To the editor:
Re: “Rebel community centres mount fresh legal attack on park board,” Oct. 3 (online)
It’s time for the voting public to speak out loudly and demand that Mayor Gregor Robertson and elected city council members step up and denounce the forced eviction of the six communities suing the Park Board.
Our volunteer-run community associations should be celebrated; without them many community centres across the city wouldn’t even exist. Now they are being vilified and terminated simply because they are brave enough to hold this aggressive park board to task.
If we allow them to vanish, as the park board clearly wants, critical subsidized programming for seniors, young families and youth will be in danger too.
Associations increase community engagement better than any “engaged city task force.” They have real decision-making power and ensure residents have a direct say in the programs and services offered close to home and in their neighbourhood.
City hall and the park board fear that power and want to snuff it out.
This issue is about power and money plain and simple. Our current elected officials — who this week announced a projected $13 million shortfall despite planned tax hike, higher utilities and user fees — want to take community funds out of the communities and centralize all the power with Penny Ballem.
We can’t let that happen. Now is the time to exercise our collective power and fight back too.
Trevor Boudreau,
Vancouver
