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able if requested by any ther group of public ser- Eants. Then these are the rinse benefits! Does any- In my view, more em- phasis should have been placed on the cavalier way in which the councillors - with one exception-spent the tax payer's money. The rate of increase Dear Editor, Your articles dealing with Waterloo council's gen- emusity in awarding them- would be consiclered laugh- were interesting. LE " IRS Dear Editor, At a gathering of some concerned friends and neigh- bors this evening, we gloom- ily contemplated the threatened widening of Al- bert Street, among others of the evils with which our City Council apparently intends to visit upon us in the name of Progress. I was moved to commun- icate some of the feelings which have accumulated in me to my fellow residents. in the hope that some con- certed thought and action on these matters may be forthcoming before it is too late. When I first came to Wa- terloo nearly ten years ago, the city fathers billed it as a pleasant place to live, proudly pointing to the fact that something over 90% of its residents were home-owners. Many of the homes in question, no doubt, were small and boxy and perhaps a bit down at heel; but they were indeed homes, providing their occupants with a bit of space they could call their own. At least somewhat removed from their neigh- bors, and the intervening area covered with grass, shrubs, and a tree or two. Homely, yes, but pleasant. During the decade since then, this image has been faded out, to be replaced by one very different. At first, the one or two high- rise buildings, and the few clumps of small sixplexes and twelveplexes and so on, were regarded as essential- ly dormitories for tempor- ary residents, such as stu- dents, and as such could be tolerated as necessary. But things have pro- guessed well beyond that point. It has now become fairly clear that the city ttrig and governors re- ard high-rise apartments Illa-KtliTrl. FUNERAL " 8: BHAPEl Convenient Parking, entering Wellington or King Street Salary raises “laughable” Fears growth of qoncrete city 621 KING WEST - 745-9495 TO THELLLLTQK Comeou now. It's a gift. It occurs to me that the majority of our councillors have better than average incomes from sources out- side of council. look them over. What they receive from you the taxpayer should be in the nature of a bonus. But it seems that once these boys place their postenions in the seats of the mighty, they suffer from overwhelming delu- members of the Regional Council can can -really earn- the 35.!!!) extra? The ultimate tendency of this kind of thinking, after all, is a situation in which 99 percent of us live in spac- es very much boxier, and probably smaller, than the small .boxy houses which first dotted Waterloo’s horizons; and the other 1 per- cent of us (just incidentally the 1 percent which happens to own the buildings in which the other 99 percentr are forced to dwell) occupy large, tree-shaded - and of course, mostly tasteless and bourgeoisified mansions in the remote suburbs. Will any but the souls of profiteers be elated by the sight of blank 18-storey slabs forming noisy. ex- haust - ridden canyons? Consider too that one can- not, if one is so moved, de- cide to finish the attic or add a front porch onto one's The resemblance in social structure between this situation and the medieval era from which we alleged- Iy escaped five hundred years ago should certainly give us pause, for starters. as, not necessary and temporary evils, but posi- tive goods. They look for- ward with positive glee to the day when the center of the city will resemble a sort of junior Manhattan: when all will be asphalt. concrete. exhaust fumes, and the remaining grass will, no doubt, be plastic. Members of council have expressed the view that this represents "progress", An interesting kind of pro- gress, this. But it is not be- yond discussion, I must point out. There are two things to discuss here. One of them is whether this real- ly represents a desirable direction in which to move. Desirable for whom, from what point of view? . and in any case that it is "inevitable". The rights of property nowadays, you see, are vest- ed in corporate property, not lived-upon property. If protest is made, it will be patiently explained to us children that a "de- sirable level of traffic I1ow" for the street upon which we happen to live is so many cars per hour, and at one or two hours of each weekday, that rate 7 is presently exceeded; the only solution, alas, being to expropriate our front lawns, remove the hundred-year-old shade trees which are, after all, only occupied by mere robins and not drivers, and replace the whole by a nice fresh layerorsoof tar. Well, that is one im- portant side of it. Another, however, exists: this has to do with the little matter of the rights of those over whom the steamrollers of progress