Editor:
Re: Peacock fans call out, as feathers fly over felled tree, May 4.
I am a huge fan of trees and wildlife, which has its place. Peacocks are beautiful, yes, but not when they’re taking over your life.
Why would anyone want to live in a horrid situation as Parm Brar and his family have had to endure? He reached out to the city, and shame on them for not respecting one of its citizen’s concerns.
It would have been ideal if these dirty and loud creatures were relocated before the problem got even worse. It’s too bad that a tree had to be sacrificed to try to cure the problem. When one is at their wit’s end, not always smart decisions are made.
I wonder how many of these naysayers would have stood the onslaught. We really need to look at situations from both sides of the fence. If one can’t even enjoy their own living space because of a constant nuisance and health threat, there has to be some accountability on the city.
It’s not that he never tried. I don’t believe he should be fined, either, because the city was dragging its heels. I think the family has gone through enough and already paid a hefty price for it. Desperation is what it comes down to.
Good luck on reaching understanding from the masses, Brar family. You should not be getting snubbed for trying to find some peace in the chaos.
Patricia Seggie, Surrey
• • •
I have an answer to the Brar family’s peacock problem. Corral the birds and re-distribute them to the properties of the city council members.
Then let’s see how fast a solution is reached.
City council should fine themselves $10,000 for their disregard and/or lack of action on this problem over the last three years. Seems to me, Parm Brar has done his part in trying to find a resolution to this city problem. I can only imagine his frustration!
If this bird problem was located in, let’s say, white, old-moneyed White Rock, would we be faced with this problem three years later?
Pat McGuire, Surrey
• • •
“Taking down a big tree, it’s not something we want happening in the city. We’re going to take it very seriously,” said Surrey’s bylaw manager.
Please, come see our neighbourhood in Sunnyside where properties with one house and dozens of huge trees are being completely bulldozed for ‘revitalization,’ leaving not one tree standing.
Where is the city bylaw manager? Our whole neighbourhood filled with huge trees is apparently slated for ‘revitalization’!!
This hypocrisy is over the top.
Leave this guy alone. This is a city issue that was left on this taxpayer’s shoulders to the point it endangered his family.
Marilyn E. Pearson, Surrey
• • •
With reference to your story regarding a home- owner who was fined for cutting down the so-called peacock tree, the City of Surrey is such a hypocrite.
Just drive down 24 Avenue in the area under commercial and residential development in the Grandview area and take note of the countless trees being cut to enable development. In so many instances, more trees could have been saved along the streets and avenues, and in other places where digging and building did not take place. But, no, that would inconvenience the developers and might slow down the eventual flow of property taxes and other revenues into the city’s coffers.
It’s now a gold mine for tree nurseries.
If this isn’t proof enough of the city’s hypocrisy, motor on to the industrial park area along 24 Avenue and 192 Street and see where whole forests – perhaps hundreds of thousands of trees – were cleared to build the industrial zone, enhancing the growth of Surrey. You can bet the city has publicized a spin on the value of this development.
Did the city mourn every tree? No, they had to go.
It’s not that I disagree with development. What is so irritating is how the City of Surrey has allowed whole forests to be razed in the name of development without much attempt to salvage trees. Yet woe to the hapless and frustrated homeowner who dares to challenge the bureaucracy and its restrictive rules by removing or tampering with one tree!
The bureaucracy has the power to punish, and asserts its power with $1,000 or even $10,000 fines.
Such hypocrisy!
Michael Zrymiak, Surrey