Ross (the Boss) of NDG's Blog

  What If Everyone Had Someone Looking Out for Them? Imagine an NDG where nobody had to face life entirely alone. Not because we created another government program. Not because we built another institution. But because we decided, as neighbours, that looking out for one another is simply what we do. Imagine every street, apartment building and block having people who notice. They notice when the elderly gentleman who normally walks every morning hasn't been seen for a few days. They notice when the young mother carrying groceries could use another pair of hands. They notice the newcomer who doesn't know anyone yet. They notice the person sitting alone. They notice the child who waves. And eventually, something wonderful happens: People begin noticing one another back. This is one of the simplest ideas behind A NuVo World. Before we build magnificent NuVoWay LifeStyle Centres, before we transform transportation, food, health, recreation and education, we can begin with something...

  Every person walking through NDG knows something you don't. The retired carpenter knows how to repair a chair. The grandmother upstairs knows a recipe her family has made for generations. The teenager knows how to do things with a phone that mystify half the adults around them. The newcomer from another country speaks a language you don't understand and carries traditions you may never have experienced. The gardener knows which flowers will survive in that impossible patch of shade. The musician knows three chords that could get you started on guitar. The mechanic knows why your car is making that strange noise. The child knows a game you've forgotten how to play. The senior on the park bench knows what NDG looked like fifty years ago. And the person you pass every morning may possess an extraordinary skill you will never discover unless somebody asks. “What can you teach me?” I think that could become a wonderful A NuVo World habit. We often think of educat...

  There is a simple principle I have always loved: Leave it better than you found it. We usually associate that idea with camping. You arrive at a beautiful place, enjoy it, clean up after yourself and perhaps pick up something somebody else left behind. Then you leave. And because you were there, the place is slightly better than it was before. What if we applied that principle not merely to parks and campsites—but to our entire neighbourhood? What if thousands of people in NDG quietly adopted one little habit: Wherever I go today, I will leave something slightly better. Not dramatically better. Not perfectly better. Just better . You walk past a piece of litter. Pick it up. You enter your apartment lobby and notice a flyer lying on the floor. Put it where it belongs. Someone has left a shopping cart where it blocks the sidewalk. Move it. A chair at the café is sticking into the aisle. Push it in. A branch has fallen across a pathway. Move it aside. A neighb...

  There is a wonderfully simple act of community-building that almost anyone can do. It costs nothing. It requires no organization, funding, committee or program. And yet, done often enough, it could quietly weave thousands of separate lives into a genuine community. Introduce two people who should know each other. Most of us live inside little circles. We know someone from our apartment building. Someone from the dog park. Someone from work. Someone from church. Someone from the grocery store. Someone from our morning walk. Someone who owns a local business. Someone who loves gardening, music, sports, cooking, animals or helping others. But often these people don't know one another. What if we became the bridges? Imagine you're speaking with a neighbour who loves painting and you remember another resident who paints too. Instead of merely thinking, They would probably like each other , you say: “You know who you should meet?” And then you introduce them. P...

  Every morning, long before many of us begin our day, NDG is already at work. Someone is stocking the grocery-store shelves. Someone is baking bread. Someone is driving a bus. Someone is sweeping a floor. Someone is collecting garbage. Someone is opening a café. Someone is preparing a classroom. Someone is delivering packages. Someone is caring for another person's child, parent or pet. Someone is repairing something most of us will never even notice was broken. And throughout the day, thousands of people perform little acts that keep our neighbourhood functioning. Most of them are almost invisible. We notice when the garbage isn't collected. We notice when the bus doesn't arrive. We notice when the store shelf is empty. We notice when something doesn't work. But how often do we notice the person who quietly makes sure that it does? I would love A NuVo World in NDG to develop a very different habit. Thank the People Behind the Day Imagine if we ...

  There is a subtle difference between being welcome and being invited . A person can be welcome at a community event and never attend. A neighbour can be welcome to join a conversation and remain standing alone. A newcomer can be welcome in NDG and still spend months without anyone asking them to come along. Sometimes people don't need an open door. They need somebody to walk over, look them in the eye and say: “Come with us.” I think those three words could help transform NDG. Come With Us Imagine a group of neighbours heading for coffee and noticing someone sitting alone in the lobby. “We're going for coffee. Come with us.” A few people are walking around the park. “We're going for a walk. Come with us.” Children are playing basketball and another child is watching from the sidelines. “Want to play with us?” Several neighbours are sitting outside on a summer evening. Someone they barely know walks past. Instead of simply waving: “Grab a chair!” These...

