Dear Editor,
Well, once again it’s ‘Corporation 1 Community 0,’ as Onni gets its way courtesy of city council.
The BC Packers waterfront site decision was the worst one the city has made, and we as Steveston citizens, will continue to pay for it.
The mayor says the hotel was a compromise as it will not affect the merchants of Steveston, but isn’t the existing Steveston Hotel not a merchant of the community, and because of this upcoming operation, could we lose another of our landmarks?
And the AirBnB type of accommodation planned could be considered by some to be another option for the ever-increasing birth tourism Richmond is experiencing.
I’m disgusted with the site and especially the boardwalk. An ersatz boardwalk, where cracks from the dyke below it, still appear far more than not. The aluminium outline of one small part of the once immense Imperial Cannery, (the largest cannery in the British Empire), also disgusts me, as if we had had more support from council and the public at large, we could have saved the entire original building and then some.
And what amazes me is that a few years after the initial rezoning and development of the site, the City of Richmond gave them a heritage award for the waterfront. For what I ask?
Again, there’s no heritage, if very little heritage at all to speak of.
Gordon Kibble
RICHMOND
