EDITORIAL – Enviro report shows need for big shift in Kamloops thinking
(Image: CFJC Today)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
IMAGINE A CITY built for the environment, where people walk and cycle and drive around in electric vehicles and live in energy efficient homes. That describes in part the vision of a report to City council Tuesday.
The Climate Response Paper proposes some “big moves” that would, according to its authors, require a paradigm attitude shift in the community.
I suggest it will also require some attitude shifts within City Hall, and I’ll give you two examples within the Big Moves list.
One is the walkability of neighbourhoods. This has been part of the mantra of planners for years and here it is again by a different name. The report calls it the 10-Minute City, and would design neighbourhoods to provide services close to home.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
Until we don’t require vehicles we should at least make space available for them in the neighbourhoods. Some residents can’t park in their own driveway without a corner of their vehicle encroaching on the street. Do the large fire trucks have any opinions when these neighbourhoods are planned?
Perhaps some residents with vehicles too big to fit in the provided driveway space could buy a smaller unit which would then fit in said space with ample room.
You got to give credit for sure…but only where it is rightfully due. The issue of a more environmental benign city has been raised eons ago but what does your prodigy do? Approve another drive-thru without blinking an eye! At one time it was said action speak louder than (posturing) words but somehow, somewhere it all as changed and even accountability is completely gone…only to resurface, briefly, at election time. Kamloops will only dramatically change either by forces of nature or by a tide of outcry originated somewhere else.