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LAUTENS: An issue that could make or break West Van political careers

My strongest advice to West Vancouver Couns.

My strongest advice to West Vancouver Couns. Bill Soprovich, Nora Gambioli, Peter Lambur, Christine Cassidy, Mary-Ann Booth, Craig Cameron:

Reject the Larco/Lalji family’s proposed towers on Park Royal Shopping Centre, Marine Drive and Taylor Way, at next Monday’s public hearing – if you seek re-election, respect WV public opinion, and/or value your political legacy.

WV small-to-not-so-small business owners: You especially should show up and speak loudly. Unless you’ve enjoyed having Park Royal siphoning off your businesses for many years.

Brief review of the last few months:

A bridge exists called Wardance.

It is owned by Park Royal.

It is on Squamish First Nation land.

The road off Wardance, immediately east of the shopping centre, by my count leads to seven entrances to the shopping centre’s Park Royal South. Then directly to Park Royal North.

WV council voted to provide about $700,000 toward the bridge’s reconstruction cost. The Lalji family then donated about $700,000 to the WV main community centre. WV gratefully gave naming rights to the Laljis for the centre’s atrium for 25 years.

Now, a matter of weeks later, they’re in front of council for permission to build two condo towers on the shopping centre – right in the thick of an area screaming for traffic relief – a plan that met strong push-back when it was made public six-odd years ago.

Following the bouncing ball of this summary – any cynicism out there? Not for a moment do I attribute any suspect activity, any dirty work at the crossroads, personal or corporate, in this narrative. But bad optics. Very bad.

The towers would be built about 15 seconds west – when there’s no traffic – of three-lane Lions Gate Bridge to and from downtown. But there is traffic. From north, east and west it comes. Morning and afternoon “rush hours” are creeping traffic rheumatism.

Public transit? Increasingly, packed buses groan past flashing the “Sorry” sign.

As for the assurances by Park Royal’s very nice Rick Amantea that many of the prospective dwellers of the towers won’t own or need cars and thus won’t add to the congestion, or any suggestion that rental units in the towers will contribute to easing Metro Vancouver’s housing crisis – it is to laugh.

No question where Mayor Michael Smith stands. Naysayers. Mischief-makers. Negative Nellies. This oft-repeated Smith vocabulary makes no allowance for those who might just honestly disagree with him. Throw in his eye-popping characterization of a stretch of Ambleside small businesses as “the Gaza Strip,” with its ethnic overtones.

It may seem ingenuous to state: I like Smith. I understand his frustration. It’s his chumminess with development billionaires and his vision for West Vancouver – which would be a ghetto ranging from the merely well-off to the super-wealthy – that I question.

• • •

Latest from the West Vancouver election front, subject to change before the print dries: A quick-and-dirty (as they’re called) phone survey about 10 days ago by the Mustel research people.

The questions, as Agent M9vE%R2 recalls it, were roughly: (1) For mayor, would you favour: Mary-Ann Booth or Michael Smith? (2) For mayor, would you favour: Mary-Ann Booth or Mark Sager?

Hmm. Who do you guess commissioned that poll? (Possible clue: She launched her campaign Tuesday, after my deadline passed.)

An old backroom operative rejects chat here recently that former mayor Sager is interested in reprising his role. He quickly phoned from afar insisting that Sager covets Liberal Ralph Sultan’s West Vancouver-Capilano seat in the legislature. After popular Ralphie decorously retires, of course.

Fresh rumour: Christine Cassidy, a frequent skeptic on council, is musing about a run for the mayor’s office. So I asked.

It appears Cassidy is very wary of newspaper folk. Evidently thinks we can’t be trusted. A grotesque libel, even if true. The most she would allow was: “Advice is always being given. Requests are always being made. ... See what events follow.”

The Delphic Oracle was chattier.

• • •

As warned above, the print about West Van elections hadn’t even dried before the even later than the latest emerged. Which is: Municipal party politics by any euphemism may come thunderbolting at our sober town – within just weeks.

Agent h7F39k reports an audacious move to create a slate of four like-minded candidates – if elected, a council majority – to run in the October election.

And here’s the bombshell: Not one will be a current councillor. The earth trembles.

• • •

Scene: The men’s washroom at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Time: Intermission last Sunday for Vancouver Opera’s (superb) Eugene Onegin. The second act had grippingly ended with Onegin killing his former close friend in a duel. Bard on the Beach’s treasured leader Christopher Gaze and I catch each other’s eye simultaneously.

Gaze: “Wasn’t that a magnificent scene!”

TL: “Well, of course, you’re Shakespearean – you love blood and killing!”

Gaze, perfect timing, paused three seconds. Onlookers tensed. Then, his gorgeous, evenly delivered line: “More than I love Christmas.” The hysterical laughter could have cracked the urinals.

• • •

More entertainment: Theatre BC North Shore Zone Festival of Plays began with Sunday’s “icebreaker” schmooze and runs till May 5 at Presentation House – good fun, good value. As for many years, Theatre West Van, which has a delightful weakness for Agatha Christie thrillers and finished a run of her Go Back for Murder Saturday, isn’t entered, being terrified of winning – can’t afford to go to the provincial finals. The North Shore Light Opera Society marks its old age (70) with some bright young performers in Into the Woods, May 9-12 at Centennial Theatre.

rtlautens@gmail.com

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