Validation

Every once in a while - over the years of battles that we fight every day (big and small)... we win. Perhaps not right away, and perhaps not as a direct result of what we did... but there are times now and then when something we fight for happens.

I had one of those moments a few weeks ago.

Back in 2002, I lived at Capilano Road - 3924 Capilano Road, to be exact. I used to cross the street to jog in the park, but there were no crosswalks to the entrance... there was one up the hill, but it meant going up two blocks before coming back down to the entrance immediately across from me. Now, I know what you're thinking - quit being lazy.

Indeed.

I probably wouldn't have cared, except for the number of other pedestrians I saw trying to cross there - especially kids who went to the elementary school. And this was the straw that broke the camel's back - I was heading out for a run one day, and saw this 7 or 8 year old girl trying to cross the street. Standing there with her arm out, waiting for the cars to stop - and every single car whipped by at 60-70km an hour. Without fail. I finally walked out an stopped the traffic, because it became clear nobody would do so otherwise. I realized that this was a tragedy in the making, as some kid was going to get creamed trying to cross.

I wrote the district. They had some intern write back explaining that this wasn't a significant enough issue, and that they couldn't just randomly put in crosswalks. I called, and asked for the transit supervisor, and had a meeting where I showed that this wasn't a "random" crosswalk, but a point where many of the locals crossed, particularly children and the elderly for whom that two block climb was just too much. I was politely told not to worry about it.

So I called the paper. I told them that I was getting the "thanks, now just go away" treatment from the district, and that someone was going to get killed at this crosswalk and I wanted to publicly hold someone accountable for it. If someone was going to die - I wanted to be able to walk up to the transit supervisor and say "I warned you about this, I told you it would happen - you are as responsible for this person's death as the person driving."

Anyway, despite everything, no crosswalk went in and I moved shortly after - I had tried all I could, but without simply paying for it myself there was nothing else to be done.

BUT: the other day, I had a craving for Chinese food from Capilano Heights Chinese Food (delicious restaurant, by the way) and drove past the old house for the first time in years. You know what? There's a crosswalk there now.

Having been a part of this fight - I had a small celebration as I drove home for this small victory.

On to the next one.

~Guy