Today I wrote our city, provincial and federal representatives the following, as there are 2 hearings about housing coming up next week and opinions are being solicited:
I want to share with you and the mayor, staff and councillors of our city my thoughts on housing in Richmond. I am also copying it to our other city representatives at other government levels.
As so many have been saying for so long, the current building trend - which has already gone on far too long - must stop.
As a Christian who also is aware of and supports First Nations views on our need to care for our earth and try to keep it beautiful and sustainable for all, the way our Creator made it, I also believe I need to make my voice heard.
What we are doing to our city is destructive to the environment and contributing to global warming. Is that what we want to be remembered for? What we are doing is also obscenely socially unjust. If we had prophets, as in biblical times, they would be calling judgment on our heads for what we are doing to the environment and to those who cannot afford any longer to live in their homes because of the greed of too many.
There are many groups involved. First is the federal government, who lets too many wealthy immigrants in, ostensibly to invest or get jobs. But that is another level of government beyond you all. However, I think it is the rsponsibility of city councillors and staff to bring citizens' concerns on federal matters to that government.
Then there are some immigrants who build what are now often referred to as these monster houses. Indeed, some are bigger than small hotels in other parts of our country. These people often do not end up working here because in the end they really do not have the language skills and because they can make more money in Asia, so they contribute little to our economy besides what they spend on houses, cars and other purchases. They generally keep all their other assets offshore, so they are nontaxable for Canada. Therefore, they claim low income and drain our social welfare coffers. I have close ties to the new immigrant community and I know how some of them count the days until they can get the maximal benefits from our system - OAS, GIS, Sales tax rebate etc, not to mention low-cost bus and community amenity passes and extra medical care - all the benefits that accrue to low income. For too many, this is just pocket money on top of what they already have. They are well-informed about these things by their immigration advisers and often know more about these matters than many who grow up here. Some thus also inflate our poverty figures, including for chlidren, as again, many of these wealthy parents don't work here and claim no income here as it is stil being earned and kept offshore.
We need to educate these newcomers about our Canadian values at the stage where they are expressing interest in coming here. They come here for our education and health care but, as I said, contribute little to its upkeep. They come here for our beauty and clean air, but are speeding up the process of changing all that by their driving and housing habits.
Then there are the realtors who are just too happy to let home prices go up and up so they can make more. This is driving away many of our citizens; those who have lived here for years and those who have grown up here and have every right to keep living here in this beautiful environment. Instead, we sell out to wealthy immigrants at overblown prices. If the market cannot correct this, government needs to step in somehow. There are ethics invovled here.
Then there are the developers and builders. Again, why not, they will build what the customer wants. More money is made that way. Maybe the architects and developers need to teach their clients that large house are giving them a bad name in the eyes of fellow Candians and making them unwelcome. I have taken guests around our city and heard them and other newcmers comment on how ugly many of these new homes are with their mix of old, new and pretentious. It is again, socially and morally obscene the way we tear down perfectly sound homes in this city to make way for these monstrosities. In any other part of this country these homes would be kept up and renovated over time. Here? Why bother, let it deteriorate and we can sell it for a fortune. Four hundred homes gone in a year according to recent news reports? That's a whole village in other parts of our land. We need to encourge preservation of our homes, not destruction. At least these older homes would be more affordable to those who now cannot afford to live here.
Here is where the city comes in. We need to turn the tide on the increasing growth of our carbon footprint because of these building methods. Every tree cut down - and our tree bylaws and their renforcement, I'm sorry, are just a window-dressing joke in far too many instances - contributes to loss of oxygen and increase in carbon dioxide in our environment. It also directly drives up the temperature because trees give off water vapour which has a cooling effect. They also provide shade which further cools. They way some trees repeatedly have their limbs amputated - I won't give the practice the dignity of calling it pruning - even right on Number 3 Rd. almost in sight of city hall, is contrary to city bylaws, not to mention that it eventually kills the trees. Some of these newcomers come from cities and places where they are not used to greenery and trees. They are not used to looking after yards (mowing grass and raking up leaves), so they want no big trees that might cause more work such as pruning and cleaning up fallen leaves. We need to teach them (and many of our so-called arborists and gardeners, who are too often tree butchers - look at what they do to trees near hydro lines etc. - overkill and then some) the value of trees.
Environmentally, our Western traditional lawns make no sense either - cutting, watering, fertilizing etc. However, one can plant ground cover, flowers and shrubs. One can make gardens, what with all our concern about food safety, transportation costs and loss of farmland. Every square foot of green replaced by paving stone and pavement, or larger house, again contributes to global warming. This calls for more air conditioning... see the energy usage and costs increase? These homes must be ovens inside in the summer with no trees or greenery around to absorb heat and provide shade and cooling.
Surely the City also realizes that many of these large homes with their large car-filled driveways are so made to accommodate the many illegal renters housed there. Many are also indeed unoffical hotels for tourists. All of this needs ot stop or be controlled and monitored.
Every time I go for a walk in the neighbourhood and see more developer signs and orange fencing etc., a little bit of me dies along with our city. Is this what our city representatives want to be remembered for - the death of Richmond and loss of many of its citizens to the rest of the country? We need some major changes at City Hall... I know there are some allies there, but obviously still not enough.
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