Richardson not a聽quaint street
Re: 鈥淰ictoria council approves designs for next phase of bike lane network,鈥� July 3.
I live near Richardson Street and drive and cycle on that road weekly.
As a driver I don鈥檛 have any issues with cyclists, and as a cyclist I don鈥檛 have any issues with drivers.
Moreover, Richardson was designed to move traffic east and west efficiently. Not a main artery, but聽certainly an important vein in the overall transportation scheme. It certainly wasn鈥檛 intended to be turned into a quaint neighbourhood street.
I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e quite ready to go back to the horse and buggy yet, and I think Victoria Coun. Geoff Young has the right idea to try to make changes in bite-sized pieces.
The unintended consequences of re-routing vehicles is real and Fairfield Road, which is already an unpleasant thoroughfare, will become even more congested and frustrating as a result.
By all means add a bike lane and rearrange some parking streetside to accommodate if necessary, but be careful about fixing a problem that might not exist.
Chris McGraw
Victoria
Lower taxes instead of聽building bike lanes
Re: 鈥淰ictoria council approves designs for next phase of bike lane network,鈥� July 3.
With so many projects that need an infusion of tax dollars in Victoria, I don鈥檛 understand why the city is building new bike lanes.
Maybe policing, affordable housing and even road repairs could be a more聽important use of the taxpayers鈥� dollars.
A lot of people are financially worse off right now. If there is so much excess money to spend on bike lanes, maybe less should be charged for property taxes.
If there was a vote on what the taxpayers of Victoria would like done financially, I doubt bike lanes would come up very high on the list, especially when the bike lanes are probably used more by people that live in other municipalities.
Maybe the adjoining municipalities should be the ones funding the bike lanes. I wonder if their residents would be happy with that kind of use of their tax dollars.
Larry Ware
Saanich
The privileged unlikely to notice racism
Re: 鈥渟a国际传媒鈥檚 education system no hotbed of systemic racism,鈥� comment, July 5.
Retired educator Ian Cameron writes that the sa国际传媒 school system has not been systemically racist for at least the past 40 years, and that he has 鈥渘ever once seen any sign of racism either systemic or on the part of any individual鈥� at the University of Victoria鈥檚 Faculty of Education.
Without being a person from a visible minority or person of colour, Cameron would not experience being a target of racism or discrimination and therefore believes racism was not present during his long education career.
During 30 years of dental-health work I, too, believed there was no racism in my field. Then I changed paths and began working with oral health and Indigenous families.
Only after gaining their trust did I hear of racist experiences Indigenous people had endured from dental staff and offices that deterred them from returning again.
Some of these staff I had worked with in the past, yet I would not have been aware of nor 鈥渟een鈥� this behaviour because it was not directed at me, an English/Scottish settler鈥檚 great-granddaughter.
Institutionalized racism becomes invisible, then, to those who would deny its presence.
Sherry Saunderson
Cobble Hill
We need institutions for聽the mentally ill
Re: 鈥淒rug-addicted son 鈥榳ould have been better off in an institution,鈥� July聽7.
The 鈥淚鈥� word has seemingly disappeared from our conversations about mental health, drug addiction and homelessness, but not the dictionary.
It was with sadness and interest that I read Louise Dickson鈥檚 report on Sam Stuart.
So often, when talking with friends聽about such issues, the word 鈥渋nstitution鈥� arises. The days of Riverview 鈥� its heartlessness and ignorance being sins to be forgotten.
The amount of money being spent by governments today, with constant proof of solutions not working, is scary. There is general acceptance of safe, free drugs, and our knowledge and scope of care work today is so much more expansive than ever before.
The time has come when authorities should be at least exploring the idea of institutions for people with mental illness.
The final admittance by Sam鈥檚 mother that she could no more change that 鈥渁ddiction for him than fly to the moon,鈥� says it all for parents who have or had children with similar needs.
I would suggest we deal with this issue and we would be more able to deal with other, arguably, more solvable segments of the homelessness question.
Ian MacLean
Victoria
Mentally ill people need hospital care
Re: 鈥淒rug-addicted son 鈥榳ould have been better off in an institution,鈥� July聽7.
Sam Stuart鈥檚 life shows how our mental-health care system is fundamentally flawed. It assumes that hospitals for people with mental illness are bad, and that patients would be better off free and active in the community, whether homeless or in supportive housing.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The negative environment of street life inevitably trumps worker care and guidance. Leaving mentally ill patients on the street, as Sam鈥檚 grieving mother, Judith, says, is 鈥渘ot doing the right thing.鈥�
Hospitals are needed and fill a crucial role in the safe care of mentally ill patients.
William Tate
Victoria
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