Re: “Passionate millennials just won’t vote,” April 8.
After returning from a refreshing holiday in a city where demolitions are uncommon and people actually renovate older homes rather than destroying them (Tucson, AZ), I caught up on my Courier reading. April 8th’s front page caught my eye as a deviation from the unbiased news coverage I expect from the Courier outside its editorial pages.
Jessica Barrett takes mild umbrage against her own peer group for not voting in civic elections but goes off the rails in defining the current plebiscite issue as “a stark generational divide” in which the virtuous young are losing their future due to selfish boomers. (She seems quite unaware of how many seniors rely on public transit.) She writes as if the plebiscite were a black/white issue rather than a complex one that needs the careful, informed analysis it is far from getting. Her advice to her age-mates to just jump on the bandwagon and vote with the mayor represents the least responsible attitude toward civic participation.
A large part of the wariness of seasoned voters towards the plebiscite is the lack of any detail regarding what “Yes” will really entail. The vote in Vancouver is about a mega-project subway, though the ballot mildly refers to “rapid transit along Broadway.” Moreover, citizens cannot even vote for better transit for Surrey without simultaneously okaying whatever “Vision” chooses to do in Vancouver. Towers à la South Cambie strewn through Kitsilano are one scenario, with existing neighbourhood shops and lowrise apartment buildings bulldozed into landfill rubble. City hall is mum on details, but developers are buying up land.
And what about the safety of tunnelling through glacial fill in an earthquake zone, with rising sea levels? How good is the plan, really? Then there’s UBC: with online lectures and online research and group discussions expanding apace, are daily trips to campus really going to be needed in a decade? Is the vote really just a golden opportunity for the mayor and his allies to declare victory and let the developers proceed with redesigning Vancouver? And is the enhanced value of the Jericho lands and housing north of Broadway (out of the shadow of towers) silently a part of the issue?
Neighbourhood planning in Kits is not scheduled until after the vote. I hope young and old will read up on the many articles available on these and related issues, and only then vote.
Joan Bunn, Vancouver
