Dear Editor:
Re: Mayor, council to blame for mess, Letters to the editor, Burnaby NOW, Jan. 10. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Helen Ward for having enlightened me with regards to the bus-loop closures at Brentwood Centre and the terrible situation for seniors at Lougheed Town Centre.
Maybe it was Shape Properties who made the decision to remove the bus loop, and it was the Burnaby city council who signed off on allowing this to happen, but it was TransLink who closed those bus loops and made it much more difficult for people to get to both of these malls.
If they were going to remove the bus loops, the logical solution, rather than requiring people to walk farther or climb hills, would have been to provide shuttles from the areas where the buses are now stopping, to the mall and return.
I can't buy a business plan that punishes consumers, by making it more difficult to get to their locations.
After all, corporations like Shape Properties rely on high rental fees per square foot, plus a percentage of profits from each store renting space.
Therefore, someone like myself, and I'm sure I am not alone, no longer shops at these two malls (Lougheed and Brentwood), because they are too difficult to get to.
As a result, this translates into lost revenue for the retail establishments in those malls, and lost revenue for the mall owners. One would think that Shape would be doing everything they can to make it easier for people to shop at their facilities, not making it more difficult. For me, as someone with mobility issues, it is far easier to spend my money elsewhere.
James McQueen, Burnaby
