Reflection 5
Soci 2F60 Foundations for Community Engagement Reflection 5 City of St. Catharines Integrated Community Sustainability Committee Meeting
Description
On January 31st at 4:30 pm I went downtown by taking the 116 bus to the downtown terminal. From there I walked to St. Catharines City Hall, which is located on Church Street. While I was there, I was required to sit in and listen to a committee meeting. This week’s subject was about integrating community and its sustainability. When I first arrived there, we were introduced to everyone and then were brought down a couple floors to look at their new gallery of recently taken pictures that show cultural diversity in the St. Catharines and Niagara regions. We all walked back upstairs and started the meeting. A woman named Rebecca was the first one to talk and she was the cultural planning supervisor. She showed us a power point to show us; this presentation was about culture and sustainability. It went into detail about heritage and the cultural assets that go along with it. A large factor was that culture changes. A lady named Erin gave the next presentation and she told the group about the house and homelessness action plan for the Niagara region. Lastly, a speaker named Aaron talked about bringing a speaker named Charles Eisenstein to talk about the love and support of a community and how it affects everyone. Then there was a group discussion, which quickly ended and the meeting was over. Following this, I walked back to the bus terminal and took the 116 back home.
Examination
By attending this meeting I learned that the community comes together from all different cultures. A reading by Jane Jacobs, called Downtown is for People, claims that there are reasons why people want to go into the city and stay or linger. Culture is a big factor to help with this. In general, she states that the city will only be sustainable if they have different branches of culture to help with it. Jane says that “this notion of order is irreconcilably opposed to the way in which a downtown actually works; what makes it lively is the way so many different kinds of activity tend to support each other” (Jacobs, 1958, p. 130). She states that we think that the city is divided, however everything feeds off of each other so that it is successful. The city of St. Catharines is a culture, but this ‘culture’ is made up of many smaller cultures. Having this creates sustainability in the community, which is what the group was examining. The different cultures make a bigger culture and this is how the sustainability is made.
Articulation of Learning
I have learned that culture does, in fact, have a big impact on society. Not only does your own culture affect you, knowing and understanding others does as well. The main idea of Jane Jacobs’ reading was about how everything works as a whole. There are benefits of this such as “less crime and encourages economic vitality” (Jacobs, 1958, p. 126) The sustainability aspect within St. Catharines is in place to create a community feel and its own culture in order to help other peoples lives. This makes St. Catharines an enjoyable place to be and allow for people to be able to participate in events in and around St. Catharines. When looking at the photo gallery it showed all the different activities that the region had to offer.
I learned this when our first speaker, Rebecca, was talking and she brought up that it is important to have a community that is there to support and help each other. When she talked about how culture changes lives and many other aspects of people’s lives, like social health, it made the connection of the cultural as whole. This helps create the community and all the positive aspects that are with it (Jacobs, 1958, p. 126). Having a sustainable community will help create a culture that is warming and does not create distance between people; it will make it true that ‘downtown is for people’.
This learning matters because it taught me how culture does affect lives. I never really noticed this when I has gone to some different parades and outdoor fairs in my hometown community that it was all culture. Now when I look back I can realize that it is many different cultures and it brings together the people of the city. I personally wish that there were more people who had watched this meeting because it was very informative and I am now able to spread the word as well because I understand what is happening and why all of these different activities exist. They are not only there to inform people about the different cultures, but they are there to bring everyone together as well.
In light of this learning, whenever I go to the different festivals and parades I feel like I can enjoy them more because I understand them. I had liked them before, but when you realize why something is happening you seem to appreciate it more. Now that I have this knowledge I feel like it is part of my job to spread the word and inform other people because they are missing out on opportunities that do affect our community and bring everyone together. I have a new perspective on culture and plan on showing and telling other people about it.
Reference Jacobs, Jane. (2009). Downtown is for People. In Eugenie L. Birch (Ed.), The Urban and Regional Planning Reader (pp. 124-131). London and New York: Routledge.