Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Spring arrives

Finally the months of grey bland weather has given away to dry warmth. I can work in the garden, the city emerges properly outside and it moves from an insular hide out to a vaguely bucolic stupor.

In many ways I find May and June the most disappointing months for the people of Victoria. The arrival of rebirth of the growing season is not accompanied by a rebirth in people wanting a new and better city.

I was in Vancouver yesterday and saw how much more alive the city is when compared to Victoria. Even a small suburban area like Tsawwassen has more sense of vision than anywhere in Victoria. We continue with our 13 municipal governments and lack of vision for the region year in and year out.

Why can we not deal with homelessness and the drug problems in the city? Because we can not get people to get beyond the most parochial NIMBYism. Why is better and more transit stalling? More backward looking NIMBYism.

I would love to see some real visionaries run for office this November, people willing to shake this region out of it's slumber and wake people up and push us to greatness, push Victoria to become the great world city it can be.

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