and acceptance of diversity, but to say that these programs have put an end to the old ways of ostracizing and to the entire structure of social conformity would be false. The idea of conformity and tyranny of the 'majority', both of which are inseparable as concepts, is so entrenched in our social and institutional structure that it is hard for those of us deemed different only when compared to the 'majority' to try and commit to a pure and unaltered individuality. We care too much about what others care. Thus, taking these concepts and linking them to the condition of minority groups, and more specifically, the LGBT community, one might easily find that it is the same now as it has always been, only now we pretend like we are individuals and will respect all individuals and diversities. That is not to say that there are some of us out there who do care about individualism and diversity. But we still conform to 'majority' ideologies whether we acknowledge it or not. And the city itself plays a large part in all these ideas. The city is control. The city is a major instrument in social conformity. On your own, outside of the limits, with miles of space between you and the next, it is possible to be an individual in so much as your parents allow its facilitation.Therefore, the natural inclination of minority groups, especially those who are the most pressured by society, is to form communities, whether Underground or Above Ground. And with communities, of course, comes place or places that one goes to feel comfortable or unique or like an individual more than a pawn whose moves are not his/her own. With that said, compared to the days of Frank Oliver and the myriad other Ministers of the Interior who  systematically and purposefully brought in and promoted policy of discrimination, we have come a long way. There is no doubt in my mind that policy, especially with the advent of human rights and the subsequent charters and so forth, has tried to eliminate Canada's and Edmonton's (see Frank Oliver Tunnel, Oliver Square) past of discrimination. It can only go so far.

The Flatland Perspective

What is my favorite city map? Well, out of all the ones we have looked at in class, I would have to say the City of Edmonton crime map is my favorite. I enjoy this map for a number of reasons, namely those being, I can look up my neighborhood and compare it to other neighborhoods. Now, to be perfectly honest, one of the things I enjoy about this map is that, by comparing my neighborhood to others, I can talk candidly about my place in either a positive or negative light. Or rather, I can talk to others about what I found about their neighborhood. So in a way this first reason is sort of a desire to be self-centered that this map fulfills, only in the sense that I, because of this map, will compare others to myself until I am satisfied with my knowledge of my location to in relation to other locations. And, realistically, who doesn't love to draw comparison between places and the relation of places to their own place? (As confusing as that question sounded) But don't all statistically based maps in a sense do this? That is, don't they incline one towards comparison? Then what makes the crime map different? Well, personally, as shelter is intricately tied to security, crime can, in a way, be a determinant in the overall "quality" of ones community. And is that not what we all want--or at least what all communities want? To know whether or not we have something special to offer beyond the basic need of shelter? Maps are one of the modes we use to determine whether or not the latter is true. Therefore, in regards to what maps we wish we had, I might pose this question: if only we had a map that was a sum of all maps, imagine how much time might we save obsessing over trivial differences?