sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

We need someone to fix Victoria

Re: “Victoria today: Requiem for my city,” commentary, March 14.

If you have not read Stuart Stark’s commentary, you should. It is yet another insightful account of life in downtown Victoria.

When we moved to Victoria 16 years ago, we absolutely adored the small city. Charming and safe. Until it wasn’t.

Dirty streets, traffic congestion, crime on the rise and a growing street population, over time made us feel unsafe and unhappy. In fact, if we were still living in James Bay this week we would have had to “shelter in place” as police faced an eight-hour stand off with a man who allegedly stabbed a person outside a building on Michigan Street.

I say would have, because we moved to Qualicum Beach in January.

Sad to leave, what was once a wonderful city, but safer and happier again. As Stark so aptly puts it, “we need politicians who really are willing to work, who really want change and are not afraid of making it happen.”

Unfortunately, there are no signs of that happening, only lip service and foot dragging. Who indeed is going to take on that challenge?

Bill Currie

Qualicum Beach

Let’s get back to where we should be

Re: “Victoria today: A requiem for my city,” commentary, March 14.

This should be a mandatory read prior to every council meeting at Victoria City Hall. More than just sad to see how far the quality of life and business has deteriorated in our downtown.

We need mayors and councillors and senior provincial politicians to change laws and do what’s necessary to get us back to where we were.

Bob Darnell

Resident of Victoria since 1939

Short-term rentals make vacations easier

For the past three or four Septembers, I have vacationed for five nights at Madrona Resort on Parksville’s resort row.

I have been searching around lately to see if I can get away for a short time from my Coquitlam home. Everything is too expensive.

I love staying at the Madrona Resort and walking across the sand when the tide is out. I find it so spiritual. This is the only place I can afford that offers something special. Motels wouldn’t do it.

With the short-term regulations coming in for resort row, if the owners have to sell their places or rent them out long-term, only the rich will be able to stay there.

After all, it’s right on the beach with a beautiful view. People who work in Parksville probably will not be able to afford living there long-term, or buying.

Sue Wilson

Coquitlam

Saanich fees and taxes just keep adding up

When I moved to Saanich in 2003, the bin men came onto my property weekly and removed the trash. I always thought that was overkill and when they moved to every second week that seemed a sensible move.

I also thought it was a reasonable to ask homeowners to bring their trash to the curbs for pickup. Efficiency goes up, costs go down! Nope – costs keep going up – while service goes down.

Now we’re told they’ll be charging $15 for a truck load of organic drop-off at the Borden site.

Saanich Coun. Colin Plant tells us this is to reduce the number of people using the drop-off service — to increase at-home composting. Nothing to do with the nearly additional $800,000 they’ll be taking from our pockets every year.

I have to make three trips there each year, due to the forest of trees my neighbour has growing right to our property line. He refuses to manage those trees so it’s left to me to handle the detritus that falls in my yard.

Saanich says, “hard luck.”

Now, as well as the day and a half of work each year, you can add $45 to my costs — along with seven per cent increase in property taxes. It just keeps adding up.

As George Harrison wrote of the taxman in 1966: “Be thankful I don’t take it all.”

Until we demand better, we will never get better — nor deserve it.

Clint Lien

Saanich

We must learn to respect nature

Goldstream Park is a priceless gem, and the irreplaceable heritage of all those who live in the Southern Vancouver Island region. It is time that we recognize the gifts of nature we have been given, and work to protect those.

For the government to be considering felling hundreds of trees, many exceedingly old, which provide homes for birdlife and unseen biological life, and which provide protection and cooling for the salmon stream, is beyond belief.

When will we learn to value and respect the magnificence of nature, over destruction in the name of people and transportation?

A simple solution is to reduce and enforce speed limits in the area of the Finlayson Road intersection. Install a traffic light that is triggered as needed or works in intervals, depending on the amount of traffic.

We humans will benefit from learning to slow down! We can simply add a few minutes of time to our trip, as we accept the speed restrictions in this sensitive area.

To ignore the pleas of First Nations who are expressing concern about this area and seeking its protection, is completely unacceptable. We have a responsibility to them, and to all our future generations.

Mary Reher and Andy Nowak

Pender Island

SEND US YOUR LETTERS

• Email: [email protected]

• Mail: Letters to the editor, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½, 201-655 Tyee Rd., Victoria, sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ V9A 6X5

• Aim for no more than 250 words; ­subject to editing for length and clarity. Provide your contact information.