Mayor, Vision have made mess of Vancouver’s West End
Here we go again, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson bashing the West End. More parking meters, eliminating the two-hour zones. We don’t know how this will help with the parking problems, along with the big hike in the resident permit parking.
City hall should leave the West End alone. They have done enough damage in the last few years. West of Denman Street was a quiet area until the city blocked off the streets. Chico, Comox and Gilford streets are now a racetrack since the food carts blocked off Beach Avenue and the traffic is backed up to Second Beach.
We have enough with all the parades and runs, which shut down the West End every other week. We say, “go play somewhere else.”
— Don Smith, Vancouver
Political pact a risk to B.C.
How can the NDP and the Green parties, neither of which was elected on its own agenda, hijack the process and risk the productive future of our province with their grimy pact to grab power?
With a hefty, one-vote majority, these groups are prepared to gamble that North America and its varied industries are out-of step with the future and turn back the clock to minimize our human presence.
In concert with the Vision crowd in Vancouver, the expectations are that the Lower Mainland is going to be a retirement home for wealthy ideologues, who need not do any physical labour other than cashing dividend and government payroll cheques.
— Rick Angus, Vancouver
Deal is bad for business
Letter-writer Doug Reynolds says the B.C. Liberals should “step aside. The uncertainty is bad for business.” What is certain is an NDP government with the Greens propping it up will be disastrous for business.
Reynolds also opines that “political gamesmanship disrespects our democracy.” The NDP/Green agreement is an excellent example. — Cherryl Katnich, Maple Ridge
Vulnerable need more help
Re: Gordon Clark column, Spend money on mental-health services, not bridge suicide barriers.
The mentally ill of B.C. are over-represented under bridges, in homeless camps and often squalid conditions in substandard housing. They are over-represented in the criminal-justice system and prisons. Judges order psychiatric assessments for those suspected of suffering mental disorders only to learn that these prisoners remain unstable and untreated in jail because of lack of bed space at the forensic hospital.
If a cancer patient were left to wander the street with an IV drip in tow, we would be shocked and outraged. But we seem blithely unconcerned when the mentally ill fend for themselves on the street, unprotected and unsheltered. The mentally ill are vulnerable to exploitation and are endangered when their sometimes-unpredictable behaviour results in confrontation with police.
If the measure of a society is how we treat the vulnerable, we are sorely lacking in B.C.
— Lee Rankin, Burnaby
Stick with English, French
While I normally agree with almost everything columnist Gordon Clark writes, his June 9 column on Chinese signs in Richmond hit a nerve.
This is Canada, not China, and all immigrants should respect the language of their new home. They don’t need to completely abandon their native tongue, but English or French should be equally displayed. They moved to Canada.
They should respect the culture and languages of their new home and use one of them as well.
Canadians are too complacent about immigrant regulations and I fear will lose what is left of our own cultural identity.
— Catherine Bell, Maple Ridge