must roll in their inane course. No great effort is made to let us know that our dem- ocratic representatives have in their wisdom dis- cerned that half of our front lawns must be sacri- ficed in the interests of that efficient flow of large, noisy, and smelly motor cars which apparently brings joy to the hearts of the modem "planners". campaign pmpaganda? All of I; remember the stance asked for our votes. Most of them offered to serve hav- ing as their chief interest the welfare of the city. Some even emphasised that economy and good man- agement would be the cri- teria by which they would be guided! Well something happened! concrete box a hundred feet in the air. Also that it is not clearly agreeable to get to know a neighbor but one wall distant: better to look the other way as you pass each other in the corridor on the way to the elevator whose slave you have perforce become. Surely there is some point beyond which it is not merely in bad taste, not merely a sign of lack of vi- sion, to regard this sort of thing as "progress", but downright irrational. It is proper, I think for us to seriously consider in regard to their ORTON BECHTEL Scarce worthy of your confidence - a tradition since 1925. DICK CUNE justifiable reason is an in- dication of a general disre said for taxpayers' mics. Arewebeintrwellserved? These exhorbitant in- creases should call forth wide-spread protest from thou of us who contribute our hard earned money in the way of taxes. Let's have these protests now. Let’s indicate our feel- ings when next we vote for “well considered" economy. And anyway, why not be a good little boy and sell your house to good ol' Martian Investments, Ltd., which will happily replace you and your neighbors with a nice fresh 1batorey slab of concrete? Martian, after all, is The People, and they ’ll get you in the end anyway - and think of the capital gains! whether or not the way our servants vote themselves It wouldbenice if all these lamentations could be dismissed as paranoid fantasy, and I greatly fear that most of your readers will so dismiss them. They will be rudely awakened, but rather too late, when one fine day the wreckers arrive on their front porch. if they have one. Or if they ai- ready dwell in the sky, they may no longer care about those who occupy what little grass remains below. Bat unfortunately, these developments are actually happening here, and the only thing that makes them inevitable is the apathy or thoughtlesmess of the peo- ple to whom they are happening. I hope that this letter will go some way to promote the realization that they are not inevitable, that we can do something about it, if we don't sit quietly in our comers for too much long- er. Sincerely yours, Jan Narveson Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. For information about. Woman Committee Botany, 90. Saturday’s Because of the size of First United Church, therooreerxtrnssqotsfdrtttqseeomoets. Ticket: for either performance may be porehosod at: Sam the Record Mon, " King St. W., Kitchener; Bonk of Montreal, King & Ed: Ste, Waterlot); and the University of Waterbo Box Office during the week; and at the door prior to the concerts. A.A. Morison no! Brooks, Iona Alvin "imor, Boss ttAlt Philharmonic Choir - Howard Dyck, Div-odor FIRST UNITED CHURCH ' 11CKETS AVAILABLE No reserved ”on for those I.” sums - $1.” VICKI? 0mm 7454375 Ricki Yorofsky, Soprano V Iona Al Watqrtoo Ohmic... WM, Fabruary At. 1973 5 K-W SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Coodoetor and Music Dim: 'totfi Armenian J.F. Tummon. Business Administrator and Secretary-Treasurer. The Waterloo County Board of Education wishes to inform the public of the Board's policy relative to motorized contrivances using school grounds. This policy is as follows: "It shall be a policy of this Board that the unau- thorized use of any type of motorized contrivance on any property owned by The Waterloo County Board of Education shall be expressly forbidden." Action will be taken against persons creating danger for children in school yards by operating snowmobiles. mini-bikes. or other contrivances creating a public nuisance for residents of this community. iijiaEWiCj Lower Mall 745-4461 Watetrtoo Square Own Daily titt 0:00 Thor. th Fri. to 9:30 pm. Staten 'n' Knit “tries by the yard. also Polyu- tar Shoes New swim suit matuial just urinal. plain o. mm availabla. Laos. Fibralill & Lycra. Elastic by the van]. vatious widths and colors also snatch lacs. lacs trim. and slastic ham. EVERN “Your White-Elna Sowing Machine Dealer in Waterloo" SEWING MACHINES FROM $9.95 SIGHT & SOUND Thurs. March Ist - 8 pm. - 744-8531 DR. JAN DUKSZTA MPP PARKDALE WILL DISCUSS "THE STATE OF MEDICAL CARE IN ONTARIO" N.D.P. Centre 54 King South (Upstairs) Watedoo SEWING SUPPLIES SIGHTS: SOUND Ful ”inaction. with my machine COMPLETE LINE PUBLIC NOTICE ONI A Haydn VELCOMI G.R. MacDONALD. Chairman of The Board.