Former Olympic snowboarder, mother of two and accountant Alexa Loo said she is making a second, independent bid for Richmond City Council for the upcoming November municipal election.
Loo, 41, is focusing on “cool initiatives” that will foster community values and neighbourly interactions, managing City Centre growth and Richmond’s perceived growing transportation crunch.
“What I specifically bring to the table is, because I have my chartered accountant designation, I know how to balance a budget. I’m conservative on spending money but I have a vision for the city,” said Loo.
She said parks and facilities are integral to community interactions and “spirit.”
“We seem to be building more and more housing, but are we creating the amenities we need to get people out and meeting their neighbours?” asked Loo.
She touted Terra Nova Park as a great city initiative and the likes of which that need to be considered elsewhere in Richmond, specifically the City Centre.
“You go (to City Centre) and there’s no green space, no parks. Where can you eat lunch?” questioned Loo.
An obvious champion of sports, Loo works with KidSport BC. She is also an executive coach who works on leadership skills.
While noting she is “fiscally prudent,“ Loo says when big projects are planned, they need to serve the needs of the community as far into the future as possible.
For instance, Loo said the city should pony up more money to build a competitive 50-metre pool at the new Minoru complex.
She also said the city’s transportation network is becoming bottlenecked.
Loo said while it’s good to see more promotion of active transportation such as cycling, it must be reasonable for an aging population and the city cannot ignore drivers’ needs.
Citing no specific solutions, she said the city needs to work closer with TransLink, namely pressuring it more for services and making sure projects, such as Canada Line turnstiles, are completed in a reasonable time frame.
She said decongesting Highway 99 is of critical importance for traffic flow and business access and cited concerns on how the airline jet fuel storage facility and pipeline were approved. Loo finished eleventh in the eight-seat council race in 2011, with 11,918 votes, about 1,000 behind Coun. Ken Johnston.
