An empty house was demolished in our neighbourhood yesterday, and while the tell-tale signs that the event was imminent were all there – gas cut off, trees around the house cut down, asbestos removal crews present the week before – it was still a shock to hear the excavator start up and begin banging at the building this morning. Somehow our lack of respect for older homes seems far more upsetting when it’s on my own street a few doors away.
A 1919 Vancouver Sun article was titled, “A City’s Soul Lies in Its Homes,” and the many empty homes we see in our neighbourhoods today remind me that’s so true. It’s difficult to describe “soul” – it often has a fuzzy, non-quantifiable feeling about it, one that more practical people dismiss. Miriam-Webster’s dictionary describes it in part as “the ability of a person to feel kindness and sympathy for others,” and perhaps it’s that lack of consideration for our fellow Vancouverites that’s most bothersome. Fortunately on my street, two of the homes recently sold to developers will have tenants for some time, but sadly one Vancouver Special has sat empty and deserted for several months.
