Starting to sound more and more like it oughta be Sorry

My name is Heidi and I'm a Surreyite. Yep, I live in that place that so long has been the butt of so many feeble jokes.

I used to live in White Rock, less than a klick from where I live now. The joke then used to be a parody of the adage from Love Story, 'Living in White Rock is never having to say you're Surrey.'

Today I had occasion to visit a part of Surrey I hadn't seen for a while. It's an older neighbourhood, one that's been settled for over a generation. I think of it as a place with ravines and tall trees.

But like so much of the rest of Surrey, even that area has lost much of its greenery.

Driving home, I passed many sites where trees were still in the process of being ripped out. Many of these had bark that was torn and hanging, as if some giant Godzilla had gnashed at them.

It's hard to imagine what this city is going to look like in even another two years. What was once perhaps known best as the butt of bad jokes is likely going to become Canada's answer to the worst of New Jersey.

What was once maybe a place for 'hicks' who lived in semi-rural bliss is fast becoming nothing more than a sea of pavement crammed with thousands of identical homes.

Character? Greenspace? Respect for the future?

Like I said, 'Sorry.'