Mayor won mandate for pro-cycling agenda
Re: 鈥淢inority agenda is hijacking Victoria streets,鈥� comment, Dec. 15.
I would like to respectfully disagree on several points with my Haultain neighbour. I am also an Oaklands resident and homeowner, and I cycle on Haultain daily as part of my commute downtown.
Unfortunately, the writer has misunderstood the plans for the intersection at Haultain and Shelbourne; the plans are easily accessible online via engage.victoria.ca and illustrate that they only look to eliminate the option to turn left onto Haultain from Shelbourne northbound. They are well aware of the intersection鈥檚 present state.
His criticisms of the Haultain/Fernwood intersection are valid, though I鈥檇 personally like to see the diverter he mentions.
The claim that a 鈥渕inority agenda鈥� is hijacking Victoria streets is excessive. Lisa Helps won a clear mandate for a second term as mayor with nearly 4,000 votes more than her nearest rival, in spite of some vocal critics of our new bicycle infrastructure. Several of our city councillors are even more keen than Helps to improve cycling in our city.
As illustrated by many of the cities that have gone before us (Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Portland and even Vancouver), a high-quality bicycle network is an indispensable part of a multi-modal transportation system.
Without proper infrastructure built to an all-ages and abilities standard, only hard-core cyclists will venture onto the streets in numbers. I鈥檓 thankful we have a mayor and council willing to lead us forward rather than hold us back, and I don鈥檛 believe this to be a minority view.
Nathan David McDonald
Victoria
Cyclists don鈥檛 need changes to Haultain
Re: 鈥淢inority agenda is hijacking Victoria streets,鈥� comment, Dec. 15.
I am a 76-year-old cyclist who has ridden more than 100,000 kilometres in the past 25 years. I appreciate and regularly use the new cycle lanes recently completed in Victoria.
However, I concur with the opinion-piece written in Sunday鈥檚 paper regarding the proposed changes on Haultain Street. I ride this street both ways twice a week from Bay to Shelbourne and see no need for any changes.
The proposed lane and street closures are simply not necessary and the volume of cyclists does not warrant any changes. This has to be considered as overkill by the city and would hinder vehicle traffic and further inflame the cycling/motorist rift in this city.
Cy Sunderland
Victoria
Homeless need more than hot meal
Re: 鈥淜rog: Use institutions for 鈥榚xtreme cases,鈥� 鈥� Dec. 14; 鈥淲e need a different strategy to help the homeless,鈥� letter, Dec. 15.
I agree with the stand that Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog is taking in suggesting that a better way to help the severely mentally ill and drug-addicted street people is to have them placed in a facility where they can receive compassionate and appropriate care.
I think that it is time that we stopped fooling ourselves that a hot meal and a warm bed on cold nights is the total solution to the homeless problem.
I just read this well-written letter in response, and although some might find it harsh, it seems to me that the writer makes some valid points. We need to find solutions to be able to help those who cannot help themselves. Please government 鈥� and that means us 鈥� step up.
Karen Rennie
Esquimalt
My leaf-blower primed and ready for action
After reading Friday鈥檚 letters to the editor and the sa国际传媒 editorial about leaf blowers, I am reluctant ever to leave the Victoria region for an extended period again.
Councils want to ban leaf blowers? Good one! Are councils and editorialists bowing to the wishes of a few self-righteous former hippie townhouse and condo dwellers that are angst-ridden about their peace disruption for 15 minutes every other week?
How inconvenient is the 15 minutes required to blow those pesky leaves into neat piles at the curb? Does one actually suppose that it is more convenient to have a team of rake-totting labourers taking hours to accomplish the same feat? That is financially ludicrous. How about the leaf pick-up truck? Isn鈥檛 that awfully noisy and polluting? Better get rid of that job as well.
Since raking leaves is so good for everyone, maybe nature-loving Coun. Tara Ney can volunteer her time to join all the work parties that will have to be formed to clean up the mess. Perhaps a bylaw could be passed that incorporates leaf-cleaning detail into an Oak Bay councillor鈥檚 duties. Taxpayers would certainly get their money鈥檚 worth with that plan.
People should remember that leaves don鈥檛 just land in piles on the lawn. They block up gutters and downspouts, and clog up drains and streets. A minute or two with a leaf blower and all the potential damage is cleared. Oak leaves, in particular, take years to turn into compost. We would need compost boxes the size of semi-trailer trucks to handle the leaves in most Oak Bay and Saanich yards.
The concept of banning leaf blowers is pie-in-the sky unless Oak Bay is willing to subsidize its taxpayers for the cost of landscape labour. Until that happens, I鈥檒l keep my leaf blower primed and ready for action. The Oak Bay constabulary has better things to do than patrol the neighbourhood looking for leaf-blower bandits.
Barrie Moen
Oak Bay
Nuclear could help meet emissions goal
Re: 鈥淣o realistic way to achieve goal,鈥� letter, Dec. 13
The letter writer claims that the Greater Victoria School District can鈥檛 possibly reduce its emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. He claims that 鈥渢here is no sufficient alternative to the use of fossil fuels to provide enough energy to maintain our present quality of life.鈥�
This claim is clearly untrue. Worse, it is the sort of pessimism that can inhibit us from making realistic and acceptable progress.
All over the world, people are using nuclear power plants to produce electricity without emissions. Small reactors are powering ships. Larger ones are quietly producing power on land.
The decline of the fossil-fuel industry has given sa国际传媒 a rare opportunity. The brains and hands that created oil refineries are facing unemployment. Those brains and hands could build nuclear plants to displace the coal-fired plants that are, sadly, still being built. Other brains and hands can solve the problem of nuclear waste.
It is encouraging to see that three provincial premiers and at least one candidate for leader of the Conservative party understand this opportunity.
The school district could assist in the transformation away from coal by conducting research projects. Students, guided by teachers, could study the whole process from mining uranium through dealing with the spent fuel. They could investigate how nuclear plants make efficient use of steel and concrete. They could plan the deployment of a dozen plants around the province to avoid long, harmful transmission lines. Students could help older citizens to overcome their concerns about nuclear power.
By insisting on using green power 鈥� including nuclear 鈥� the school district could achieve and exceed its emissions targets.
David Stocks
Colwood
A warning to Dallas Road off-leash users
I鈥檓 writing this as a warning to those who take their dogs to the Dallas Road off-leash area, and park on Dallas just east of Cook Street. I am a cyclist and today rode along the paved but as-yet-unopened new bike lane along Dallas.
The pathway is within two metres of where vehicles park, and in the short distance along this portion (perhaps 200 metres), there were three instances where excited dogs ran across the bike pathway.
I was riding slowly, but I could see that a faster rider may not be able to avoid hitting one of these dogs, causing potential serious injury to canine and cyclist alike.
To the city, kudos on the path but please place lots of warning signs alerting dog owners to this hazard.
Norm Smith
Victoria
An addition for聽the聽oxymoron list
Re: 鈥淎theist church denied charitable status,鈥� Dec. 7.
鈥淎theist church鈥� 鈥� an addition to the list of oxymorons.
Bruce Sproul
Victoria
A parcel in search of聽a聽recipient
I鈥檓 reaching out to the sa国际传媒 community hoping that you will help to unite a parcel with its rightful owner. We received a parcel from the U.S. to a Dr. Aileen McConnell. After an extensive online search, I was able to ascertain that Aileen is a retired physician. Unfortunately, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British聽Columbia has no address/phone for her. If you are out there, Dr. McConnell, or if you know her whereabouts, send a note to [email protected]
Walter Salmaniw, MD
Victoria
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