Dear Editor,
Maple Ridge: Opening Night (Did we audition?)
When the city took over the ACT Arts Centre, it wasn’t just an operational change – it was a dress rehearsal for governance. The city took the keys, and mayor and council made Maple Ridge their stage.
Curtains up: The mayor strides into the spotlight, calls “Action!” and prepares his cameo. Council reads obediently from the pre-written script, while residents stand in the aisles – drafted as unpaid extras, the ticket price added to our taxes.
Act I – Props Appear
Enter stage left: Trees – political props popping up overnight. Planted along city boulevards that run through residents’ properties. The city keeps ownership – residents inherit maintenance.
We’re not against what council scripts as “urban greenery,” but we didn’t audition to be drafted to the role of “super-soakers.”
Act II – Consulted (limited engagement)
The irony – residents nurture saplings while the cty gears up for its version of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’ The victim: the historic Maple Ridge Golf Course.
Billed as consultation, the aquatics/recreation centre process resembled a table read: script circulated, 2,700 responses (three per cent of the population) recast as “nearly 70 per cent support,” staged through 8,000 touchpoints, five open houses, and 13 meetings of what critics call fake democracy, expertly choreographed.
To justify his vision, Ruimy hauls Rocky Point Park onstage, but the comparison sinks like the Titanic. Rocky Point evolved slowly, over decades. Mayor and council plan to skip process, flatten the set, then applaud rubble as ‘vision.’ Not award-worthy – but the show proceeds, cast staying in character.
Act III – Wrong movie, wrong set
Had city hall read the script, it would know growth is heading north and east. Instead, let’s bulldoze a massive divot across the golf fairways, treating the year-round sport like an understudy while privileging seasonal recreation and sandbagging quiet neighbourhoods like a rogue golfer ignoring etiquette. The historic Maple tree on the course – site of the first council meeting in 1874 – will be scratched from the call sheet, another prop lost to misplaced drama.
Viable alternatives who could fill the role. North 256 Street (256 acres) and Yennadon lands (63 acres) are miscast as “Industrial” and “Boutique Employment” parks – a straight-to-DVD sequel masquerading as long-range vision. The obvious recreation sites? Ignored as council premieres a production of factories and boutique offices.
Final Act – Sequels to come?
Anyone claiming one high-rise won’t spawn more is either naïve or auditioning. Skylines don’t whisper – they avalanche. The mayor concluded, “If the land can do it, let’s see the first one.” Ruimy cued the lights. You don’t think he’ll write the sequel?
Curtain call
This play has turned into a horror show: decisions imposed, objections cut, a high-rise written in as a feature prop.
Residents aren’t collaborators – they’re scenery. This isn’t rehearsal; it’s opening night. The set is fixed, the script is live, and reviews are in.
Final plot twist: the audience controls the casting, and this season the script and the directors are up for review. Time they exit stage left – their final bow overdue.
Karen Redkwich, Maple Ridge