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Wednesday, April 8, 2015 Salmon Arm Observer
for what it’S worth
Tracy Hughes
Portrayal by postal code
You’ve heard the adage, opposites attract. But when it comes to where we live, it’s more like share and share alike. A recent study shows that when it comes to sharing neighbourhoods, there’s a host of common denominators that link residents. Diversity is not the norm when it comes to where we choose to live. “The truth is most people move into a neighbourhood where there are people like themselves or people they want to be. In every neighbourhood there are exceptions to the rule, but in all the work I’ve done for the past 35 years, people are usually very much like their neighbourhood,” said Jan Kestle, president of Environics Analytics, to the Globe and Mail after the company released a population profile of the entire country based on postal codes. This study has split the nation into 68 demographic profiles, which give a snapshot of an area. The biggest division, naturally, is economics. People live where they can afford to live and this results in neghbourhood clusters, be it poor, single parents or retired folk with healthy pensions. I was interested in what set I belonged to, and what this study had to say about Salmon Arm, so I plugged in a few postal codes. You can give it a try yourself at: https://en.environicsanalytics. ca/prizm5_lookup.aspx. Accurate, but a bit to my chagrin, my neighbourhood’s category is dubbed, “Aging in suburbia” and indicates I live in a similar category as 2.14 per cent of the Canadian population. Most people in my neighbourhood own their homes and have high school, college or trade education. And, not surprisingly, there is a low ethnic presence. A blurb abut my area indicates my neighbourhood is, “home to a mix of older couples aging-in-place and middle-aged families still raising children and building their nest egg. Roughly half the households contain children – generally over the age of 15 – which contributes to preferences for pets, amusement parks, animated movies and concerts. For summer vacations they can often be found heading to lakes and parks for camping and jet skiing, but they’ve also been known to visit far-flung locales like China and Australia.” The Observer’s downtown postal code V1E 4N7 shows a different picture. Named, “Aging and active” it is home to people of mixed education and occupations, although more than half the people are over the age of 55 and many are retired. Of those who are employed, blue collar jobs dominate. Residents tend to spend their free time walking, hunting or fishing, tend to be involved in their communities, and spend evenings at local venues taking in concerts or community theatre (which in Salmon Arm, is also located in this postal code). The information is pure gold for marketing experts looking to target their audience. So I shouldn’t be surprised to see ads for pet food, the latest Pixar flick or a jet ski show up in my mailbox – my postal code says I’ll be interested.
Salmon arm obServer
Editorial
Much caution crucial in fishing plan In 2010, a collective sigh of relief could be heard throughout the province. Sockeye salmon runs were far larger than expected. Phew, dodged that bullet. They haven’t been destroyed. The year 2009 had followed three consecutive years of closure of the Fraser River sockeye fishery due to low numbers. This led to the forming by the federal government of the Cohen Commission, the commission charged with looking into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. It was named after BC Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, who headed the commission. In 2012 the commission delivered its final report. It was the culmination of more than
2,000 exhibits, 900 public submissions and 138 days of hearings with 180 witnesses. It was generally considered a solid report with clear recommendations. Fast forward to 2015. Actually, don’t bother, it’s not necessary. Very little has changed. The report has, essentially, been shelved. Now the trouble is, concerns are being raised about Fisheries and Oceans’ proposal to increase the catch of Fraser River sockeye in 2015. Observers are right to be concerned, given that salmon are a keystone species upon which we all depend. It’s time to wake up. We need only look to the East to see the folly of human decisions regarding fishing and overfishing.
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2010 2010 WINNER
Rick Proznick
Tracy Hughes
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Jennifer Bertram Val McMillen CREATIVE SERVICES MANAGER
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