Editor:
The whole neighbourhood is upset over the disruption and mayhem. The noise and pollution from the trucks starts at 7 a.m. and goes on all day.
Dump trucks with trailers are stacked up five in a row along Blackwood Street, Vine Avenue and Vidal Street, as idling motors waiting for access into the site building site of the controversial 12-storey highrise.
These narrow streets cannot handle this traffic.
This was once a really nice neighbourhood; it felt like living in a park. Tall evergreen trees. Geese grazing on the lawn in the evening. Herons flying overhead. Modest apartments with nice gardens.
Now it’s just a mess. The soul and ambience of this neighbourhood is forever changed.
Once the complex is finished and completely inhabited the traffic congestion is going to be a nightmare. The developers won’t be living here. The city council and mayor won’t be living here. We are left to choke on their greed.
Patricia Yavis, White Rock
• • •
I wish to express my frustration and lack of support from the City of White Rock, concerning the construction on Vidal Street.
I have suggested to the developer that it makes a lot of sense to have the thousands of trucks delivering rebar, concrete, etc. routed from King George Boulevard, up 148 Street, then left on Thrift Avenue to Vidal Street.
This route would prevent congestion, noise and pollution, as well as a hazard at Blackwood Street and 16 Avenue, where the turning lane is too narrow and short.
The huge trucks that have been using this ridiculous current route must wind through the shortest street in all of Metro Vancouver – namely Vine Avenue, which is approximately 130 feet long. Trucks have already taken out the street sign, and from my deck I have witnessed several close calls between cars and trucks.
This area is 100 per cent a seniors area, without crosswalks, and the safety concern is very high.
Why, when even the developer agrees with my suggestion, does our city do the complete opposite?
It must be better to pollute the heart of our city with diesel fumes, noisy monster trucks, not to mention the danger which this poses on our neighbourhood.
Within a two-block radius, there are at least eight highrises destined for construction. This means many thousands of deliveries in this neighbourhood.
Someone in our city needs to refer to a map.
Thomas Mac Kay, White Rock
