day, Ma nists y 14, 1993 - North S a W96 WHILE DOING @ LAST CHECK THROUGH "== alee wr THe CONADION TREASURY THAT (NULRONEY DeSDeD TO TOR CUROFE.. ‘ritica OME CRITICAL quality-of-life choices are looming for North Shore Vresidents anié their counterparts throughout the Lower Mainland. They are choices between building a more livable region or allowing our present urban environment to be degraded by ran- _ dom and unchecked urban growth. Issues of water and air quality, adequate green spaces and efficient transportation systems are all key factors in deciding which road the! Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) chooses to trav- el. i And all of those issues will be included in 2 series of Critical Choices public forums scheduled for Saturday, May 15, at six sites arouad the Lower Mainland. On the North Shore, the GYRD will -host a 9 a.m. to ‘4:30 p.m. forum at the SERIE MET LETTER | Wagg Creek Dear Editor: H Re: “Residents oppose senior housing”’ ; Why do neigbors' of Wagg Creek oppose a senior housing unit? | I arn a senior living in Kiwanis Garden’ Apartments on Haywood in West Vancouver. | | Every day | am thankful to live attractive. old and to see me. garden and keep them neat and ! We are very quiet — can hear a pin drop after 9 p.m. We do not have animals to mess up your gardens, We enjoy all ages — young and in between. friends and family enjoy coming WELL WELL (WELL... _. HOW COULD | HAVE MISSED SEEING 4 STRANGE THINGS are going on in Brussels. On the cne hand there is an economic boom. New construction is go- ing on all over the city, employment is up, poverty is on the decline. This is due, in large part, to the “fact that the Belgian capital has ft) DEDIEDTED TO DUNCIN MACPHERSON 1904 -1093 choices Delbrook Community Centre, 600 West Queens Ru., North Vancouver. _ The choices to be discussed are not merely estheiic environmental subjects. They represent a huge financial invest- ment: an estimated $2.8 billion ever the mext seven years for such infrastructure overhauls as sewage treatment upgrading and drinking water improvement. Rapid transit priorities, garbage disposal and parkland preservation will aiso be high on the list of issues covered in the forums. All of the above are vital to every Lower Mainland resident’s quality of life. Satur- day’s forums should therefore be part of everyone’s schedule. Call the GVRD at 432-6339 ‘for infor- mation; to register for a Critical Choice forum call 436-6954. OF THE DAY residents will be seniors of the area so familiar to me, my church, my work, the swimming pool so close by and especially my. dear friends. Thanks to Kiwanis, who were able to supply the needs of people like me, and to neighbors around | here who are so kind. . Wake up, North Vancouver people, you will be seniors one All) my in such a beautiful place and have everything Ineed. © Our grounds are beautiful and a We are polite — talk to people, but mind our own business. When I had to move I feared it day. Good luck. Trudy Clark been chosen as the host of the New European Community, a po- litical and economic amalgamation of the EC’s 12 member countries. By Walter Block Contributing Writer But on the other hand, there are problems. These have been brought about, paradoxically, by the same forces responsible for the new economic development. Heading up this new super state has brought with it the arrival of 14,000 Eurocrats, bureaucrats from all over Europe. These people, acting much like the UN officials who infest New York City, have brought with them a plague of limousines, which have bogged up the parking spaces, streets, and highways of Brussels. Things have gotten so bad on this score that the focals have plastered luxury automobiles bear- ing ‘‘Europlates’’ with stickers castigating ‘‘Europarasites.’’ . Billboards commonly show yuppie pigs littcring Belgian streets. But perhaps the most anger has been focused on the housing crisis, Rents are skyrocketing and the native Bruxellois are being forced to locate out in the country as they lose a bidding war with the rich newcomers. Homelessness is also rising. On- ly instead of blaming the influx of new residen.s, commentators have singled out the specular. Says Herve Onude, director of Atelier de recherche et d’action urbaine, a group determined to preserve tie local architectural heritage, ‘The real problem will not be with the EC; it is instead with the huge real estate specula- tion that is going on. “Speculators are using the idea of Brussels as the European capi- tal to their own advantage, to drive up rents. That is the begin- ning of what will cause terrible cases of poverty for people who can’t afford it.’’ Whoa. Hold on just a minute, here. This argument, the one used to “‘explain’’ the Vancouver hous- ing crisis in the months before Expo ’86, is a piece of economic illiteracy. What we have in both these cases is an increase in the demand for housing. But they buy up all sorts of things besides housing: paper clips and ribbons, restaurant meals and bicycles. Why is there no crisis with regard to these items? Where are the speculators for these goods and services? Are they asleep at the switch? ; Not a bit of it. In the market, the first response to an increase in demand is a price rise. This means more profits, so enitpreneurs are fed — by Adam Smith's invisible hand — to get off their duffs and bring more to market. The increased competition cuts away the price rise and the situa- tion returns to normal. If the increased demand had been anticipated, the crisis need never even have arisen. If it did, it would be a mole hill, not a moun- tain. But surely, the coming of the EC to Brussels, and of Expo to Vancouver, was known years in advance, Why didn’t the market work? . Simple, With regard to roads, street, and highways, there is no market. This vital sector of the economy has been monopolized by an institution which can’t pro- duce its way out of a paper bag. Government, the institution responsible for. the economic un- ravelling of the Soviet Union, is responsible, unfortunately, for vehicular transportation arteries. As for housing, this sector has been visited with a welter of gov-- ernment restrictions. Rent control, | zoning, building codes, the list goes on and on. No wonder there is not the . usual market flexibility.in opera- tion. oe As to the speculator, far from : being part of the problem, heis: |. part of the cure. He earns profits: by anticipating future needs, and anticipating them with the least . disruption possible. ; So, three cheers for the speculator who takes a chance on the future. ‘ - Dr. Block is a professor in the Depariment of Economics at the College of the Holy Cross, | |’. Worcester, Massachusetts. ale is Ted Noel Wright - on vacation - eed would be necessary to move out West Yancouver jey to see. 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Submissions are welcome but we Cannot accept responsibility fos unsolicited material including manuscripts and pictures which should be accompanied by a slamped. addressed envelope. SunDaT WeDNEDGee PmeaY 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, ~ North Vancouver, B.C. <7 - V7M 2H4 61,582 (average ¢--culation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) . Entire contents © 193 North Shore Free. Press Ltd. Al rights reserved. NEWS photo Neit Lucente CHIEF JUDGE William Diebolt conducts a mock trial during a recent open house at the courthouse. ‘