If one highrise is too many, then White Rock has no less than 15 too many, some built in every decade since the 70s. I don’t believe the previous 15 have caused any more harm to White Rock than the subdivision of the west side or hillside zoning for large houses on cottage lots or the small lot subdivisions south of the hospital.

The question isn’t whether the population should increase, it is whether it will continue to increase. And since anyone not in a state of denial will see that more people will continue to move here one way or another, the question then becomes, what is the best way to accommodate them?

Growth provides critical mass to support public transit and local commercial districts. If growth does not equal increased revenue to cover maintenance, neither does stagnation.

The reason for providing for growth but in a high density form is to create neighbourhoods that support a walking lifestyle. The reason for highrises is to accommodate that density in a less crowded feeling neigbourhood.

Some people laugh when I say that towers feel less crowded than shorter buildings, but I challenge anyone to find me a neighbourhood that achieves a 4.5 FAR that doesn’t have a strong feeling of containment.

People keep telling me they want an “open feeling” when they are uptown. I know it is counter-intuitive, but towers provide more openness than the 4-9 storey buildings that would be required to accommodate the same density.

I’m not just wishing it to be so. In fact, 8 years ago I would have argued against growth and highrises. But I’ve walked hundreds of streets all across North America and Europe over the past 7 years studying urban form and function. It is from this experience that I have come to believe that the answer for White Rock’s town centre is high density housing, and that the core of the town centre should be towers.

You don’t have to guess how I might perform my responsibilities as a councillor because I’ve already served 6 years. My record is of challenging the status quo, consistently staying focused on achieving goals, making decisions based on facts and principles, and doing research beyond what is provided.

Every candidate has a different set of work experience. Mine is of retail management, food service, TV production, tour merchandising, and B&B management. But I think what is more important is a candidate’s ability to process new information, identify the roots of a problem and not just the symptom, and make principled decisions.

If you read my booklet again, you will find that my record of service includes some important improvements for quality of life in White Rock.

For example…
- We now have a secondary suite registry. This provides lower cost housing in the suites while also creating another stream revenue to help the homeowner pay their mortgage.

- We now have detailed plans on how to improve issues of transportation. That will make streets safer for people walking, kids riding their bikes, and people driving to work.

- Many people find City decisions mysterious and they come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories or dismiss them as being not “common sense”. I have advocated for ways for the City to better communicate with citizens so they can learn along with councillors so that more people understand the decisions.

- You may think protecting trees is outlandish, but when asked why they like White Rock, most people list the natural beauty. Trees are a huge part of White Rock’s natural beauty and an important part of our west coast ecosystem. Protecting trees protects very reason people come here.

- I also don’t see what’s outlandish about following our Chief Medical Health Officer’s request to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke. He explained that it will reduce visits to their overworked emergency ward and ultimately prevent deaths from what remains a top cause of preventable death in BC. Perhaps you think it’s outlandish because you don’t have a child with asthma or parent recovering from a heart condition?

- I have also drafted directions on how the City can provide for a diversity of housing to ensure people of all ages, incomes, and abilities can live in White Rock.

The reason I can’t honestly promise anything is because I am only one vote on Council. Any candidate that promises you that they will get one thing or another done is either lying or doesn’t understand how it works.

A professional volunteer I may be, but my record on City Council is that I have been the most effective and productive. There are councillors who are better educated and have more experience, but yet, they have achieved far less than I have (and didn’t even show up much of the time).

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what a councillor’s work experience is if they’re not using it in their City responsibilities.

Despite what everyone agrees was a dysfunctional City Council, I still got a lot done. No other incumbent candidate can honestly make the same claim. Look to my record of service for proof of my ability to be effective in my responsibilities as a City Councillor.

I recently received your booklet in my mail box. It was dissapointing. It was filled with mights, maybe’s visons and other very non committal type statements.

I would like to know what exactly is your work experiance that prepares you to be a councilor. What about your past prepares you for this position of responsibility.

Apart from you outlandish ideas about smoking and protecting tree’s what are your thoughts on ways to assist everyday hard working people … or how do you plan on making it easier for them to live in White Rock.

I must say I’m a little leary to be voting for a “proffesional volunteer”

S.

it was built according to regulations.

20 lifeboats were what the regulations called for and that is what was installed. The ship could have held 32 lifeboats, but it was decided that esthetically the extra 12 would “clutter” the deck, and were “displeasing artistically”, also, they were not necessary due to regs.

In todays world the White Star line would be out of business due to massive lawsuits. The White Star line continued on for decades afterwards because the ship had been built to regs.

the regulations were 12 years old, and only covered ships being built up to 200 feet smaller than the titanic… no ship had been built that big before, thus no regs existed to cover the design change. After the inquiry, one British BOT reccommendation was that ships carry enough lifeboats for all passengers.

Labourors who brought forward questions on the design from their own knowledge and experience of stucture and materials, and questioned lifeboats while they were building the titanic were fired – and ostricised for being “troublemakers” and not “team players”.

questioning regs and policies is a good thing, developing new regs and policies for todays world is a good thing.