Editor, The News:
Re: Time for Sally Ann to find a new home (The News, Oct. 10).
It seems that the people who work at the Caring Place aren’t getting it.
The residents of Maple Ridge aren’t heartless people; the majority of us understand that many people need help.
We appreciate the efforts put forth and the necessity of your services.
What I’d like to know is why you continue to help people who need it and in the process corrode our beautiful city and force its residents to move?
Who is willing to answer that question for me?
Why are you not responsible for the crime in the area?
Why are you not building a fence and securing the area so that riff raff doesn’t congregate all around it?
Why hasn’t the park been secured or developed so it doesn’t just sit there and allow illegal squatters to hang out there?
Where’s the accountability of the Caring Place?
The Caring Place can say all it wants about all the good its staff does, but this should not divert from the real issue: your place attracts people who hurt others and who are progressively destroying downtown Maple Ridge.
Instead of arresting the criminals that the Caring Place attracts, then buying them bus tickets to Vancouver (as one of the several articles from a concerned citizen suggests), why not provide free transit to the people who need to get to the facility, then move it out of the city?
As far as the NIMBYS (not in my backyard) go, if this is a general consensus, then why are the zoning laws not changed for these types of facilities so that they no longer affect innocent people?
You don’t see a prison in the middle of a residential street.
I sent a letter to the mayor last week with several questions and I’m awaiting a response. I asked for statistics, such as exactly how many people the Caring Place helps.
I think the residents of Maple Ridge have a right to know the actual facts, not just articles written to pull at your heart strings and divert you from the real issue.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see the crime statistics since the Caring Place opened up?
Who would like to see those?
Push, petition, get numbers together and don’t stop the fight. Those will be the only things that will move this place away from a residential area.
Bottom line: there is no accountability and it’s the hard-working, tax-paying person who suffers the consequences.
We need accountability. We need answers. But most of all, we need the Caring Place to care for everyone.
Diana Nelson
Maple Ridge
Take back neighbourhood
Editor, The News:
Re: Time for Sally Ann to find a new home (The News, Oct. 10).
I moved to Maple Ridge from Coquitlam, and am horrified to live in this community.
I have never been so intimidated and disgusted with a neighborhood in my life.
We live on the bypass near Brick Park and all we see are druggies and homeless. They have no respect for our neighborhood, so how do we show respect for them?
Move them out and let’s take back our neighborhood.
G. Schechtel
Maple Ridge