The Land of Over Indulgence

Over the past few years, my hometown of Langford has changed dramatically. The city that was once known as "a place to let your dog run" is now the commercial hub of the West Shore. Development of not only homes but also businesses was expanding rapidly before the period of economic despair we are currently entangled in, began. As the city changed, the Mayor and Council were more determined than ever to change Langford into something similar to Victoria.

You now cannot go a block without seeing flowers sporting our flag colours of red and yellow along with eloquent street lights. But it doesn't stop there; the City of Victoria and Langford have had numerous public disputes between each other often ending in a reminder of the property tax rates in each city. At the end of the day, Langford Mayor Stew Young has made it clear that he wishes for provincial government buildings to be in Langford, and not the capital of BC. He hasn't had any success with getting that dream to become reality.

Unfortunately, beautification doesn't stop at flower beds, stoned sidewalks, and newly paved roads. The local government is currently fixated on the centre of town. In pursuit of this they have erected a round-about containing a fountain, along with a large sign reading "Welcome to Goldstream Village". I have a problem with infrastructure development like this, not only did it cost $1.9 million that the city doesn't have, no one was asked if they wanted this outside of the councillors running our town, and the City neglected to inform those who could be effected because of this (cough, BC Transit drivers and large vehicle operators, cough). The project is little more than eye candy for the Mayor and his wrong vision for our community.

Perhaps this is my inner middle-class speaking, but the last thing we should do is spend money we don't have on things that we don't need. That seems to have been at least part of the reason families are struggling to make ends meet all over Canada. It's wrong for a local government to refuse to listen to the concerns of its citizens, and that's exactly what has happened here. I understand that Langford wants to change the perception of itself, but edging off the grass near the road won't remove the negative connotations that often are associated with our town, nor will throwing money at the problem in the hopes for it to disappear.

Let's stop the useless construction of these infrastructure improvements, solve the issues that are affecting the people in our town, and avoid that dreaded word: bankruptcy, which we are slowly edging towards. It's time to take back our city.