New thinking needed

Re. Kelowna city council not surprised residents feel quality of life is slipping (Castanet, June 21)

It makes me sick Kelowna city council (members) claim that quality of life going down is “beyond their control” when they've done little to stop the short-term vacation rental business that clogs up the Kelowna housing market and makes it impossible for locals to find affordable housing.

Neighbourhoods were once affordable but have now flipped to overpriced investment properties or are torn down and turned into towers that could be viable but have few to no options that are affordable enough for the average (resident).

In fact, they want to tear down my grandparents’ house of 30+ years to expand an already large frisbee golf course downtown. It is a home that was intended to be passed on and is now likely to become a parking lot for tourists.

The quality of life in Kelowna is going down because of people's greed, not just from local officials, but greed on a much wider scale.

The wealth gap is so wide it's no longer about pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. That idea should, in and of itself, die off. What happened to supporting each other as a community, making sure we're all OK and cared for instead of pretending the world is every man for himself?

Currently there are people working 9 to 5 jobs, five days a week. What was once considered the standard amount of work per week is barely to afford rent, let alone have a chance to buy your own place in Kelowna.

A liveable income no longer seems to be the standard amount you get in a paycheck for a full-time job.

It's a societal issue, and I'm only focusing on one small degree of it in this letter, but it is one we need to work on locally.

Maybe we need different officials in order to do that, or at least least a new way of thinking.

Ozzy Olsen, Kelowna