Marketing

“Renaissance, community, adventure…”

Seldom are the words affordable, diverse, or characteristic used.

Leading up to gentrification, the words more commonly heard are derelict, eyesore, property value.

In the process, an area is homogenized, the familiar ripped down, and the often beige-colored, “monocultures,” are absent of difference or history and do not reflect local needs nor contain the wild, unmanicured elements that made them desirable in the first place.

While “out with the old, in with the new,” is the motto among politicians, developers are “more concerned with boosting real estate values and tourism and less about community and environmental concerns.”

The implications: residents can feel disconnected from their surroundings, are uprooted, displaced and like the old man in the film “Up,” they experience intense pressure to sell their family homes. They tend to feel a growing dislike for their new boxed in surroundings.

A complaint I often hear: The sun no longer shines on their garden like it once did.

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This photo is one of a few on display at the @squamishartscouncil gallery in the Squamish Adventure Center, as well as the @theledge.ca and @greenolivesquamish and is part of a series titled “Changing Squamish.”