3.4 Thora Cartlidge - green growing city

Lyrics and (chords) for this episode's original song Imagine The Kindness Economy, and the notes Thora and I brought to our conversation recorded on this episode.

Imagine the Kindness Economy - by Heather McLeod, based on words by Thora Cartlidge

April 22, 2022 (Earth Day)

Chorus:
(E) Imagine the Kindness Economy
(C7) Imagine it here now for you & me
(F) Imagine (B7) Imagine

(A7) Innovate - new solutions
(C7) Innovate - cool technologies
(F) Innovate - new solutions
(B7) cool technologies

(A7) Invest - redevelop
(C7) Invest - revolutionize
(F) Invest - redevelop
(B7) revolutionize

Chorus

(A7) Integrate - grey with green
(C7) Integrate - seen with unseen
(F) Integrate - grey with green
(B7) seen with unseen

(A7) Intercept - course correction
(C7) Intercept - heal the crisis here
(F) Intercept - course correction
Heal the Crisis Here

Chorus
(A7) Imagine (C7) imagine (F) imagine (B7) imagine (E - B7 - E)

Preparatory Notes:

Introduction:

I invited Thora Cartlidge to imagine with me a cozier, greener, substantially more sustainable and resilient Thunder Bay. I met Thora a few years ago when we both attended an event thrown by the City to update the community on their Sustainability Plan. I was there as a curious citizen and recovering journalist hard pressed to say no to a learning opportunity. I think Thora was there in a more official capacity. She likely had a role in developing Thunder Bay’s Sustainability Plan. Thora Cartlidge is a Municipal Planner who specializes in sustainable community development and natural resource protection with more than twenty years experience in Northern Ontario and in Minnesota. When I saw her a few weeks ago at the Farm Conference held at Kakabeka Legion, I beetled over to eat my lunch across from her and ask if she would be my guest on this podcast. I am so pumped that she said yes! 

I asked Thora to put her daydreaming pragmatist hat on and help me imagine a greener Thunder Bay, one that is more autonomous, more resilient and kinder, because we have changed our relationship with this network of life that we are a part of here, our connection to our land, water and air systems.

Questions /topics to get us going (use none, any or all, as we choose in the moment)

Thora we are going to try and jump over how we get to and through these transformations we are imagining. Though sometimes a bit of context explaining why these differences are welcome is great, we’re going to try to avoid the rabbit holes and stay focused on envisioning a welcome, feasible, could happen pretty quick future Thunder Bay. 

Neighborhoods:

Okay. Let’s start with a specific neighbourhood in Thunder Bay, one you know well and can imagine changed for the better. Where shall we start?

East End, historic self-sustaining neighbourhood, a village within a city, complete with owned homes, schools, churches, shops, parks, gardens and livestock, devolved to more rental, fewer families, closed shops, dangerous street life; still architecture, infrastructure and street grid remains, to be revived as a neighbourhood

Let’s change up neighbourhoods, pop into another part of Thunder Bay that is perhaps a part of your everyday - where shall we go? - and how can you imagine it transformed for the better in the not so distant future?

Parkdale Subdivision Development, where current planning is for new 300+ unit residential development extending to Mapleward, outside the boundaries of the William Bog Provincially Significant Wetland; City approval would require developer to extend stormwater and waste water pipes to connect to City's infrastrcture and so avoid need for individual septic systems; environmental concerns about incrementally losing the PSW status (death by a thousand cuts) have clashed with demand for more new housing in Parkdale since the Province granted PSW status (198-) and at least one group, Thunder Bay Field Naturalists Club, has purchased lots (unbuildable due to location within PSW) as available to ensure the ecological fabric of the area is protected and allowed to function; opportunity exists in 2023 to build th subdivision, encasing waste and storm water, requiring something of a "rolling stewardship" role of the developer - and purchasers - to ensure open space and residential uses can co-exist

Water:

Let’s talk about water movement through the City. We’ve had incredible rainfall events here that prompted the failure of our water management system and sudden extreme flooding into people’s homes and businesses. Thanks for the climate crisis, extremes are the unpredict    able certainly of the next few decades. Changes have been made since then that I think have helped us since, though it is harder to notice when systems work well than when they fail. What springs to your mind as a welcome difference you can imagine in Thunder Bay when it comes to water? 

Parkdale Subdivision development if done right would protect the ecological services (water filtering, species biodiversity) 'next door' in William Bog

Plants & soil: How about green spaces in Thunder Bay, the ones we share and the way people use the land they own around their homes and businesses. Imagine walking through a   specific Thunder Bay neighbourhood that has been made more secure and rich because we manage its green spaces differently than we do today. What neighbourhood comes to mind ? What changes do you see? Why is it making a welcome difference?

Energy Efficiency: How about energy efficiency. It is so easy to waste the hard-won energy we need to heat & cool our buildings, power our lights and computers and fridges. What energy conservation measures can you imagine in Thunder Bay that would really make a welcome difference?

Community Gathering Places: Let’s talk about community. Imagine a Thunder Bay that is rich in places for people to build connection with one another, both casual connections like a neighbour you share a smile and a passing chat with, to places you spend time building friendships and memories with close friends and family. What can you imagine noticing in this not so distant future Thunder Bay that is feeding our connections to one another?

Imagine more individuals, groups and families using the network of underused green corridors already threaded throughout the city; positive activity in a public space invites more positive activity, where throughout the pandemic, even before, public green space became given over to the socially marginalized as those with means gravitated towards indoor facilities (or not in public space at all out of fear of COVID-19 transmission), and  not cycling or walking to them - so now the challenge is to take back the streets/parks, lose fears, accept that the underadvantaged, addicted and homeless are a reality   in Thunder Bay and support however we can the services and programs that offer a place to live, and help with addiction and mental health ... so that Nature in the city (our green corridors and parks) becomes healthful, healing and connective for everyone

How about food? Thunder Bay was autonomous when it came to growing and keeping between harvests the food the people who live here eat until after the Second World War. In the 1940s the population of the City was about half of what it is now, but it was the industry’s move away from sustainable small farms that gutted that sustainability, not the number of mouths to feed. Everyone I talk to who knows these things agrees we have the land and the capacity to feed ourselves. When you imagine Thunder Bay with 100% food security, despite the challenges and risks of the extreme and unpredictable weather of the Climate Crisis, what do you see?

I see a steadily increasing commitment to building the local food system at every point in the supply chain, and the 2023 Food System Report by Thunder Bay and Area Food Food Strategy that speaks to the downturns (fewer farms, higher production and distribution costs, etc.) and to the opportunities for improving the system; not sure we have the land or climate to feed ourselves completely, but with new ways of producing food, new technologies, we can become more food secure. Thinking about greenhouses, vertical farms, other types of CEAs (Controlled Environment Agriculture), and that food doesn't all have to be produced outdoors in soil, and Thunder Bay area has at least two locations, zoned institutional (former Psychiatric Hospital) or industrial (Innova Park) that are urban serviced and could accommodate CEAs; examples where land use planning, zoning regulations and food security needs could come together; public and private partnered investment, developer incentives, employment opportunities and a ready 'support local' consumer base

In my third episode season one Brendan Grant of SleepyG organic farm calculates what it would take to grow all the veg we need. We already produce more milk than we consume. And more grain (as of recently). Very do-able, but would take more coordination and investment. But since that is one of the cornerstones of sustainability  - it should be non negotiable in my opinion!