THE INVISIBLE NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Invisible Neighbourhood

On June 20 a catastrophic flood destroyed or damaged over 80% of High River, Alberta, where I live. My home was not badly damaged, but, as you'll see in the following post, it must be demolished due to the ineptitude of Emergency Operations Centre. They did a fantastic job in so many ways but even the Minister responsible for E.O.C., Rick Fraser, has admitted communications were terrible.

This is about Sunrise Place N.E., a lovely community, new and friendly and lovely, that will shortly no longer exist. Damn. We were just getting started.

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>                                               SUNRISE PLACE N.E.

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>                                                  OUR COMMUNITY

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> Sunrise Place NE High River Alberta was a 32 unit condo in eight buildings situated in a circle off 21st NE directly north of Holy Spirit Academy.  The complex was built by Classic Communities Ltd. (Classic Construction Ltd.) based in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

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> These homes were Certified Greenbuilt villa style condos of 1100 square feet and featured quality finishing including:

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> 1. Hardy Plank exterior siding.

> 2. In-floor heating.

> 3. Tankless hot water.

> 4. Double glaze windows.

> 5. R42 insulation in the roof.

> 6. SIPS (Sandwiched Insulated Panels) walls. 

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> The homes themselves were incredibly well built and energy efficient costing on average $40 per month each to heat in winter. They also featured as standard issue beachwood cabinets and granite counter tops in the kitchen and both washrooms.  The cost to build these homes was $200 per square foot. They were purchased for approximately (depending on upgrades) $279,000.

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> It was a cozy community of close-knit neighbours who gathered around the central community gardens for conversation. People watched out for each other's pets and for many of us it was the first place where we literally knew all of our neighbours. 

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> We were just getting started as a community. We had many plans for our lovely piece of the world. 

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> June 21st  changed all of that. 

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> Worst of all, we lost our neighbour Jacquie Brocklebank in the flood waters that day. Jacquie perished checking on a friend downtown, something that did not surprise her family and friends for Jacquie was the kind of person who would make sure all she knew were okay.

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> We nearly lost another resident. Derek Etherington was left alone in the complex. He is 84 years old. We believe the RCMP were at fault for this. 

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> They banged on the door of Mareea Maynes early Friday morning and told her to get out because the water was coming. 

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> She said, "There are 32 units here, I don't know who is still here!"

> The officer said, "I'm leaving, my car is going to get swamped."

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> He LEFT HER ALONE to try to alert the other residents. In the dark, with water rising on the south side of the complex she ran door to door and was able to awaken many neighbours. 

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> By the time she got back around to the other side the water was too high for her to continue and so she did not make it to Derek's house. The water was also too high for her to get back to her house and her cat. 

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> She went out the back gate and found a woman in a jeep with a 5 year old. The woman was crying because she couldn't figure out how to get out of town on the roads behind us. Mareea jumped in her truck and said, "I'll show you because I'm coming with you."

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> Meanwhile, Derek, who is EIGHTY FOUR YEARS OLD, was asleep in his home. He woke to water that was waist deep. 

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> He could not get the doors open. He was trapped in his home as the water kept rising. 

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> He made his peace with the fact he was going to die. He went to a window facing the street and got it open. He called out but all he saw was black water and moonlight. 

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> He stood in that freezing cold water for approximately six hours. He lost his glasses and could not see well. He was hypothermic. 

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> Unbelievably he saw a boat approaching, he yelled and screamed and miraculously they  heard him. He doesn't know who his three rescuers were, he never got their name. 

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> The writer of this document happened to be at the E.O.C. at the Firehall when Derek was brought in. He was not in good shape. He was airlifted out to Calgary.

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> Thankfully, Derek survived but he does not want to go back to High River. Can't say I blame him.

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> Sunrise Place was special for many reasons. Many of us desperately want to return. Many of us do not! Some of us are conflicted.

