Dear Editor:

Just recently, the Osoyoos Times published an article regarding store owners in downtown being allowed to pile their wares out on the sidewalks outside of the business storefronts.
There are a few items that should be discussed before this is allowed to happen.
Instead of widening the sidewalks at taxpayer expense, why don’t store owners cut off 15 to 20 feet from the front of their stores and install a type of garage door opening that would solve the constant moving of their products, which would save time and wear and tear on their goods?
The idea of changing angle parking to parallel parking in the downtown of Osoyoos also must be discussed further and shot down.
This would cut our available parking by 50 per cent and close off side streets.
Am I missing something here?
Can you imagine trying to park downtown in the summer if half the parking spots are gone because parallel parking was allowed?
Do we want to have a main street like Oliver has?
Why are our city fathers catering to tourism and developers?
There are other people here paying taxes who aren’t so gung ho and would like to see sidewalks built in the residential areas instead.
As for this idea of making our downtown “unique”, I think piling stuff out on the sidewalks would make our town look junky instead.

Dale Hopkins,
Osoyoos, B.C.