Please note…
The series, “13 Things You Can do to Kill Your Community,”
is a set of satirical open letters by
Doug Griffiths
which appeared as individual weekly contributions to
The Wainwright EDGE
during the spring and summer of 2005.
The series is not intended to be taken as instruction
for actually harming your community; rather its critical aim is to
increase awareness of everyday things we may not
recognize as being detrimental to our community.
13 Things You Can Do to Kill Your Community
by Doug Griffiths, MLA Battle River - Wainwright
Don’t Paint
The sixth method of thirteen that you can act on to ensure that your community fails can be summed up in one phrase, “don’t paint,” but also includes not sweeping, dusting, planting flowers, or anything else that would generally make the community more attractive.
I know suggesting that success comes with appearance is akin to the adage that you can judge a book by its cover, but you have to admit that often you can tell something about a book by its cover. To say the least, the cover’s appearance is one of the factors that will determine whether or not you attempt to read the book. A community’s appearance is the most telling sign of its own pride; it’s the clearest indication of its faith in itself, and it is the clearest outward sign of its future.
Think of it in these terms: it is human nature to be drawn to attractiveness; human beings are genetically coded to be attracted to beautiful, aesthetically pleasing people and places. We don’t often date people we don’t find attractive. We don’t often buy cars or houses we find ugly. We don’t buy clothes that we think are ugly. We don’t often shop in stores that aren’t aesthetically pleasing, either. We are attracted to things that please our senses.
When businesses on main street are run down, have paint peeling off the walls, lino turning up on the floor, crooked sidewalks, dirty empty windows and dim lighting, people are less inclined to shop there. People will actually pay twice as much for a product in the Bay than they will for an almost identical product in Zellers simply because of the atmosphere. When the town is dusty and dirty, when the lawns aren’t mowed on the boulevards or in people’s yards and when the playgrounds and parks are run down, people are not ’attracted’ to your community.
Now, many communities are fixing these problems by fixing things up. Some are redoing their parks and playgrounds, working on a Main Street Project, adopting themes to tidy up businesses (like a Wild West or Roaring Twenties theme), or working on Communities in Bloom projects. Some are creating (tax) incentives for everyone to mow their lawn and improve their property, or are having community pride development days (where neighbours work together on a beautification project in their area). Still others have decided to simply paint everything; paint every old building, fire hydrant and abandoned house and business within eyesight.
Painting isn’t a bad idea. Suppose you own a house you are trying to sell. Every real estate agent has confirmed that instead of doing major home renovations inside or outside of that house, the most effective way to increase the value of, and curb appeal of, the house is to paint it. The same must hold true for a group of buildings. If you want to build community spirit, attract people to the community and encourage people to shop locally… paint.
