A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
August 11, 2016
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words – I’ll try to use fewer words than that, to explain the significance of this particular picture:
This photo of a house for sale on the temporary greenway route is so very representative of a main issue with the entire greenway plan: Those that fight for it are not those that have to live with it.
We have a “Greenway Council” that is entirely composed of people who don’t live on the affected route. Not one single member will have their parking, access, property, and safety negatively impacted by their plans, as their homes are all far enough away to avoid the fallout.
Not only that, but most of the greenway council doesn’t even live in the neighbourhood.
At the May Greenway Council “meeting” (the meeting that wasn’t), one council member was asked if they intended to purchase property along the greenway installation. They responded with a horrified “NO!”, as though living here was very much beneath them.
At least 4 of the homes with pro-greenway signs are owned by people who want to sell their homes in the very near future. One of the loudest, most obnoxious supporters on the route has declared their intention to flip their house in a year or two, and that they are looking for the greenway to be a windfall from them.
They are people who have bought into the propaganda that this greenway will increase home values, when it is clear that this is not the case. We’ve already heard from one homeowner who has had to decrease his asking price by $10,000, because of the negative impact the greenway is having on his attempts to sell.
People who don’t live here, and people who are looking at the greenway as a way for them to profit on their upcoming departure are not the people who have to live with the negative impact the greenway will have.
The selfishness and the greed that we have seen from the pro-greenway people has been utterly mind boggling. With so much grant money on the line, the city and the council are quick to throw the entire neighbourhood under the bus, to line their own pockets. Residents who are moving out are willing to financially cripple their own neighbours, just for the *possibility* of turning a higher profit on their own sale.
What this area needs is EMPATHY, not to be further disadvantaged for the benefit of those who do not live here.
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