I love living in New Westminster. It's one of the smaller of the 21 municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Region. In fact, out of the two million people in the region, only 53,000 lived in New West in 2001.I am aware that the size probably means a slighter higher per capita cost for local government. There is undoubtedly a duplication of services as we need to provide many of the same services as our larger neighbours. Still being smaller can provide responsiveness. For example, I e-mailed a copy and link of Sunday's blog entry on the Columbia Street Facelift to our city's mayor. In less than 24 hours I had the following response from Mayor Wayne Wright. That's service!
Thanks for email. We are very aware of the changes contemplated for Columbia but with all the new developments coming forward on this street we are going to be doubly sure of our contemplated changes are correct. Good news is we are on the way.
W
Mayor Wayne Wright
City of New Westminster
511 Royal Avenue
New Westminster, BC V3L 1H9