Editor,
I have just read a letter from Brad Hodge ["No saving downtown," The Chief, Sept. 4]. Isn't it interesting how we "old timers" can get locked into the dreams of those who came before us?
Downtown Squamish was the hub of commerce when the only modes of transport for goods into our area were by boat or rail.
Mr. Hodge's idea of creating a new "town center" makes sense in a lot of ways, not to mention the views from the business park are the best anywhere. Couldn't we make a grand business and shopping centre (centre being the operative word here), with boutiques and coffee shops, as close to Valleycliffe as it is to Brackendale (my neck of the woods)?
Anyone who knows me knows that I prefer to support our downtown, locally owned and operated businesses. But just the other day I shopped at Canadian Tire rather than drive "all the way downtown."
Cleveland Avenue et al. will become a prime living area with Waterfront Landing, the Westmana project and Cap U campuses supporting an attractive oceanfront walk and many trails, a common meeting place for students, residents and tourists with funky little shops, coffee houses and pubs.
A town centre located in the business park would have a good energy flow in a larger, more open setting instead of feeling like a dead end. It would be more central to all the areas of our valley. It might even encourage more people to ride their bikes into town rather than use their vehicles.
Is it too late for us to encourage businesses to access land in the business park where our valued downtown businesses would also have a stake? Has council set aside any land for this purpose?
Perhaps it is time for us to think outside the box or in this case, beside the box.
Carol Grolman
Brackendale
