Strip-Malls, Bed-Room Communities ...such  evils!      Squamish BC  Jan.24th.2013

So much is written about the evils of "Strip-Malls" and "Bed-Room Communities". Actually I find the continued objection to both rather tiresome.

By definition, I understand a strip-mall to be a linear group of businesses running parallel and immediately close to a highway. Well people need to shop and may have to drive to get to their shops. The land adjacent to many highways  is often not really suitable to other uses. In Squamish we have a strip mall which is under a string of power lines. I would not like to live there but I don't mind shopping there. Most Strip-malls are well landscaped, as the above one is. They are very convenient to the people who live near-by...so what's the problem?

And "Bed-Room Communities"....Places where lots of people live but don't work.   So people have to travel away from their communities to their place of employment... Big deal!  They can still contribute to their community and the community can still foster business and industry. In the past years when Squamish had heavier industry there were still people who drove to Vancouver or Whistler to work.

So let it be and stop complaining. We are only an hour from Vancouver so what do you expect? Maybe some of these "Bedroom  C."  guys will come up with an idea for a business which will start to employ people in our town...it has happened.

All this being said, I am sure the "Green" view on this will arise. Greenhouse gases from all those commuting cars...yea, yea.... but the world is not stopping oil, coal and gas exploration, or it's exploitation. Likely  this will not happen until the supplies are used up. So in the meantime,  car-pool and support electric car research. There are buses too but they need to be filled. Also, the more strip malls we have, the less I will need to go to Vancouver to shop...I am retired!