They are tearing up paradise and putting up too many houses

Recently, while surfing my TV’s channel guide, I came across a Margaret Atwood documentary and started watching. Almost immediately, it focused on her influential book of poetry, “The Circle Game,” which got me wondering if there was a link with fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell’s song “The Circle Game.”

It turns out Atwood’s poetry book, published in 1964, but there is no “The Circle Game” poem in the book. Mitchell’s song was released in 1966 and has no obvious connection.  However, in researching to see if Atwood had written a “The Circle Game” poem, I discovered she did write a poem titled “The City Planners,” which I had never come across before.  The poem is very critical of 1960s city planners (and dare I say, developers too) which ironically was the subject of Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi” released in 1970. 

First edition cover of Atwood’s book of poetry.

The City Planners Poem

Atwood’s poem is very critical of ‘60s suburban design – “the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees.”   She then adds “No shouting here, or shattering of glass; nothing more abrupt than the rational whine of a power mower cutting a straight swath in the discourage grass. But though the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria by being even.” 

But she doesn’t stop there – “sickness lingering in the garages, a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise.”  Ouch! 

Atwood’s criticism of mid-20th century suburban development echoes the thoughts of many city planners and urbanists today - not only in Calgary but around North America.

I am surprised this poem is not referenced more in critiques of suburban planning by today’s urban thinkers as it fits exactly with their way of thinking.

And Atwood also has harsh words for city planners:

That is where the City Planners

With the insane faces of political conspirators

are scattered over unsurveyed

territories, concealed from each other,

each in his own private blizzard;

guessing directions, they sketch

transitory lines rigid as wooden borders

on the wall in the white vanishing air

tracing the panic of suburb

order in the bland madness of snows

In some, way these comments are congruent with the thinking of today’s community activists who oppose blanket rezoning and the redevelopment of the established neighbourhoods with their tree canopied streets, and large front and back yards.

Big Yellow Taxi 101

While not as focused on city planning, Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi song lyrics are also critical of 60s urban development with statements like “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot” and they “took all the trees and put them in a tree museum.”

 The latter is particularly relevant today with the outcry by those who oppose the densification of older neighbourhoods where new residential infill projects are removing trees to put up more houses. 

Ironically today, we are tearing up parking lots in Calgary’s city centre and putting up residential towers. We are also removing parking lots in many of the older suburban malls and putting up residential buildings, such as the redevelopment of Northland Mall and the proposed redevelopment of Glenmore Landing.

In Calgary’s East Village there are converting parking lots into residential towers. The same is happening in many inner-city neighbourhoods.

An example of a new suburban community with is maze like street design and cookie-cutter homes.

Today Calgary’s new suburbs have smaller lots, often with garages in the alley, and almost no front yard - similar to older inner-city communities. Unfortunately with the smaller yard and underground utilities there is no room for trees to grow big and create the an arching canopy over the road that most North Americans associate with being the ideal residential streetscape.

Last Word

Mitchell’s “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” (One Yellow Taxi) pretty much sums up what many Calgarians these days are feeling as Calgary’s city politicians, planners and developers redevelop existing communities to create a more diverse, affordable, dense and sustainable city.

However, this vision is at odds with that of many Calgarians who feel like, “they are tearing up paradise and putting up too many houses with not enough parking spots.”

Or perhaps the new lyrics would be “they are tearing down trees, to put up more houses.”

In Calgary’s inner-city neighbourhoods,100s of mid-century bungalows with huge trees on them are being torn down each year and replaced with townhomes with secondary suites in the basement creating more density - people and cars. And no room for trees.