Editor:
After some weeks in Europe I returned home, and in my jet-lagged daze I felt something had changed, but I was not able to pinpoint it.
Then it dawned on me, I did not hear the trains blow their horns.
So congratulations to White Rock, to a better life with less noise. Perhaps the next step could be the city living up to its own bylaw of limiting noise from motor vehicles.
This improvement of quality of life was embarrassingly overdue. Imagine having unguarded crossings till now.
I have recently visited cities in northern and central Europe. The contrast between infrastructural legislation and investments there and in North America is monumental.
Pedestrian zones with thriving businesses, trams, subways, buses, intercity trains whizzing between stations at 130 km/h, all electric. No unguarded crossings, no horns blown.
Taking a step further than noise-reduction in promoting our well-being and the health of the environment is essential.
Why not unite to better our local environment by letting wildflowers grow where there are lawns, substituting cedar hedging and evergreen brush with flowering trees and bushes, letting leaves stay in gardens and create environments where insects and microorganisms can survive?
Most people are upset about the decay of the environment, but beyond talk, nothing is done. It is not difficult to make a difference with obvious benefits. My good friends, who are employed in the health-care system, claim that if a person can sit on a bench and watch bees, hummingbirds and butterflies fluttering around a diverse offering of wildflowers, it will limit the need for medical aid.
Let us put a little money where our mouth is.
Ole Nygaard, White Rock