To the editor:
The absurdity of Mayor Basran and council denying us the beautiful landscaped completion of Stuart Park is even more evident in summer. To complement the barren concrete waterfront walkway with it’s shadeless benches we are to be given a two-storey tourist building surrounded by tons more concrete.
Unlike all other cities in the world, from the very popular like Paris (60 million visitors), San Francisco (25 million) to smaller centres like Banff (3.5 million) who have their centres fronting a downtown street, our mayor and council had to give up the waterfront.
Ironically the downtown information kiosk and the mobile Tourism Kelowna unit are presently at the foot of Bernard Ave., where most of the tourists and locals are to be found.
A recent report states that Canada lags behind the other G-7 countries in protecting land, parks and freshwater areas, and is not setting aside protected spaces. Although Stuart Park is a small example, it shows the local political indifference to that goal.
Nationally it is apparently attributed to lack of political will, but here I would say it is pure cronyism.
Don Henderson, Kelowna
