When I was a teenager the dreaded “gated communities” invaded our fair city ie Gordon Dr. etc. They were the plague then. Today who cares? Kelowna has always been changing its entire history. We had a fishing industry!!!

Since the 70s the main industry has been tourism and most people have lived well. Kelowna will continue changing for years to come. The older I get the better it was(cliche).

The biggest eyesore is something most people in Kelowna are blind to. Hwy 97. This is an embarrassment.
When I proudly tell people where I´m from…most people have never heard of the place and…rarely when they have they unilaterally ask why such an ugly scar is allowed.

From the airport to the lake one non-stop strip mall.
Ugly,dirty,slow traffic,red lights etc. Plant some trees, flowers,bushes and hide the oceans of cars in parking lots. They are what´s really ugly.

No matter the source of prospective home buyers, Kelowna has been sucked into the giant Ponzi scheme of perpetual growth, with spectacular crashes when things go wrong. How many people do people like Chrystal want to stuff into Kelowna? Will it only stop when people are shoulder to shoulder, fighting each other for the next breath of air, and knee deep in human excrement? There are limits to growth, but precious little understanding of that idea exists.

In a post-carbon economy, the larger the city, the less sustainable it will be. As an example of things to come, global gold production peaked several years ago and has been declining ever since, accompanied by a huge increase in prices. Many very learned and reputable voices are saying that oil production has now peaked, with decline and skyrocketing prices coming soon to a pump near you. Canada imports a significant portion of its food supplies. Where do you think food will come from for large cities when the oil to produce fertilizer, run farm equipment, process food, and transport it thousands of kilometres becomes too expensive?

Open your eyes, people.

“Lets face it, the natural scenery is great here, but our towns are butt-ugly! You’re never sure if you’ll turn the corner and see a mansion or a double-wide, a winery or a junk yard, waterfront condos or a ratty strip mall, an art gallery or a seedy drop-in-center.

Strategic Development and hard-line zoning needs to continue in order to renovate this town. And we need the population growth in order to drive it. Without continued development, we’re all stuck with the ugly mess we have now.”

Some people think that growth and development in Kelowna is turning what once was a beautiful city into a ugly mess. Please read what they are saying about Kelowna on the Salmon Arm blog, Aim Higher Salmon Arm (http://salmonarm.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/paradise-lostkelowna-then-and-now-by-tim-murray/)

By the way, I understand that article by Tim Murray was submitted to Kelowna.com for publication but they chose not to publish it. Could that be because Kelowna.com has a pro-development bias and they didn’t want the public to read it?

‘Hey Zeger,
Why don’t you pull up your stake, and move your operation back to where you came from!
You’re always such a hater. You hate on people who move here, but you yourself relocated to Kelowna.
But of course, you want to shut the doors…and stop development (much like they did in Canmore, only to see real estate prices sky-rocket.)
So in essence, you want the market to sky-rocket here too…just for a different reason.’

That’s a real simple-minded, cliche-ridden representation of me and what I advocate, and one which reduces me to a characature that the media has created. Do you ever think ever for yourself, Tammy, or do you swallow everything that you hear? I notice that you don’t use your full name in your post. Is that because you are too embarassed? Castanet now requires people to use their full name as do the local newspapers in order to have their letters to the editor published. I think that the editor of this website should follow a similar policy as it makes for better quality commentary and reduces the number of irresponsible statements, like yours.

I’m a hater? That’s news to me, but then you’re working with an image of me that you and others have created and you don’t really know me, do you? You’ve never met or spoken to me, have you?

Strategic Development and hard-line zoning needs to continue in order to renovate this town. And we need the population growth in order to drive it. Without continued development, we’re all stuck with the ugly mess we have now.

So throw out the welcome mat for the hardworking immigrants and transplants!