The Year of the Rat? A sign from above
In the manner of many columnists, I need to begin this with “I’m not making this up.”
On Saturday, which was Chinese New Year’s Day according to the lunar calendar, my wife was out doing some pruning in the garden.
Suddenly, there was a great clamour in the tree above her: a gorgeous Cooper’s hawk. And it dropped its squealing prey only a few feet from her.
It was a small but healthy-looking rat. It scampered off. The hawk sat glaring from the treetop.
But of course. The Year of the Rat. A good sign or bad?
Winston Jackson
Victoria
Cellphone returned, thanks to Victoria
Thanks Victoria! On Saturday, I unknowingly lost my cellphone downtown. The next day, when we realized it was missing, my wife’s phone directed us to the police station.
A big thanks goes to the person who found it and took the time to drop the phone into the lock box at the police station.
We also appreciate the police officer who retrieved the phone for us, even though the office was closed. There are so many good people in our midst!
Ray Walker
Parksville
Tunnel was proposed for Kennedy Hill
It was troubling to hear again of the closure of Highway 4 at Kennedy Hill, which has been the scene of so many fatal and costly accidents and road closures, cutting off road travel to Ucluelet and Tofino.
Each incident reminds me of when the road was first planned and built in 1961.
Back then, Larry Rowland, logging road engineer for B.C. Forest Products, was tasked with designing and building that section of road for the B.C. highways department as a condition of being granted a Clayoquot tree farm licence.
Rowland (my father) designed a tunnel to go through Kennedy Hill. I saw the tunnel blueprints. But his design was rejected by his superiors and he was told to build the road on the cliff instead. I remember how disappointed he was at the time, and am reminded of it every time I hear of troubles on the Hill.
I am inspired by my dad’s common sense vision and foresight. Is a tunnel that hard to build? Another option is a floating bridge on Kennedy Lake bypassing Kennedy Hill.
Thanks to the Times Colonist for keeping us informed every time a vehicle or a piece of road falls off the cliff on Kennedy Hill.
I suppose the news will continue in the future, but it is preventable with a little common-sense vision and foresight.
Gary Rowland
Nanaimo
Swerving for potholes taken for drunk driving
How bad are the potholes in area roads? So crummy that I had an RCMP officer come to my house.
Four times a week, I make the 43-kilometre drive into downtown Victoria from Otter Point and back, so I’ve gotten to know the roads pretty well.
In the past five weeks or so, the number of potholes has multiplied. Fearing a flat tire or a ruined wheel alignment, I dodge the potholes when I can.
On Monday, a vehicle following me from the Sookehalla into downtown Sooke mistook my swerves as a sign of a drunk driver and reported me to the RCMP.
The police officer who knocked on my door was pleasant and said it was obvious I wasn’t drunk. He checked my driving record and discovered I have zero infractions.
So, when will our rapidly degrading roads be repaired, from the 7800-block of West Coast Road to the extremely awful 400-block of Government Street?
Notably, the RCMP officer did not tell me to stop trying to avoid the big, nasty holes.
Shannon Moneo
Sooke
Voices of neighbourhood associations are too loud
At last Thursday’s Victoria council meeting, there was yet another example of what happens when a small number of loud neighbourhood-association voices drown out the will of the majority.
Two North Park Neighbourhood Association board members explained why temporary changes to “their” park are unacceptable to meet the needs of 87,641 Crystal Pool users (2019 data).
(For reference, the population of Victoria is 85,792, according to the 2016 census.)
In 2018, 80 per cent of residents surveyed by the City of Victoria voted in favour of the original Central Park location for the new Crystal Pool.
Then a small group of loud voices caused delays, and here we are — 18 months later — without a plan.
At the recent North Park Neighbourhood Association meeting, in which a letter to council was discussed, there were 12 people in attendance, roughly five of whom voiced support for the new 940 Caledonia site proposal.
Now, both the Downtown Residents Association and the Hillside-Quadra Neighbourhood Association are backing this ill-thought-through proposal, presumably without first asking members for input. As a voting member of the Hillside-Quadra Neighbourhood Association, I was certainly not notified or asked for my opinion before my neighbourhood association went public with its support.
I believe everyone has the right to have their voice heard, and I believe neighbourhood associations should be representing the will of their residents. But this means they are responsible for representing all of their membership — not simply the few who shout the loudest.
Karmen McNamara
Victoria
Not everyone has a Dorothy to tackle oil spills
The Gorge Waterway has native oysters, herring, salmon and birds, not to mention people. A co-ordinated response among jurisdictions to oil streaming out of Gorge Creek for about a week only happened on Friday, largely because of the efforts of one particularly tenacious community advocate — otherwise Esquimalt would still be battling the problem on its own with insufficient crew and resources.
The initial official story, completely implausible but promoted by those in charge of response, was that the spill came from a derelict vessel over a mile away downstream. Subsequent work by Esquimalt failed to find the source of the oil, and failed to contain the spill to the creek.
A week-long telephone campaign by Dorothy Chambers finally brought the Western Canada Spill Response and a professional spill-containment contractor to the job.
We are told that we are in a centre for oil-spill-response expertise in Victoria, with fancy boats hanging around to promote the safety of oil shipments.
This is not the first spill in our area, but it seems like the same story every time.
What does it take to learn from these events and mobilize collaborative effort in a more timely fashion? What happens in the areas where there is no Dorothy?
Sounds like we still need a whole lot more collaborative effort and professional responsibility in case Dorothy takes a holiday.
Joachim Carolsfeld, executive director
World Fisheries Trust
Victoria
Eyesores aren’t just on the water
Re: “Derelict boats an ongoing eyesore on the Gorge,” letter, Jan. 26.
Our bylaws covering land-based visual pollution seem as ineffectual as those pertaining to the floating junk in our waterways.
The Gorge resident shares similar concerns with us street dwellers who pass their neighbours’ piles of flotsam and jetsam on front lawns and yards everywhere.
Are we afraid to challenge these esthetic offenders in case they claim some plausible excuses?
If some don’t have the means, we can help. If they refuse to comply, take action and claim restitution of costs.
Could our cities’ obvious unwillingness to effect measures be due to excessive fastidiousness when it comes to getting down and dirty?
Sometimes it is necessary to get the scrubbing gloves on and clean house.
Russell Thompson
Victoria
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