Think of those who will be displaced
When designing a plan, do the planning department and the council ever consider the people they are displacing?
I live in a townhouse on McKenzie Avenue, which I bought in 1997 with the idea I could age in place.
Amenities are close by and within walking or transportation distance.
If the plan for McKenzie and Quadra is approved, it will be rezoned from residential to commercial. Immediately, the value of my house is reduced, as only a developer will want to buy it to bulldoze down a perfectly good home in order to build a high-rise with commercial properties at street level.
Please, Saanich council and planners, think about the people you are displacing. Not all of us want to live in a rabbit warren of condos over a shop.
Anne Smithson
Saanich
Block some lanes to test the idea
Regarding McKenzie and Quadra being turned into single lanes each way, how about trying this for a week: Block off a lane in both directions on both main roads, get the council out of their cushy chairs, and go see for yourself what the outcome is.
It won’t be pretty.
As for people getting used to it and traffic will disappear, that is a laugh.
Those comments come from people who don’t have to commute on these roads on a daily basis. Whether for work, going to an appointment or your kid’s sporting event, these roads need to move traffic. But if you think you can influence city councils on decisions like this, you’re sadly mistaken. Now I’m wondering why I wrote this.
Steve Harvey
Saanich
Cart before the horse in Saanich planning
The reduction to one lane on parts of McKenzie and complete closure between Saanich Road and Quadra Street for several hours on Tuesday created traffic chaos. It should be a wake-up call to Saanich that their planned removal of a lane of traffic is unworkable, without first putting in place a vastly expanded public transit system.
That is a prerequisite to getting cars off the road. It will of course still not eliminate commercial traffic, which will remain heavy along these routes. It seems that our municipal authorities continue to place the cart before the horse.
David Cohen
Victoria
Delay Saanich plan until after election
The Saanich draft McKenzie/Quadra study is a developer’s playbook to squeeze out residents from their community. Adopted by council this year, the Official Community Plan allows up to 18-storey structures in designated centres.
This first generation of buildings will naturally push out adjacent community residents in low-rise buildings, freeing up more properties for the next generation of mid-rises of up to 11 storeys.
The same push will be applied to the next group of residents in low rises.
Mid-rises and high rises make up the majority of blocks in the draft study areas. I am not against densification, but it should be a balanced approach that doesn’t use excessively tall buildings in a domino fashion to coerce residents to leave.
In light of such fundamental changes, Saanich council should not adopt this plan or anything similar until after the next municipal election. That would be a true measure of community support for this draft plan and its groundwork for future studies in other areas of the municipality.
Michael Riefman
Victoria
Don’t expect buses to pick up the load
One has to protest about the misinformation in a recent letter.
Removing a lane does not mean that traffic “simply disappears.”
The usual result is that almost the same amount of vehicular traffic continues in the lower-capacity road, resulting in delays, back-ups, and frustration leading to “road rage.”
The cause: A lack of the “convenient” alternative (buses, here) that the writer seems to think that B.C. Transit will be able to provide, in an age of labour shortages and dislike for driving jobs.
Ask B.C. Transit how easy it is to replace even just retiring drivers and maintenance staff, let alone substantially increase its labour pool.
The alternative transportation “options” amount to bus service for most people, who cannot arrive at the workplace sweaty from a bike ride.
Bus service here is not “fast” and generally not “convenient,” especially along McKenzie to the frequent destination of University of Victoria, due to inadequate scheduling and lack of direct feeder routes. Saanich has proposed this disaster without first determining that B.C. Transit will increase service levels sufficiently, with appropriate route changes to provide the “fast, convenient” bus option that is required.
That is our basic issue.
Roger Love
Saanich
Where are the high occupancy lanes?
Who’s making decisions about roads in the Capital Regional District?
Where are the HOV lanes? Put two people in one car and half the cars are off the road. You save on fuel and environment as well as road maintenance.
Why are we not demanding our local, provincial and national governments to get thinking about solutions that work in Kelowna and Greater Vancouver.
Margaret Hall
View Royal
Our major industries have major problems
If we stand back from the conventional three-year window of planning of our current politicians, we can see that British Columbia’s social and economic future rests on an impossible set of assumptions.
The B.C. economy is supported by three major industries: Forestry, oil and gas, and mining. The long-term outlook for these three is gloomy.
Forestry as a major industry has overharvested wood for so many years that its future is declining unless you can wait 100 years for more trees to grow.
Oil and gas are major industries with the fatal attraction that they generate many jobs and profits at the price of destroying the Earth. They are sunset industries with no recognition of how soon that must occur.
Mining is a more local industry which could be done in a safe manner but would then generate fewer profits if required to be done sustainability.
Sustainability of our province rests on a rapid movement toward renewable energy, and industries that do not destroy the Earth with pollutants that produce the climate catastrophes we already see in the news.
But we do not see any short-term government willing to tell the truth about these problems to B.C. residents and discuss how we might move forward.
We are overspending our natural capital and pretending that this can go on forever with minor tinkering.
Consider the alternative.
Charles Krebs
North Saanich
American election should give us hope
We in British Columbia and other provinces have a great medical opportunity following Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential race.
There must be a large number of doctors and nurses who were greatly upset by the Republican victory.
British Columbia should be advertising “expedited immigration” to Canada and signing bonuses for experienced family practice and emergency doctors.
Experienced doctors who are aged 35 to 50 have probably built up a reasonable net worth, sufficient for them to be able to afford even the high real estate prices in places like Vancouver and Victoria.
Experienced nurses can also be offered signing bonuses and “expedited immigration.”
This is a limited time opportunity to take advantage of the impending uncertainty and fear of a Trump presidency.
This could be a great chance to hire a significant number of experienced doctors and nurses for British Columbia. Let’s not miss it.
Barry Hersh
Oak Bay
Losing faith in the election process
With the possible exception of one riding, the ballot counting errors will most likely make no difference to the election, but I have a deep lack of trust in the new system.
Given the election process was different than previous ones, and the first where there was not hand counting for the first returns, coupled with an increased access to out-of-riding voting or mail-in, one should expect human errors. These errors need a full investigation to prevent them from happening again.
My bigger concern is this: If they cannot do a simple count without the potential for serious errors, then how do they expect a reformed process like a transferable ballot or similar to work?
For these other voting methods to be tabulated, one can be certain they will use machine etc. counting and tabulating.
Elections B.C. has diminished many people’s faith in the integrity of our balloting process. What will it cost to correct Elections B.C. errors? A faith that was disturbingly low before the election.
Norm Ryder
Victoria
No wonder we can’t solve major issues
I was shocked to read that ballots were misplaced during the provincial election and votes were not counted.
If we cannot conduct an election competently, is it any wonder we cannot resolve major issues such as the housing crisis and rampant crime?
Maybe some day artificial intelligence will do better.
Cheera Crow
Brentwood Bay
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