The Editor,
Kudos to Premier David Eby for taking steps to cure our failing health system, but I want to bring attention to the failures in his housing policy.
I believe in gentle density to provide housing. Eby’s push for affordable housing will destroy our Lower Mainland cities by bringing density to every scrap of available land.
This will result in loss of trees, destruction of neighbourhoods, streets crowded with fossil fuel-burning vehicles and grey wastelands of towers that will be heat islands for the vulnerable.
In Coquitlam, under BC’s housing-density policy, a small forest of trees was clear-cut to make way for two towers. Not one of the 100-year-old trees was saved — trees that capture one tonne of carbon each in their lifetime and had provided shade for the less affluent in the city centre.
Children need nature to flourish; skyscrapers aren’t conducive to a child’s health.
Residents need green space and parks — with the estimated population increase, places like Stanley Park and Sasamat Lake will be overcrowded.
It will be “The Tragedy of the Commons” where all the special places become so overused that they are no longer special to us.
Beware of what you support!
The housing policy, although excellent in some aspects, is very much like the urban renewal policy of the 1960s. Jane Jacobs would not approve of cities that replace gentle density with skyscrapers.
There is another way. The government in its haste has not taken steps to evaluate alternate solutions.
Yvonne Harris, Coquitlam