Dear Editor,
Re: "Six-storey supportive housing project in Richmond suspended"
The provincial government should be lauded for its decision to suspend the supportive housing project at Cambie and Sexsmith and reassess its options.
Maybe the decision is purely politics and made with an eye on the upcoming election, but that should not be seen as a bad thing: governments are supposed to listen, and take a step back and re-evaluate when it becomes clear that a proposal is deeply unpopular.
Malcolm Brodie and Kash Heed's reactions, on the other hand, are deeply disappointing and inappropriate for members of the city council. Their recent comments to the press show that they have clearly made up their minds about the project even before the formal public consultation process has begun.
If they were willing to wait and listen, they would find that residents of the neighbourhood have a range of concerns regarding the project. Not all of us believe the housing would be a "drug den" (which, I agree with Brodie and Heed, is an unfair characterization), but many of us have legitimate questions regarding the size, rationale and location of the housing and the impact on the surrounding neighbourhood.
If Brodie and Heed did not rush to give their premature, unsolicited views, perhaps they would have stopped to consider the historical and cultural reasons why many in the Chinese-Canadian community in Richmond had such a strong reaction to the project.
The right approach would have been to engage in a dialogue with the community and try to understand and address these fears, rather than label the opposition as "disgusting," as Heed did.
One hopes that next time, Brodie and Heed will learn to listen before speaking, and not have such open disdain for the consultation process and the views of Richmond residents.
Y Tam
Richmond
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