Letters for July 10

July 09, 2009

Letter to Editor

White elephants are expensive beasts

Taxpayers are being sold a huge white sewage treatment elephant. Now, to add insult to injury, the Capital Regional District is organizing community meetings to decide whose backyards should be trampled on by this unwelcome pet.

We have a natural ecosystem doing an effective, non-polluting job of treating Victoria’s sewage. For $2 billion we are going to wipe it out and replace it by a number of large industrial-style sewage treatment plants that will cost even more to operate and will devour energy.

The decision to force a white elephant on us was decided a long time ago by uninformed politicians, contrary to all scientific evidence, largely in response to Mr. Floatie.

Mr. Floatie convinced us that floating waste discharged from pleasure craft really came from the city’s sewage out fall. Arguably, Mr. Floatie also gets credit for coming up with the statement the city is “discharging raw sewage”

This misleading statement has been repeated so often it has become accepted as fact. Worse, it leverages our misguided intuition: we are repelled by human waste. Ergo, all organisms must find it just as repulsive. Nobody thought of asking the little critters who have been thriving on the stuff for more than 30 years.

Oh, by the way, that original $600 million elephant is now going to cost more than $1.2 billion. Yes, they cost an arm and a leg to feed.

How to stop this insanity? How do we hold our elected officials accountable? Allowing them to hide behind the misleading “dumping raw sewage” slogan or “it was imposed on us” is not good enough.

Bob Furber

Victoria

Blue bridge has potential

Re: Victoria’s blue bridge is a keeper (Letters, June 26)

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Redner Jones. We should give serious consideration to preserving this marvelous relic of the past – and what better way than giving it new life as an urban park.

Paris set the tone with its Promenade Plantee, a garden built in an old railway viaduct, vintage 1859, with an elevated park walkway.

Ten metres above 17th Street in the old Meatpacking district you’ll find the High Line, which has become one of New York’s hottest, most innovative public spaces. You walk through the ghost of an old railway line, blending wild looking plants with sculptured concrete on a unique elevated promenade.

On a recent trip there an added highlight was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, looking down on traffic crossing the Hudson River below.

Tradition has it that before heading back to Manhattan you must have an ice-cream, making the whole adventure a truly singular experience and one that could easily be incorporated here.

Like the elevated parkways, to walk the blue bridge would be an imaginative way for visitors to discover our beautiful city. Should the necessity of raising the bridge arise – so much the better. To watch the mechanics of the bridge at work and look down as the boats pass below would add further dimension to a promenade toward Spinnakers, where perhaps a little liquid refreshment could become the tradition.

Oh – but how are we going to drive into town you say? Simple. Re-route the traffic to the Bay Street bridge.

The concept of keeping iconic pieces of a city and transforming them into something everyone can use is a modern idea.

So let’s give the old girl a face-lift and light her up just like the Eiffel Tower. The result could be a park of such unsurpassed charm it would be hard to think of visiting Victoria without planning a blue bridge walk.

Alixe Wallis

Victoria

Teen philanthropists deserve our applause

I want to celebrate our young generation’s energy and liveliness in assisting non-profit associations and wish that we, in Victoria, would honour their work and courage more often.

Bridges for Women Society received $5,000 from the Toskan-Casale Foundation. This gift was made to the society due to the dedicated work of two St Michael’s University School Grade 10 students: Robyn Hope and Jocelyn Stedman, both 15.

Prior to October 2008, the girls had little interest in community service. Through the mentorship of their teacher, Kevin Cook, they have self-discovered the highly rewarding benefits brought about by charity work and volunteering.

They became our first ever donors to our online employability program, bringing hope to abused women across Canada who are waiting to change their situation for a better life.

Simply, young people are keen and highly motivated to get involved.

Elizabeth Saint

Saanich

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Letters for July 10

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