It is with interest that I have read the recent article ["Library site to include public green space," March 23]. This seems a bad decision.
Being a frequent user of that shopping complex, I have found the Alberni Street entry/exit in question to be the most handy of all the others. One reason is every other exit opens onto Joyce Avenue and is at the top of a hill.
That shopping centre was at one time all in one piece. Wise planners decided it would be nice if they closed the road leading south, but decided in later years to reopen it, although it isn’t really open to traffic at all, except for those drivers who don’t obey signs.
As to the suggestion that a green space would be safer for children and the elderly, it is difficult to see how. There is a sidewalk all across the front of the building and if an attractive, wrought-iron fence were installed, there would be little difficulty with wandering people.
If I owned a business in that shopping centre I would be livid at this latest Johnny-come-lately scheme. It does indeed decrease parking and will add considerably more traffic throughout the whole parking lot area, since a trip to the library will mean going in from Joyce and then back out the same way.
As a consumer, I believe it would be easier for me to shop elsewhere; someplace that is not a constant driver-road test.
This whole outside-space effort brings to mind one of the main reasons why the library should have been built at Willingdon Beach. To my mind, that was a loss of a great opportunity.
There is unlimited space for parking and just about any kind of outdoor space one could ask for near Willingdon, however that gravel-filled, boulder-strewn space has been found to be hallowed land, upon which nothing but a volunteer-constructed arena could ever be built.
Glenn Nelles
Springbrook Road
