Since then, Bolton has expanded enormously in all directions. Once a sleepy bedroom community, the town is now an archetype for suburban sprawl. In a bid to escape the supposed ills of the city, white Anglo-Saxon families had rushed northward to settle their little piece of the country. Because Toronto was only a brief drive away, one could enjoy the benefits of clean air (ironically, I suppose), trees, and farm fields while still being able to make a living in the city. Kids could go to safe schools, take swimming lessons at the local farm, and play baseball, hockey, or soccer. For many families, including my own, it was the best move one could have made.

Yet, bedroom communities like Bolton have always sewn the seeds of their own demise. The clean air and fields we once cherished quickly fell victim to our own self-imposed need to drive everywhere and anywhere to get what we needed. Going to work required a car and, in the early 80s, so did most forms of shopping and recreation. So, we polluted the very landscape we apparently sought in the first place. Today, the Humber river flows with a strange film on top. The trees downtown can’t grow (they have been there forever it seems) because of the high concentrations of toxins in the air.

Of course, as the dream became more apparent to others, Bolton, and its infrastructure, continued to grow. Developers began to capitalize on the area immediately. Bent on building houses and not communities, many of them trick us with signs promising “luxury” or “estate” lots, only to leave us with one tree on our lawns, no sidewalks, and row upon row of houses that are literally cut from the same cloth – making houses the same is cheaper for them, costly for us. In a blink of an eye they disappear – moving on to the next plot of farm land upon which they will create the next dream “community.”

With such dramatic population shifts comes commercial development. McDonald’s likely had us pegged as a target market a long, long time ago. Of course, Wendy’s simply watches the moves made by Ronald McDonald and then follows suit. Walmart, too, is on its way. Bolton has become a massive target market, composed primarily of middle and upper-middle class suburbanites (like myself) who represent nothing but a potential market share to the CEOs of our nation’s largest companies. Of course, when their stores arrive they show complete disregard for the town’s history, its appearance, or what it stands for. The massive box stores are coming, and with their arrival Bolton will look like all the other towns in Southern Ontario: neon signs, strip malls, fast food joints, and acre after acre of parking spaces.

In the end, the citizens of this town will flee again. This time it will be further North to escape the congestion of Bolton’s borders. The cars will be packed, the houses sold, and families will once again begin a new search for a little piece of sanity. Bringing with them, once again, the seeds of their own demise.

What can be done? Relishing in a lost sense of community is not the answer, as tempting as it often is. We must deal with our self-destructive dependence on the automobile by looking into mass transit. Automobile erosion must stop (the loss of land to accommodate a never ending supply of cars), and developers must be held accountable for their creations and perhaps be forced to submit their plans for evaluation based on the principles of The New Urbanism. 19th century zoning guidelines need to be revised so that a convenience store can be located within walking distance of our communities. Chain stores, too, must be held accountable for their presence, their architecture, and their impact on human relations.

We must think beyond the immediate worlds we live in and peer into the future. We must slow our relentless pursuit of profit and take a moment to ask “is this good for our community,” no matter how heterogeneous it may be. Will it make us better people, more secure and less tense? We need a new set of criteria by which to regulate and monitor growth here in Bolton – a set of criteria less informed by questions of “what can I buy and how quickly and easily can I do it” and more informed by ideas pertaining to responsible growth and collective well-being.

About Patrick Parnaby
Patrick Parnaby is currently completing his Ph.D. in Sociology at McMaster University in Hamilton. His current research includes Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and the sociology of deviance. E-mail Patrick at patrick@mycaledon.com

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