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November
7, 2003
EXPRESSWAY RISKS ENVIRONMENT
The fight over Hamilton's Red Hill Valley Park deserves
more attention from Toronto media. ( Letter-to-the-Editor
appearing in the Toronto Star)
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| Police
make 14 arrests at Red Hill protest |
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Imagine
how Torontonians would feel if an expressway were to be
built in High Park. Mature trees uprooted, ecosystems paved
and watersheds altered. That's what is happening right now
in Hamilton; environmental crimes as bad or worse than the
Oak Ridges Moraine developments, yet Red Hill barely registers
on the Toronto media radar.
The
short story your paper printed Friday twice erroneously
referred to the construction company clearing "bushes"
after the arrest of protesters. The "bushes" I
saw uprooted by the giant crane were actually mature maple
trees up to 100 years old.
The
construction site is the former entrance to the Red Hill
Valley Park, used by kids, hikers and dog walkers but soon
to be an expressway off-ramp. Do you get it now? Can you
understand why this city's residents are getting themselves
arrested to stop this expressway and why this city is split
in a way not seen since the Stelco strikes?
Sold
in snake-oil fashion by local politicians and now backed
by Premier Dalton McGuinty, this expressway will destroy
part of the Bruce Trail and the Niagara Escarpment (a United
Nations biosphere preserve), will bankrupt this city (already
in a deficit position) and only make the sprawl developers
rich.
The
residents who live near the Red Hill Valley will soon go
to sleep not hearing the valley's birds, crickets and wildlife,
but U.S. trucks engine-braking all through the night on
their way from Detroit to Buffalo.
Steve
Wells, Hamilton
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