Have your say

Beautifying boulevards

Re: Mowing dispute heads to court (Aug. 10). During winter months, does Richard Hykawy wait for the city to remove the snow from "its" portion of his driveway so he can pull his vehicle onto the street?

Just as snow piles are eyesores and safety hazards for people and pets, so are unchecked grass and weeds. Perhaps the city should more actively encourage homeowners to use their attached boulevard spaces to extend their gardening and landscaping initiatives since their tax dollars already pay for these portions of their properties.

If curb appeal is important to homeowners and if they are doing the beautifying, the areas could be watered and groomed. This is more appealing than mowing the grass for the city.

But if the city wants ownership of the space and wants it kept clean without having to do the work, and yet does not want to be perceived as just dictating rules, then why not assist groups such as Take Pride Winnipeg in their attempts to make Winnipeg beautiful?

This group is an additional resource that monitors the overall beautification of Winnipeg properties during summer months and rewards well- maintained ones. Kudos to Home Depot for spearheading this initiative each year.

PRABHA MENON

Winnipeg

Tarnished officiating

The view of your Aug. 10 editorial, Seize the moment, and medal, is that the women's soccer team should exhibit better sportsmanship. Normally, this would be my view as well.

But Olympic officiating was forever tarnished at Salt Lake in 2002. The U.S.-Canada soccer semifinal this year did not involve just one poor call (or a sequence of them). The pattern of biased officiating was obvious from early in the game and continued throughout.

I found the Canadians' comments fairly restrained under those circumstances. And the Canadian honesty accomplished something worthwhile.

Good job, girls. We are looking forward to 2015.

FRED PETRIE

Winnipeg

Garbage pickup woes

I've just finished reading fellow Wolseleyite Michael Anderson's Aug. 7 piece, Wheelie-bin system's debut proves 'deeply disappointing,' and thought I'd add my experience.

The calendar delivered to my home on Garfield Street stated Tuesdays were my pickup days. A friend who lives one street over on Sherburn told me she had received a notice from the city revising her calendar from Tuesdays to Mondays.

I thought it strange, being one street away, that I hadn't received any such notice. I called 311 and the person I spoke with told me my pickup day was indeed Monday, not Tuesday as stated in my calendar, and that she had not heard of revised calendars being sent out.

The upshot: no pickup for me, and on Aug. 7 the wheelies were all out in the lane for pickup, but there was no pickup for them. Growing pains in more ways than one.

ROSE-ANN LAVERY

Winnipeg

Accessibility appreciated

My wife and I have been enjoying Folklorama for many years. However, since our mobility changed (mine three years ago when I lost my legs, and Emily's disability becoming worse as she ages), we have found going from pavilion to pavilion much more difficult.

When Folklorama first began, there were nearly no pavilions that were wheelchair accessible. But we must congratulate Folklorama for recognizing the need for accessibility, as organizers have ensured that more and more pavilions are accessible to wheelchairs each year.

Several years ago, Folklorama introduced bus tours, not only for tourists but for Winnipeggers who either couldn't or didn't want to wait in line (primarily seniors). The participants, for a fee, were given guaranteed seating, food and drink at three different pavilions.

This year, Folklorama expanded these tours for the first time to include one for people in wheelchairs, which we were fortunate enough to enjoy. We were taken to a pavilion by an accessible van (organized by Folklorama), given a tour of each pavilion, and provided with reserved seating, food and drinks.

Our Folklorama tour guide, Donna, was fantastic. She spent the entire evening ensuring that we were all happy and well taken care of. Kudos to Folklorama!

NICK TERNETTE

Winnipeg

A day for worship

Re: Ridiculous histrionics (Letters, Aug. 8). Mark Brown posits that the Roman Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday to appease and convert pagan sun worshippers. That's not true.

Nor is the idea that Sunday is a day of rest from work, as Saturday is for Jews and the weekend was for the labour movements.

Sunday was originally a day to worship God. Its restful, quiet quality developed quite naturally and served to remind Christians that Christ is the Lord of Peace. Thus, any assault against Sunday is not an attack against WASPs, as Lindor Reynolds implied, or Christians in general, but against God as the Father of Peace.

SCOTT INSCH

Winnipeg

Consider the differences

In his Aug. 8 letter, Keep on truckin', Terry Shaw of the Manitoba Trucking Association makes some valid points about trucking in general. And what he says about roads is also correct. But here are a few things to consider about the difference between trains and trucks.

Trains do not have engineers who tailgate you, run you off the road, pass you on a blind curve, come around a curve on the wrong side of the road, speed, race down the road side by side, or fall asleep at the wheel.

In days gone by, these incidents were far and few between, but now it is an everyday occurrence caused by certain drivers.

People are scared to drive between Vermilion Bay and Kenora because they are worried a transport truck might be coming around a curve on the wrong side of the road.

As a retired police officer, I have personally seen the devastation cause by a transport truck passing on a blind curve. I investigated enough accidents over my 33-year career to know what I am talking about.

JOHN KENNEDY

Dryden, Ont.

Opportunity to lead

Brian Pallister's job No. 1 must be to win a Conservative seat in the legislature. He cannot be a truly effective leader from the gallery seats.

Premier Greg Selinger is giving him the opportunity to become the Leader of the Opposition before the fall sitting and before the spring 2013 session.

If the premier wanted to be opportunistic, he would delay the dropping of the writ for the byelection until July 2013. Now Pallister should just get on with accomplishing what his two predecessors were not able to do.

BRIAN HEAD

Winnipeg

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 11, 2012 A15