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Will it be another dull city election? Maybe not
“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner
Op-Ed Commentary
Presumably, it’s going to be another dull municipal election when Cranbrookians go to the polls Oct. 15 to elect a new city government.
What else can you say with only seven candidates seeking the six city council seats and four of them running again as incumbents and one a former Cranbrook mayor. That leaves only two new faces to vote for in the entire council race.
At least the mayoralty race has a little life in it with two candidates running for the mayor’s gavel; one the current mayor and the other who left his seat on council to run for the city’s top political job.
I’m deliberately leaving the candidates’ names out of this column to be totally impartial and fair and because the candidates’ names are already plastered on signs all over the city and you can take your pick. But I’d like to mention a couple of issues that I think are important and will hopefully be brought up at the JCI all- candidates forum in the Key City Theatre Oct. 6.
These are issues that I think have been glossed over by the current council and mayor, and for that matter, met with indifference by many Cranbrookians.
First there’s homelessness. Admittedly a difficult issue and why it exists in a society as affluent as ours is simply beyond me. But we’ve got it. At least 60 to 100 homeless the authorities say despite the best efforts of the Salvation Army, the Community Connections Society and a myriad of other agencies in town.
BC Housing has tried to help by converting the former Travelodge Motel on Cranbrook Street into a temporary shelter housing dozens of homeless there with the understanding that it later joins the city in developing a permanent homeless facility elsewhere in the city. All of this took place last spring and since then nothing has happened and the homeless continue to walk the mean streets of Cranbrook and sleep “rough” on the increasingly cold nights.
I’m not going to play the blame game here. But obviously somebody has screwed up and the obvious culprit is Cranbrook council, which has failed to unite on the issue of helping the homeless. As far as I can make out, some councillors favour a location close to the downtown while others want a facility further away. In such a situation the warm poop falls on the entire council including the mayor. There’s no way to deny it.
Then there’s the former and much-lamented Baker Park Campground which council shut down two years ago, claiming it needed $1.3 million in infrastructure repairs (How do you “repair” creeks and trees?) and then announced this July that it was spending $30,000 to subdivide the historically popular park into three pieces and seeking “expressions of interest” for new development.
What the city has in mind for new development wasn’t stated but a city staff report said the city would “consider future land use and infrastructure options.”
And what might those be? High end housing in a green area close to downtown? A deluxe condo development in a park that was previously ripped open for seniors’ housing or maybe an office tower to complement the city’s revitalization plans for the downtown? The possibilities are endless.
The fact that this downtown camping park has served tourists and many former Cranbrook residents for more than 75 years and was one of the best known such facilities in Western Canada doesn’t seem to bother our councillors one little bit.
Surely with an election only days away council should be questioned on this and I strongly suspect the response will be anything but dull. But then again, the docile Cranbrook electorate has never been known to question much the actions of their elected political leaders because the politicians and city staff know what’s best for them. Right?
However, if you don’t think this is “right” perhaps you should attend the all- candidates forum Oct. 6. Maybe this election won’t be so dull after all.
e-KNOW file photos
– Gerry Warner is a crotchety, retired old journalist, but not often dull.