Dear Editor:
I'm all for preserving and/or revitalizing the historic parts of New Westminster and, contrary to Bob Rennie, do not think that we should let go of the moniker "Royal City."
Of course, it is not necessary to include it in every promotion aimed at drawing the younger demographic to our history-rich city, but to discard it would be to discard our history.
And besides it's been a while since I got to agree with the mayor.
Re-branding, as Bob suggested, to something more contemporary like NW (for $500,000 or less) would be a disaster; it would only take a week or two until the name degenerated to "n'dub" as the high school is referred to by its student body.
When I moved to Sapperton, my mortgage papers referred to the neighbourhood as "working class," and I thought, "That's me - I'll fit right in!"
I loved the archaic reference.
So when a particularly utilitarian looking condo building was built at the entrance to the Sapperton SkyTrain station in 2009, it was entirely befitting of the neighbourhood and its history that the building should be named after a tool: The Anvil.
But the proposed saviour of our revitalized downtown area, the golden magnet for business and commerce being called "Anvil Centre" is about as pedestrian as I can imagine.
The city better ante up some of that borrowed money to Google, otherwise a lot of people are going to be getting off in Sapperton and wondering where the heck they are.
Catherine Cartwright New Westminster
