By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

If anyone in West Vancouver
(or anywhere else on the North
Shore) thinks the Third Crossing
isn’t going to cost them anything
or at least not very much, he
should get a peek at the Report
on Transportation Planning for
West Vancouver, prepared by

Wooster Engineering.

Presented to West Vancouver
Municipal Council on January
29, 1971, the report has not, as far
as I’ve been able to find out, been
made public.

One can't ‘help but wonder
why. But this becomes clearer
when the report is examined.

N. D. Lea & Associates and Swan

ancouver Mayor Tom ‘‘Terrific’’ Campbell has suf-

fered another relapse, this time a real bad one. This

‘third crossing’ over Burrard Inlet was just too much for the

mayoral brain, (or what passes for such?) to take. Hence his

latest explosion, unparalled since the days of the late and
unlamented U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy.

To parody Karl Marx on the Tom ‘‘Terrific’”’ latest mental
diarrhea anent a democratic-minded citizenry, a brand new
revised slogan has sprouted: ‘“‘Hamburgers and rangitangs
unite, you have nothing to lose but your freeways, you have a
rapid transit to win.”’ :

A ‘‘thamburger’’, in the demented jargon of Tom
“Terrific? is a citizen minus a university degree, while a
“rangitang’’ could be one with such a degree, but no job in
sight, hence no status. That of course covers an awful lot of
citizens, who, unlike out recently-appointed “‘Q.C.” (read
‘‘queer character’’), have not yet qualified for a padded cell in
the local squirrel cage. ;

“If this third crossing sinks,’ quoth Thomas the Terrible,
“it will be a great victory for the Communist Party of
Canada.”’ Naturally the commercial press gave these mayoral
ravings the widést coverage, since anti-Communist bilge,
whatever its source, is ever and always ‘“‘news’’ for the
brainwashed newshawks and their Establishment paymasters.
It is also the ‘last refuge”’ of the political nonentity who chafes
at the democratic restrictions which curbs his yearning for a
class dictatorship.

Should the people of Vancouver and surrounding
municipalities, ‘‘hamburgers’’, ‘‘rangitangs’’ and all, win a
plebiscite to help determine what is good and beneficial for this
and future generations, that indeed will be a victory for the
Communist Party — and countless thousands of other non-
communist citizens; a victory for the progress of Vancouver,
and a victory over the NPA would-be dictators at City Hall.

When the Communist “‘line’’ can only be met with insult,
slander and ephitet, in a sickly attempt to stifle and gag all
opposition to NPA—Big Business dicktat, that also gives added
emphasis to the validity and correctness of that ‘‘line.’’ The
recurrent anti-Communist mental hemorrhages of Tom
‘Terrific’? and his ilk, merely illustrate the insoluable
dilemma of a class ‘‘whose time has come.”

: * * *

The auditorium of the John Oliver School in Vancouver was
packed to capacity. They had come to hear Sallye Davis,
mother of Dr. Angela Davis, plead for the life and freedom of
her loved, and world-loved daughter — against the ruthless
frame-up and contemplated murder at the hands of U.S.
reaction. (See coverage of meeting on Pg. 11.)

Out on the sidewalk about a dozen misguided youths
walked up and down, carrying a big swastika flag and sundry
erudely-drawn slogans, some of which read: ‘‘We stand for
white power’’. These elements were there for the sole purpose,
(if possible) to disrupt the assembled gathering. There were no
police in sight, but this meeting ‘‘policed”’ its own security and
its honored guests against any unforeseen eventualities.

As we have said, it was a big meeting, an interested and
enthusiastic audience, and a very sacred cause — the saving of
a Black woman and a Communist from frame-up and death at
the hands of the killers of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs,
Joe Hill and hundreds of other workingclass martyrs,
sacrificed on the U.S. altar of Mammon.

But the commercial press were not there. For them there
was no “‘news in a frail little Black mother proclaiming the
innocence and seeking the freedom of her (and our) Angela.
Big meeting and all, the kept press gave it. the full blackout
treatment. Not a line.

But ... had the handful of Nazi hooligans with their
swastika bedecked flag and racist slogans managed to get in to
do their assigned job of disruption and worse, that would have
been ‘‘news*; that would have got the headlines. and the
‘“‘cops’’ speedily arrived from nowhere — to impose “law-'n-
order’’ — with the assembled guests and audience as their
prime target. Then the “free press’ would have given its
readers a real thriller that would have matched Mayor
Campbell’s dementia.

We thank Sallye Davis — and all the mothers of the world.
who fight against terrible odds, for the lives and freedom of
their Angelas. In their victory we also win! .

The report makes clear that

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, '1972—PAGE 2

the development and popu-
lation growth (and by this it
obviously means the real estate
development and the popula-
tion explosion that would follow)
in West Vancouver is predicated
on a Third Crossing which is
“assumed as_ being com-
mitted.”

It predicts a_ population
growth of West Vancouver from
its present 37,000 to 60,000 or
91,000 in the next 15 years,
depending upon what sort of
development scheme is adopt-
ed.

