Dear Editor,
Re: “Ghost city,” News, Dec. 2; “Council defeats empty home tax proposal,” News, Dec. 29.
In its March issue, the New Yorker magazine profiled Behemoth, a documentary film by Zhao Liang about the human toll of the environmental catastophe associated with rampant industrialization in China.
One clearly evident consequence of that industrialization is the creation of countless “ghost cities”: large areas filled with thousands of new apartment/condo towers that remain largely uninhabited.
These dead zones have absolutely no social fabric or capital and do absolutely nothing to enhance or enrich the general culture in which they exist. They are bereft of human engagement, involvement, commitment, and spirit — the antithesis of what human beings should experience in contemporary life.
Sound familiar, Richmond?
With Richmond realtor Steve Saretsky pointing out that half of condo sales in the city centre and other areas of Richmond are of vacant properties (Richmond News - Dec. 2) and city council recently refusing to adopt an empty-home tax proposal (Richmond News - Dec. 29), we have clear evidence that our mayor and council are content to allow the kind of culture and community destroying over-development syndrome that is infecting China to continue to bleed-over into our society.
Misguided government and leadership on one side of the ocean, a lack of enlightened leadership and genuine concern on this side, have resulted in a complete failure of responsibility on the part of both.
Ray Arnold
Richmond
