Editor:
Re: City by the sea of cars, Sept. 9 letters.
My concern and interest is with the whole picture, the breaking up of the community.
Highrises, big houses, loss of trees, more pollution with increase of traffic and more stress on an aging infrastructure of the town.
All of these things break down the community, the very special spirit that has been drawing people to White Rock, it isn’t just the ocean and the views. The real community that has been drawing people here for many years is rapidly disappearing but still alive and well on the strip between Thrift and Five Corners, where most people are walking and knowing each other.
The storekeepers know us all by name, and there is a camaraderie amongst us.
This is community at its finest, and I had hoped White Rock could become an example for the rest of Canada in terms of how to maintain community, through concerned development practices, consideration for the whole.
It has gone the other way, and now I have given up on that.
I had intended to gather people’s stories of what they love or loved about living in White Rock – some all their lives – then there came a point where people could not talk about that, so affected by the changes occurring rapidly.
I have given up on that idea totally. These changes have now come home to roost in my world. Rental units are now very low in number and what there are, some rents have been raised considerably.
This affects many with fixed incomes when faced with having to move. The community will disappear, as the heart is in the walking and being part of the community.
The community buses are part of the beauty in this. It is a treat to be getting on a bus where drivers know you and half the bus knows each other. This is community at its best and eventually there won’t be people left using these buses, can’t be here because there are no rentals, or nothing they can afford.
There is a U.K. expression that sums it all up: “I am alright, Jack.”
I think that is the crux of what has happened. All the people in authority with all this development etc., are alright, and don’t have a clue what it is like to be in the positions many of us are now in, through their neglect of the whole.
I would like some answers to these things, if anyone is willing?
Sheila Swift, White Rock