6 — Friday, May 14. 1999 — North Shore News fal thi ARENTS of school-age chil- dren need only look in the mirror to see who is responsi- ble for putting children at risk in traffic in school zones. Believe it or not, in olden days it was common for many children to walk to and from school. The activ- ity was healthy, and if they travelled with friends, the kids had some fun too. Today it is ail too common for parents to drive their children to school. Some think that by driving they are doing a better job of keep- ing the kids safe — out of harm’s way as pedestrians, and away from opportunists and predators. They all tend to arrive at their respective schools within the same short period of time. Many are in a north shore news ¢ > Way and deadlines. It’s a recipe for disaster: lots of vehicles driven by harried drivers in areas thick with children. The police can only do so much. Their resources are stretched thin. When parents step into the breach in an attempt to solve the problem they should be supported to the utmost. Anti-speeding efforts by parent groups such as the one at Seymour Heights elementary are worthwhile, but the real solution will be found in a reduction of traffic at schools. Parents and educators could learn from the Blueridge elementary school Walking School Bus pro- gram. It’s finding success in reduc- ing, traffic during drop-off and pick- up times. The concept: children walk to school with their friends. VIEWPOINT { FOUGHT Tuc NAZIS IN WORLD WAR IL- SPENT IN THE 60'S 1 MARCHED ON WASHINGTON To PROTEST THE BACK IN ‘GaN 1 WAG THE FIRST IN LINE TO See "RELIVING GREAT MOMENTS rush to make other appointments mailbox The value of nurses needs recognition Dear Editor: 1am dismayed that the name of the physician but not the scrub nurse Cylinthia Cook was printed in the front page cutline of the April 28 North Shore News. This may seem a petty issue, but since nursing zlobally is facing an unprece- dented shortage, we need to de visibly scen as important members of the heaith care team. : Neurosurgery, and all other surgical divisions, will be unable to address the huge Lions Gate Hospital surgical waiting list without adequate trained nursing staff in the operating room. Lions Gate Hospital is not alone with this problem. Many Canadian, U.S., U.K., New Zealanu hospi- tals are facing significant nursing shortages. Over the next few years a large number of experienced older nurses arc retiring, and there are not enough nuzses to Zreplace them: This comes at a time when the sizable aging baby boomicc” population is requiring more health vare. Our immigration minister says we don’t need foreign trained nurses!:It takes six to cight years for a nurse to grad- cate, accumulate. patient care experience and move on to advanced specialty. nursing such as OR, ICU, Cardiac Care Units and Emergency Care. Specialty nursing is not part of basi¢ nursing curriculum. University nursing programs have had student numbers reduced, while waiting lists for entry increase. Young pcopic {men and womn) are not encour- -aged to consider nursing as a viable, ex-iting career with no job shortages, and a passport to the world. With difficult access to nursing programs perhaps this should not be a sur- prise. Also ‘many young nurses are enticed io the U.S. by gencrous benefits, sign-on bonuses, and greater educational opportunities. "s - Recognition needs to be given to this profession, before we all move on. What is happening in Saskatchewan is an ominous indicator. Every patient deserves a registered nurse. Janet Dysart, RN North Vancouver 5 [north shore: Worth Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independert suburban nevispaper and qualified undet Schedule 111, Paragraph 317 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North ‘Shore. Canada Post Canadian Publicabcas Mad ‘Sales Product Agreement i¥o. 0087238. Eme Distribution Manager S86-1337 (124) Creative Services Manager 885-2131 (127) 61,582 (average circulation, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) ARTS and craftiness: Where is the most charming place for an arts centre? Trick question. No, I wasn’t thinking of the controversy-dogged West Vancouver arts centre, wherever (and whenever) it may be. For me, there is no more charming place for an “arts centre” — broadly defined — than Niagara-on-the- Lake, officially Canada’s pretti- est village and onc of the rare Ontario small towns where real estate prices make a Vancouverite feel at home. I first visited that beautiful area by bicycle — 90 miles of pedalling in a sin- gle day on a three-speed —- almost 50 years ago. After 36 years in Lotus Land I still put it at the top of my list on my reg- ular trips home to Ontario. i was there a couple of weeks ago. It was never lovelier. Spring had abruptly sprung on southern Ontario, cach of my 10 days there progressively sunnier, warmer. Already the narrow sidewalks were swollen with relaxed visitors, beam- ing with seif-contentment. The draw for those visitors from a thousand miles around is, of course, largely the Shaw Festival. It began 26 years ago and today it handsomely mounts the plays of GBS, his contempo- ‘raries and later writers in three venues. Right now the (bargain-priced) pre- views are being staged, and I saw Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca — superb, excel- lent acting and stage design, and thrilling 2 Lf h eae PETER SPECK Publisher Resources 5-213 (101) 965-2131 (177) Stepheasoa Classified Manager Terry Petars Photography Manager 986-6222 (202) 385-2131 (360) Entite contents © 1999 North Shore Free Press Ltd. Alt rights reserved. IN HISTORY NV is best place for arts centre entertainment even if you know the story, as everyone over 100 docs — and Shaw’s Heartbreak House, which I had to leave at intermission to catch my plane, and not very regrettully. But half the attraction is the strolling and the churches and the Georgian-style and Victorian houses and the graveyards and the food and drink, such as at ove old favourites, the exquisite Oban Inn and an English-type pub, The Angel Inn, where my shepherd's pie arrived bubbling from the stove aud the local ales slide easily down the throat. Nort to turn this into a travel promo- tion. The remarkable thing is that NOTL has survived its success — the boutiquing and the tweeing that so many towns, dis- covering some exploitable history or her- itage, disastrously attract. The town also attracted a woman with a deeper purse than anyone thereabouts had ever seen. Her name is Si Wai Lai, “and her brather Jimmy Wai is a big but- ter and egg man in Hong Kong. Si Wai Lai started out in 1980 as a hotel clerk in Niagara Fails — a beautiful and historic drive of 45 minutes away — and subsequently bought $50 miliion US worth of hotels and other properties in Niagara-on-the-Lake. So The Wall Street Journal reported two years ago. The Journal’s headline read: “The Talk of Niagara-on-the-Lake: Can a Town Have Excess Charm?” Good ques- tion. Just what nervous residents won- dered. The rumour spread that Si Wai planned to Disneyfy the whole place. Make it a theme park. Ugh. She hasn’t. Says she loves the place, its history, its charm. Only wants to “improve on it.” So far, notwithstanding one or two dubious faux-olde developments, the: charm is intact. And the sense of brush- ing up against culture, art, the past, can only make this West Vancouverite droop with sadness — and envy. Those things sccm to flourish natural- ly, growing right out of the lush, wine- producing Niagara Peninsula soil. In West Van the effort to create an arts centre scems more like artificial insemination. Jean Greenwood, daughter of the . North Shore family that gave its name to pioneering Moodyville, phoned to chide , me. oh Am I hostile, she asked, to the pro- | | posed arts centre? I can’t repeat every-| 2 thing I've cited. But, briefly: Its arith- metic is hugely doubtful, its precise func- tion poorly explained, and its theatre of 400-500 seats a puzzlement — too small even for many amateur productions. * My view remains that if the North Shore were one political entity, forget. .--. local pride, forget parish-pump pettiness: The sensible place for an arts centre: «+ would be beside the (soon to be refur- bished, thank God) Centennial Theatre in North Van. Established site. a Bountiful parking. Excellent access by. car, transit, foot. : Restaurants, music, book and other stores nearby. Lo And, because of our parochialism, itll never happen. 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