Dear Editor,
David Shanahan is on-point again with this week’s article: “Homeward Bound”. “Housing, or the lack of it, has become a major crisis…” This is a generational, oft international occurrence. David highlighted North Grenville’s new and creative initiative to provide affordable and stable housing for over 55’s in North Grenville. His article covers the depth of the issue and the breadth of it.
I have a minor concern where readers are often focussed primarily on the micro issues, that is – those day-to-day transactions or lack of ability to meet major quotidian demands faced by them. The initiative described and the call for wider participation is laudable and requires a full understanding of just how imperative politically this crisis has become.
My concern is constructive, perhaps reflecting one dimension that Dr. Shanahan’s wise words may have not pushed under his spotlight. The solution to a crisis today can create a problem for tomorrow.
When the solution is examined today it is regarded as a micro issue. Tomorrow’s horizon reveals the macro issues of: over population, Baby Boomer bulge, smaller families, changing family values, increased mobility, and a work-at-home plus employment revolution at a tipping point, to name a few.
Importantly, the future arrives more quickly than most of us anticipate. This rapidity will dictate all planning decisions more so than ever demanded in the past. We will become aware that tomorrow’s homes, offices, community edifices, especially schools are going to change as drastically or more so than the last three decades unerringly have demonstrated.
Yes, stay the course on housing needs. Stay the course for today; however we also require more than our previous efforts to plan even more diligently for tomorrow, giving equal consideration to both.
Just sayin’ David! And thank you again. I miss you when you are not in my weekly reading!
Graeme Waymark,
Retired Guy