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> It is difficult having your fate in the hands of others when sometimes those 'others' do not seem to know you exist.  

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>                                            THE INVISIBLE NEIGHBOURHOOD

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> Sunrise Place did not appear on the Town of High River or the Alberta Disaster maps at the Emergency Operations Centre for many days. 

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> Several residents called to say that we were not even drawn on the maps for the Re-Entry.  "Where are you?" "WHAT'S your place called?" "I don't see it." "Are you sure that's where you are?" Those were some of the responses to our calls.

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> Can you imagine how disconcerting, how disheartening and despairing it was to realize your homes did not appear to exist to the people who were in charge of trying to save it?

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> We finally did appear on a Google Earth map we saw at the E.O.C.  but were still absent from other maps. 

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> Speaking to the E.O.C. was like banging your head against...

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>                                                     A BRICK WALL

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> Unfortunately for Sunrise Place our difficulty with E.O.C. was just beginning. 

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> Within a few days of the flood our two eastern buildings, comprising eight units, at a value of Two Million Dollars, were high and dry and easily accessible through the gate in the east retaining wall. You barely needed rubber boots to walk in.  

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> We have estimated that the E.O.C. received OVER ONE HUNDRED phone calls regarding these two buildings over the course of nearly two weeks. 

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> We were talking to a brick wall. No calls were ever returned. We told the same story again and again and again and again. Most of us called several times per day, explaining again and again and again that you could walk in off the street and then explaining again and again and again and again (if you think this sentence is annoying multiply that feeling by two million and you have an idea of our frustration as our homes sat rotting) to say we could not fall through to a basement because we had no basements. 

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> We finally went to the E.O.C. and insisted someone investigate. We spoke to David Sands who brought forward someone who was going to investigate. 

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> Then, we got a phone call saying we were still under water. Apparently all they did was take a canoe in the west side entrance and say, "Oh, they are still under water."

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> We had photographs of our dry homes. We went to the E.O.C. AGAIN. This time Shane Schreiber came with us and saw for himself that we were high and dry. 

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> IT WAS TOO LATE TO SAVE OUR HOMES. 

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> The SIPS walls were already contaminated with mold and once contaminated they cannot be remediated easily, as is the case with standard construction. 

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> THE LOSS OF THESE EIGHT HOMES IS THE FAULT OF THE E.O.C. AND THEIR INCREDIBLY POOR COMMUNICATIONS. 

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> These homes only had five to six inches of sewer back-up in most of them and yet they must be demolished. What an incredible and unnecessary waste!

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> We deserve compensation for this. Some of us work at jobs where communication is important. The writer of this document transcribes physician's orders on hospital units. If I do not communicate critical information, CRITICAL things will happen.

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> CRITICAL THINGS HAPPENED WHEN THIS CRITICAL INFORMATION DISAPPEARED INTO THE VOID THAT WAS E.O.C. COMMUNICATIONS.

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> The frustration of this situation has made many of us ill. Many of us are off work. Some of us have no sick leave left but cannot function at work. 

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> And for some of us, this was our...

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>                                                   FIRST HOME

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> There are special financing considerations that need to be taken into account when examining the situation in Sunrise Place. 

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> These are quality homes that were offered to people who can pay a mortgage payment but find the down payment a barrier to home ownership.  Murray Prokosch, the President of Classic Construction has built several projects in Canmore, Strathmore, and Medicine Hat with an eye toward securing home ownership for people who would not be able to qualify for a conventional mortgage. 

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> These are not 'sub-prime' mortgages similar to those that contributed to the Wall Street crash of 2008. These are assistance plans offered to buyers with good jobs, paying rents equivalent to their mortgages, who needed assistance to own a home. 

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> Besides paying over half of the down payment, Classic Communities offers a sliding scale monthly subsidy that lasts nine years going from $495 per month to $120 and then $0. They also offered a direct $36,000 savings off the price of the home if an owner did not wish to participate in the monthly subsidy.

