Dear editor,
Most people who attended Gil Peñalosa’s June 16 presentation on creating a livable community, affordable mobility, reduced reliance on fossil fuels, and public spaces seemed to like what they heard and saw.
Many have been inspired and motivated to actually get some of the things Penalosa spoke about implemented in our Valley.
What is extremely disappointing, is that only a few of our elected
politicians and key staff members who are involved in decision making, found it worth their time and effort to attend this presentation. They were all informed of it and it was mentioned that their participation would be very important, yet only a small percentage showed up.
We have 22 elected politicians in the Valley (Courtenay 7; Comox 7; Cumberland 5; regional district 3) and by my count only seven of them were there.
Meanwhile at least twice as many went on an all-expenses paid trip to a conference in Halifax the week before.
This conference in Halifax may well have been important, but so was this presentation by Peñalosa and it was right in our back yard — at no cost to taxpayers.
David Frisch,
Courtenay
