We should purge the Northern Junk eyesore
It’s about time that a decision has been made regarding the Northern Junk buildings. It is incomprehensible to me how citizens can be so vehemently opposed to redevelopment of the site.
Regardless of the building’s historical origins as ship ballast, the buildings as they sit today are unusable, dangerous, and clash badly with the surroundings.
They are buildings in name only, as essentially they are eight stone walls and nothing else.
Pearl-clutchers who rail on about “Old Town” and “Historical Context” have no idea that life in Victoria is for the living, not some long-dead sailors who raided their own ships for building materials out of desperation or convenience.
If the nay-sayers had their way, Victoria would be frozen in time forever, and we would be forced to live in increasingly obsolete and worn-out buildings in the name of historical authenticity.
They frequently point to places that are “ruined” like Manhattan or San Francisco where developers were given too much rein. I disagree. Have you ever been to San Francisco? It’s stunning. You can’t swing a bat there without hitting something historic.
The current proposal is, in my opinion, sensitive to the historical context and gives a new life to a previously impossible task, given unending demands placed upon the developer.
One only has to look at the Janion building, across the street, as a model of tasteful and sensitive redevelopment.
If the Northern Junk buildings turn out half as good as the Janion, Victoria will finally have purged itself of what is now an eyesore that not a single tourist has ever paid the slightest attention to.
Colin Anderson
James Bay
Peter Pollen protected Victoria’s downtown
In the 1970s, when the rest of Canada was destroying their downtowns and erecting towers, we had Peter Pollen as our mayor. He fought developers off and left us with the downtown heritage and tourism attractor we have today.
A number of years ago, Arthur Erickson was asked to walk around the downtown with city planners. He said: “Don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.” Wise words, falling on deaf ears right now.
Our current council hasn’t seemed to meet a development or developer they don’t like. The traffic has become most unpleasant and more and more towers are going up without provision for parking, many of them ugly and out of scale with what’s around them, setting precedents for more ugly towers.
So, the potential loss of tourism is one issue.
Secondly, we are halfway through the summer and on stage four of water conservation.
One wonders, as climate change progresses, with the untrammelled development this council keeps approving, whether we have the resources to deal with all these people.
If you build it, they will come, but will there be enough water?
I feel the legacy of this council will not be one to be proud of.
Amy Robertson
Victoria
Keep that bridge down for most of the day
How many of us have experienced serious traffic delays along Wharf Street in Victoria when the bridge is up?
Several years ago, I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, and learned that there are more than 342 bridges over the rivers and canals in and around the city. In contrast to Victoria, no bridges are lifted during the daytime to allow ships to proceed. They are only opened between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., thus allowing vehicular (motorized) traffic a smooth flow over bridges throughout the city during the busy daytime hours.
Every night during the navigation period from April to November, 22 bridges across the Neva and main canals are drawn up to let ships pass in and out of the Baltic Sea into the Volga-Baltic inland waterway system.
A calculated schedule with the exact time of consecutive opening and closing for each bridge is published and maintained to guarantee passage of cargo ships and tankers at a precisely controlled speed. This is in order to have at least one bridge at a time staying connected to ensure passage of firefighters, police and ambulances. The huge advantage to all of this is that no vehicular traffic is tied up on the city’s streets during the daytime because “the bridge is up.”
Yet, here we are in Victoria. Could we not learn from the Russians on this?
Margaret Spark
James Bay
Those old Navy habits die hard, it seems
Last month I retired from the Royal Canadian Navy after more than 40 years’ service.
The other day I was in a local coffee shop getting my wife a coffee. As I waited off to the side while the coffee was prepared, I realized I was standing at ease, a drill position just shy of standing at attention.
“This is ridiculous,” I said to myself, “I’m retired from the Navy!” So I stood myself easy.
Michael Erwin
Saanich
Victoria misses mark on its bike lanes
Re: “Victoria council to consider designs for three new James Bay cycling routes,” Aug. 4.
