Narrow perspectives on social realities fuel Lynn Valley opposition

From: Douglas Curran <dougcurran@shaw.ca>

Date: June 19, 2013 2:31:25 PM PDT (CA)

To: editor@nsnews.com

Subject: Narrow perspectives on social realities fuel Lynn Valley opposition

To the editor,

In contradiction to Wendy Quereshi's June 16th letter, Lynn Valley is part of the Metro Regional Growth Strategy which ties municipal land use planning to regional transportation planning.  These strategies - along with the direct reference to the DNVs OCP strategy and Translink's mapping of Frequent Transit Development Areas, were central to SFU's June 12th breakfast seminar on the subject.  

Ms. Quereshi is one citizen among many, and the requirement remains to address the needs of others, not merely those who claim to exclusively define "our community".  In her comment "the citizen's who live here now" Quereshi graciously recognizes her own temporal existence and the knowledge that others will come along within the 20 year OCP timeframe. Logic requires that planning and projections anticipate services and needs that differ from the self-defined "our community". 

Does Quereshi propose that all whose needs do not match her own physical, social and economic situation, be driven off, as not part of the tribe, for failing to meet or sufficiently embrace this "Lynn Valley character"? 

In a similar vein, the "Stop Highrises" meeting June 18th, self-proclaimed its right to speak for all.  Topics of the event ranged from global UN-inspired conspiracy theories designed to force urban dwellers from their cars, to those who found even the Lynn Valley Library to be a travesty of height antagonistic to the Lynn Valley character.

The contradiction between maintaining the LV character and appropriate housing options was amply illustrated by one ("I am angry") young man who protested the prices of proposed lower end (below $300,000) apartments, while still demanding the sole-form dominance of single family homes costing in excess of $1 million that he himself expressed little hope of ever obtaining.  Where will this young man go when he decides that the Lynn Valley housing costs and options no longer meet his needs?  

While lamenting the lack of affordable housing, this same "angry" young man noted the multiple water main breaks on his grandfather's street and wondered why the DNV wasn't doing more to replace that 60 year old infrastructure.  Where does he imagine the money will come from to replace this piping, other than from already-pressed homeowners, many on fixed incomes like his grandfather.  The young man and many in the audience seemed unaware that new developments pay the full costs (DCCs) of all new services required by their projects, new pipes, sewers and sidewalks, costs not paid through general tax revenues.

It is a sobering reflection that many Lynn Valley mall merchants are evaluating their own future potential in Lynn Valley.  Unless they can find a business plan that prospers from seniors, without the spending needs and appetite of the younger generations, singles and families, businesses (and their high tax rates) see their prospects diminishing there.   Without accepting modest change and options for a portion of their community, Lynn Valley will gradually slide into a high cost neighbourhood with the young seeking to build their lives elsewhere.  They are already doing so.

The problem for many aging homeowners is well illustrated by a June 15th Globe and Mail article that points out the dilemma: “Empty nesters' belief in equity is only based on the idea that there are buyers lined up to buy them. But who are the future buyers of those properties? There isn’t a big supply of families in the city who have the money to buy those homes. So how is that equity realized when people decide to tap into it?”  

The preservation of "the Lynn Valley character' will come about not through blind rejection of social and economics realities, but through engaging in wider perspectives of the pressures that increasingly will fall on the DNV.  As noted by the author of the italian classic novel, "The Leopard", “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change”.

sincerely,  Doug Curran

Douglas Curran

2046 Curling Road

North Vancouver, B.C.

Canada  V7P 1X4