Is Castlegar suffering from Glossy Brochure Syndrome?
I have followed with interest the various presentations and letters to the editor concerning the Columbia Avenue Complete StreetRedevelopment Project (including integrated bike path). I have attended presentations, and actually walked the proposed project location.The thing that strikes me most is that Columbia Ave. is a very busy commercial access route for Castlegar. There are multiple accesses offColumbia Ave. and those accesses are used predominately by motor vehicles and trucks. I have concerns about potential interfacesbetween these vehicles and bicyclists using the new road profile.
Based on these observations I feel we (tax payers and city council) may be suffering from Glossy Brochure Syndrome. Glossy BrochureSyndrome occurs when an idea for works or services is presented in such a fancy way that the actual works or service that is delivereddoes not live up to what has been presented.
Therefore, in regards to the Columbia Avenue Complete Street Redevelopment Project I suggest that the city secure a road safety audit. Aroad safety audit is an independent assessment by traffic engineers, and associated safety experts, as to whether a proposedimprovement to a road will actually result in a better or worse safety performance. This would be particularly relevant to the bike portionof the project. This may be a wise and prudent investment prior to the expenditure of a large amount of tax payer’s money.
Fred Hughes, Castlegar
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More money for Doukhobor culture
Thank you for publishing the two-part series on the history of Castlegar’s airport and its relation to Doukhobor displacement.
With the Chances casino now at the airport, it struck me that formally designating a portion of the city’s casino revenues to protectionand enhancement of Doukhobor culture would be highly appropriate, if not restorative.
From the backyard of my childhood home in Woodland Park, I remember watching an elderly man drawing water from a pipeline at theriver that provided water to a collection of Doukhobor homes along the riverbank of what is now the college lands. As a child, how or whythe homes and their occupants disappeared wasn’t explained directly to me, though I have strong memories of the social unrest of thetimes.
With the benefit of historical records such as these recent Castlegar News articles, I’m able to reflect on how quickly we citizens can cometo take Canadian values for granted. Yet values such as those enunciated in the Charter’s equality protections are only a generation youngand it was such a short time ago that we, through our elected officials, could so easily use the power of the law to displace a people anddisperse their property to others merely by singling out a group as deserving of mistreatment by virtue of culture and spiritual beliefs.
Such an endowment would not just look backward to worthy initiatives (like renovations to the Discovery Centre’s bistro, for example) butalso has the potential to look forward by contributing scholarships to youth in Russian language immersion and choir, and in othermeaningful ways to both preserve and evolve our collective understanding of Doukhobor values.
While it’s often said that there’s no going back, a casino revenue trust in honour of Doukhobor culture could at least communicate thatCastlegar’s citizens embrace a more just society with both hindsight and foresight, and into perpetuity.
Janna Sylvest, Castlegar
