To the editor:
Re: “CP wants Arbutus Corridor cleared,” July 4.
Last weekend residents of the Cypress, Pine and Maple community gardens hosted visitors to show the results of their 25-year area beautification project. They also collected signatures for a petition to save the gardens of the Arbutus Corridor.
As their website says, “Community gardens do more than provide healthful locally grown food. They promote the development of community…”
Both the gardens and the community are threatened by a July 31st deadline. That’s when CP Rail says they will bar access and begin to clear a right-of-way cutting right through the centre of the gardens. CP calls the gardeners “trespassers,” though running trains co-existed with the gardens until 2001.
At heart is CP’s dispute over fair market value for land Vancouver has offered to buy for greenspace. CP wants more money for this land, granted by B.C. 128 years ago.
Community residents are caught in the middle, and a beautiful area appreciated daily by hundreds of Vancouverites is at imminent risk.
CP could demonstrate good community citizenship by pausing their plans, entering into mediation with the city and giving the gardeners a reprieve while they bring in their harvest.
George Heyman,
MLA, Vancouver-Fairview
