Dear Editor: I read with great disappointment the article by Theresa McManus, Fed up with Front Street, in the June 8 edition of the Record.
The city council and staff of New Westminster have demonstrated without a doubt that they are incompetent to prudently manage this city. We moved here in 2013 and noted with excitement that the Fourth Street elevator was to be completed, the Anvil Centre was opening and the Trapp Block would be completed the next year.
Two years later the elevator was still not open and continues to this day to be unreliable transport. The Anvil Centre still does not seem to have a single tenant in the commercial tower. I can only imagine how the new residents of Trapp Block feel at the endless blockage of their parking garage.
We have watched with dismay the carnage to Front Street and the damage to its merchants. We have dealt with Harm Woldring for years at the Wine Factory, and it is sometimes hard to believe that there is not some personal agenda from city staff when we consider how his business has been damaged over the past few years. Each time we visit it is an adventure in how to get there, how to park with road closures and construction debris. Seriously, New West, give the guy a break!
I watch the empty commercial buildings in New Westminster, lack of new businesses, and continued ex-migration of businesses who cannot afford to do business in New Westminster.
The city is just not business-friendly, and the treatment of the Front Street merchants demonstrates that in spades.
Maggie Neilson, New Westminster
