In season one of a reality TV show called Urban/Suburban, a young, nature-loving couple with a modest (ugh) budget of $900,000 try to decide between the purchase of a home near Commercial Drive, or on Bowen Island.
A recent article in BC Magazine also described Bowen Island as a “suburb of 3,500 people.”
There are a lot of people in these parts who do, too. They say, “We just have to accept the reality, Bowen Island is a suburb of Vancouver.”
My life on Bowen definitely started with denial. I would have never considered moving to places I consider suburbs, like Surrey or New West or Richmond. When I think of living in those places I think of being trapped in the maze of a shopping mall.
Bowen Island, on the other hand, is a place where I can get dive-bombed by owls on my evening jaunt around the lake.
Calling ourselves a “rural community” seems a bit of a stretch, though. A struggling exurb (region lying beyond the suburbs of a city, especially one inhabited principally by wealthy people, American Heritage Dictionary) might be a more accurate description.
Does the description matter?
I think it does. How we define ourselves will define our future.
The municipal Economic Development Committee is taking a stab at defining Bowen, in another sense, through the branding process. If they can pull it off, and find a definition that a majority of Islanders can get on board with, I will be extremely impressed.
Personally, I hope that the definition allows us to grow into something truly unique and creative. Something more than a wealthy suburb, or a community clinging to its rural past. I hope it’s more than yoga studios and essential oils, or a place for people sporting the latest synthetic materials made to withstand wind and weather to hang out. I hope that the definition mines our community’s diversity, and dreams big. Well maybe not big, but to dream, and to take a chance that plucks us from the
category of suburban (exurban) communities.
