City-Dwellers: What Are You Missing?
If you live in a city, you probably have several doors between you and the outside world. There’s the door to your apartment, perhaps an elevator door or a door to the stairway, then the main door of your apartment building. People who live in the suburbs underestimate the power of being able to open your one front door and be outside. Feel the sun on your face or the wind in your hair.
This weekend, I enjoyed this small comfort in a remote area of Quebec with a couple of friends. I was able to open the front or back door, take my coffee and sit on the patio. No waiting outside your apartment door until it’s quiet so that you don’t run into anyone in the hallway. No having to wait for several elevators to go past you until you find one that is empty. What a feeling.
Toronto is inundated with condos and apartments and in the pandemic of 2020, I’m seeing an awful lot of them up for rent, sale or available for subletting. This is just one of the lessons that only a pandemic could teach us: what and how we were spending our time was not sustainable. Spending a minimum of 8 hours per day behind a computer in a climate controlled office with fluorescent lighting is not really the pinnacle of modern living. As soon as the pandemic hit, city dwellers escaped to their cottages, and others even moved completely out of the city, opting for more space and a backyard.
Modern life suggests that living downtown in a large city is ideal for career progression. But this is at odds with the human instinct to be in nature. Even with many companies opting to work from home during the pandemic, how can we best reconcile city living, having outdoor space and a career? Personally, I thrive in an office setting where I can socialize with my colleagues. While I would prefer a work from home role right now, when it is safe to do so I would enjoy being back in the office. But I know I can’t continue living in my small apartment with no backyard forever. Does this mean I have to give up on my career aspirations and move to a different area with less industry in order to afford a house with a backyard?
We are already seeing an exodus from cities; suburb towns are becoming more populated with ex-Torontonians and house prices are reflecting this move. But house prices in Toronto have not decreased so there is no real benefit to the ones left in Toronto — you’ll still be spending $1,000,000 if you want a decent family home.
Reconciling our nature with our careers comes down to compromise and sacrifice. Right now, my partner and I are sacrificing outdoor space for cost savings and career opportunities. Hopefully we will soon be in a position to sacrifice the advantages of downtown living; great restaurants and bars come to mind but honestly in the pandemic it seems like there are less and less advantages to city life. We would sacrifice our short commute for a backyard and more living space. We would sacrifice the rat race feeling in Toronto for a slower paced life in a different, smaller city. The one thing we do not want to sacrifice on is a great career. Regardless of where we live, both of us want to be successful, contributing members of society with meaningful careers. That job just might look a bit different in a smaller city compared to a big city.
Once you realize what you are compromising on, figure out how sustainable that is and what you could give up for a better life. Perhaps you’re in the coveted position of owning a downtown condo, but it’s snug when working from home. Can you sacrifice the luxury feel of the condo and the short walk to work, for more living space and a “homey” feel? Every decision we make has a pro and a con. Understanding what we are giving up in order to gain something else is very complicated and will depend on your personality, stage of life and future goals. I for one know that having a backyard and being able to open my backdoor to enjoy my coffee on my back porch is a non negotiable. Sacrifices are being made now to ensure that goal becomes my reality.
