Too much sameness in new architecture
Victoria is growing, buildings are getting taller. We can readily observe the newly constructed high-rises that have come to dominate its skyline. Regrettably, we are faced with either square or rectangular buildings. The tourist appeal to our city will suffer as a result. Across the world, we witness edifices that break the square/rectangular rule.
The time has come, belatedly, to insist that new construction break the current, uninteresting patterns dominating our skyline. We need only look at Europe and the Middle East to provide us with imaginative architecture. It is not yet too late to follow some of these building concepts.
Eric J. Ronse
Shawnigan Lake
Access for people with mobility issues
I always wonder why walkers and hikers think they are the only ones that should be allowed to enjoy a peaceful and lovely experience. They are fit and healthy and able to walk and enjoy many places that the less fortunate can’t.
My friend has been using a wheelchair for many years and it brightens her day/week when someone will take her out in their car to Esquimalt Lagoon, or Dallas Road, in fact anywhere the car can be parked for an hour and she can see the beautiful sky and water and feel the breeze on her face, watch children play, even if it is through a car window.
Please stop begrudging this lovely lady, and so many like her, one of the small pleasures in her life. She has very few others.
Lindsay Heys
View Royal
Why are bars still open?
Re: “Community events should be banned,” letter, Aug. 14.
In addition to banning community events, I wonder why the health officials don’t shut down bars again. Recently it’s been reported that the 20-30/40 age group populating these high-risk environments is what’s driving the COVID numbers up. Seems like a no-brainer.
Diane St Jacques
Victoria
Encountering a lagoon barrier
We recently went for beautiful leisurely drive along Esquimalt Lagoon and boom we were at the barrier and we were required to make a U-turn and re-route our ocean drive and go through Colwood to get back to the Lagoon to visit the food trucks for a snack. Such a waste of time and fuel and a loss of time to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
EA Lubick
Saanich
Acceptance of words varies with time
Re: “Sports teams dropping offensive names can spark good conversations,” commentary, Aug. 16.
Language used to evolve organically, and words acquired new meaning over time with gradual popular usage. This isn’t what’s happening today.
Now language is hijacked unilaterally by a small number of academics demanding that a new definition be used for a word, but also that all other previous definitions are by royal decree declared null and void, as if they never existed, and the penalty for not going along with it is to be labelled a bigot.
It’s postmodernist philosophy, which had roots in the philosophy of Romanticism, which decided that feelings were more important than facts.
The same people that tell us today that a particular word is offensive are the same people who told us to use that word in place of another word they told us to use that they suddenly deemed offensive, lather rinse repeat.
“Eskimo” is a curious case because — despite claims by people that abuse and redefine the term “colonial” — it wasn’t a word that came from the white man; it was from various Algonquin tribes in North America, and was thought to mean “eater of raw meat,” though it could possibly also mean “lacer of snowshoes.”
Why are people so obsessed with whether something is offensive? I mean, I get not wanting to be a jerk, and I don’t want to be one either, but the Postmodernist critical theorists keep moving the goalposts, which is incredibly unfair and a jerk move in and of itself.
The term “people of colour” now exists, which is extremely close to the term “coloured” used in antiquity. And yet nobody can explain why “coloured” is offensive yet “people of colour” is not (currently — give it a few years).
The conversation that needs to happen is why we as a society are letting an Orwellian concept of “control language, and you control thought” run the show, and why so few people are questioning or thinking critically about its entire illogical basis, as if it’s a cult that brooks no dissent or heresy.
April J. Gibson
Duncan
Solving a nasty problem with geese
This will never happen, but it would solve the problem: shoot the geese.
I have a 1950s attitude toward nuisance animals; if you attack them they will go away.
Ask any deer hunter where the deer are the day after hunting season opens — they’re gone. If a few bird hunters were allowed to go to a park early in the morning, or if the park was closed for a morning, they would likely get one or two shots off before every goose was gone.
It won’t take long before the geese look for other places to poop.
It is time that Canadians stopped being so benevolent toward these urban freeloaders and took back their lawns.
Ken Bryden
West Vancouver
Addiction treatment is also needed
Re: “A street survivor’s perspective,” Jack Knox column, Aug. 15.
A very well rounded article by Jack Knox. Seems to me that Sue McMurter knows the street survivor situation all too well. The article makes it clear she had some bad luck, a few good breaks and quite clearly a lot of personal pluck and perseverance to eventually find and make herself a good future. Of course, it quite easily could have gone the other way.
It was quite the success story but also highlights our current dilemma of how to help those who need it but, as she says, “it’s not good enough to offer harm reduction strategies that aren’t accompanied by treatment.”
Seems to me that some provincial and city government officials could learn from her experience and her ideals.
Chuck Dickson
Victoria
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