Editor:
Re: Recount over parking crisis, Aug. 30 letters.
Unfortunately, the waterfront parking issue is not about just having enough parking spots.
It is part of a much larger issue that the current city council and CAO are grossly mismanaging.
The City of White Rock and surrounding environs need to grow to improve the economics of the Peninsula’s transportation, business, community and environmental networks. Meaning the better the economics, the less taxes that property and business owners have to pay. Less taxes increases the attractiveness of White Rock and the Peninsula as a place to live, work and play. Again, more people less taxes and so forth.
The waterfront business community, like the town centre’s, plays a critical role in this process. So do people, and people drive cars.
People are also lazy. They do not want to walk an additional 50 metres or so to get where they are going. Pedestrian malls and construction terrify business owners because they are justifiably concerned that they will lose business.
So there is a need for parking; but we have to be smart about it.
The current waterfront proposal is not a bad idea. It is a stupid idea. It clearly demonstrates that something is seriously amiss at 15322 Buena Vista Ave.
Did council and the CAO not do any modelling on traffic flows? What other options did the CAO present to council?
What surprises me the most, however, is that the mayor has more than 25 five years of corporate history. You would think he would know what works and what doesn’t works.
Perhaps that is the problem. Long in the tooth, it looks like it is time for the mayor to move on.
I would also go as far as to say, he should take the rest of council and the city’s senior bureaucratic leadership with him.
We only need to look to our neighbour as to the changes that happened when Dianne Watts replaced Doug McCallum.
We can only dream.
Darwin Nickel, White Rock
