Become part of solution in SRA

DEAR “Tired of excuses” (“Refer to suburb as slum now”, January 23), if you had attended any of the public meetings of the Richmond Hill special rates area (SRA) over the past two years or more, you would know that the illegal shops and restaurants have been high on the agenda. Unfortunately, the SRA has no legal standing when it comes to closing the businesses.

Neither the municipality nor the ward councillors past and present seem to believe the influx of shops, and the alleged drug and alcohol dealing in their vicinity is a problem. Your concerns and anger should, therefore, be directed to the municipality and your ward councillor.

Better still, you can come out from behind your cloak of anonymity and become part of the SRA management team. The service to the community is purely voluntary.

In return you get verbally abused by letter writers and e-mail trolls. But, thanks to the sacrifices made by the management team (of which I am not part), the suburb has gone from a crime hotspot to a great place to live in 10 years.

New blood is needed to take Richmond Hill through the next decade. Armchair critics like you have two options – sell up now while your property still has value as you destroy a highly functional community structure, or become part of the solution.

What is your excuse for not getting involved?