The Victoria we are trying to preserve

Re: “Let’s make it a wonderful day in the neighbourhood,” comment, July 15.

In 1975, we bought our first house, a 1911 fixer-upper in the Jubilee area to raise our two kids. We spent nine years busting our butts and out-ofpocket renovating that house.

We then moved to Saanich, near Richmond school, and bought a 1956 bungalow fixer-upper, which we renovated for six years, again out of pocket. In 1991, we were finally able to buy our current 1931 home in Fairfield, near Ross Bay Cemetery and May Street.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many old character houses in the Fairfield/Gonzales neighbourhood were in need of repair, but were updated, keeping the unique character that it is known for.

We, like many other folks, who bought in, did those repairs, and have been doing so right up until present day. As a result, Fairfield/Gonzales has retained many updated, modernized, character family houses, making for wonderful days in the neighbourhood for at least the next 100 years.

Developers, most likely not brought up here, who have no concept of our neighbourhoods, want to replace these character homes by squeezing in box-like, modernistic, simplistic, minimalistic, three-plex/four-plex/six-plex dwellings on single-family-zoned lots wherever they can.

In answering Luke Mari’s question: “What Victoria are we trying to preserve? Victoria in 1910, 1930, 1950, 1976 or 2000.”

All of the above, for the next person to arrive. Dave and Anita Paul Fairfield