Letter: Dunluce Feels Glenora’s Pain

Re: “Glenora vs. Everybody”

Your article describes a lot of the thoughts and feelings my neighbours and I have with our current City Council and its administration.

I live in Dunluce, a dynamic 50-year-old neighbourhood in northwest Edmonton, and we are experiencing the same rhetoric like you described in your article. My neighbourhood is slated for renewal in early 2025 as part of the City’s Building Great Neighbourhoods plan. This proposed plan will drastically change the accessibility for people coming and going. The majority of residents on the main roads will lose the ability to stop and or park in front of their homes. The Plan proposes that 200-plus mature trees be cut down as well as making changes to a tree stand (natural area) which, according to the City is one of the largest remaining forested areas within the City at 5.7 hectares. Concrete is proposed to be installed where green grass and trees currently grow.

I am part of a group of like-minded citizens (over 300 and counting), with the support of the Dunluce Community League, who have been actively attempting to get answers from the City but have made very little progress.

We were able to arrange a meeting with our City Councillor, Erin Rutherford, and two of the City planners at the end of June. Over 250 area residents showed up and the meeting went how you describe the Glenora meeting. While Councillor Rutherford said she was listening, from her actions to date, nothing has changed and the project moves forward in spite of the neighbourhood not wanting it to.

Thank you for your article. Unfortunate as it is, it was nice to know that Dunluce is not isolated in our dealings with the City.

Marie (surname withheld at discretion of the editor),
Edmonton