There are good reasons for New Westminsters civic centre office tower

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• COLUMN: New Westminster's tower of high risk, high stakes
• GUEST COLUMN: Officer tower a critical part of New Westminster's resurgence
• COLUMN: Developer offered to build civic centre, tower at fixed cost

Kudos to Chris Bryan for his thoughtful and reasoned piece on the pros and cons of the expenditure for the office tower. I truly believe his analysis is right on in terms of the potential positive consequences.

As with all such projects there is a risk, but I whole-heartedly agree this falls under the old adage of “no pain/no gain” and history will bear out it was a wise move by the City to take such a risk. With little or no room for industrial development the City has lagged behind other municipalities in benefitting from a broader tax base and the time is ripe to capitalize on the positive aspects of more commercial office space.

Secondly, I had the opportunity to walk around the new park site this week and I must say I am impressed. On the way there, however, we happened to have a brief conversation with a couple who seemed to have a rather jaundiced view of the Pier Park and commented it wasn’t much of a park. At that point I wasn’t sure what to expect and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it really is—clean, well-kept and the plantings are a nice mix of hardy perennials, grasses, rugosa roses, native shrubs and an attractive mix of suitable trees. As a person who has some mobility issues I was grateful for the generous amount of seating and the chance to walk on the more yielding surfaces provided by the wooden walkway and the grassy expanses.

The historical and arts elements made our walk interesting as well. Reading the inscriptions and dates vied with the scenery for our attention. We enjoyed our time at the park so much that we returned the next day to finish the part that we had missed.

Terry Clark-Kveton

New Westminster