Langford is blessed with many grocery stores
I have been reading in the media about the lack of grocery store options in Canada.
Here in Langford, population 50,000, we have nine major grocery outlets. We have two Fairways as well as a Thrifty, Quality Foods, Superstore, Walmart, Market on Millstream, Save on Foods and Costco. As well we have a great meat market in Glenwood Meats.
In Colwood, a mile down Veterans Memorial Parkway, is a Red Barn Market. We also have a summer market at Veterans Memorial Park. Our grocery stores provide a wide variety of products and prices.
Norman Arden
Langford
Keating overpass doesn’t make sense
Re: “Excavators start digging in for long-awaited Keating overpass” July 5th
Half a century ago, when the Keating overpass was proposed along with many other urban highway expansion projects, climate change was not even a consideration. Too many politicians seem to still live in this distant past, despite their lip service to climate action.
In 2019 youth climate strikers pressured Capital Regional District directors to unanimously declare a climate emergency. But there was precious little follow-up.
In 2021 the provincial government set a target of reducing vehicle kilometres travelled by 25 per cent by 2030. Most politicians are choosing to ignore this ambitious target which can only be achieved with decisive action from the province, municipalities, and regional districts.
Bus lanes for RapidBus, and bike and roll route improvements, are stalled for lack of funds, and an inexpensive traffic light would alleviate safety concerns at the Keating intersection.
Spending millions to accommodate more cars makes no sense when our climate plan calls for much less traffic.
Delaying climate action has a high cost in homes, livelihoods, and lives. And better public transit has many benefits, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas pollution.
The provincial vehicle kilometres reduction target isn’t the only important thing politicians need to focus on, but it is a litmus test for commitment to serious climate action.
So far, many politicians aren’t passing the test.
Eric Doherty and Jane Welton
Climate Justice Team co-leads
Greater Victoria Acting Together
Is Victoria joking about the fountain?
Is it really possible that Victoria council is considering replacing the fountain in Centennial Square, this iconic piece of art, with a children’s splash park?
Please tell me this is a joke.
As a child, my friends and I rode our bikes there to meet.
As a teen we rode the bus there to meet before going to the disco.
Now as a senior my friends and I walk our dogs there to meet for coffee.
I live in James Bay and am questioned by the cruise ship tourists every day “what should we see in this beautiful city?”
Of course, the Parliament Buildings and gorgeous fountain. Another great fountain is by the Tally Ho stand. The best fountain is at City Hall.
City Hall first destroyed the best storm watching Mecca at Clover Point by replacing parking spots with picnic tables that nobody ever uses. Try taking your 90-year-old father there now to watch a good storm.
He had tears in his eyes when I told him about the proposed plan for the fountain at Centennial Square.
Really?
Give your head a shake.
Terry Glass
Victoria
Spend crosswalk dollars on other priorities
The TC article regarding damaged “rainbow” crosswalks caught me eye, but not for the expected reason.
Under no circumstances can one condone the damaging or defacing of public property.
The perpetrators should be caught and dealt with appropriately.
What about the $14,000 price tag for each of those crosswalks?
When economic times are tough for many, might the funds be better spent to donate to community food banks? Or fill some more potholes? Or build sidewalks so children can more safely walk to school?
No doubt taxpayers can think of many other important things that need doing. One must wonder whether multi-coloured crosswalks would be at the top of the list.
S.A. McBride
Cordova Bay
Affordability is a complicated issue
Re: “In Greater Victoria, infill housing could be the new recycling,” commentary, July 5.
Todd Litman writes that more housing supply, with infill housing, is an effective way to create more affordable communities.
Affordability is more complicated than just adding density and housing supply. UBC professor Patrick Condon says there’s no proof that it does and that setting policy to control land price escalation could help.
In Montreal, where a one-bedroom apartment is $520 a month (39 per cent) less expensive than Victoria (source: Homeless Hub), rental lease transfer laws between successive tenants and sub-let laws in the Province of Quebec may be more relevant in holding rents down than Montreal’s higher density.
We need to look beyond just housing supply to solve the affordability crisis.
Steve New
Victoria
Do something about dangerous electric bikes
Now that Saanich has seemingly got the dogs rampaging through our parks under control, would they please give a thought to licensing the silent and fast electric bikes whizzing through our parks?
In the past week I have been startled by quiet, fast electric bikes rushing up behind me with no warning while I am walking my leashed and tagged dogs through what I thought were pedestrian paths.
These are motorized vehicles but don’t seem to need to obey the rules of the road. With the explosion of these new modes of transportation thought should be given to the education of new riders.
Most have no idea how fast they are going and how silent they are. These are not the old CCMs that we rode to school on.
Please consider licensing these new vehicles as you do dogs and other motorized forms of transportation.
Nancy Bain
Saanich
If you are on the road, you should have a licence
Re: “Drivers, take more care on our roads,” letter, July 3.
Fortunately the cyclist wasn’t injured when the cars drove through the stop signs. However I would say that “all people using the roads should always stop at stop signs.”
Every day while driving in Victoria, with cycle routes and bike lanes everywhere, I witness one or more cyclists risking their lives by ignoring a stop sign and riding straight through.
So much more than I’ve ever seen cars not stopping and much more risky for the cyclist I’d say.
It’s especially shocking to me to witness parents riding with children ignoring the stop signs. The cyclists not stopping are taking such dangerous risks, at times they might have the right of way but do the stop signs not apply to all road users at all times?
No one is above the rules of the road, are they? There appears to be an air of entitlement and invincibility as these cyclists whizz by. With their heads only facing forward and eyes straight ahead, not breaking their momentum, or even slowing down slightly, never mind any eye contact with the driver.
And in that moment I have to ask myself … what are they thinking by intentionally putting their lives (and others ) in such danger?
Maybe it’s time for all road users to have a road test and get a licence.
Connie Rese
Victoria
Driving at excessive speeds not fair to the rest
The speeder who was nabbed recently on the Coquihalla Highway doing more than twice the speed limit was let off with a $1,000 fine. Paltry when you consider the cost of the car.
How about the mom with a carload of kids trundling along at just over 100 km/h? The slightest mistake, miscalculation, which at or below the speed limit would amount to nothing.
But at more than twice the speed limit for one vehicle, this scenario rapidly escalates into a major, major, traffic horror.
The powers that be would say that speed was involved. In every human activity, speed is always involved. Police love it. No proof needed. The real problem is speed differential.
If that idiot was to hit a car doing the speed limit, it would be the same as him running into a tree at over the speed limit. That pseudo-racecar should have been put into the nearest crusher.
The justice system has to deal those who drive at excessive speeds on the provinces roadways. It ain’t fair to the vast majority of law-abiding motorists.
Paul Bond
Campbell River
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