Having a lower view on highrises

I recently received an email from someone called a Block Connector, apparently a role for residents of Kelowna designed by the city employees operating a program called Strong Neighbourhoods.

Under the umbrella of Strong Neighbourhoods, Block Connectors are volunteers who connect with 10-20 neighbours with the aim of befriending them, animating the block and bringing neighbours together. Years ago we called them busybodies.

Is this another money-wasting program at city hall? Is it some psychological balm for the former mayor and council (five of whom are still there) for allowing the development of high rises anywhere in town, destroying neighbourhoods and any sense of community?

Why is this department not vehemently protesting when these buildings are being approved at city hall? If one department can support them all, surely one can input the obvious reasons how the buildings negatively impact the social and psychological lives, including safety, of their residents and neighbours.

How does putting people on rooftops and not on front lawns develop contact and friendship?

What about putting families with children on the 15th floor instead of the third or fourth of a small building, where the parents can sit on the balcony and watch their kids and talk to neighbours? And then there is the so-called UBCO 43-storey downtown building that does not provide the on-campus residence benefits more and more universities are providing for their undergraduates. The list goes on.

Until we have an OCP that considers neighbourhoods, residents and community first and foremost, ahead of developer profits, one which is not amended by rezoning every second week, we will continue to see high rises and strangers in our backyards. A block connector is not going to overcome this long-term dysfunctional growth.

Don Henderson

Kelowna