Post by John Zeger on Aug 12, 2005 8:29:05 GMT -5
To quote John Harding in his editorial of Aug. 12, 2005, "Some days, we look like such hicks in the Okanagan when it comes to transportion issues. We like to think we're modern, forward-thinking, cutting-edge people. We're not. We're hicks who settle for 1940's infrastructure. We let the government spend more than $150 million of our money on a bridge that will still empty into our downtown core, and they expect us to cheer. We watch silently when hugh box stores are built on an already-clogged artery with, you guessed it, stoplights and two left-turn lands to cope with the exponential increase in traffic. It's maddening, and until we demand better from elected officials and government bureaucrats, we get what we deserve."
In his comments Harding, no doubt, is aiming some of his fire power at provincial officials but a lot of the blame goes to our city council and administration for passively accepting the province's plans for the William R. Bennett bridge. It was apparent to many some time ago that this was only a bandaid solution to transportation problems connecting the Westside to Kelowna and what was needed was a second crossing. But as the new bridge was what the province had in store for us, our city council was passively accepting and thankful for what they could get instead of raising the fuss that they should have and demanding more action on a second crossing. In the meanwhile, our city council just keeps approving one subdivision after another with little or no co-ordination with what is happening on the Westside thereby further clogging our highways. This visionless bunch deserves the boot on November 19.
In his comments Harding, no doubt, is aiming some of his fire power at provincial officials but a lot of the blame goes to our city council and administration for passively accepting the province's plans for the William R. Bennett bridge. It was apparent to many some time ago that this was only a bandaid solution to transportation problems connecting the Westside to Kelowna and what was needed was a second crossing. But as the new bridge was what the province had in store for us, our city council was passively accepting and thankful for what they could get instead of raising the fuss that they should have and demanding more action on a second crossing. In the meanwhile, our city council just keeps approving one subdivision after another with little or no co-ordination with what is happening on the Westside thereby further clogging our highways. This visionless bunch deserves the boot on November 19.