Dear Editor,
As a lifetime (50-plus years) member of the Richmond community, I feel a sense of anguish in what is currently taking place here with rampant development and the changes that have exploded over the past decade.
An intrusion of development. This tells of my dream to click my ruby red slippers together three times while reciting “there’s no place like home” and, hopefully, getting back to a place I once knew and loved. Lately, it’s unrecognizable and heartless.
The breaking point for me was in reading a notice from the city that my aunt, a resident here for 70-plus years, just received. It indicated that the trees and hedges bordering her home of 50 years were “in conflict of demo and construction and were being removed.
The City said it would replant new trees “if area permits” (which likely won’t be so). In what world is this OK, when developers looking to profit can “change” the face of our lifetime homes/properties without any regard or respect?
Here are my poetic thoughts:
“Build it, they said, “and they shall come”
But the shortsighted plan trampled on some
Boundaries were stretched as huge monster homes
Looked more like castles that Kings and Queens own
Invaded the neighbourhoods, despite peasants’ cries
No beauty to be found in developer’s eyes
Just money, that’s all, as memories crashed down
To supersize Richmond, their once friendly “town”
They’d lived here forever, helped make this place great
And would never have imagined they’d meet this sad fate
Planners didn’t care as some castles sat bare
“Afterall”, they proclaimed, “that’s money parked there”
Dollar signs blurred their visions, their focus was wrong
And they forgot all the words to that Joni Mitchell song
The hospitals - crowded, schools bursting to the brim
Traffic was a nightmare and the future grew dim
For they only saw the present(s), they lived for today
As they bulldozed the houses and trees in their way
The taxes grew higher, homes no longer afforded
By the peasants’, whose dreams would all be aborted
For decades they’d lived, side by side in bliss
They couldn’t believe it was coming to this
They were told to be happy with their home values high
But they cared not to pack up and leave with goodbye
There clearly is no mercy in greed and power
Shame on you, Richmond, in your darkest hour
Can’t open a window without hitting a wall
Don’t care about trees as, in numbers, they fall
The farmland will slowly be phased out too
Who needs crops when you’ve money to stew?
But you can’t eat cash and you need room to breathe
People are of value, and some will grieve
As their peaceful tranquility’s a thing of the past
With luxury cars whizzing steadily past
It’s lovely to blend a variety of cultures
But developers are picking the bones like vultures
They’re onto something here, so it’s full steam ahead
But the Richmond we knew is officially dead
Some values aren’t only measured in money
Like a yard full of neighbours gathered when it’s sunny
But there’ll be no neighbours or yards to be seen
High rises are in and gray’s the the new green
There is no turning back once paradise is lost
We’ve been sold out here, at such a great cost
RIP my fine city, I shall never forget you
The beauty you once held
Before greed beset you.
D. Wilde
Richmond
