Friday, Ocioter 2,

1992 — North Shore News - 7

On the street of pipe dreams

IT TRULY warns the suul that a person such as my
humble self can wander into a bank in this country, with
little more than the lint in his navel, and wander out

mortgaged to the nipples.

It makes one want to burst cut
in a rousing chorus of **O
Canada” even though there’s not
a hockey game in sight. It makes
one proud to be a Canadian, and
says quite a lot about the state of
democracy in this nation.

I’m not too sure what it says
about the state of banking iu this
nation, but then I’m not an
economist.

‘The cause of this vicious burst
of patriotism in my usually calm,
global character, is that my wife
and I are soon to become property
owners, thus ending our gypsy ex-
istence and turning a rather
long-held dream into a reality.

There was a time when owning
your own home was considered
almost a right of birth in Canada.

Even in my own memory, I can
recall vast tracts of North Shore
land being offered for roughly the
same price as a stale bun would
fetch today.

Well, perhaps not quite that
cheap.

Paul

HUGHES’ VIEWS

However, I recently read that a
chunk of property near Garden
Avenue and Marine Drive was
p -rchased a few decades ago for
nothing more than one of those
new-fangled transistor radios.

Hydro encourages
the planting of
low-growth species

Dear Editor:

I welcome the opportunity to
reply to a letter published on Aug.
21, entitled ‘‘Responsible,
enlightened adults need to save
trees.'" This letter refers to the
removal of trees in the Berkley
Road and Blueridge area.

B.C. Hydro, North Shore
Coastal District, is presently
undertaking its periodic vegetation
control program in the District of
North Vancouver. The program
consists of:

® Pruning trees which are en-

croaching onto our distribution
right of way. Prior to this work
residents are notified of the work
to be done.

@ Identifying trees that pose a
high hazard to the power system.
The majority are located on
municipal and private property
adjacent to our right of way.

@ Obtaining permission from the
private homeowner and municipal
arborist for removal of any trees.
This process consists of discussion
on the reasons for removal, such
as disease, soil conditions and
degree of hazard.

@ Contracting the work to a
vegetation contractor trained in
the correct pruning and removal
techniques.

By way. of background, the
subdivision along Berkley Road
was developed approximately five
to eight years ago. Prior to that,
this area was a natural forest.

As the area developed, the de-
veloper left a single row of un-
protected hemlock and fir trees
along Berkley Road in an attempt
to provide ‘‘buffer’’ zone.

These trees had little ur no
foliage along th> trunks facing
Berkley Road. In some cases, the
tops were diseased and branches
dead or dying.
> Since then some of the remain-
ing trees have fallen either during
high winds or because of rot and

+ tinuous

poor root structure. When this
occurred the trees or branches
contacted our main electrical cir-
cuit along Berkley, resulting in
power outages to approximately
400 customers in the surrounding
area.

The state of these trees was
re-assessed as part of this year’s
vegetation program and following
consultation with the municipality,
it was decided that removal was
warranted.

The trees were on private prop-
erty and homeowners were con-
tacted, informed of the conditions
of these trees and the hazard they
presented. With the permission of
the property owners, the trees
were then removed. .

The letter by Laura Wells also
expresses a view that generally
favors the trimming or topping of
trees rather than removal.

In general, our vegetation con-
trol program is focused on trim-
ming trees to eliminate that portion
creating the hazard and directing
future growth away from the
power lines.

Similarly, topping may not
always be a solution either. The
topping of deciduous trees, for
example, can, depending on cir-
cumstances, open the tree up to
disease and generates rapid sucker
growth requiring continuous
trimming.

The job of providing a .con-
supply of electricity,
maintaining public safety and hav-
ing regard for environmental con-
cerns is an extremely challenging
task.

At Hydro we are very much
aware of this challenge and are
constantly attempting to maintain
the needs of our electrical cus-
tomers as well as protecting our
natural environment.

R.J. Threlkeld
Vice-president, customer services
B.C. Hydro

46 [f you're willing to move out of town

.. you can purchase the entire electoral

district of Spuzzum. 9F

I wonder? Could you do the
same thing nowadays with a CD
player?

1 don’t think so either. The fact
is real estate is rocketing through
the stratosphere on the North
Shore, and, although it hasn’t yet
reached the celestial heights of
New York or Tokyo, IJ confidently
predict that this will inevitabiy be
the case.

Vancouver property is in inter-
national demand. We are becom-
ing a cosmopolitan city, attracting
investment from around the globe.

Not that this is an altogether
bad thing, but it does make it a
tad rough on those of us not over-
ly endowed with coin of the realm
who are trying to purchase any

kind of livable dwelling here.

If you're willing to move out of
town, though, bargains can be
found. For approximately the
same amount of money we ere
about to fork over for our one-
bedroom apartment on 2nd Strezt,
you can purchase the entire elec-
toral district of Spuzzum.

Tempting. Nevectheless, no
thanks, Call me a sentimental old
poop, but | was born here, and
I’ve formed an attachment to the
place.

It can be done. The first thing
we did was to get ourselves a real
estate agent to do all the legwork,
an energetic young man from
Sussex Realty, named Jae Camp-
bell.

‘

I can highly recommend him,
unless he has already shot himself
or entered a Trappist monastery
— two options he was seriously
considering after scribbling down
our last frantic offer.

You will. of course, have to
lower your sights a Jitthe. Rather
than landing on The Street of
Dreams, you may have to settle
for a sort of Nightmare an Elm
Street.

Still, you'll have the consolation
of knowing you have purchased
into one of the hottest zeai estate
markets in Canada.

My wife and I were lucky. We
managed to snag a place that has
a fizm grip oa both class and
decorum. I know that because
bylaw #16 of our strata corpora-
tion house rules states (and 1
swear this is the truth) that:

“Owners, and/or pets or
children of owners residing in the
building who are witnessed imen-
tionally defacing, urinating or
defecating within the boundaries
of the common property ..; -ill
be immediately subject to a fine
of $50."

Property values just don’t get
higher than that.

EEA CREASES OF

ESS

Target politicians, not U.S. shopping

Dear Editor:

I wonder how many of the
decriers of cross-border shopping
(and there’s no doubt that it is a
problem) ever stop to examine the
main causes which have triggered
this phenomenon.

They could start with the flash
point: the GST, which added to
the increases in the 1989 budget,
has boosted our overall tax rate to
39.4%,

When you're playing with a 60¢
dollar, you have to be looking for
bargains.

Then there's free trade and the
350,000 manufacturing jobs it has
cost — jobs replaced by a vastly
lesser number of minimum-wage,
low-paid, part-time, or temporary
ones.

When added to a 60¢ dollar, the
loss of your job also makes look-
ing for bargains easy to ra-
tionalize,

All this, of course, just points
up that the real causes lie in Ot-
tawa.

Why don’t the opponents of
cross-border shopping get after

the politicians who have caused
the problem, instead of the people
trying to cope with the results of
inept government — inept, that is,
except when it comes to their pay,
pensions, perks and, of course,
junkets at the taxpayers’ expense.
Finally, | wonder how many of
these critics drive forcign cars,
which for some reason doesn’t
seem to qualify as cross-border
shopping, or vacation somewhere
other than Canada.
Rupert Gomes
North Vancouver