Dear Editor,
RE: “Housing Services asks Township to set aside vacant land” (July 27, 2023), I did a double-take and then sat in mild shock as I read about Housing Services Manager, Lisa Smith, from the Cornwall SD&G Human Services Department asking Council about using Township land along the railroad tracks in Chesterville for a new affordable housing build.
The negative short and long-term effects on the human mind and body from living along railroad tracks have been well documented: increased rates of cancer, asthma, pollution, 24-hour noise pollution, stress, insomnia, increased heart disease and diabetes, risk to wandering children – not to mention being a far distance walk to school, and, God forbid, the risk of derailment and hazardous waste catastrophes, to name a few.
I wonder if anyone on Council or at Cornwall’s Housing Services Department would want to live in a home situated close to railroad tracks? Haven’t the poor and marginalized suffered enough already? Surely they deserve far better than this.
Ann Brady
