Exploring Rural Development: A Tale of Two Communities, Part I
Posted on | April 23, 2010 | 4 Comments
Third in The ‘Fringe’s limited online series of rural/rurban development is Peter MacGibbon, Project Director at 3ci – Carleton Centre for Community Innovation. I had the great pleasure of meeting Peter last spring while attending a national conference … and am delighted he was able to find the time to share some of his insights here. Below is Part I of a two-part three-part series – stay tuned!
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A Tale of Two Communities, Part I
By Peter MacGibbon
Chelsea and Wakefield are two beautiful ‘rurban’ communities situated on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, located north by about 15 or 25 kilometres (respectively) of the nation’s capital. They share a history of similar origins in the 19th century timber industry, followed by dairy farming by Irish and Scots settlers and – beginning in the early 20th century – a shared role as summer and winter playgrounds for excursionists and cottagers from Ottawa, centered around what is now Gatineau Park and along Gatineau River.
Today, the communities enjoy the same priviledge, with a growing population of retirees and urban escapists joining a mixed English and French population in what are regarded – Quebec’s high tax rates notwithstanding – as two of the most highly-desirable places to live in the region. Those willing to risk the on-again/off-again threat of Quebec separation (which has also served to offset the suburbanization of the region) can find a quality-of-life unmatched near most major Canadian cities.
In recent years, though, these similarities have taken a backseat to growing differences between how the two communities function and pursue their local visions.
This is partly due to geography, which I’ll need to explain: the municipality of Chelsea is wrapped around the southern end of Gatineau Park, which extends like a peninsula all the way down to the city of Gatineau (formerly Hull). There is no central village area in which all Chelsea-ites naturally congregate, since no direct road connects the roughly U-shaped municipality across the park from the east to the west side. Thus, a journey of 10 kilometers – as the crow flies – will take at least half an hour by car. This is not necessarily a disadvantage, in that many of Chelsea’s residents are prolific users of the Park and enjoy the multiple points of non-motorized access their location affords. Indeed, the municipality is home to many zealous outdoor enthusiasts, including, formerly, the father of modern Canadian canoeing, the late Bill Mason.
Wakefield, by comparison, is a village of about 1,000 residents gathered on the banks of the Gatineau River and serving surrounding hamlets of farming communities, aging hippies, and no small number of artists and craftspeople. People come to the village for social recreation, to enjoy live music and theatre, to visit the farmers’ markets, to eat in the numerous local restaurants, and to buy and sell art. The village is pedestrian-friendly and one can pass a pleasant afternoon’s walk along the river from the old covered bridge at the north end to the cafes and bistros at the south. Its role as a centre of activity has been underlined in recent years by the revival of an old rail line that now brings day-trippers and tourists up from Ottawa-Gatineau on an antique steam train for about six months of the year.
Yet these seemingly innocuous differences between the two communities have been thrown into high contrast by parallel initiatives; each municipality is on the verge of building its own, new Community Centre. They are not competing for funds or for locations and there is no real conflict between their twin goals. They have simply undertaken the two separate initiatives at the same time.
However, one initiative is rallying the community around a shared vision while the other – as evidenced by its status as the dividing issue in a recent mayoral election – has been tearing the community apart.
Can you guess which community is which?
In the second part of this posting, I will elaborate on this informal case study with a comparison of the visions and processes adopted by each community in their parallel pursuits.
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Tags: Chelsea > community > exploring rural development > rurban > two communities > Wakefield
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April 24th, 2010 @ 3:36 am
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April 30th, 2010 @ 12:20 pm
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