It is a shame that one of the people with that vision didn't live to see your shared vision come to life.
I don't know how the canadian land developers are but since I live in a part of Texas that still has beautiful trees I found myself wondering if the untouched landscape wasn't just as beautiful. When I think of Canada, I always think of beautiful trees and natural landscape. (Yes, I'll go so far as to say, I think of Canada as pristine,pure, and beautiful. Probably this is a "greener on the other side" issue)
Down here some residents have gotten angry because the developers or the contractors (hard to pinpoint who is to blame) just plow away all the big beautiful trees to build strip centers (which we don't need)when some of the trees could have been saved if the developer had been more careful. Then they go back with a landscaper and plant these shrubs or spindly little trees that just don't compare to the beautiful old trees that used to live there.
I live in the Houston area near The Woodlands, which used to be owned by the Mitchell family (of Mitchell Energy fame). When they(the Mitchells) were the stewards of The Woodlands, they made rules for developers that emphasized the preservation of the many beautiful trees in that area. That is the kind of land development I prefer. You just have to see The Woodlands to appreciate it (where there is at least the illusion of nature and "progress" co-existing).
I'm not blaming land owners, mind you. Here in Texas, they tax the land so a person has to figure out the best way to make money off of their land so they can pay their taxes (and raising the rent on a bunch of trees is just plain hard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] ). But if no one(not the land owners, or the developers, or the contractors,) is to blame, how do things like disappearing vegetation happen?
Then we hear the bigwigs (presidents and vice presidents) tell the US citizens (yep, I know Canada and Mexico are American countries just like the US) come on the TV and say we need to preserve our natural resources. But not one legislator really gives land owners incentive to protect the land. By taxing landowners, they actually penalize people for owning land (whether its only got trees, cacti, cattle, or condos).
I'm curious, is your Provincial Supreme Court, elected or appointed? One would hope that the Provincial Supreme Court had a larger picture in mind, not just larger dollar signs in their pockets. In Texas, we do elect our Texas Supreme Court Justices (a few at a time). But that leaves us with the problem of the voters (and I'm one of those guilty of this) not knowing who is the best judge for the job. It's hard for working people to keep track of who's ruled how on what.
Anyway, ramblings aside. That is a really nice picture. I'm really relieved you got paid for that fine work. To me, as a freelancer, not getting paid for work you did on good faith is pretty high up there on the tragedy scale. It would have been really horrible if the developer had said, "Sorry Ross, the deal didn't go through. . . we can't pay you."
Please keep posting these wonderful pictures. And thank you for the neat advice on how you got the raggedy edge in the bank picture.
Thanks,
Athena
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August 28, 2000
Chris,
I just tested the eternal editability feature that you turned on, way back when. It seems to be working so it looks like you got this feature to be universal within I-US forums.
Athena
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[This message was edited by T. Athena Hatton on August 27, 2000 at 11:12 PM.]
Athena
Our thoughts are bounded by words. The quality of those thoughts is largely determined by the words that compose them.
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