Frustrated voices want to be heard

Re: “Mayor: I was targeted in bike sabotage,” Dec. 10.

Potentially destructive and injurious sabotage is never justified. However, it is easy to see any extreme act as an expression of frustration, when other avenues of communication have failed.

Mayor Lisa Helps said: “People can have their voice heard through feedback to the City of Victoria.” Unfortunately, any criticism on this subject tends to be rejected out of hand.

Last week, I sent her a link to Lawrence Solomon’s excellent article in the National Post on how the law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly head in other cities’ bike-lane installations (particularly London), in the form of increased congestion and pollution, and increased bike ridership pulling users out of buses, not cars, etc.

She immediately dismissed it as an “opinion piece.” A classic case of: “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up already.”

She (and council) didn’t listen when they plowed through plans for Fort Street, instead issuing the thinly veiled “letter of apology” from the mayor’s office. This was nothing more than a statement: “We are doing it anyway.”

And then she effectively blames Fort Street merchants for a $500,000 cost overrun to reinstate on-street parking that never should have been removed in the first place.

Civil communication fails, frustration mounts and voices still want to be listened to.

Brian Kendrick Victoria