6 — Wednesday, October 5, 1988 - North Shore News INSIGHTS Fall election circus Is bad for municipal poll IF YOU’RE ALLERGIC TO POLITICIANS — if they cause you frequent choking attacks and streaming eyes — your only remedy for the next six weeks is an extended vacation on another continent. First, there’s the Socred conven- tion in Penticton at the end of this month, with Bill Vander Zalm’s job on the line, to say nothing of the party’s future. A week or so later comes the “CIRCUS STARS" ...Above, North Van Tory MP Chuck Cook; below, Capilano-Howe Sound MP EDEVELOPMENT do without. | term community planning. goals could be met. Development compromise essential if the area is to be kept a vital part of the North Shore. But redevelopment without sensitivity to the community’s character and heritage status is development that North Vancouver City can The city’s many heritage buildings are quickly disappearing and moves must be made to save the best. The St. Alice Hotel is the latest old building to face the wrecker’s ball. Cressey Development Corp. has made a bid (0 construct a 28-storey commercial-residential tower on the hotel site. Built in 1912, the St. Alice was listed in a 1984 inventory of city heritage sites as a building of primary heritage importance. The wor- thiness of preserving the hotel must be considered be- fore developers tear the structure down. Another concern that North Van Courcil must ad- dress before approving the Cressey redevelopment is the height of the proposed tower. Existing zoning would permit the structure, but the tower’s 28 storeys far exceed the six storeys planned for the site under the city’s official community plan. Council must decide whether existing zoning is more important than long- There is a price to pay, however, if Cressey’s pro- posal is rejected out of hand. By stubbornly refusing any development for fear of destroying oid buildings or constructing view-blocking highrises, council risks losing any redevelopment interest im the area. To retain Lower Lonsdale’s historic past while in- jecting much-needed redevelopment capital into the community, a creative solution must be worked out. By compromise, both preservation and development final in the Dukakis-Bush league championship as America chooses its president (Canada's, too, ac- cording to the anti-free traders!) for the next four years, Here, meanwhile, the Mulroney, Turner and Broadbent cohorts will be slugging it out with rising sound and fury as Nov. 21 approaches. And closer to home, all but drowned out in the din, will be candidates in the West Van and North Van District clections — struggling to catch your eye and ear for the Nov, 19 municipal vote, «just 48 hours before the federal vote. ft will be tough sledding. During the four weeks when municipal hopefuls normally have the field to themselves all clection facilities will be hogged by the feds. Some likely outcomes ... Financial donations stretched thin. Campaign workers and mecting hail space at a premium, SUPPORTING CAST of challengers . Pozer and NDP's Glga Kempo. OF Lower Lonsdale is Print shops overloaded, not to mention Canada Past. Confusion rampant on the lawn sign and window poster scene. Federal can- didates dominating the news and advertising pages of local media. And an even lower turnout than usual, as voters suffering mental indigestion save their strength for the feds rather than face two trips only a day apart to the polling booths. With few community-wide issues — aside from the twin towers uproar in West Van, now to be resolved by a referendum — coun- cil and school board incumbents in both municipalities stand to benefit. In this fall election circus the thrills and spills will come from MPs Mary Collins and Chuck Cook battling John Pozer, Olga Kempo, James Hutton, Donna Stewart and the Reform Party. How much mental energy their audience — even those making it to the ballot box at all on Nov. 19 — will have left to devote to civic chaltengers with little specific to challenge is anyone's guess. My guess is not much! nant IMAGE-BUILDING: In this ‘‘in- formation age’’ some worthy community and service groups still underestimate the pull of an at- tractive, well-written net-sletter in building support. It gets into a lot of hands besides those of members and to outsiders a dull one says “dull people’. Currently three of the best are put out by North Van Legion, Branch 118, North Van Chamber of Commerce and — since president Bruce Pepper's wife Moyra took it over recently — West Van Chamber of Commerce. Nor do you even have to spend much, Ernie Earnshaw's bright mimeo-ed one-pagers for North Van Kiwanis show how to do it for peanuts, hae WRAP-UP: Off last weekend to Britain’s Oxford University was AND NOW....... HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1988 SEOUL OLYMPICS... envelope. Publisher ........... Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Basrett Fisher Associate Editor ..... Noe! Wright Advertising Director Linda Stewart North Shore Mews, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and Gualitied under Schedule W \. 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, aragraph Ill of the Excise Tax Act, is published eac! Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free North Vancouver, B.C. Press Ud. and distributed te every door on the North V7M 2H4 ore, Second Class Mail Registration Number . Subscriptions North and West Vancouver. $25 peryear, 99,170 {average, Wednesday jailing fates available on request. Submissions are i welcome but we cannot accept responsibility for Friday & Sunday) ‘| unsolicited materiat including manusetipis and pictures s which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed SDA DIVISION Display Advertising 980-0511 Classified Advertising 986-6222 Newsroom 985-2131 : Distribution 986-1337 SUNDRY | WEONERDAY + FRIDAY pubscriptions 986-1337 wednesday world o i a OE] i Handsworth grad Raj Gandesha, 18, after winning provincial and other scholarships. He’s reportedly the first seudent in North America to be granted three years at Ox- ford’s prestigious Balliol College to study philosophy, economics and politics ... Congrats also to dad and mom, Suresh and Indira Gandesha, on their 25th anniver- sary last Wednesday, Sept. 28 ... Classes of *58 at former North Van High and Delbrook High celebrate their 30-year reunion Oct. 14-15 — call Marge, 926-6123, or Joanne, 988-7666 for details of the party ... And happy birthday today, Oct. 5, to West Van's Sweet Video lady Cheri Ree. WRIGHT OR WRONG — James Kilpatrick said it all: ‘Those who feed on politics tearn carly to dine on baloney.” @ MEMBER Saree Meeeapere of kanes feresa