Editor, The News:
Re: Hammond residents tired of second-class treatment (Letters, Feb. 22).
Eric Phillips wrote about proposed Hammond roadworks, claiming to represent the community.
Well, I am part of the Hammond community, too, and I couldn’t disagree more.
I am very happy with the Maple Ridge engineering department and its decision to not put a curb and gutters on Lorne Avenue.
What may be fine for Mr. Phillips and his neighbours will flood others of us on the street where we don’t have the six-inch height of a new curb to play with.
Hammond was subdivided in the 1800s. It was never envisioned as a suburban community with modern day curb and gutter. It was dirt and gravel.
Over the years, you have to appreciate, the road gets higher and higher, built up with layers of gravel and later asphalt, until we end up with the condition we have now – burying some homes below the road.
The condition a lot of us have is the opposite of modern subdivisions, which have homes set uphill from the curb and gutter.
In order to put a curb and gutters on Lorne Ave. without causing flooding, the entire street would need to be excavated down eight inches or more to provide positive drainage.
Otherwise, for some of us, the new curb is just a dam holding water on flooding lots.
This amount of work is not financially feasible at this time for the district.
I moved to Hammond for its unique historic character. I wasn’t interested in curbs and gutters.
I did not want to move into a typical subdivision. There are lots of places in Maple Ridge like that.
It’s too bad that some people think curbs and gutters will make them safe because that is a false sense of security.
Hammond survived a long time without curbs.
Other places in the world do fine without them.
I guess what has changed is that, today, there is such little concern for neighbours, such that someone would drive 80 to 90 kilometres on such a small, local street.
Perhaps time could be better spent shaming these ignorant drivers rather than waving placards and claiming to represent the community.
The cheapest and best option would be showing each other respect and leaving the road as-is.
Until we get there, no one is representing a community, because without some neighbourly respect on our roads, one does not exist.
Rory Dafoe
Port Hammond
