6 ~ North Shore News — Sunday, September 24, 2000 MAGINE your parents gave you the keys to a shiny new automobile for your birthday, took you round. to the garage and showed you your new car —~ on blocks with no wheels. How would you have felt if you were told that the money for the wheels would have to come out of your university savings? It’s probably how the neurosurgeons at Lions Gate Hospital feel after the Ministry of Health finally released details this week of the North Shore Health Region’s annual operating budget. On the face of it, it’s good news. A - . $17.6 million increase, up 11.2% from -. the 1999/2000 budget. Included in the increase is almost $4 million ear- marked for a much needed Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, or MRI. Our region maintains one of five neu- VIEW POINT: but until now has been the only such program without an MRI in North America — a problem when advertis- ing for (or keepirig) neurosurgeons we'd guess. Anyway, we'll have our shiny new MRI in six months or so but, unfortunately, it isn’t coming with wheels, The health region estimates that the North Shore neurosurgery program attracts some 60% of its patients from outside the region. But those patients cost our region about $900,000 and that’s money that has not been funded by the ministry in this year’s budget and it’s the lion’s share of a projected $1.1 million projected deficit in 2000/2001. Write to Victoria and ask Health Minister Mike Farnworth which hos- pital program we should rob to pay for his wheels. : : rosurgery programs in the province = “Phe good stuff he always said so everyone could hear it but the bad stuff he’d take you aside and deal : with it one on onc ... right between the eyes.” : “Alan Codyre, loose head prop for the North Shore All Blacks which formed in 1969 for cight seasons in the late 740s. and °50s; on his former coach Jack Greenwood. A “memorial. to Greenwood was unveiled last weekend by . Capilano Rugby Club. (From a Pe 24 News sports story.) “This road is kind of like if you build an 18-storey - Building. It’s not really very functional until the eleva- or’s in.” . - North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce president and general manager Judi Ainsworth on the realignment of the Dollarton Highway, stalled by a patch of contaminated soi! under. a former’ gas: station site... (From a Sepr. 24 News i story.) .. cath od oo0°-. I found it interesting that it cost more to be with a <_ hostess’ than to be with a prostitute. Ina culture like “Japan’s that’s. highly structured and restrictive and ‘nobody's ‘allowed ‘to speak - freely,. and emotionally everybody's’ incredibly restrained, ‘there’s the whole : night world, the idea of being able to open up at night -fand release all the tension.” 2) Filmmaker: Penelope: Buitenhuis on the comparative innocence of white -hostesses in Tokyo after dark. (From « Sept, 22 This Week story.) oo Tet Q uso, “It’s a good bylaw, badly written, badly applied and bad for business.” °°... - . “Brian Bowman’s proposal for a refurbished computer business in North Vancouver City ran afoul of recent bylaw amendments aimed at pawn shops that would require him “to hold all goods for 30 days before resale. He’s taking his - business elsewhere.: (From a Sept: 20 News story.) DO YOU HAVE A NEWS TIP? - Business Hours: Michael Backer’ ‘News Editor ~ 985-2131, fo North Shore News, founded in 1969.5 an independent subbrban fewspaper and qualified under’ Schedu 1, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, Is published ” Publications Company and distributed to every door - on ‘the’ North: Shore. “Canada Post Canadian : Publications Mail Sales Product ‘Agreement No.- - 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Entire contents © 2000 HCN Publications Company. Alt fights reserved.” Average circulation for sdnesday, Friday and Sunday is 64.471. HEyPromotions Manager 985-2131 (218) ddhalwargesnews.com Michagl Becker Newsroom Editor 985-2131 (116). Nae naan ", é ie _ @ach ; Wednesday,” Friday “and Sunday by HCW i ; a Riera ATTENTION property value enthusiasts: North Vancouver District has some interesting develop- ments for you. Subtitle this one: from dramatic slopes to private seashores. Skeptics might tie said developments to politics and the recent municipal election, but that’s why they"re skeptics. Suspicion is their game. The rest of us will just have to take the follow- ing on face value. Development No. 1, which should be of interest to people who don’s live on flat land; Flatlanders might aiso find it interest- ing, if