It further predicts that the
minimum cost of ‘‘arterial
street improvement” to serve
the freeways (such as a Third
Crossing and the Upper Levels
Highway) will be $5 million (at
1970 prices) and perhaps as high
as $8-$10 million. It spells out
that this excludes ‘‘routine
improvements, maintenance
and local development costs and
interest,’ all of which would be
extra.

It declares that the “‘new
arteries to deliver traffic to the
proposed - Brockton Point
Crossing,’’ will ‘determine the
base network for the foreseeable
‘future.’’ And it claims (no doubt
again on behalf of the real estate
promoters) that any failure to
build a Third Crossing would be a
factor ‘‘limiting further devel-
opment” in the municipality.

Two things at least become
clearer than ever from this

* report.

One is that the main propo-
nents of the Third Crossing are
the real estate promoters and
their political representatives

~The high cost of Third Crossing

on municipal councils, who want

-to bring about giant devel-

opment schemes on the North
Shore that will make it even
more crowded and congested
than the,downtown area of Van-
couver. :
Another is that the Third Cross-
ing will not solve any traffic:
problems and is not really
intended to. The real estate
development that will take
place following the building of a
Third Crossing will bring with it
an increase in population and an
increase in cars that would
immediately negate the
temporary alleged benefit that
the Third Crossing might bring.

“And then the people of the
North Shore won’t just be back
where they started, they'll be
worse off. The demand will then
arise for a fourth, fifth and sixth
crossing, for more arterial
roads, for more freeways.

Sooner or later (I should really
say, before it is too late) we
must all face up to the fact that
freeways do not solve problems
— they create them. A freeway
System feeds on itself with
monstrous results. To promote
freeways is madness. There is
only one solution and that is
public transit, starting with an
improved bus system and light
rapid transit, and proceeding on
to full rapid transit at a later
date.

Those mayors and aldermen
on the North Shore, in Van-
couver and other municipalities
in the Regional District who
push freeways are playing a
dangerously shortsighted game.

OF A

DICTIONARY © DEFINITION
“HAMBURGER:

“A bum or tramp: anyone
who is down and

out ”

THE BIGGEST HAMBURGER OF ALL

PACIFIC TRIBUNE

‘munity Hall last Sunday. Mos

| they will win 29 new readers |

MARK MOSHER, leading tra
unionist and community work
was nominated as Commun
candidate for the federal riding °
Comox-Alberni at a constitue!
meeting in Parksville C0

is a school trustee in Alber

Pledge PT subs i]

The Trail Press Club has
just informed the PT that

to boost the circulation of our |)
paper this year. :

Other clubs which have |
pledged to give leadership in|
the battle to win new readers }
are Vancouver East, with oa
and Victory Square with 2)”
pledge to win 22 new readers.

We salute these clubs and |
urge all press clubs who have |"
not yet sent in their pledges |
for the year to do so without |”
delay. S|

More light
on Quilt case

The Williams Lake Tribute
says the priest of the Anahiml
Reserve told their reporter lat
week that Mrs. Christine Quilty
(whose husband died followitky
an incident involving the
RCMP) came to him two dajsy
before the death of her husbaf
and asked him to phone a judg
because her husband had
‘jumped on’’ by a policeman. —

Father John O’Brien said It
could not reach the judge by tele
phone and that at no time wast
called to testify at the inqueés
into Quilt’s death. He said he hat
expected to be contacted all
assumed when he was not that he
was not needed.

Homeowners say ‘we're heing had!”

Homeowners — We:re being
Had! says the Central Council of
Ratepayers in a leaflet being dis-
tributed
owners this month.

- Assessments on homes are up

while on many commercial and

industrial properties assess-
méhts are down’’, they explain.
Last year school taxes amounted
to about one-half the revenues
raised by property taxes in Van-
couver. and the biggest increase
was borne by single-family
residential homes. while taxes
on commercial property de-
creased.

Bennett's Assessment Equali-
zation Act is responsible for
this. An amendment to the act
limits to 10 percent the increase
in assessment for school
purposes, so the bigger the

to Vancouver home-

property, the bigger the
decrease in assessment.

The Central Council of Rate-
payers point out that millions
are spent for facilities and
services for big developers like
Marathon (CPR) Project 200
(CPR), Block 42-52 (Seagrams)
Four Season, etc. The city bud-
get could be trimmed if this is
stopped. Assessments and taxes
will not have to increase.

TWO MILL RATES
The ratepayers group attended

‘a session of city council last

week and proposed that the mill
rate on residential property be
reduced so that taxes remain the
same as in 1971: that the mill
rate on commiercial’and indus-
trial property remain the same.
but if additional. revenue is

needed the mill rate on thest”
properties should be increased. ~

They urged city council t
press the provincial govert
ment to remove the 10 percell
limitation amendment on con
mercial and industria
properties, and demanded an en
to concessions and subsidies t
large private concerns. |

Due to the opposition
homeowners to increaSed taxe
on their homes, city council
recently decided to ask the pr¢
vincial government to increas?
its per capita grant t
municipalities by 15 percent.

The Central Council of Rate
payers urge all homeowners ant
renters. to write or phone cit)
hall to protest the unjust tax
assessments and any increase il
taxes. They say tax increas
can be stopped if homeowne
renters act together. -