I’ve been an enthusiastic recreational cyclist all my life. Now in retirement, I try to get out at least three or four times a week.
I’ve taken my tandem bicycle to Europe four times. I’ve ridden the cycle meccas of Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and France.
You might think that I would love what Victoria council has done for cycling. Well, you would be wrong.
First of all, the design of much of the work is poorly conceived and overly complicated. The bidirectional lanes are simply too narrow.
The the idea that Victoria could ever achieve the ridership levels of many other cities is simply impossible. There are far too many hills and the distances are too great for many people to even consider the kinds of mass usage that those cities experience.
Finally, the whole concept of a bicycle network that works for all ages and all skill levels is just wrong.
Kids should be learning to ride on quiet streets and trails under adult supervision where they can experience all kinds of different interfaces, be they with cars, dogs, pedestrians or stop signs.
We don’t hand our kids the keys to the car and then send them out to learn how traffic works.
Council could have gotten a lot more infrastructure for the money they’ve already spent had they kept things simple. Too much over-thinking has created a mishmash, infuriated drivers and disregarded the taxpayers they’re supposed to be working for.
Jim Jaarsma
Victoria
Victoria more accessible than ever before
I am so weary of reading a constant barrage of complaints, both in print and online social media, about how the city is destroying “accessibility,” such in the partial road closure at Beacon Hill Park.
Victoria is more accessible now than ever before, whether it be in providing swaths of handicap parking spaces around the city, making sidewalks curbless and gently graded, or making public transit accessible through kneeling city buses with ample room for wheelchairs and walkers, as well as the handyDART service.
Bike lanes are another form of accessibility for those who cannot afford the luxury of a car and who want more safety in getting around. We need to stop only defining private vehicle ownership as “accessible,” and start realizing that our city needs to accommodate everyone, not just drivers and their cars, and for the most part we’re doing a great job of it.
Ethan Smith
Victoria
How will the city decide about Clover Point?
I have read with interest the many letters, mostly quite critical, commenting on the changes that have been made at Clover Point.
I too am perplexed by the apparent unwillingness of the city to acknowledge that things have not worked out exactly as planned. My frustration is that I do not know how the city plans to assess how, or whether, the redesign has met their expectations.
Surely with a change such as this there has to be an evaluation framework? Is data being collected to indicate how and when Clover Point is being used?
I ride my bike past the area frequently and note that an impressive electronic counter is in place alongside the bike path to let everyone know how many cyclists have used the path that day and overall to date.
What data has the city collected on the Clover Point change? When will a decision be made regarding if and how this project could continue? Enquiring minds want to know.
Andrew Lane
Victoria
Walkway around the edge would be just fine
I have lived in Fairfield for most of my almost 80 years on this planet. Mayor Lisa Helps, in her recent blog post praising the changes at Clover Point, has missed the point by a mile.
The changes were made by someone at City Hall trying to justify their cushy job and Helps pushing the idea that the changes would help global warming by reducing vehicle traffic.
I would challenge Helps to go to Clover Point almost any day between October to April. I would suggest use of picnic tables would be close to zero.
The chances of anyone having a picnic during these months would be between slim and nil. During these fall and winter months, vehicle traffic should be allowed full use of circular drive on the point.
This is a great service to all people wanting to sit in their car on a winter day and read a book or have a coffee. The simple permanent solution is to simply put a walkway around the circumference of Clover Point and leave the road open at all times.
Paul Baldwin
Victoria
New parking system will drive people away
I write to protest the new payment system in City of Victoria parkades. Now most of us do not get an hour free parking.
And if we do get into the very few spots, we have to move our vehicles after an hour, instead of just paying for what we owe beyond an hour. Fix your app so we can have an hour free, please!
Jeff Bray of the Downtown Victoria Business Association says that people don’t mind. Horse feathers! We do mind. And we hardly come downtown as it is.
But guess what? Now we’ll come to the malls instead. Lots of free parking there.
Suzanne Bell
Saanich
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