Burnaby Updates

[WBC]

Building a brand new commercial building to house the city hall at the time when most organizations are making hybrid work permanent and thus increasing office space availability is way out of touch. And yes, I know, the City of Burnaby employs non-office workers as well, but they seem to have a permanent home at my Kingsway and Nelson Starbucks, so I think we are good there too.

Joking aside, you could probably find office space in Metrotown if you really need it for the cities public facing departments at least. I am not sure what the city thinks that having a Metrotown location is going to do for the citizenry. Most people never go to city hall, with the exception of older folks who feel a need to pay their tax bills in person while bitching about them.

The City of Burnaby seems to be on a roll with out of touch idea. First they wanted to build a garbage processing facility in the park, then they wanted to move the city hall to Metrotown. They are still building the bike overpass over highway (now doubled in price) which has dubious value given its location. And they also leveled CG Brown pool and then concluded that the cost are out of control and are now looking for a new design. The proposal to cover the Central Park pool also got nowhere after backlash and the crazy cost associated with it. All these proposals cost a lot of money to prepare and I bet include a lot of expensive consultants, designers, architects, etc.

I have no problem with the city spending some of the reserve infrastructure funds on capital projects. But they should figure out what priorities should be and not just go from one idea to the next and then give up as soon as there is some controversy about it.

As a Metrotown resident, I would welcome a new Bonsor Rec Center with a new pool or at least some pool upgrades. I am very much in favor of doing a linear park around the Sky Trains which seems to be in the works. And I would like them to complete the North-South Bike connections through Metrotown and Brentwood as opposed to obsessing over this highway overpass in the middle of nowhere. Pushing for SFU gondola would be another high priority project for me - yes I know that's Translink, but the city has not exactly welcomed it with open arms.