Dear Editor:
Re: Ambleside Waterfront Concept Plan Unveiled, Nov. 1 news story.
Look again at what you have at Ambleside – sit on the benches, talk to the people who walk there. They love it. They are young parents with kids who play at John Lawson Park; they are seniors who walk, sometimes with walkers and aids; they are painters who haul their canvases and easels; they are families who use the park to barbecue and celebrate. They are young business people who grab a moment of sunshine to eat a sandwich by the sea. They all need the short-term free parking offered nearby, not blocks away underground. Please provide free parking for people who are already stretched with horrendous rents and house prices.
I paint at John Lawson Studio — there must be 100 painters who use that building each week — we lug heavy art supplies from our cars that need to be parked close at hand. There are young wood carvers and theatre kids and musicians who use the facilities. The Music Box, John Lawson Studios are old but quaint — atmosphere! Please leave those old buildings in place. If they go, the artists go.
Don’t expand the kids’ park; build another one further along the shore. Don’t get bigger, that is harder for parents to supervise.
Don’t bring in bistros or pubs to invite loud, drunken crowds on the beach at night — beer bottles strewn amongst the seaweed.
The only thing that I don’t think is right is the dog run along the railway tracks — not safe for the dogs and sad for the old man who has to unhook his dog and send it to the other side of the fence.
A ridiculous control that is often violated.
Look again and listen to the people who use the area — it is lively, vibrant, colourful. Count the hundreds and hundreds of people who use it each day, rain and shine. It is not broken — don’t fix it.
Susan Thomas
North Vancouver
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