Spencer McNally, chairperson Camps Bay Community Improvement District Steering Committee
Anthony Pamm’s letter "Vote no to Camps Bay CID” (Atlantic Sun letter, November 2) refers.
Mr Pamm’s arguments against the proposed CID are primarily political in nature, insofar as he opposes (within the context of the establishment of a CID) progressive taxation and majority-rule democracy as currently practised in South Africa. He is of course welcome to his opinions and the Camps Bay CID Steering Committee (SC) is in fact sympathetic to much of what he says.
The reality however is that the CID as proposed is the only possible structure that can effectively address Camps Bay’s myriad problems within the legal framework currently available to us.
Camps Bay faces ever increasing levels of crime, grime, vagrancy, illegal structures and campfires, and the continuing deterioration of public spaces and greenbelts. These are non-trivial issues that all impact substantially and negatively on the quality of life and property values of all of Camps Bay’s property owners and residents.
The choice is therefore simple: either we do nothing and hope that our problems go away, or we establish a CID. Hope is not a strategy, and hence the vast majority of property owners (approximately 84% at current count, of the 85% of property owners polled to date by the SC) are in agreement that the answer is obvious: vote yes to the Camps Bay CID.