After studying the proposed changes to the west side of Lakeshore Drive, I have the following comments:
I have lived in Penticton since April 1954 and have travelled Lakeshore Road thousands of times, always enjoyed the drive in both directions and still consider it the most scenic drive in the entire Okanagan Valley. Going west, it is an absolutely unforgettable experience to just pull into one of the diagonal parking spaces and marvel at a beautiful Okanagan sunset for a while.
To get rid of parallel parking and make Lakeshore Drive a one-way street can only be the brainchild of a bunch of very insensitive morons who have absolutely no sense of beauty. Our famous planners don’t seem to understand that if you eliminate half the parking on Lakeshore Drive, combined with much more complicated parking for the rest of it and combined with making most of Lakeshore a one-way street, it will make for the worst traffic nightmare you have ever seen in Penticton. Any 16-year-old can figure that one out.
If you have the money, build the two pavilions, one on each end of the promenade (we don’t need one at Power Street since there is already an existing one). Beautify the promenade itself, and for God’s sake leave Lakeshore Drive as is.
The suggestion of building parking lots two and three blocks from the beach is absurd to say the least. Who would like to carry all his beach stuff two or three blocks to the beach? Who in the heck comes up with ideas like that?
Bernie Strohmann
Penticton
