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Letter: Langley doomed to progress

Dear Editor,

With passing interest I read the editorial remarks and passionate letters sent regarding the future of differing areas of Langley.

I can fully understand the reluctance with which the new development of neighbourhoods is viewed by those established there.

My family and I arrived from Calgary in 1971, and after a brief spell in a Surrey apartment we were fortunate enough to find a comfortable, brand new home on two thirds of an acre on 207th Street in Brookswood, for which we paid about $36,000.

There were no houses to the east of us, and only a gravel pit to the south.

Going north on 200th Street there was the Preston Chevrolet, a Volvo dealer named Butler Bros., and a couple of miles further, a large garden nursery.

To the east there was little but forest that sheltered a few homes on acreages. Abutting the woods but further to the east were homes on large lots.

I had to drive north to beyond the No. One Highway last week. It seemed as if I’d suddenly entered the buroughs of New York: buildings everywhere of every description, row upon row of similarly named row housing, and roads everywhere into a thriving industrial area.

What had happened to my small country town of Langley, as it had been swallowed up by a monster with the name of Progress?

I suppose this is what happens to us all as we age.

Couples have kids, immigrants are welcomed, and everyone has to live somewhere that is affordable, and we all wish to move into our cherished location.

Oh, well, someday we will all die, and others will be established in the area they consider as home.

But no doubt, if the world progresses, they will find themselves in a similar position to those who have passed his way before them.

Mike Harvey, Langley