The Rock Report - August 2007

NAV Canada's decision to reroute YVR air traffic over the beaches of South Surrey and White Rock has stirred up a hornet's nest of opposition which has grown considerably this month.  Local community leaders and MP Russ Hiebert will be visiting NAV Can's offices on September 4th to review this dramatic change to the airspace over the peninsula.  This item will be on the agenda for the September 10th Surrey Council meeting.  There is also a community meeting planned on this issue at the the Ocean Park Community Hall (16th Ave & 128th Street) on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @ 7:00pm.  SUN asks everyone who uses Crescent Rock Beach for nude recreation to attend both the City Hall and Community Hall meetings or else get used to having roaring jets passing overhead every three minutes of the day while you try to relax at the waterfront.

The 1001 Steps stairway in Ocean Park which was closed while BNSF installed a new pedestrian underpass beneath the tracks has now been reopened.  Some of the seriously worn rails across the length of Crescent Rock Beach have also recently been replaced.  While SUN lauds any work which improves the condition of the railway, the hillside near the new tunnel has been graded clean of vegetation making it susceptible to mudslides during heavy rains.  The BNSF and local politicians have still done nothing to stop hill-top residents from cutting down trees or draining water onto the slope, both which destabilize the bluff and increase the slide risk to the passing trains.  The landslide detection fence has also not been extended along the stretch of bluff near Crescent Beach which has been the scene of 3 large slides in the last 20 years including one which hit a freight train last March fortunately without causing a derailment.

BNSF's new pedestrian underpass at 1001 Steps
looking up the hill.

In related naturist news in Surrey, the Skinnydippers Swim Club has
announced that the judicial review of City Hall's decision to ban them
access to the Newton Wave Pool will be held on October 18th.  SUN hopes that Surrey will be forced to stop discriminating against this nudist group and give its residents the same access to public pools for nude swims that
Vancouver and various other cities across Canada have done.  It is
unfortunate that a small group of "clothes-minded" people can trample on the constitutional rights of so many, using their political power and control
over public funds to quash individual freedoms.  While Surrey touts itself
as B.C.'s second largest city, it continues to behave like the biggest
small-town in the province on issues involving nudity.

After a summer featuring clouds or showers on 7 of the last 9 weekends, lets all hope for an indian summer (First Nations summer?) to help erase some tan lines before the fall rains set in and another sunbathing season at Crescent Rock Beach comes to a close.