Deconstruction makes great sense
It occurred to me recently that with the high cost of lumber, we should consider demolishing homes and salvaging all usable materials.
I was thrilled to read that the City of Victoria is considering a bylaw that will encourage deconstruction of houses. 颅Consider the lumber in older homes that were constructed with old-growth forest.
What a great way to save what little of the old-growth forests we have remaining. It is also helps to create new jobs, and to reduce waste.
In the midst of so much bad news in the media these days, I find this truly uplifting.
Connie Lebeau
Saanich
More good news from the council that cares
Once again we are blessed with another solution to housing.
This time we will save the landfill by doubling the cost of demolishing 颅buildings because everybody wants used cabinets and countertops.
Seems the only people getting a break on housing are the homeless.
Only in Victoria. What鈥檚 next? Are we going to start petitioning drug-running for pre-teens downtown as an act of sainthood? When will the woke awake?
Tim Murphy
Esquimalt
A thrilling sighting of a Richardson cyclist
Good news for Victoria city councillors! I saw a cyclist on Richardson Street!
It only took eight journeys last week along Richardson between Foul Bay Road and Kipling Street before I spotted one, but it was definitely a cyclist.
No doubt this individual will be 颅grateful to councillors for spending $1.7聽million to provide them with their own special lane.
Peter Denby
Victoria
Have we got our priorities right?
I have seen a lot of letters lately and it seems for the most part it is bike lanes and, yes, even dandelions. What I don鈥檛 understand is the lack of response on any level to the present real estate market.
The 鈥渟peculation tax鈥� was supposed to be the 鈥渂e all and end all,鈥� and some of the results I saw from that was some money in government coffers, people losing their future retirement homes and people who gave 20 to 30 years to our city, loved it here and supported our local economy only to lose it all to the speculation tax.
Now we see 鈥渟old over asking,鈥� which to me looks like bragging rights for the real-estate agent and his or her company. It is no longer reasonable to look at a list price of, for instance, $500,000 and expect to pay that.
Are the reasons 鈥渋t鈥檚 a hot market, it鈥檚 a seller鈥檚 market or perhaps whatever the market will bear鈥� enough to warrant buyers expecting to pay tens of thousands of dollars and yes, even a million dollars, over asking price?
What about the potential buyers who lose out in 鈥渂idding wars,鈥� who can鈥檛 bid that high? How many times will they have to subject themselves to this process? Will they be forced out to the suburbs, 颅up-Island or off the Island altogether?
Don鈥檛 we have this coast -to-coast discussion of how high real estate prices are in 91原创, Toronto and Victoria?
So the government implements the speculation tax, not caring who is hurt in the process, but doesn鈥檛 blink an eye as prices skyrocket even more due to 颅bidding wars.
COVID-19 really brought to the 颅forefront the cost of housing, and yet rental and ownership is becoming less and less affordable.
Are we helpless to stop this cycle?
Merle Somers
Victoria
Back in, drive out can be a problem
As I sit here in the parking lot at Woodgrove Mall in Nanaimo, I have been observing various parking styles and have concluded that while back-in, 颅drive-out might seem like good advice for even minimally skilled drivers, the sad fact is that many drivers are incapable of this manoeuvre.
I just watched an elderly man鈥檚 futile attempt at backing into a parking stall, and after about five minutes of 颅seesawing back and forth he gave up and drove straight into a vacant spot across from him.
It probably didn鈥檛 help that he was driving a cruise-liner-sized SUV, but I聽suppose it was just fortunate that he didn鈥檛 crush one of the smaller vehicles on either side of him during his aborted BIDO attempt.
Len Dafoe
Nanoose Bay
The dandelion roars, so bring on that wine
Re: 鈥淒andelion recipe will prove she is real,鈥� letter, May 14.
I should have known better than to mess with a lady named Lamb. What has resulted is a bit unnerving. It appears a tear in the fabric of the universe has opened and dandelion energy is pouring through.
When I wrote my misguided letter about dandelion freedom fighters, I was well aware that a year ago this month my friend Thelma Fayle had penned a paean called 鈥淚 am dandelion, hear me roar鈥� for the Globe and Mail.
This should have told me to proceed with caution, but did I listen? The roaring in response to my letter has been deafening. Not only that, the gods appear to be in on it.
As soon as my letter appeared, Thelma emailed me with a 鈥渄ouble dare鈥� to mend my ways. As with Heidi Lamb鈥檚 and Patty Cushing鈥檚 kind letters, Thelma鈥檚 email referenced dandelion wine.
The next day, Thelma emailed again to advise that to her delight, while 颅tidying a little neighbourhood library box, she found a 鈥渂ook I have meant to read for a long time, Dandelion Wine by Ray 颅Bradbury.鈥�
I replied with a confession that while she鈥檇 been making her discovery, I鈥檇 been scanning Facebook only to be confronted by something titled 鈥淗ello, I鈥檓 a Dandelion.鈥�
Like, alright already, I get it that the dandelion has a multiplicity of virtues! Can I help it if I don鈥檛 like the look of the little suckers? As I said in my letter, each-to-his-or-her-own. I know I also said 鈥渓ive-and-let-live,鈥� but that鈥檚 definitely a stretch.
I can see that my only alternative to years of therapy for this internal conflict and tendency to extreme prejudice is the medicinal consumption of dandelion wine as recommended by Thelma, Heidi and Patty.
Patrick Wolfe
Victoria
Take pride in your lawn, get rid of those weeds
Re: 鈥淵our lawn laziness can save the planet,鈥� Jack Knox, May 15.
Way to go, Jack. This city doesn鈥檛 need your help in its continuing spiral to the bottom, as a result of decisions made by the hippies at city hall, and laziness disguised as being environmentally 颅conscious.
Allowing boulevard gardens on city property, lack of maintenance by the city on the streets and boulevards, and soon we will become a city of front-yard 颅garbage cans, with the threatened changes to the service of retrieving cans from back yards.
I will continue to take pride in my weed-free, watered lawn while the neighbours drink Lucky Lager and hold engagement parties for their cousins in their weed-choked, bee-friendly, unkempt front yards.
Vern Miles
Victoria
Control your cat to help save the birds
It鈥檚 encouraging to see some cat owners arguing in favour of controlling cats, which is better for wildlife, and keeps cats alive longer, too. At the same time, it is distressing that others prefer either to hope the problem of predation by cats will go away, or that it doesn鈥檛 exist.
The fact remains that cats, whether feral or 鈥渙wned,鈥� kill more birds than all other human causes combined 鈥� office towers, wind turbines, pesticides, road kills and window kills.
Cats kill more than four billion birds in the United States every year; in Canada the number is thought to be between 300聽and 400 million annually.
Cats also spread diseases to humans; they are too numerous to list, but are well documented online. Add to this the fact that free-roaming cats foul vegetable gardens and play areas while uncontrolled.
There is no other domestic animal we allow to roam freely. It is time for local governments to face the facts and pass cat-control bylaws.
Bruce Whittington
Ladysmith
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