Editor:
In 1963 I was a young man of 21. I lived and worked in the Toronto-Hamilton area and I had a good job. Life wasn’t too bad for me, but in that same year a short visit to the slower-paced town of Vancouver impressed me so much that in 1964 I quit my job and left the high-rise hectic life of the east and moved to what was then, the relative calm and laid-back character of Vancouver.
Over the years, Vancouver slowly lost the things that first attracted me to it and it became more like Toronto. Its residential charm devolved into high-rises and traffic gridlock, and so when I retired, I chose to move to the charming town of Gibsons in August 2014.
Since my arrival here, I have read a lot about the local controversy surrounding the proposed George project on the harbourfront of Gibsons. There are several confusing issues regarding this proposal, such as impacts on the aquifer, employment opportunities, political intrigues, taxes, and concession of town assets to a private developer. It is all very difficult to sort out, but for me there is really only one major puzzling question and that is, why would the good people of Gibsons entertain even for a moment the idea of constructing massive high-rise buildings on their picturesque waterfront?
As was noted by singer Joni Mitchell in her 1970 song, Big Yellow Taxi, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone …?”
Michael Storr, Gibsons
