Dear editor:
First can we all thank Kathy Corbett for yet another great letter on Oct 18, Western News. She has been trying, for years, to get Penticton city planners and council to add beauty to our city and not create an urban desert. With well thought out, proven, beautiful ideas and power point visuals she showed how we could make Penticton livable. Her recent letter added thoughts to improve the proposed development across from the Penticton hospital.Will they listen now?
Kathy calls it an Urban Desert, I call it a Concrete Jungle, defined as a populated area containing a high density of large buildings, lacking greenery, an area which seems unattractive,harsh and unsafe.
Concrete jungles fail to design a friendly neighbourhood first.
Research suggests that front doors onto streets, front balconies or porches and steps contribute to sociability. Being visible to neighbours, at a comfortable distance, is critical to making neighbourhoods more sociable and safer.
When designing a small city within a city, multiple egress and exits are mandatory for emergency situations and convenience.
These jungles fail to provide trees, larger parks or even wider linear parks. Small patches of grass seem better suited to dogs doing their business than for going for a walk or exercising. Large, treed grass areas encourage a picnic or a ball game. These poor plans also fail to provide a network of green space to allow citizens to walk though their neighbourhood surrounded by vegetation and clean air. People out walking provide safety in the area.
Concrete jungles generally don’t provide extra services like paths, outdoor gyms,co operative food growing spaces or dog walking areas.
Residents and visitors need parking. Businesses need parking and delivery areas. None of us have access to the Knight Bus. Livable plans are not made by magic but by attention to minute details that make a pleasant place for people.
With more attention to details ,more trees and wider green corridors we can do better than the plan at the north end of town.
Lynn Crassweller
Penticton
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