THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS

QWhat are the golden moments from your life?

Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.

LAST WEEK'S QUESTION:

Q Has urban living improved or worsened in your view?

When Marco Polo travelled from

Venice to Cathay in 1271, he was amazed by the advanced culture and prosperity there, described in classical records and Polo's book, Description of the World, as “exterior doors were not locked at night; valuables dropped on roads were not picked up by anyone else.” This social condition was the result of the Chinese people and rulers following the philosophies of Confucius, Mencius, and Laozi. I believe the decay in our society today is due to capitalism and commercialism, which has split the world into extreme poor and rich, resulting in despair, frustration and anger.

Roxy Paul Sun

After years of living in

the suburbs, we now live in the heart of Downtown Vancouver. The rationale for our move was that we had travelled a lot and invariably rented downtown apartments in the cities we visited. We enjoyed that so much we decided to do the same in our hometown, and moved here five years ago. We really enjoyed the experience, initially, but we doubt we will stay much longer. The homeless issue is spreading, with the resulting increase in crime and reduction in safety. City hall seems to be more focused on being “green” rather than improving livability and tackling the hard problems society is facing, which appear to be worsening each day. We have zero confidence that they have either the will or ability to do anything but install bike lanes or undertake Band-aid solutions. Mike Tarr

As the population grows, people

grow apart, stop talking to neighbours, and there is less sense of community. Only a selfish mentality for the most part. The street issues now are huge. In addition to being convenient, SkyTrain brings undesirable people. I no longer feel safe walking after dark, not even with my dog. I'm too afraid to take transit because every time I have I had to navigate through pot smoke (yeah, it's legal, but not in my face in public, please), spitting, the mentally ill, loud conversations on phones, and people arguing about masks. There is no respect when it comes to those looking for drug money. I use a building where I have to ask a sleeping homeless person to move away from the door so I can unlock it. I see more and more cart people. On the nature side, I dare not phone about a bear sighting because the urban mentality is to just kill it.

Ruth Thomas

There is a lot to consider in the book, Hillbilly Elegy. Addiction and poverty were part of the author's childhood, but he made very different choices for himself. He refers to the impunity and entitlement that has taken a toll on work ethics and on the accompanying self-respect. The fellow you wrote about with the base. ball bat didn't care who saw him checking out which cars to break into. When people don't care about outcomes, there is so little recourse to change behaviour. Patrick