The Gulag Known as Langley
Democracy is a fragile flower. Vigilance is called for. The idea itself is threatened at every turn.
The Province has a major story today that well illustrates our concern.
Langley Township council has quietly - very quietly - sold a major piece of public land to a local family.
The price looks like a song, a gift, a give-away. The land is beautiful wooded bog, home to much wildlife.
No FOR SALE signs, no tenders. Council members say they can't comment because the deal was made "in camera."
But it is the responsibility of elected officials in democracies to NOT make deals like this in camera. Where are we? Some banana republic?
At the heart of this insult is the Community Charter, a Provincial government legislation that does NOT require civic lands to go to charter.
How unprogressive is that?
The story in full is here. Read it then write Langley Council and ask them to return from the 18th Century and write your MLA and demand a change to the Community Charter.
1 comment:
Langley isn't the only Gulag around. Only here, District of North Vancouver Management Staff run the show. In the case across the pond, we have another wetland threatened by too much habitat fragmentation and degradation from recreational development for mountain bike activities. Read "amusement park" development with structures, stunts and "roller coaster" trails rock armoured to death like a roman road.
On the Mountain View wetland, habitat to a species at risk, Red-legged frog, I spoke with Parks management and staff, who I walked with and talked with about the Alpine Recreational Trails Plan in Mtn View Park wetlands and environs inside the Lynn Valley neighbourhood catchment area.
There is no PLAN -- only an Alpine trails CONCEPT. This means if DNV Council supports staff recommendations, then they have effectively given Staff and the NSMBA a carte blanche on trails, etc.
Parks management and staff could give me no assurance the trails slated for closure/decommissioning would in fact be closed. But there was an air of arrogance as those two continued to show me how many more trails would be rock armoured and heavily modified for mountain bike use. Then the clincher. There will be another entry exit for mountain bikes less than 50 feet away from the entry exit already in place at Mtn. View Park.
By the way, it is 2008 - The Year of the Frog. Does that matter to Staff and Council? Noooo. It is all about placating the whiny mountain bikers. Community apathy aside, I feel like I am fighting a lost cause.
And my so-called "allies" on Council are non-committal to me --- what else is new? Do you think Council will have the patience to vote on each separate trail? Doubtful, and this is what Parks management and the NSMBA are counting on. There is no management on the Alpine areas -- except to kow tow to the NSMBA's whining.
The public has been taken for a literal ride in the woods with this public process and "plan", including the formation of a benign "reference" group who have had democracy taken away from them. It is all crying sham! And no outcry? The people will get the forests they deserve. I am not holding my breath on this one. I just feel sorry that later generations will become further alienated from nature.
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