Water Cooler: COVID-19 restrictions, NANAIMO sign graffiti & Extension Rd.

NanaimoNewsNOW: We didn’t need case counts and immunization rates to be broken down by neighbourhood to show some areas of the province were harder hit than others, but it doesn’t change the fact that we are “all in this together.”

Throughout the pandemic, Island Health has routinely accounted for the fewest number of cases among health authorities. A bulk of the cases reside in the Lower Mainland because that’s where a bulk of our population lives, however even comparing Island Health to the Interior or Northern Health shows our region out ahead.

As of Thursday, May 13, Island Health reported 4,867 COVID-19 cases or 3.56 per cent of all infections through B.C. Vancouver Island as a whole accounts for around 17 per cent of B.C.’s population, so there is a case to be made for easier restrictions on Vancouver Island as a result of fewer case counts.

But given how far we’ve come and how close the light at the end of the tunnel appears to be with mass vaccination and a plummeting seven-day average, is it worth implementing an “us versus them” mentality now?

Throughout the pandemic, the province has treated B.C. as one entity aside from one exception where travel restrictions were implemented in November through the Lower Mainland but later extended province wide.

We, as residents of Island Health, are in this position because our community has accepted public health recommendations and acted accordingly. We’re in this position because of our geography and we’re so close to the finish line.

Opening up Vancouver Island would make the area more attractive to visit for tourists and likely amplify the community transmission we are seeing through the health authority, taking us many steps back when the exit to this pandemic is only a few steps forward.

– – –

Lilian C., Nanaimo: When I first read about the large Nanaimo sign and where it was to be placed, I immediately thought of the graffiti that would become of it. That it was only a matter of time before the crazed graffiti jerks came out to play. It’s such a temptation for them, it was inevitable.

The sign was a wonderful idea, if only it could have been mounted up high away from the childish mentality of the graffiti vandals. It will be a constant threat and a constant necessity for clean up, at the tax payers expense, again! What were you thinking?

NanaimoNewsNOW: To say a $57,000 project at one of Nanaimo’s most popular spots was controversial would be an understatement. Fewer issues outside of housing and homelessness have drawn the debate and discussion than seven letters standing five feet tall at Maffeo Sutton Park.

To see graffiti on the sign was not surprising, albeit still disappointing. One picture of the graffiti we saw complained about the cost of the project, an act which further spent taxpayers money to remove.

According to the City, maintenance on the sign has been minimal since it was installed, with the two instances of graffiti removed easily during routine patrols of the park to clean washrooms and empty garbage.

– – –

Richard C., Nanaimo: I have just read your piece on the noise complaints on extension road. I had to chuckle to myself being a 10+ year Nanaimo resident, former builder/contractor and now to be a former resident. I have lived on the corner of Hammond Bay and Rutherford and have seen probably the most dramatic increase in traffic, noise, and being on an ambulance route and bus route an exponential increase in city service traffic and noise.

I would suggest to residents of extension road to do as I have done. Move to somewhere quieter. Never did I ask for the city to bend to my needs at other’s expense. When those noisy vehicles would go up Rutherford hill at full throttle I asked no one for pity. I don’t think life in this city is going to calm down any time soon. Best off accept what you have and quit asking for more.

NanaimoNewsNOW: The residents of Extension Rd. would likely argue they already have moved to somewhere quieter. The 2,500 to 10,000 vehicles travelling the road every weekday pale in the comparison to the traffic of a main artery like Hammond Bay Rd.

The issue residents bring up is speeding vehicles from the Nanaimo Lakes area, along with dirt bikes using area sidewalks, not necessarily traffic volumes. They’re upset about people using the road in an illegal manner, not the number of people on the road.

Residents told NanaimoNewsNOW they’re woken up by excessively loud speeding vehicles and bikes at all hours of the night, not by cars travelling the posted 50 kilometre per hour speed limit.

The data shows the road has a speeding problem and the City is moving into a consultation phase with residents to try and tackle it.

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @NanaimoNewsNOW

by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Water Cooler: COVID-19 restrictions, NANAIMO sign graffiti & Extension Rd.

More Local News