Inner city life

[brightbluegirl]

It's a common movie trope, as far as I can tell, about the cold and uncaring inner city. Either everyone is selfish, or shallow, friends aren't "true", everyone is just trying to make a buck and community is something sold by Starbucks.

I live in a big city. I'm an inner city girl. And this is not my experience.

Take today, for example.

Today many of my friends came over and crammed into my apartment, where their children played with my child while we all made many many pierogi (3 different fillings! Regular AND gluten free dough!). We laughed and talked and joked and sang, reaffirmed bonds and loved and it was a fucking blast.

For dinner we ate the spoils of our work, and we all took home bags of pierogi for another day.

All this happened, I might add, while my next door neighbour laboured at home, to birth her son (born at 8:43pm tonight). As the day wore on we'd often run into a member of her family in the hallway (her partner, mother, brother, etc), and they'd update us on progress. At times I'd step into the hallway and hear her.

After most folks left, a friend sat on the couch and read my son a bedtime book while Andrew and I cleaned up (not that there was much to clean, since my friend's parents had been here alongside us, and had washed and dried most of the dishes after dinner). My neighbour's mum and brother stopped by individually to tell us the happy birth news.

This is my city life.

Comments

[asimplelife.livejournal.com]

I loved living downtown and the people were lovely and community oriented. My neighborhood now is pretty nice as well and the surrounding area gets more urban everyday, but generally speaking city life can be lovely!

[pheloniusfriar.livejournal.com]

I think "This is my city life" would be an excellent global campaign. I lived right downtown in The Market in Ottawa (on St. Patrick just a few houses up from King Edward), a block and a half from the homeless shelter, with small children, and never had anything but positive experiences with the location and the people around it (well, there was the crack house in the abandoned building on Cumberland, but even then we didn't have any actual problems, but that was definitely a bit dodgy). I live in a co-op now, in a suburban area (near the Herongate Mall) and I don't really know my neighbours like I did downtown, and I've had more problems here than anywhere else I've lived, with the exception of ... yup, Kanata (huge suburb). Had a grand time living in the country too, fyi. Perhaps a "This is my country life" campaign in parallel. Suburbs are a blight upon the face of the Earth (so much prime arable land lost).

[rennmaus.livejournal.com]

Wow - I always admired that you have so many great friends!!! I am happy for you!