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> For many in the complex it was their first home and if only offered a buyout they will not be able to purchase another home.  For some it will be the end of the dream of home ownership and the security that provides. 

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> For many as well, Sunrise Place was to be...

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>                                                     THE LAST HOME

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> There are many people in Sunrise Place who thought they had purchased their last home. It was the place they would settle finally and enjoy their retirement years from a secure home base in a lovely and friendly place. 

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> And, like most, they realized they were buying far from flood areas of High River. In fact in the history of the town this area has NEVER flooded. 

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> There was a lot of security in that fact. 

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> Now all of us are left with the question...

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>                                                   WHY DID WE FLOOD?

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> The word 'sacrifice' has been in the news.  Is this the truth? Are there other words that apply to the shocking fact of a flood in that area? Mistake? Accident? Mismanagement?   

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> We have heard of mismanagement of the 'dewatering' stage, an official at a town hall meeting stated that, "Sunrise Place was not forgotten, we just didn't notice the water wasn't going down there for a few days."

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> That sounds 'forgotten' to most of us. Added to the invisibility of not being on the maps and the fact we were ignored when we pleaded to get into those two eastern buildings...you get an impression of how most of us are feeling. 

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> Forgotten. Ignored. Invisible.

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> The fact we are not on the flood plain or the flood fringe seems to have left us 'out of the loop'. 

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> We have not heard any answers from the province about what they will do to help us. There is only confusion about our ability to rebuild. 

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> There is also confusion about whether we SHOULD rebuild because...

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>                                        WHAT ABOUT OUR AIR, OUR WATER, OUR SOIL?

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> What is Tervita's role in the remediation of the soil? How far down are they going? As far as we understand they are only scraping the surface debris away. 

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> Who is going to monitor our soil in the years, perhaps decade to come? 

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> We had community gardens. Is it safe to grow anything there? 

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> What about the ground water? 

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> What about the saturated state of the ground?  Are all of the pipes under us, water, sewer, gas, going to be ruptured by frost heaves in the soaking ground?

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> What about the air quality? 

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> What is our next step? 

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>                                     WHEN DO WE GET TO TAKE A FIRST STEP?

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> The writer of this document was at the complex on August 15. I went into the back gate of the complex and took video. It looks exactly the same as it did the last day we were there a month ago. 

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> Sunrise Place is frozen in time. Sunrise Place is frozen in the worst time of our lives.

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> These are people's lives you are dealing with. 

We have been told because we have insurance we will get NO HELP from the government. But, our insurance coverage CANNOT cope with the costs of remediation and rebuilding. 

WE ARE LOSING OUR HOMES. 

The insurance payout is going to $225,000 per unit. I still owe $266,000 on my mortgage. There are many of us in this situation. 

What are we to do?

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> We need answers. 

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> We need help.

Now.

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Subtext or How To Stay Off That Damned Nose!

Subtext is something I relate to screenplay writing. But it's also a great tool for the novelist and something I consider essential. Subtext adds layers of emotional complexity to a scene by intimating what characters are really thinking when what they are saying seems obviously about something else.

For instance, a couple has a fight, he stomps to the kitchen, they sulk for a few minutes, then he peeks around the corner and says: "I'm sorry, honey."

Bore. Bore. Bore.

What if he peeked around the corner and said her three favorite words (we know they are her favorite words because they have joked about it previously in the story) : "Want grilled cheese?"

See that? There's some character there. There's a relationship there. There are PEOPLE living in this scene. And if you don't think of your characters as living breathing people you are probably already in trouble. But that's another blog for another time.

In the first example above, the "I'm sorry, honey." is the generic, one size fits all characters, absolutely ON THE NOSE writing that should be punishable by going to your room and being banned from using the alphabet ever again.

To stay OFF THE NOSE we use subtext and bring our work to life!

