Dear Editor:
Derek Corrigan's inability to see past the end of his own nose has repeatedly saddled local taxpayers with extra costs and inconvenience.
He bid for the Seniors' Games - telling everyone that Ottawa would share the bill - only to discover after winning the Games that Ottawa had no such intention. He funds an apparently never-ending computer system upgrade at city hall. And there is always the dredging fiasco: a barge sitting unused for months beside Burnaby Lake incurring charges because someone at city hall "forgot" about the endangered Western painted turtles until after the final dredging permit failed to arrive from Victoria.
But this time Derek may have outdone even himself. As of Dec. 16 the TransLink bus loop/interchange at Brentwood Mall is to be closed off - apparently including access to the ramp that goes from the bus loop itself to the SkyTrain platform.
I write "apparently" because no councillor or Mayor Corrigan would answer questions about this at the Dec. 10 hearing, leaving me looking at maps for answers.
Let me repeat that: our peerless mayor's latest inept and incoherent "plan" for Burnaby infrastructure apparently has TransLink closing off the bus loop/interchange at Brentwood Mall, along with the related ramp to and from the loop itself - in mid-winter. Talk about shortsightedness!
This closure will force transit passengers - many reliant on walkers or wheelchairs, pushing strollers,
or carrying bags and packages - to walk down two long city blocks and cross up to three streets (including Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue) to make connections.
Vehicle drivers can expect "temporary" bus stops on Lougheed Highway and Willingdon Avenue to produce even more congestion and opportunities to have accidents with each other and with physically challenged pedestrians (properly using crosswalks but unable to complete the crossing in the alloted time) or with jaywalkers (more physically able but unwilling to stick to the marked crosswalks in the rush to make connections).
The result will be chaos as commuters slipping and sliding on winter ice and snow on city sidewalks mix in with vehicles slipping and sliding on Lougheed and Willlingdon each and every rush hour morning and evening amidst those six-lane crossings. Not to mention the long lines of people waiting for elevators clearly inadequate for the task of moving former ramp-users up to the platform itself. The current station configuration requires use of stairs or two separate elevators that are only accessible at street level to people on the north side of Lougheed Highway.
Who will be liable for the costs incurred as the accidents and injuries pile up?
Perhaps Mayor Corrigan, being a lawyer, might solicit opinions on this point and then revisit this latest civic fiasco in the making before something other than his pride gets hurt.
Now-available information says the changes are "temporary" but give no indication of when the on-street bus stops will be replaced with more acceptable transfer points.
And reconstruction at Brentwood Mall can be expected to take years. This is clearly not a promising start to the supposedly "transit-oriented development" proposed for Brentwood Town Centre.
TransLink needs to delay the closure and the developers need to rethink their plan for Brentwood Mall to make for a safer and more convenient transition to accommodate reconstruction - at least until the season of slipping in snow and ice is over.
Mayor Corrigan for his part simply needs to start thinking - period! Why hold a public hearing and be unable or unwilling to answer questions on such vital matters as the safety of Burnaby's physically-challenged and other transit users?
G. Bruce Friesen, Burnaby
