Old vs. New

Have you checked out a calendar recently? It is the 21st century, you know.

In the past week, I’ve spent some time in Toronto’s Old Cabbagetown neighbourhood. This is a small neighbourhood that is right downtown. I don’t quite understand the ‘cabbage’ reference, but I certainly get the ‘old’ modifier.

Old Cabbagetown is a neighbourhood with a distinct character and style, but it is a character and style that is forced upon its inhabitants. All of the homes and storefronts, in order to receive any sort of renovation or rebuilding must be approved by a committee that makes its decisions based on criteria that would keep the neighbourhood looking as though it was built before the turn of the century, the previous century. The neighbourhood has maintained its Victorian design.

It is a difficult place to visit. The buildings are small and hugged close together and close to the roads. The roads themselves are narrow and many go one-way. To make the roads even more narrow, the only parking is on the road itself. The many homes do not have any driveways. Sure, living right downtown, you would think, people wouldn’t need to own cars. Public transit can take you anywhere you need to go. That may be correct in other world class cities, but not Toronto.

I understand that the practice of maintaining that old timey feel is pretty common throughout the world. Obviously major cities in Europe have been doing this for who knows how long. Major cities in Europe have been standing since the middle ages, or longer.

I just cannot seem to get past the fact that a Victorian neighbourhood seems too inefficient for the 21st century. The cost of a tiny plot of land with a condemned building in this neighbourhood is nearly one million dollars. I would think, for that much money, one could acquire a home with, geez, I dunno, maybe a driveway, a backyard, a room large enough to comfortably fit a dining table with chairs on all four sides.

A Victorian neighbourhood, in my opinion, does not work in modern Canada. We don’t drive Smart Cars, we drive SUVs and station wagons. And judging by the cars parked on the side of the roads in Cabbagetown, so do the inhabitants of Old Cabbagetown. I spent two days in that neighbourhood and it snowed both days. The narrowed streets do not allow for proper passage of snow plows. When the plows do go through, all the cars are plowed in. Residents, in order to use their cars, must dig them out. But there isn’t any place to put the snow. Much of the snow ends up back on the roads, forcing the plows out a second time. It becomes an seemingly endless game of reverse tug of war.

Walking down a street in Cabbagetown, I got the feeling like I was reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I was waiting for a man to pass me in the street with flies buzzing around him, being held from flying away by use of string. I was definitely the outsider that did not fit in with this community of obsurdity.

Just because it is old, older than most, does not mean it is right. I used to live in a home that was built in the 1950s. In fifty years, should that house still be standing, I do not think it is right to maintain the look and feel of that building right now. If I still lived there and had the financial ability to knock it down and rebuild, I would. I do not care if it would no longer match the houses on either side of it. I believe in the rights of the homeowner and his or her own right to choose the design of that home. If a home in Old Cabbagetown burns down today and the homeowner would like to rebuild, they are forced to rebuild the home’s exterior in order to match the esthetic of the neighbourhood.