'V2>Aq 0oeex 18 SIZOTDO Y~îARMG a ?4 q ur yaTLHW PAGE 6; WHf'Y FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER- 10, '1990 Publishd eer ènsa arc lhr - Te nl WÎty ewpaerinepedetl unu ad p1 b LNtoUn5leadr51mn Whitby7re83dentsofrcWhonby residents Just as Whitby firefighters were qulck on the scene, so, too, was there an Immediate response by the Whitby communlty to those left homeless by the tire 'at the Garden St. apartment building., Theà relief effort was ln full swing Friday, and by aternoon, nearby Leslie McFarlane public school was the collection point for a vast amount of donated goods. -A 12-ton truck was used to transfer items to the former Cobi Fo ods plant. An Amergencv houslng registry was established to Quickto ,,,respond help .200 tenants: find accommodation, and Durham Reglon arranged ta have at least -19 familles ln hotels on Thursday night. Local businesses have., begun collectlng »donations. Contributions of vehicles for transportation, offers of a ccommodati on and time have been overwhelming. Some of » the familles are- relatlively new.-residents .,f Canada, some of the -familles had no Insurance. While, there were no physical Injuries to tenants, the t Ire was devastating for many. Ho wever, the pain will be made easier to bear for :many because of the helpinghand given by the Whitby communIty., lt's reassuring, and cdomforting, ta know'that such support manifests itself ln 'a hg a n ir gency situations. Tkie alook at'our 'realneeds To the editoir. Be Mr. Hepburn' letter iu Oct. 3/90 edition' of Whitby Free Pkeos With ail due respect, Mr. Hepburfi, you are both naive and selflsh as te the people's housing needs in ail conununities, not just Ours. Mr. Hepburn has a great distaste for the planned influx of apartment buildings, but he tetally ignores the fact that some 40,000 resale houses are now sitting idie on our real estate market while the builders continue te build new homes. -We can't seIl what we have and the Town is authorizing building permts for more. il people's needs. should be a part of the community, not just the middle or 'upper class. Apartment living 18 quickly becoming a hard-nosed reality. It is a fact of life that many people simply do not have the means te afford the Iuxury of a single dwelling. Some have te seli their homes because they no, longer- can afford the high municipal taxees in this region; or, due te unfortunate circumstances, such as the increasing divorce rate and increasing job lay-offs, some cannot afford te keep. their 'homes." Mr. Hepburn, if you wish te live in a community where only houses prevail, then perhaps you should consider moving te the country'and commute. Just day-to-day living is difficuit for many of our honest, hard-working citizens.- Sure we woulà ail like te have our own'house, but sometimes we cannot realistically hbave ýthose choices. Mr. Hepburn, you ate livig in a sheil. I suggest you take a few steps and have a good. strong look at the real needs cf this community. You are well meaning but you do not have a clean, understanding cf the housing needs of this community. Norm Belad SWhitby jMainstream. Ca .He has alot of work to do By Terry O'Shaughnessy Filling every television screen during the federal Liberal Party leader- ship convention last June was the familiar face of former Trudeau cabinet minister and newly-elected party leader, Jean Chretien, loudly proclaiming that: "We have work to do". From the Meech Lake Accord- which died the very weekend of the leadership convention--to the proposed Goods and Services Tax, Chretien repeatedly thumped the podium and thundered: "We have work to do". When revving up his supporters or answering his many critics, he had one answer: "We have work todo". But more than three months later many Canadians are wondering exactly who Chretien was referring to. Already many are starting to believe that he meant everyone but himself. lnexplicably, the new Liberal leader has played hard to get, surfacing only rarely during a long hot summer filled with Meech fallout, confrontation in Oka, potential war in the Persian Gulf, and of course the continuing debate surrounding the widely unpopular Goods and Services Tax. His self- styled "man of the people" image showed few signs of life, despite the many opportunities literally handed.to him by a federal govern- ment under siege and a prime minister intent on a series of nakedly partisan and blatantly self-serving Senate appointments. Chretîen's coy performance is even starting to grate on his own MPs who are getting antsy over recent poli results which show increasing popularity for the New Democratic Party and increasing unpopularity for the Liberals in the new leader's home province of Quebec. In fact, Chretien's advisors only okayed the byelection bid after it became clear that their strategy was simply not working. (Chretien will run in the long-time Liberal riding of Beauséjour in New Brunswick.) While there's no doubt that the trouncing the provincial Liberals endured in elections in Ontario and Manitoba is a major factor for at least some of the apprehension in the Grits' camp, Chretien is not going to convince voters to make him prime minister next time round if the f ïrst three months of his leadership are any indication of what's to follow. Canadians from across the country are not likely going to rush to support a leader who, at such a critical juncture in- the future of this country, has deliberately kept himself out of the political fray. Jean Chretien would- be well. ad- vised to quickly do the job he was elected to do and provide some leader- ship for both his party and the Cana- dian public. H e has a lot of work to do. CF>B Feature Sec Why 'ghettoie' apa'tmnts? To the editor. Re: Proposed Buildings Apartment I recail reading a re editerial commending mixture of housing in downtewn ýcore. There are n different styles and variances in prices. We aiso, duplex, triple;, apartment .ecent the the many wide offer and house rentai opportunitiei. Why is it that we have te ghettoize new, 1 affordable apartment accommodation? Why do, we have te build three or four apartment-style buildings (apart, from- economy of 'scale) a together and ail in the same place? 1 suggest we spread themn around, the community., They- become less of a conoentrated eyesore, grown children can sty close te the neighborhood they grew up «ini, and not ail packed in together,, there is less traffic congestion, and a less overwhelming, effect on the community. Okayý'. . eMaybe it night cost more te do it this way, but it wiil create more harmony, ançia better environhment fioà ll ff the people of Whitby. WhitIBarby 'on -01AVi "Okyhere.cornes the new aparýtmientP'- - - ~~~1 -- - ~.-.------- ill"f'