I would like to write and thank Coun. Mike Gladish for his willingness to speak up for compromise with respect to the Rotary Centennial Bridge. I realize this is not a popular position to find oneself in.
Should the bridge be shared by pedestrians and offroad vehicle users? I have not really followed all the arguments. I know that the decision has already been made by city council. I do, however, believe that there surely could have been a compromise reached so that everyone could share in some way the opportunities that the bridge offers.
Obviously I am in a minority, as is Coun. Gladish, and we are fortunate indeed to live in a country where we can be free to disagree with the majority.
Change happens all the time; nothing truly remains as it once was. Where my first home was built in Riverdale, almost 50 years ago, it was in the bush, on somebody’s hiking trail.
For certain I can say that I find the bridge and the trail so relaxing: the shared experiences with the gulls nesting, the eagles fishing, the beavers building and the foxes and coyotes searching for food. The tourists who head to the fish ladder and the locals who run, cycle, stroll, roller blade or walk their dogs adds another pleasant dimension to the walk.
I think that it was Charles Darwin who said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
It just seems to me that it is difficult to envision world peace ever happening, when we here in Whitehorse can’t even find a workable compromise over a bridge. Seems so simple, but as I said in the beginning of my letter, I am not fully familiar with the whole situation and all the options. For now it is decided; what the future might bring may well be change.
Truska Gorrell
Whitehorse