KICKSTART COMMUNICATIONS (604) 872-4638
May 11, 2000 FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
RESIDENTS CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON SKYTRAIN PLANS WEST OF
COMMERCIAL
Mock funeral to take place outside the SkyTrain Open House, May
16 at 6:45 p.m.
Eastside residents calling themselves “Neighbours For Fair Transit” are mobilizing the
neighbourhood in preparation for the next ‘Skytrain Open
House’ set for Tuesday, May 16
at Vancouver Community College, 1155 East Broadway. Most of the
organization’s
members will arrive at 7 p.m. that evening to make their concerns
known to representatives
from Rapid Transit 2000 Ltd. and the City of Vancouver.
Residents are outraged that the proposed new SkyTrain route along
Broadway has been
diverted to go through the Grandview Cut to a non-existent
“high-tech park” on the Finning
lands and that this was announced April 27th without consultation
with the people who live
in the area.
“We are calling for a full moratorium on the SkyTrain plans
west of Commercial Drive
until an independent environmental review has taken place with
full public consultation,”
said HilaryAnn Scott, one of the organizers of Neighbours For
Fair Transit.
“If the province has its way, the southern side of the
Grandview Cut will be logged, and a
new station built 1 block from the existing line, at the north
end of Keith Drive. This is
extremely wasteful of taxpayers’ money.
As a result of the new line, Transit users along Broadway between
Commercial and Main
will lose not only rapid transit, but even the existing rapid
bus.
In response to all of this news, 60 people showed up at an
impromptu meeting May 10 at
Trout Lake Community Centre to discuss strategy. Among them were
environmentalists,
transit users, concerned parents, financial critics and
representatives from neighbourhoods as
far away as Port Moody. A massive neighbourhood outreach was
planned and committees
were set up to look into engineering, environmental and financial
concerns.
A mock funeral will take place on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. at the
entrance to the VCC
campus to draw attention to the death of public process and the
threatened disappearance of
trees, wildlife and rare species of birds that make the Grandview
Cut their home.
The Grandview Cut runs from Slocan St. to Clark St. in East
Vancouver. The entire
length of the Cut will be irreparably damaged if the Millenium
line goes ahead. East
Vancouver, already desperately short of parks, will lose a
significant green space.
“Neighbours For Fair Transit is determined to prevent this
from happening,” said Scott,
“We won’t accept decisions made before consultations,
and we won’t accept the destruction
of rare urban forest.”
For more information: Cassandra Freeman - 872-4638 or [email protected]