I am grateful to Christopher Gibbs for his letter in the Aug. 25 Oak Bay News. He makes the most succinct, and salient arguments against infill housing. That is, besides the obvious lack of street parking, increase in CO2, and limited visibility at street corners.
Further, Mike Wilmut, in the Sept. 1 edition, draws attention to the seemingly questionable, and haphazard methodology of the questionnaire into Oak Bay’s infill housing strategy. But, there is more.
This infill housing issue has always been front and centre in the mind of our current mayor. In fact, he made this issue one of his talking topics prior to his successful run for mayor. I know this first hand.
However, I believe this infill housing issue has taken the Oak Bay council away from doing its regular, and more pressing business. Well, it appears so.
I would like to see some infill for the many, many holes and ruts in our roads and sidewalks. If Oak Bay is looking to have a good lawsuit brought against it by a pedestrian, it just needs to keep ignoring these blatant public hazards. I have also noted that painted road signage and crosswalks are so badly faded, that they are very hard to see.
These are all safety issues. I want my elected officials to do the job that they are mandated to do. Besides creating new policies, they must work hard to maintain those already in place.
Frances Flynn
Oak Bay
