Frankly Speaking

 Frank Bucholtz photo The Neville C. Curtis home on 182 Street was still in good condition in April. Now it is gone, despite being on Surrey's heritage register. It will be replaced by a large, modern house. The neighbourhood is changing rapidly, with such houses dominating. The large lots are an added attraction. The H-word is raising its ugly head in Surrey and White Rock again. Politicians, developers and realtors are hoping its use will soon decline so they can continue to give the green light to destruction of the few remaining reminders of the past that get in the way of   new development, construction, growth and change. The H-word of course is heritage – in particular heritage buildings. They are a nuisance to growth-oriented cities like Surrey and White Rock because they often sit on more land than a contemporary building does. In addition, the taxes they bring in are low. Perhaps most gratingly, they get in the way of development plans and tie up plann...

Photo by Jesse Johnston/CBC A memorial to Hudson Brooks, who was shot and killed by a Surrey RCMP officer on July 18, 2015, was put together by his friends after the shooting outside the South Surrey community policing office. The case of the shooting death of South Surrey resident Hudson Brooks at the hands of Surrey RCMP continues to – very slowly – work its way through the Independent Investigations Office. While the IIO says it now has all the evidence it requires, it still plans to take several more months to analyze that evidence before coming to a decision. There is no question that the gathering of evidence is much more complex than it used to be. And cases where there is a police-involved shooting require particular care. There is enormous public demand for more police accountability, which was the reason the IIO was created in the first place. However, the lengthy delay in this case and many others is simply unacceptable. Brooks, 20, was shot outside the Sout...

A wonderful statue of Arthur Thomas Fleetwood, in his First World War uniform, stands outside the Fleetwood Community Centre complex at 84 Avenue and 160 Street. It is one of the few public remembrances of veterans are in Surrey. Hopefully, the recent attention paid to "Charlie's Tree" in Port Kells will lead to some more recognition. The fall to the ground of “Charlie’s Tree” along Highway 1 in Port Kells has attracted a lot of attention. The 300-year-old Douglas fir came to public attention in the early 1960s, when it was scheduled to be cut down to make room for the new freeway. Highways Minister Phil Gaglardi, who had been compared to Roman road builders by his boss, Premier W.A.C. Bennett, was determined to have a straight-as-an-arrow road running into the Fraser Valley. However, he hadn’t reckoned with Charlie Perkins. The longtime Port Kells resident and First World War flying corps veteran had a special area at the rear of his 96 Avenue property that ...

The July 25 introduction of a 15 per cent property purchase tax on foreign buyers by the provincial government surprised many observers, and shocked the real estate industry. In particular, foreign buyers with transactions in progress were caught in a dilemma. If they were able to move the completion date up, they could avoid the tax. Some did so. Others walked away from signed contracts, forfeiting deposits which in some cases were substantially lower than the tax bill would have been. Philip Dumoulin of Sotheby’s International Realty in South Surrey said one realtor lost three buyers and a fourth asked for a referral to Toronto, planning to buy there instead of in the Greater Vancouver area. Foreign buyers have had less direct impact in Surrey than in some other parts of Greater Vancouver, such as the City of Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and areas of the North Shore. However, there have been a significant number of such buyers in South Surrey and White Rock, and it is like...

Photo from @jwaldag Twitter account Ziggy Eckardt shows the massive ballot which German voters, who have proportional representation, have to fill out. He used it as a show-stopping visual aid at a town hall meeting on electoral reform in Cloverdale on Tuesday night. Eckardt has been active with the Conservative Party in Burnaby. It was fascinating to attend Cloverdale-Langley City MP John Aldag's town hall on electoral reform Tuesday night. The timing was questionable. Coming in the midst of the summer, when many people are away on vacation, and one day after a long weekend, it seemed very likely that it would be poorly-attended. Such was not the case. There were at least 130 people there, and several hundred more took part via Periscope and Twitter. The federal Liberals campaigned last year on changing the way Canadians elect MPs. Justin Trudeau declared that 2015 would be the last time MPs would be elected using the First Past the Post (FPTP) system. He said so when it s...