Re: Victoria skyline Pollen’s legacy (News, April 8)
With all due respect for Mr. Pollen’s passions, he and his 20th-century pals may have inadvertently retarded the city’s progress in the 21st century.
In this century, we want our downtowns to be vibrant, safe, livable and sustainable. Currently, the downtown is empty except for tramps, tourists and suburban day-trippers. There is nobody home downtown.
Real cities – Vancouver only barely qualifies – should have at least 10 per cent of their population downtown, and often up to 60 per cent.
Those that pine for the Edwardian era should remember that in those days everyone tried to live close to downtown - it was the sustainable and rational thing to do. Since we have now all fled downtown in our cars, the Capital Region is just a big, sloppy suburb.
I’m not sure what exactly we can be proud of here.
David Wilkinson
Oak Bay