Dear Editor:
Re: City's game of Dic, Dac, Dough, Letters, The Record, June 7.
A water taxi would be a great idea and would not threaten any politician's pedestrian bridge legacy project, as both would be amazing additions to New West. Do the water taxis at Granville Island threaten the Granville and Burrard street bridges?
Starting almost two years ago, my business partner and I put a ferry shuttle plan before the bike/ped committee, city council, the mayor and most of the engineers and managers at city hall. All completely supported it with glowing words, but no one has done anything to take the needed basic steps to make this a reality. We also had the support of Aragon Development, many local businesses and a host of citizens, especially those from the new developments in Queensborough, who would love to be able to access New West SkyTrain station after a short shuttle ride in order to commute to work.
We have two suitable 12-passenger, wheelchair and bike friendly water craft ready to go, and the wharf is in place at the southeast end of Lulu Island right off the new developments on Queensborough. This project would create two full-time jobs along with a few part-time jobs.
If this were a river in Europe, there would be shuttle ferries connecting all of the river communities from Fort Langley to Richmond to SkyTrain stations.
The only missing link to our proposal was a suitable wharf in the Quayside area. The one that was right beside the Samson V, but was removed for dredging and never returned, would be the most obvious solution, but the city and the hotel that control that site, I am told, could not agree about bringing it back. There are other spots, but all of them would take some effort from the city that I have not seen in the last almost two years of flogging this idea through the various committees, city employees' desks, etc. I have stopped pursuing this idea as a matter of mental health. Some say that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results could be a sign of an approaching psychosis, . if not it could definitely lead to that state of mind. City politics and eager politicians have their own perspective on the flow of time and money, which could terrify and intimidate us mere citizens, so in good faith I left it up to our city's leaders to proceed in their good time.
So after letting it drop more than a year ago and pursuing other adventures, I was amazed to open your paper and read about our mayor and Lenny Moy from Aragon Development standing in a (to be) glass tower talking about a ferry shuttle. This could be my project, recently dusted off, although nobody has contacted me, or more likely someone else's, who is more politically correct and connected, but at least they are talking about it out in the open. At this point, I don't care who does it as long as it happens, and it is bike and wheelchair friendly.
Tom Littlewood, Fraser River Bike Tours
