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LETTERS: Not ready for the summer season

Editor: Re: Finding pride among the neglect, June 16 letters.
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White Rock’s waterfront should be in far better shape, especially for this time of year, writes Mary Revill. (Contributed photo)

Editor:

Re: Finding pride among the neglect, June 16 letters.

In light of the letter from Joanne Walsh regarding the neglect of the city, I took a set of images on the once-popular West Beach area, where a succession of piecemeal changes has succeeded in making it a no-go area for residents and visitors alike.

The benches installed only a few years ago are now redundantly situated close to the protective fence by the rail track on what used to be a grass area where people picnicked. Access to the beach across the newly installed crossing is at the end of a fenced-off section of bare earth – some grass seed is evident but clearly not done with any skill or care and not about to grow anytime soon – and is alongside a storm drain outlet where a sign suggests one avoid the contaminated water at this point.

The shoring up of the eroded beach has been done in the most brutal style imaginable, with tons of grey rock now occupying the section where it used to be possible to perch on or sit by logs when the tide was higher. Now there is very little beach at all and what there is is uninviting, to say the least. The sheer lack of thought and inattention to preserving the attraction of this area of beach is astonishing.

Here we are in the middle of June, about to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, and we have a rocky wasteland for a waterfront.

As one of only two beach areas in South Surrey and White Rock, surely it was worth some thought and forward planning to maintain and enhance this rare facility in the Lower Mainland.

Once again our city council has failed its residents with their knee-jerk reactions to problem solving and preserving the environment, whilst simultaneously inviting foreign investing in highrise property that is of no use to residents who pay the tax bills that fund their ill-thought-out schemes.

None of this does anything to help attract visitors or residents to the struggling waterfront businesses.

Mary Revill, White Rock

• • •

We have lived at our present address in White Rock since August 1998. Never have we seen the city in such disarray appearance-wise regarding the maintenance of grassy areas in lanes and walkways between Columbia and Victoria avenues, etc.

With higher taxes collected due to high-end homes and higher assessments, it makes us wonder what is happening and who is running the department that oversees this area.

The appearance of our city should make residents and visitors happy seeing a well-groomed landscape. Hire some students this summer and get on with it. This is the middle of June.

Daryl & Tanis Page, White Rock