Letters

I am a longtime resident of Langford and take issue with front-page headline of “Good times gone, growing pains are here in Langford” in the March 8 Gazette. This subjective statement is a mere point of view, an assumption, and to me, actually false.

In his March 9 letter (Henderson bike lanes a result of negotiated compromise) Eric Zhelka speaks of a “negotiated compromise” in 2008 that produced a part-time bike lane on North Henderson – the only bike lane in the region that rolls up at night.

In a letter to the editor headlined “Council only paying lip service to public input,” published on Feb. 27, the writer expressed displeasure at Sidney council’s purported dismissal of concerns raised by property owners who objected to a housing project’s setback variance. At issue, a proposed 16-unit development on the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Malaview.

Re: “Potential ‘massive’ Cordova Bay development worries residents.”

The housing crisis is driven by REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). These are corporations listed on the stock market. They buy up housing and rent it out for high prices and mediocre maintenance. They can outbid most people trying to enter the market, including individuals who want to invest in a revenue property. And those who do outbid the REITs are forced to charge the same exorbitant rent just to pay their inflated mortgages. There is a solution.

I attended the March 6 North Saanich council meeting where I heard North Saanich resident Dr. Karen Carsten promoting the idea for a veterinarian college in B.C.

To be clear, Coun. Carrie Smart’s motion at the meeting on Feb. 27, supported by Couns. Andrew Appleton and Lesley Watson, was modest in the extreme. The motion called for staff to seek input from affected residents for a possible change to the traffic control order to make the Henderson Road bike path full-time, and to prepare the necessary amendments to bring back to council for a final decision.

I am writing to express my disappointment with the recent decision made by the Sidney mayor and a member of council to refuse referring the Active Transportation Plan to the town’s accessibility advisory committee. As a resident of the Saanich Peninsula and an advocate for accessibility, I believe this decision is a step backward for the community.

It is with great sadness and frustration I write this, as the possibility of losing the E&N Railway line forever is drawing closer. The fact that freight by rail would remove up to 25,000 truck trips annually and thus eliminate up to 3,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases makes the decision to retain the Island Rail, a no brainer. This coupled with an amazing opportunity to promote our tourism sector by offering rail trips up and down the Island.

I worked for UVic for 14 years and commuted by bicycle up and down Foul Bay from Oak Bay. I was hit by cars several times over that period and each time the driver said they did not know it was a bike lane.