To the editor,
I read with interest your feature entitled “A bridge too close” (New Westminster Record, Feb. 4 th). In it you describe the intrusion of the proposed Q2Q pedestrian bridge on some residents adjoining the Quayside promenade. I very much feel for the discomfort of those affected.
We residents of the Lower Mainland are fortunate for any number of reasons. One of them is the proximity to nature and the many venues we have to appreciate the natural world.
We are especially blessed with a wide variety of vistas. One of those is right here in New Westminster; the river walk from Pier Park in the east to Rialto Court on the west. The effect of a dominant nature composed of big sky, big river and big trees is really quite breathtaking. All of the man-made bits – the buildings, the railway trestle, even the Fraser Surrey docks – appear to be in scale. For the hundreds of daily visitors attracted to the promenade, as well as the residents fortunate enough to live adjacent, this is really something to appreciate – an oasis in the middle of some two million people.
Sadly, not everyone views such wonders the same way. It seems that in the pursuit of “progress” and “growth” nature becomes, well, expendable. And that means that our collective quality of life is reduced.
Case in point is what has happened to our own river vista. The Peninsula Tower, currently under construction on the Port Royal site in Queensborough, has largely removed the dominant natural element altogether. When only six or seven storeys tall this tower could be seen rising from Columbia Street in downtown New Westminster. Right now it is at 13 or 14 storeys and fairly looms over downtown, and there are, I understand, six or eight storeys still to go.
The area of the Port Royal district was always limited by zoning to, I believe, a four storey maximum. Until one day it evidently occurred to our city council that changing the zoning to allow a highrise to be built seemed like a good idea.
The effect has been dramatic. The uninterrupted river vista is now gone forever. The presence of this single tower draws both the Quayside and Port Royal communities into downtown New Westminster: the unique qualities of both of these distinctive neighbourhoods are diminished. New Westminster has become just another city on another river.
We often condemn developers for poorly conceived, ill-suited or simply unwelcome intrusions. But it bears keeping in mind that no development – no matter the merits – is possible without our elected officials first enabling the process. These officials, who are always the first to assure us of their inviolate commitment to protect nature, preserve vistas, look out for the best interests of neighbourhoods, improve our quality of life and so on and so forth, are the very ones who regularly disappoint by failing to put deeds next to words. There’s always an explanation, of course: it’s “progress,” or a “must-have” or “must-do” or simply an “opportunity.” The kindest thing I can say is these matters are seldom very well thought out; the worst is that they are expressions of monumentalism by self-absorbed and self-important elected officials who feel they have to be seen doing something beyond paving the city’s roads and making sure the garbage is regularly picked up.
The proposed Q2Q pedestrian bridge, like the Peninsula Tower, is a perfect example of elected officialdom abandoning the esthetic in favour of its own “we know better” agenda.
Completion of this bridge, by the way, is not a solution to a problem, which doesn’t exist in the first place, yet promises to create unforeseen problems. The promenade will become another seawall, with not hundreds but rather thousands of pedestrians almost every day. And Richmond – immediately adjacent to Queensborough – is host to an extensive bicycle culture: the infusion of hundreds of cyclists promises to make matters interesting indeed along the promenade, and quite possibly overwhelm it entirely. All of this will, of course, be to the detriment of those currently living along the river there, as doubtless such volumes will spill over into the late evening and early morning hours. It is only reasonable to assume that a step-up in public safety measures- never insignificant in cost - will be but one outcome.
And so I empathize with the Mr. and Mrs. Gibson of your article, and the hundreds of others living along the Promenade. The Pedestrian Bridge is sadly just the next Big Idea by those who too frequently fail to see that there’s more to be gained by simply leaving things as they are.
Communities would be well served if they had elected officials – and planning staffs, I might add – who vigorously fight for and champion the esthetic within their communities. Those are the folks I could support.
Thank you.
Brian Macandrew, New Westminster
