Tired of city spin on bike lanes’ popularity

Re: Herald Q&A with counsel candidates I’m fed up with the constant spin by councillors, mayor staff and city staff of supposedly overwhelming public support for the lake-to-lake bike lane.

I went back and watched council meetings that led up to the approval. Please keep in mind that it was rammed through while the public was consumed with surviving COVID.

Here are the numbers presented to council. On all four phases of those affected on route there were a total of 1,071 responses. A total of 679 or 63% said no. Another 392 or 36% said yes. That equates to less than 1% of the citizens of Penticton.

This council on their own accord made it a priority for approval. The advisory group consisted of many cycling community members.

The engagement with the public was the following: eight eblasts/newsletters, seven news releases, four videos, three mail-outs, three online meetings and seven meetings with stakeholders.

The following BS Awards go out to current councillors vying for re-election. For stating overwhelming support, you receive the Pinocchio BS award as your noses have gone around the world multiple times.

The Platinum BS award goes to Mr. Julius Bloomfield as he compared the bike lanes in Penticton to Interlaken, Sweden, on the day he approved bike lane, implying we would be world renowned. He left out the fact that Interlaken is in the Swiss Alps and the areas around the city have over 2,000 kilometres of bike routes and hiking. I am trying to picture our renowned Atkinson Street bike lane with a scenic view of the back of The Bay store.

All of these spin doctors need to be given the boot. It is obvious that when a project affects commerce, transportation, parking property values and the fundamental flow of the city it goes to referendum.

This was done with intent avoid a true and full vote of the public. It could have been put on the ballot when we added Mr. Miller to council. It is/was a total scam of the public to force a pet project on the citizens.

This intent is clearly shown as the public was asked if we should spend $300,000 to fight B.C.’s housing minister in court, yet we are not asked in a referendum do we want to spend millions on bike lanes.

Mike Hawley

Penticton