  Every day, people throughout NDG notice things. A resident walks past an empty patch of land and thinks: “That could be a beautiful little garden.” A teenager looks at a blank wall and imagines a mural. A parent notices children playing on a street corner and thinks: “Wouldn't a basketball hoop be wonderful here?” A senior wishes there were a bench halfway between home and the grocery store. A merchant wonders whether several businesses could combine deliveries for neighbours who have difficulty getting out. Someone looks at an unused room in an apartment building and imagines a little library. Someone else sees an isolated neighbour and thinks of starting a weekly coffee hour. Most of these ideas disappear. Not because they are bad ideas. Because we have become accustomed to thinking: “Who am I to do anything about it?” I would like to change that. In A NuVo World, good ideas belong to everyone. Imagine if NDG developed a new community habit: Whenever someone s...

  There are many serious things we want to accomplish in NDG. We want to reduce loneliness. Help people who are struggling. Make food more accessible. Strengthen families. Support seniors. Create opportunities for young people. Build stronger relationships between neighbours. All of these things matter enormously. But while we're busy trying to make life better , I don't want us to forget something equally important: Life is supposed to be enjoyed. What if one of the defining characteristics of A NuVo World in NDG became something wonderfully simple? We create more reasons for people to smile. Not once a year at a major festival. Everywhere. All the time. Imagine walking through NDG on an ordinary Tuesday and discovering a man playing piano outside a café. A few blocks away, three children have covered a sidewalk with colourful chalk drawings. Someone has placed a bubble machine beside a park bench. A retired couple is teaching people how to dance. A restaur...

  We talk a lot about building community through friendship, kindness and connection. But there is another kind of community that matters enormously: Knowing that when something goes wrong, you are not completely on your own. A senior wakes up after a heavy snowfall and cannot safely clear the front steps. A parent suddenly needs someone to pick up milk because a sick child is sleeping. A neighbour's car won't start. Someone has to go to the hospital and needs their dog walked. A new arrival doesn't understand an important letter they received. A light bulb needs changing at the top of a ladder. A frightened person simply needs somebody nearby for ten minutes. None of these situations necessarily requires an organization. Sometimes they require just one neighbour willing to answer the phone. So here is an idea for the NDG I hope we can build: Someone to Call Imagine if every apartment floor, building or small section of a street had several neighbours who exc...

  Most of us have things sitting in closets, cupboards, basements and garages that we use perhaps once or twice a year. A drill. A ladder. A folding table. A cake pan. A sewing machine. Camping equipment. A pressure washer. Gardening tools. A suitcase. A set of chairs for a family gathering. Meanwhile, somewhere three doors away, somebody may be heading to a store to buy exactly the thing we already have. What if NDG developed a wonderfully simple new habit? Ask a Neighbour First. Before buying something we will rarely use, we ask: “Does anybody nearby have one I could borrow?” It sounds like an idea about saving money. And it certainly could do that. But I think something much more important would happen. We would begin depending upon one another again. There is a peculiar thing about borrowing a ladder from a neighbour. You have to knock on their door. You have to talk. You learn their name. Perhaps you discover they are repairing their kitchen. Perhaps ...

  There was a time when borrowing a cup of sugar from the person next door wasn't unusual. Children knocked on one another's doors. Neighbours sat on front steps. Someone might call across a balcony. People didn't necessarily become best friends—but they knew who lived around them . Today, we can live ten feet from another human being for years without knowing their name. That seems like such a small thing. I think it is actually an enormous thing. Because when we don't know one another, every challenge becomes somebody else's problem. But once the stranger in Apartment 304 becomes Maria , everything changes. When the elderly gentleman three doors down becomes George , we notice when we haven't seen him for a few days. When the young mother upstairs becomes Fatima , perhaps we offer to carry the stroller. When the teenager downstairs becomes Alex , perhaps we ask how school is going instead of merely passing in the hallway. Names transform strangers into people....

  Loneliness doesn't always look lonely. Sometimes it looks like an elderly man buying one frozen dinner. Sometimes it is the person in the apartment across the hall whom we have seen hundreds of times but never really met. Sometimes it is a newcomer who left family and friends thousands of kilometres away. Sometimes it is a student eating dinner over a laptop. Sometimes it is a widow setting a table for one after having set it for two for fifty years. And sometimes it is somebody surrounded by people who still feels completely alone. We cannot eliminate loneliness from NDG. But perhaps we can make it much harder for loneliness to remain invisible . I would love to see a simple community habit spread throughout our neighbourhood: The Extra Plate Whenever we're preparing a meal, ordering a pizza, having a barbecue or sitting down for Sunday breakfast, we occasionally ask ourselves: “Is there somebody nearby who might enjoy sharing this with us?” Not somebody we nee...