Dear Editor,
The City of Richmond’s public consultation process on building lanes in Steveston is deeply flawed.
Rather than asking residents to vote on what kind of lane they want, the city should ask the community whether it wants lanes at all. The city created this lane problem in the first place.
It had an opportunity to develop lanes throughout Steveston when the area was first subdivided, but neglected to do so. Instead, in most places, it built streets only, which meant developers had to build houses with street-facing parking. You can see this throughout Steveston. People do not have front yards because they have been paved over for off-street parking (which no doubt was a city requirement).
Now, the city wants to build lanes behind those people’s houses, for no apparent purpose. The distance between streets in Steveston is already tighter than in any other neighborhood in Richmond.
The community has functioned just fine without lanes for 100 years. Why build them now? It’s too late. People cannot just turn their garages around to use a new back lane, and any realtor will tell you that construction of a lane — where none was present before and which cannot be used for parking — will reduce property values.
If city council is hellbent on building lanes, it should have the courage to run on the issue in the next election. It could easily wait until October.
In public meetings in the run-up to the election, city council can explain to Richmond voters why it thinks lanes should be built in Steveston, and why money should be spent on that instead of more pressing matters, like social housing, school lunch programs, pedestrian safety on arterial roads, bylaw enforcement, etc.
Andrew Mack
RICHMOND
