Dear Editor:
I walk Grand Boulevard every day from 19th down to Ninth: rain, shine, snow. It is a wonderful area and I have over the years got to know many of the daily walkers and their dogs. As a senior it is a place that I feel safe as there is great visibility and the surface of the path gives good traction in all weather.
My first concern is blacktop can be extremely slippery on a cold winter morning. I try to avoid it if possible by walking on the grass or failing that, tread carefully. It is always a relief to get to the boulevard path where I feel sure-footed.
The planners say that the object of the Green Necklace is to be inclusive but I would suggest that by their own count they are excluding 50 per cent of the people they have heard from who do not want the path paved. Those who want to maintain the gravel path now have nowhere to walk but those that want blacktop already have the existing Green Necklace.
When I spoke to one of the planners and expressed my concern about the environmental impact of blacktop she said this would get people out of their cars and consequently save on pollution. I fail to see how paving the boulevard will do that.
I have yet to hear a reasonable argument for paving.
We live in a beautiful place and we are very lucky but if we continue uncontrolled building and paving we will certainly ruin what is left.
Susan Cowan, North Vancouver
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