Dear Editor:
Anxiety and stress levels are rising as Metrotown residents witness the teardown of yet another building followed by the sights and sounds of excavation and trucking activities and the rapid rise of new condo towers that are advancing closer and closer toward their buildings. “Are we next? And where shall we go?” are the gnarling questions.
Watching the merciless extinction of a village-size neighbourhood, working-class families and singles, seniors and disabled people is heart-wrenching. It’s an exodus in the making. The entire densely populated area between Boundary and Royal Oak, Kingsway and Imperial is on the chopping block in favour of dramatic densification.
The City of Burnaby is sacrificing not only homes and hundreds or thousands of units but the livelihood of more than 3,500 residents. All these good people will get a rough wakeup call when they receive their demoviction notices and quickly realize the lack of alternative affordable (low-income) housing.
Suddenly disposable? Working-class citizens who have chosen this area for its affordability and transit and highway accessibility, who contributed to society, added value to this country, strengthened the economy, were avid consumers, paid taxes, raised children and grew older here, all these people are facing demoviction and will be tossed out with no place to go. In modern society, no one can function without a home.
What does this say about the city, its values and priorities? Burnaby appears to put progress before people, catering to developers and to condo dwellers that are not even here yet while discarding thousands of its residents. People are not disposable items – they are living, breathing, feeling beings, but it sounds less brutal if you say “losing units” instead of “throwing people on the street,” right?
Mayor Corrigan, please, don’t allow demolition and displacement in your city unless affordable alternatives are available. Put even more pressure on the B.C. government to provide desperately needed affordable housing in Burnaby A.S.A.P. We are facing a humanitarian emergency – and it can be resolved! Start finding solutions.
What can’t be found in the Metrotown redevelopment framework are “areas designated for the development of affordable (low-rent) housing.” Why not integrate it in the plan? Why not develop this instead of waiting for the B.C. government to provide social and co-op housing? Not a hundred but thousands of units are needed to accommodate singles and families – now.
Disposal of residents is cold-hearted and cruel and should never happen (not in Bejing, not in Rio, not in Burnaby). Personally I feel Metrotown’s redevelopment is moving at an alarming speed and needs to be stopped or slowed down so that affordable low-rent housing can be built and provided first and to-be-displaced people can relocate. That, Mr. Corrigan, is what citizens expect from a great and well-managed city.
Therefore, I support the call for a moratorium on developments in Metrotown, stressing the urgent need for affordable housing to accommodate the victims of gentrification and to prevent further homelessness in Burnaby.
Replacement, not displacement.
Erika Schinzel, Burnaby