One of my favorite examples of subtext is from the great film, 'The Apartment', with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred McMurray (Edie Adams also does a wonderful turn as MacMurray's bitchy leopard print clad secretary).

In the film Jack Lemmon is C.C. Baxter, a cog in the wheel of a giant insurance corporation. Now, keep in mind this was 1960 and in those days couples could not check into a hotel unless they could prove they were married. Yup. Imagine that.

So. C.C. has an apartment that is used by upper management types as a convenient place for illicit trysts. One of those involved in an affair is Fran (Shirley MacLaine), the elevator operator in his building that he has a crush on. Fran is having an affair with, and sadly is in love with, Sheldrake (MacMurray), who keeps promising to leave his wife.

The writing, by I.A.L. Diamond (great name!) and Billy Wilder is stellar throughout: funny and fast and poignant and multi-layered. My example of subtext comes from the scene in a Chinese restaurant, the old favorite haunt of Fran and Sheldrake. At this point it has been several weeks since Fran has told Sheldrake to bug off, finally tiring of his promises to leave his wife. Sheldrake has talked her into meeting him at the restaurant to try to win her back, while still making excuses...

In the hands of lesser writers the scene might have gone like this...

...as we focus on them in the booth the piano player is playing what he always plays, the same food is on the table that is always on the table...

Sheldrake: How long has it been - about a month?
Fran: It's been exactly six weeks.
Sheldrake: I've missed you.
Fran: You always say that.
Sheldrake: It's been hell.
Fran: Does that mean you love me?
Sheldrake: You know I do.
Fran: So you say. Again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ...right?

This is how it was handled in 'The Apartment.'

SHELDRAKE

            How long has it been -- a month?

                         FRAN

            Six weeks. But who's counting?

                         SHELDRAKE

            I missed you, Fran.

                         FRAN

            Like old times. Same booth, same

            song --

                         SHELDRAKE

            It's been hell.

                         FRAN

                   (dipping shrimp)

            -- same sauce -- sweet and sour.

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Sweet...right? They've said the same things, but in a much more intriguing way.

So, let's break it down: 

SHELDRAKE

            How long has it been -- a month?

He's more cavalier about the relationship - he's not sure exactly how long it's been since he's seen her.

FRAN

            Six weeks. But who's counting?

Fran is in love with him. She knows exactly how long it's been since she's seen him. She says how long it's been then adds a defensive bit of casualness of her own with 'But who's counting?' She's hurting and trying to protect herself by appearing as uncaring as he.

SHELDRAKE

            I missed you, Fran.

Well, he's missed the sex. And maybe he's missed somebody to bitch to about the ball and chain at home but it sounds like a hollow effort.

FRAN

            Like old times. Same booth, same

            song --

Well, she's heard this about a hundred times. He's said it all a hundred times. But nothing ever changes. It's lovely in the film, she glances at the piano player as she delivers the line.

SHELDRAKE

            It's been hell.

It has been hell for Sheldrake. This is a man who is used to getting what he wants. Now he's not getting what he wants and that is his narcissist's version of 'hell'. 

 FRAN

                   (dipping shrimp)

            -- same sauce -- sweet and sour.

My favorite line in the whole scene. He's trying to wear her down with talk about how broken he's been, how tough it's all been for him being without her, meaning, somewhere in there, he must really love her. The sweet part of the sauce, the sour is the emptiness of his words, the same old words.

You can't get that kind of emotional context with on the nose writing. It's a beautifully written scene.

If you haven't seen 'The Apartment' I urge you to do so. It won many Oscars including 'Best Picture'. 

Adding subtext to your work is not that difficult, sometimes it will come naturally from the situation. But if it doesn't simply go over your scene and look for different ways characters can express what they want to say without saying it directly and hitting that damned nose!

And now...a scene from 'The Apartment'...wherein C.C. learns the unfortunate truth about Fran. 

Enjoy and happy writing!

The Apartment - 'Junior Executive Model'