Parkway is good for city (re: issues 0 and 2)

As an active environmentalist since the first Earth Day 44 years ago, I applaud the activities of Sustainable Trent. However, I am disturbed by the one-sided and outright misinformed statement of this group’s opposition to the City’s plan to build the Parkway on land set aside expressly as a transportation corridor more than half a century ago.

The “green space” in question is NOT pristine wilderness, but the least disruptive and harmful route of the many repeatedly studied to solve very real local transportation/traffic problems.

In the absence of this route, an army of heavy commercial vehicles is presently crumbling our existing neighbourhood road network on its way to and from the noose of subdivisions choking the city.

The purpose of The Parkway has nothing to do with saving minutes of travel time for motorists. Nor will its construction interfere with welcome improvements in public transportation and bicycle facilities.

Mobility for everyone depends upon a mix of all these modes which have been analyzed and evaluated in a professional Environmental Assessment approved by City Council. This document was the subject of protracted hours of public hearings before Council.

The bulk of opposition centred on outrage over a road bridge to be built OVER (not THROUGH!!) Jackson Creek Park, which is already traversed by the Parkhill Road bridge without harm.

The alternative to the proposed bridge would be a considerably more disruptive option involving the right-of-way taking of more than two dozen houses. Please note that NOTHING in the approved Parkway route conflicts with the stipulation that the land gifted to the City for the park “is to be used as a public park and recreation ground and for no other purpose”.

In sum, the statement that “the bridge would effectively ruin the urban park in the city” is hyperbole of the worst sort and unworthy of an otherwise respected organization. Peterborough abounds in green space and parks, and the Parkway land being maintained for cyclists at city expense is certainly not wild.

The adverse environmental consequences of NOT building the Parkway are just not acceptable under any open-minded analysis.

That’s what the preparation of an Environmental Assessment is all about: proof of need for a project plus evaluation of all reasonable alternatives, including social and economic impacts.

The public discussion is over, the vote taken and this train has left the station. Anyone running for local office for the sole purpose of overturning a democratically made decision needs to think again. Council has made the most responsible decision in approving the Parkway.

-Joan Reeves

Friends of the Parkway

James Kerr makes Trent Radio a great experience

There is a person who I enjoy being with because he means a lot to me in my life. I enjoy working along with him too because we are working brothers of Trent Radio. This person is special because he always takes time to talk to me. His name is James Kerr.

Any time I work along with James Kerr it is a great experience because he’s my working brother and that makes him so special to me.

Now let’s go behind the scenes of the Country Cousins. James Kerr puts the magic touches on each show of the Country Cousins. It’s not up to me or my cousin Hank Fisher, it’s James Kerr who should be thanked for putting Country Cousins on the radio.

The shows that we’re going to do: We are going on a journey with Daniel O’Donnell; we’re going to take him to Santa Claus Village, then go to Salzberg, Austria, to meet up with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and sing with them on stage, and finally we take him on a boat cruise with Stompin’ Tom Connors and Jeffery Stewart on their boat, The North Atlantic Squadron, around the Peterborough lift locks.

-Jeffrey Stewart

Trent Radio Historian