Dear Editor:
Thank you for your Jan. 24 front-page story, West Van’s Population Shrank in 2016.
It certainly gave an interesting perspective of the transportation challenges that have occurred over the last five years. However, to suggest that because the population has not really changed, somehow development is not to blame is missing the point.
The issue in my opinion, and many others is the significant amount of construction that has been going on across the North Shore.
The ability for the trades to live and work here has disappeared, where once they were the ones that built this community and raised a family here. Hundreds of people are being displaced because of redevelopment of existing affordable rental and strata – including light industrial – pushing jobs out as well.
The district’s official community plan envisions a sustainable community to protect future generations, yet how can we accomplish that when we continue to ask those that live and work here to leave, so we can build new higher priced housing and reduce light industrial land. This approach will only allow the lineup of cars on the Cut to get worse. The cost of living and buying a piece of dirt in the community has changed it, with the promise that if we build it, they will come, and it will be more affordable. Well, I guess we got it wrong; they haven’t come, and it has never been more unaffordable.
Coun. Lisa Muri,
District of North Vancouver
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