The Sprawl: The Convivial Neighbourhood!
Ask your Neighbour For an Egg?
For our April Meet Up we co-hosted a conversation with Jeremy Klazsus, Founder of The Sprawl . The Sprawl is a trailblazer of crowdfunded local journalism in Canada. The Sprawl rely on the support of readers and listeners who value journalism that is refreshingly slow and curious about Calgary! Here are some of Jeremy’s recap of our Meet Up.
The Convivial Neighbourhood
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The write up is from the latest edition of the Sprawl newsletter from April 12, 2025.
“This time around, I was drawn to the theme of local conviviality.
What is conviviality? My trusty Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines it as friendly; sociable and lively; festive. It suggests a certain warmth and welcome, along with a sense of delight. An atmosphere where people want to be. A place of cheerful encounter.
How do we make our neighbourhoods more convivial?
Tyson Bankert from the Community Development Learning Initiative (CDLI) kicked us off, and then I shared some brief reflections. I drew a little from the book The Abundant Community, in which the authors lament how our communities have become incompetent—by which they don’t mean stupid, but that we no longer to look within our neighbourhoods for what we need, turning to the marketplace and professionals instead.
A counsellor can help with mental health. A mechanic can fix our car. Social workers can take care of the vulnerable among us. And if we realize we're short one egg for a recipe, we'd rather just go to the store than knock next door and ask for an egg.
But what if our neighbours can help out? What if we knocked on the door more often? And what if this was, far from being a drain on our neighbours, a life-giving invitation for them—and, perhaps, the seeds of local conviviality?
At bottom, we all want to contribute to something bigger than ourselves.
What if the retiree down the street has something to teach the teenager about fixing a car? What if we have something to offer our neighbours? And what if something as simple as asking for an egg for a batch of cookies starts a conversation?
One person who has been involved in community work for years said—confessed, more or less!—that he had never asked a neighbour for an egg. As we talked, numerous people described having similar hang-ups. We don’t want to “bother” our neighbours, preferring to just figure it out ourselves—even those of us who talk a good game about community.
It seems easier somehow. But it's also emptier.
This became something of a running joke throughout the evening: just ask for the damn egg.
People shared stories of how, when people asked them for something they could help with, it made them feel more connected. For one person, it was as simple as a stranger asking for directions to the CTrain. Another had a surplus of apples on their front yard tree and was thrilled when people would “steal” them. At one point someone said: I would love a neighbour to ask me for an egg!
At bottom, we all want to contribute to something bigger than ourselves. “The stories of a competent community are a narrative about our talents, properties and gifts,” write John L. McKnight and Peter Block in The Abundant Community.
“Communities become competent when people tell stories that link to their gifts. You want to know our story? Let me tell about how six of us came together and built that shelter in the park. How we had one person who seemed to be so mean but relented in the face of our kindness, who softened when we got to know them.”
People shared stories of how, when people asked them for something they could help with, it made them feel more connected.
My biggest takeaway from the night was when someone was describing how she has ideas for routinely getting neighbours together, but can sometimes get hung up because she wants it to be perfect. We often have an idea of how it should be but the ideal gets in the way of action, because we can never precisely set up what we have in mind.
What she said next was perhaps the headline to sum up the whole conversation: IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT!
When you think of those who have been most hospitable—and convivial!—in your life, is it the cleanliness of their bathroom that stands out? The perfection? Their complete orderliness? I doubt it.
For me, the difference-makers have been people, far from perfect, who have let life in—making space at the table, or their yard, amidst the messiness of their lives.
Maybe it's that simple.
Venue: Congress Coffee