Letters to the editor

Landscaping should include bike path

To the editor:

While the debate rages over the soccer field in Westmount Park, it seems that one thing is certain: whether using natural turf, artificial turf, or some of each, a fairly major landscaping job is in store. I would like to take this opportunity to use your publication to urge the City Council and administration to take advantage of any landscaping to do something to make the stretch of the bicycle path that passes through the park safer for both pedestrians and cyclists.

It is evident to me after several years of observation that cyclists and roller-bladers are going to ignore the stop signs and crosswalks on the bicycle path and that pedestrians are going to continue to cross the path pell-mell and indeed, walk and jog along it. I fear there is little that can be done to remedy this situation, short of having police officers handing out tickets all day, every day — not a very practical solution. I’m not going to play the blame game — both cyclists and pedestrians break the law. However these tendencies illustrate the need for improvement.

The current configuration makes it all too easy for a small child or Senior to inadvertently wander onto the bicycle path with great potential for serious injury or worse. If a landscaping project is to be undertaken is it not possible to better demarcate the bicycle path? Perhaps a hedge along the length of the path would aid as a barrier to those who unknowingly wander into traffic.

I applaud the City for installing traffic lights at the corner of Strathcona Avenue and Sherbrooke Street with a dedicated pedestrian crossing. Unfortunately, this improvement comes too late for one person who was killed in an accident in December of 2005.

I hope we don’t have to wait for a similar tragedy to occur on the bicycle path before we do something to make it safer. I have no desire to be in a position to say I told you so.

Deegan Charles Stubbs

Melville Avenue



Bad arguments lead to bad decisions

To the editor:

While there were many interesting ideas at the Westmount Park soccer field information meeting, I'm sure they've all been well-covered in this paper, so there are a couple of fallacies and biases I noticed that you should make sure to watch out for when forming your opinion.

Straw men attempt to discredit your opponents and their arguments by using false analogies and logic. Take an easily refutable point of view, claim your opponent holds it, then refute it. A similar form is to take an opponent's point of view, claim that the only logical conclusion of holding that view is something undesirable, and then claim the original point of view is undesirable. Nearly every speaker used straw men, and a few used them more than real arguments.

Confirmation bias is when you agree with arguments that agree with your point of view and disagree with arguments that don't. Many times I saw people nod their heads and clap vigorously every time a person from one side was speaking and shake their heads and not clap, even politely, when someone on the other side was speaking. If you wanted to make sure your opinion was exactly the same after the information meeting as it was before it, confirmation bias is the way to go.

Selection bias is using confirmation bias to choose which studies to highlight. Instead of using all information available, studies are cherry-picked so that only the most favourable are presented. The most telltale sign is the following: "The scientific literature is mixed on this issue, but in one study...."

And then, of course, there were the outright lies and falsehoods. As seen by the huge turnout and massive coverage this issue has gotten, this is an important decision we have to make. As we learned at the meeting, there are more than two sides, and there are good arguments for many of them. But let's not use bad arguments to support them. Because bad arguments lead to bad decisions.

Nicholas Smith

Burton Avenue



An open Letter to Mayor Karin Marks



Madame,

I write to point out the reasons why your honour should abandon the project to replace natural grass with unnatural in the playing fields of Westmount Park:

1. The fields are an intrinsic part of Westmount Park.

2. In particular they are the year round playground of Westmount Park Elementary School's children.

3. The fields belong to all Westmount residents who need the oxygen and comparatively good air provided by the greenery — especially the grass.

4. An increased and increasing number of soccer games will bring crowds, noise and very likely, rowdiness if not violence to Westmount Park.

5. The tremendous financial cost just for a few extra weeks of soccer for players who are not all residents of Westmount.

Your honour may perhaps have laudable reasons to encourage the game, but not the right to turn the natural playground of Westmount Park Elementary School's children into an unnatural one which, in the summer will produce temperatures too hot for play and very likely, emissions which may harm their health. Your honour has not the right to do this to the children.

Your honour may have all the figures and opinions of a phalange of 'experts and environmental specialists, etc.' to justify your 'project', but as a resident I demand a public inquiry to ascertain there is no conflict of interest involving these experts. Also, the anomalous fact that a local resident is a manufacturer of artificial grass needs be subject to a provincial enquiry if this corporation is to benefit from your honour's 'project'.

Chinese artisans have today perfected the art of making artificial flowers that by appearance, touch, feel and even scent can deceive most people to think their creations natural. They have not and never will be able to create the soul of a flower. In the Torah is written, "Above each blade of grass hovers an angel whispering, Grow, Grow, Grow..." The artificial flower (and imitations of nature) is the most perfect symbol of Death. I plead with your honour, please do not bring the symbol of death to the fields of Westmount Park. The children of Westmount Park Elementary School would not like it. Neither would a vast number of residents who choose to live in Westmount because its abundance of greenery is Alive. Please listen to 5-year-old Katherine Toth in the May 3 Examiner: "I love the earthworms and the birds and the mud and I love to roll with my friends in the cool grass. There is no fun rolling on a plastic carpet."

To conclude, I again plead with your honour not to carry through your project with the 'recommendations' of your experts against the wishes of so many residents. Carrying it through would mar the rest of your term of office. And will not be easily forgotten, especially after the fairly recent levelling of our great grove of hard woods at Sunnyside (with scant public notice) to encourage more tourists to bring more crowds, more traffic and its pollutants to our fragile green home.

Stephen Chin

Sherbrooke Street