not amusing, because a recent change to a North Vancouver District lot definition bylaw has eliminated building bonuses for their elevation-challenged counterparts in all district areas except the newly favoured Jand of Deep Cove. More on that later. Prior to the Aug. 28 change, residents ‘with slopes of 50% or greater that account-, ed for over 25% of their property were ‘compensated for their limited buildability © by the district: it allowed larger homes to be built on the lot’s smaller buildable area. The new bylaw removed that building bonus. Assorted environmental and neigh- bourhood concerns back that decision. Excessive steep slope development is not good for slope stability, tree retention, _ water flow and other mountainside issues. The issue of out-sized houses on smaller lots is likewise bad for the good health of _ neighbourhood character and continuity. Ieee Aine iA BETTER SPs Doug Foot Generat er Sa 213% (2) dtootansnews com Bem Valeria Steohenson @ Classified Manager $88-6222 (202) vetephensongnsnews.com 4 Terry Peters Editorial Manager 925-2131 (160) ipetersmnsnews.com i The new bylaw addresses those issues. And that's reasonable. But what's not reasonable from: this side of the page: Deep Cove is exempt from the new bylaw. The rationale: Deep Cove is a unique area. But its uniqueness * escapes me. Slopes, ravines and mountain terrain are an intrinsic part of the entire North Shore. They need as much protection in Deep Cove as anywhere else. Other district residents whose property values and development flexibility will be affected by the new bylaw deserve a better explanation. : i Q00 -. Taistrict development No. 2: : “At North Vancouver District council's Sept. 11, meeting Coun. Doug MacKay- Dunn was set to float a motion to sell a rire district-owned waterfront property at the foot of Lowry Lane fronting on what yarns ‘sone district residents refer to as Dollarton Beach. It’s a beach not many have seen — access to it being ‘iriited at best. : MacKay-Dunn recsoned that the lot, which was purchased at significant expense by the district in 1996 for park purposes, 7 was not being used as such. : So to address the community’s need, as outlined in the district’s waterfront task force plan, for more waterfront access, MacKay-Dunn proposed the district sell off another chunk of ic. His motion reasoned that the sale’s pro- . ceeds could be used to improve selected road-end properties and build community docks elsewhere in the district. : LETTERS 10 THE EDITOR must include your name, full address and telephone number. . Submit via e-mail to: mbecker@nsnews.com Aiter Hours Hews Tips: 985-2131 (press 3) - "| Creative Services Director 885-2135 (127) - mmtanchergonsnews.com ~ If that doesn’t add up on your logic cal- culator, you’re not alone. As Lynn Valley resident Derek An points out in a recent open letter to coun cil: the task force’s plan recommends accu mulating district funds to acquire water front property and improve waterfront access over a 50-year periods: 2° Selling waterfront property now to it back in the future doesn’t make good business sense to me. Selling a piece of i but retaining the property’s waterfront: strip makes better sense... : MacKay-Dunn’s motion will have await the results of renewed coundil | sion of the waterfront task force plan; which is back on the district agenda because the waterfront access issue is‘ far from dead. ea For example, Andrews aiso comp his letter that property owners along’ Dollarton Beach and other district water-: front areas continue to erect assorted: tures to block public: waterfront. access. And he charges that those efforts are being aided and abetted by council - In North Vancouver District's 1999. municipal election campaign, the issue waterfront development and public wate! front access played a pivotal part in the election’s outcome. Bee - The North Shore Concemed Citizens’ Association (NSCCA) launched a successful: campaign immediately prior to the Nov. 20; election to defeat the reftrendum that) asked voters if they backed increased ‘access : to public waterfront... 8 025. . | The NSCCA had a solid core of Deep Cove property owners: It endorsed all’cu rent council members except Ernie. Crist, ‘The developments cited above indica that property issues raised in the election have not gone gentle into the good night: ».. —trenshaw@nsnews.com nsnews.com 1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, BC V7M 2H4 Facsimit 985-3227. 985-1435. Telephone 985-2131 - 980-0511 .. Rashora Emo costribution Manager 988-1337 (124) 6: bemognsnews.com: |