[All] FW: "Region fights dirty in losing battle over development" (Aug. 22, p. A11)

[Neil E Taylor]

I agree.

Neil

 

  _____  

From: All [mailto:all-bounces at gren.ca] On Behalf Of Eleanor Grant
Sent: August-27-13 1:20 PM
To: Gregory C. Michalenko
Cc: all at gren.ca
Subject: Re: [All] FW: "Region fights dirty in losing battle over
development" (Aug. 22, p. A11)

 

Greg, I think you should still send it.  People need to hear things more
than once!  And you make quite different points from the other
letter-writer.

Since some time has passed you might need a sentence or 2 to remind folks
what it's about.  But the issue is definitely not stale!

Cheers, 

Eleanor

On Aug 27, 2013 1:12 PM, "Gregory C. Michalenko" <gcmichalenko at uwaterloo.ca>
wrote:

 

  _____  

From: Gregory C. Michalenko
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 9:26 AM
To: letters at therecord.com
Subject: re: "Region fights dirty in losing battle over development" (Aug.
22, p. A11)
Der Grenlings, 

 

I sent this prospective letter-to-the-editor to the Record just before
rushing off for a few days up north.  When I returned, I was anxious to see
if it got printed -- and discovered it hadn't because I had forgotten to
include my phone number for verification.  Meanwhile, another good letter
bringing up the same points had been published, so i decided to forget about
mine, since it was now stale.  But here it is 4 Gren Only.

- Greg

 

Der Editor: 

 

Columnist Peter Shawn Taylor is being disingenuous when he claims that the
Region of Waterloo "fights dirty" in taking a group of developers to court
over an OMB ruling.  He makes a pitch for sentimentality in stating  that
these developers have a better idea of what seniors want in their retirement
years than the Region's professional staff.

 

I'm suspicious of the motivations of the group opposed to the Region.  These
are not your farmer Johns or descendants of long-time farm families that
have nurtured their land for generations.  Rather they have names such as
1441179 Ontario Ltd., Lea Silvestri Investments Ltd., and Northgate Land
Corporation.  Clearly these are land speculators whose main interest is
profits, and not assisting the Region and cities to improve the way we add
housing for our growing population.

 

One of the appellants to the OMB is Activa, whose masthead on their web site
trumpets "We are a land development Company that turns vacant* land into
communities" (italics mine).  I'm sure our farmer friends are delighted to
learn what a wonderful friend they have in Activa which  can't even see that
farms and agriculture exist beside our cities.  

 

For some strange reason a street has been named after Activa in one of the
cities.  If we were interested in reflecting reality we should rename it
"Bully Boulevard".  

 

Greg Michalenko

 

*   NB:  please put the word "vacant" in italics

 

53 Menno at

Waterloo

N2L 2A6


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