UNCOMMON SENSE: Apartments’ colour none of Council’s business
Do you like the clothes you’re wearing right now?
Well, you likely do, since you’re the one who’s wearing them. You picked out your clothes because you liked the colour and design and you are a consumer with the freedom to choose what you like.
So it goes with where you live.
Usually, people buy a house they like because it has a design and colour scheme that’s pleasing to their eye. If they don’t like it, they won’t buy it. That’s the beauty of free market capitalism.
The other thing that’s beautiful about capitalism is that if nobody likes a product because of its design or colours, the manufacturer will change it.
It should be just that simple but apparently it isn’t for our civic politicians.
Council spent the better part of 45 minutes Monday evening debating the colour scheme of a sorely needed apartment complex in Tsawwassen.
Three councillors and the mayor didn’t like the blue, green and yellow tones of the structure, so they sent it back to the developer asking that the colours be changed.
“If it was pink and purple would you change your mind,” asked Mayor Lois Jackson as she voted on a motion to change the colours.
Funny story: When I was 18 and got my first apartment with my wife, we wanted to paint the apartment a regal purple. The landlady was naturally not happy about the idea. She liked white.
But being young, we painted it purple anyway. The reception from friends and family to our colour scheme was as mixed as you’d expect.
For years, ours was the purple apartment one could see while walking along busy Roncesvalles in Toronto. Passersby could see inside our living room from the street and so even strangers would admit they’d seen it when we’d describe where we lived.
When we finally moved away, the landlady told us the apartment rented in a day. Surprise, we were not the only the people who liked purple.
But look, this apartment building wasn’t going to be purple. Or pink. It was going to be green and blue and yellow, which are all tones which greatly remind me of Tsawwassen. Personally, I kind of liked the scheme.
And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? If you don’t want to live in a green-blue-yellow building (or a purple apartment), then don’t. And if you don’t want to wear plaid or polka dots, then don’t.
Just don’t go around telling people what colours to like and what clothes to wear. After all, our municipal politicians weren’t elected for their fashion sense.
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