Re: “James Bay condo development on duplex lots gets narrow nod,” May 15.

It is an insult to anyone’s intelligence for Victoria Coun. Pam Madoff to say: “In my view, if I supported this I’d be destabilizing the neighbourhood. I’d be further inflating housing prices.”

Increasing density and housing supply is the main way forward to escape the affordability crunch. Trying to shoot down projects, scale back proposals or delay developments, as council has done for decades, is the cause of the crisis.

The prominence and scale of the federal and provincial governments make them an attractive target for citizens’ ire, but urban municipal politicians deserve the brunt of the blame for this crisis in B.C.

Madoff has been on Victoria city council for 25 years, with an impressive track record of never having met a density increase that she has liked. We millennials were still in diapers while civic politicians like her were laying the groundwork for today’s affordability crisis with zero repercussions then or since.

Nobody epitomizes what is wrong with our city hall more than she does. Nobody has done more to harm the future prospects of my generation in this city than she has.

Andrew Reeve
Victoria

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