I am writing this letter in response to two letters I have seen printed in The Morning Star in the last couple of weeks.
Those letters complained about the rebuilding of 20th St. north of 43rd Ave. and other similar improvements ongoing in other parts of town. The writers were opposed to the changes being made and wanted a return to the old way of urban development in Vernon with huge, wide expanses of pavement and nothing interfering with automobile use.
I couldn’t disagree more. That old style is unsightly and unattractive, dangerous to any living thing that isn’t encapsulated in a vehicle, and expensive to build and clean and maintain.
That old model of street building is what has made areas of Vernon unattractive compared to other communities throughout the world that have realized that to attract and retain valuable citizens you must make your community livable for people, not just for vehicles.
That is a real shame when you consider what a blessed geographic and climatic locale we have. We should optimize that good fortune, not diminish it as past planning has frequently done. Visitors to our town usually rhapsodize at what a beautiful setting we have, but they also commonly comment on how poorly Vernon has taken advantage of that in our urban design and planning.
The automobile is such a practical part of our current lifestyle that its use must be incorporated into any current urban design. Undoubtedly, vehicles will get smaller and lighter as we adapt to a world of diminishing, more expensive fossil fuels, with a more rational pricing of carbon, and reduction of the subsidization of the damage carbon does. However, automobiles are not the only important component of our present community life, and design that is attractive to the other aspects of a good life, like walking, cycling, mass transit, parks and outdoor life, should be incorporated.
Thank goodness City of Vernon staff, and council, have seen fit to develop 20th St. and 29th St. in such an attractive manner that shows what can be done, and has been done elsewhere. There is no question that the construction is a real hardship for the businesses directly involved. One can only hope that the professionals overseeing the work do it in such a manner that the hardship is minimized so those businesses that suffer can reap the rewards of attractive design in the future. If they benefit, we all benefit.
We need a strong economy to pay for the things we want in our community, and if we design and build our city in a way that is attractive to the bright, innovative, mobile, people who are the backbone of a future economy, we will have been wise and successful.
B. Clore
Vernon
