The ‘multiplex’ is dead. Good.

Some decisions seem so obvious, but only after they’ve been made.

When Cambridge city council agreed on Monday — unanimously, even! — to break its planned sports multiplex in two and explore multiple sites, it suddenly seemed the most natural thing in the world.

Whatever were we thinking, to have the pool, ice pads and gyms all in one place?

Of course the goodies should be divided between several locations. Because that solution is what fits this city.

After a year and a half of meandering down the wrong path, it’s finally clear that Cambridge is constitutionally and geographically unsuited to have one big facility for the whole municipality.

Most other cities have a downtown in the middle and suburbs all around. It would be obvious where to put the major buildings. But Cambridge isn’t like that.

To understand the mindset of Cambridge, you have to remember that it was created pretty much by force in 1973 from three communities; Preston, Hespeler and Galt.

Even today, the municipality’s website describes that event as a “shotgun marriage arranged by the provincial government” and notes that there was “considerable resistance among the local population” to this event.

To this day, the city is a collection of distinct communities. They’re divided from each other by highways, rivers and industrial zones.

Almost 45 years later, many people still identify with their old community rather than their “new” city.

In the early 2000s, I was the education reporter for this paper. I saw the local culture first-hand.

Cambridge was then roiled by conflict over the prospect that one of its five public high schools might close.

The city didn’t have enough students to fill all five schools. Huron Heights Secondary School was about to be built in Kitchener. It would become home to students in south Kitchener who had previously been bused to Preston High

School. That endangered Preston High, threatening to leave it starved for students.

Public school trustees tried to close one of the Cambridge schools, in order to divide its students among the other schools. That move would have strengthened the remaining four. But each community fought long and hard to keep its own school.

The anger and divisiveness that was generated back then was called “upsetting” and “awful” by local elected officials. (Sound familiar?)

In the end, there was a political stalemate. Trustees just kept all five schools open.

Some of those schools now have enrolments well below 1,000, a situation that was thought to be a problem because it would reduce course choices for students.

But for Cambridge people, that didn’t matter. It was more important for each community to have its own school.

That history helps us make sense of the discussions today.

Cambridge leaders should ditch the idea of a single, shiny-new facility. They should never say the word “multiplex” again. Because a multiplex is the last thing the city needs.

Instead, spread the goodies out. Put the pool in one place, the ice pads in another, and renovate some of the existing recreational centres. Have something for everyone.

The result may not be a legacy project for politicians, and it may not be a destination point for touring athletes.

But it will be what Cambridge wants.