Dear Editor,
Our street is now precisely bifurcated: one half has modest middle-class homes with neighbours who know, interact, and look out for each other, and the other half, which is made-up of pseudo-mansions that are either perpetually empty, function as hotels, are visited periodically by luxury cars with blacked-out windows, or are occupied by people who make it quite clear that they do not wish to know anyone else on the street.
The former represents the best of the qualities and characteristics that bind welcoming and enlightened neighbourhoods and societies together, and the latter, in clear contradiction to the monetary value of the properties involved, represents the lowest levels of community planning and culture-building that exist in this country.
The former provides its residents with comfort, safety, and a sense of belonging, while the latter does nothing but undermine and/or destroy those values.
One makes its inhabitants socially and culturally wealthy, while the other circumscribes social and cultural poverty. I wouldn’t trade places for any amount of money.
Ray Arnold
Richmond
