A few weeks ago in my condo building, the strata agent posted a notice that it was time for the annual fire equipment testing. We were instructed to either be home on testing day to give access to the technician or to arrange with a neighbour to let the technician in.
The poster’s inference that I give a neighbour keys to my apartment made me cringe. It would prove an expensive reminder of my lack of connection to my neighbours.
When I first moved into this building five years ago, I knew most of the residents on my floor. As years have passed, my neighbours have changed multiple times and I’ve gone from chatting in the hall and exchanging emergency numbers to only saying a quiet hello in the elevator.
There are costs to not knowing our neighbours. In my case, since I couldn’t find anyone to open my suite for the technician, and the strata agent’s poster described the fines for noncompliance, I stayed home from work to let the technician in.
Though the technician was to begin on the ninth floor and work his way down, he made it to my suite on the second floor well before noon. As he wove his way down nine floors, only a third of the suites were accessible. That means the great majority of residents in my building didn’t have a neighbour they could leave a key with either.
In 2012, the Vancouver Foundation asked almost 4,000 Vancouverites about their relationships to their neighbours. When asked if they have done a favour, like picking up mail or holding a spare key for someone on their street or floor of their building, 57 per cent of respondents said no.
Some Vancouverites are overcoming their shyness and getting to know their neighbours and reaping the rewards.
Ilan Handelsman is such a Vancouverite. Handelsman is a member of a neighbourhood project called Mount Pleasant Monday, which started a year ago and was a recipient of a Vancouver Foundation Neighbourhood Small Grant. Residents of Vancouver can apply to Vancouver Foundation for grants of up to $1,000 to fund a project to connect and engage their neighbours.
Mount Pleasant Monday members meet monthly to share a meal and get to know their neighbours. The group, which has grown to 50 members, began last summer. The group’s first gatherings were in Dude Chilling Park. As the season changed, the group moved indoors for pub nights at neighbourhood restaurants and dinners in members’ living rooms.
Handelsman, who joined the group four months ago, calls Mount Pleasant Mondays a “rich and incredible experience.” From latkes-making nights to pizza parties at Pizzeria Barbarella, Handelsman says that though his participation in Mount Pleasant Mondays is only one facet of his social life, he gets a lot out of the exposure to the group’s spectrum of participants. Gregarious by nature, Handelsman regularly meets new people in his neighbourhood, but he notes for some of the more reserved members of the group the monthly gathering may be their only opportunity to meet new people.
As he points out, the benefits of Mount Pleasant Mondays reach beyond the once-a-month social. Socializing is a skill, and when unpractised, lack of confidence keeps many Vancouverites lonely. Members of the Mount Pleasant group take their friend-making skills and confidence into other parts of their lives, and other neighbourhoods too.
Handelsman has seen financial benefits too. When his home recycling bin became clogged with papers too sensitive for the blue box, a Mount Pleasant Monday member loaned his paper shredder, saving him from buying his own, and in the long term, keeping one more small appliance out of the landfill.
The Vancouver Foundation is now accepting applications for the next round of small grants. It’s a good time to be asking ourselves how much better our lives could be if we knew the names of our neighbours, or trusted them with a set of keys.
The Mount Pleasant Monday group, its grant nearly gone, isn’t panicking as the money runs out. They’re already talking about how local businesses could benefit from sponsoring their gatherings. The strength of the group’s numbers could transform a restaurant’s quiet Monday night into a vibrant spot, drawing an even bigger crowd of customers.
It’s the kind of confident thinking that comes when you’re valued by your neighbours.
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