Food trucks are not an improvement
In regard to a “new and improved” Clover Point, how is replacing the parking at Clover Point with food trucks an improvement?
They need noisy generators that produce exhaust, create masses of paper waste and are eyesores. People have been bringing their own picnics to Beacon Hill Park for 100 years.
Robert Creese
Victoria
Losing the best spot for submarine races
If it wasn’t hard enough to find entertaining things to do during this pandemic, I was extremely disappointed to find Victoria city council is considering the removal of a longtime traditional pastime in Victoria: The art of watching the submarine races off the roundabout at Clover Point.
I guarantee it won’t be long until Victoria is removed from the list of the world’s sexiest cities. After all, how intimate can a couple get while wrapped in parkas sitting on a bench on the point, while happy hikers, waving cyclists and delirious children playing with dogs and kites are surrounding them?
And as for possible midnight trysts, well, Mayor Lisa Helps’ quote sums up the chances of that ever happening: “City staff really knocked it out of the park on this one.” Indeed, they did, the curmudgeons.
Another time-honoured tradition relegated to a “those were the days” category. Thanks Lisa and gang. It begs the question: How will the taxpayers of this region possibly survive after they all leave office?
Barrie Moen
Victoria
Point is uncomfortable and useless in winter
Just how are the disabled going to enjoy Clover Point if the public is not allowed to park at the location?
The picnic tables and such are nice for the sunny summer months, but useless for the windy, rainy winter months that account for half the year.
Yes, my interest in driving to the point may be self-serving as a birder, but there are many people with many interests who enjoy sitting in their vehicles and watching storms, ships, whales, the peaceful water, enjoying the views, and eating lunches and drinking coffee.
I doubt that there will be enough seating available, as compared with that in vehicles, and that are uncomfortable and useless in winter.
Keith Taylor
Victoria
Don’t make everything a car-free zone
So, here we go again. Another “car free” initiative at the expense of the taxpayer without consultation, and without anyone asking for it.
Why can’t Victoria council just leave well enough alone? Clover Point has been an iconic gathering point for decades, where residents and visitors alike can go and park as close to the Pacific Ocean without having to get wind-blown and cold if they choose not to.
Where our seniors and mobility-challenged people can go and enjoy the vista and beauty of our waterfront without having to expose themselves to the elements.
Mayor Lisa Helps says there will be a drop-off at the top of the loop so wheelchair-bound people “will be able to roll down and visit the ocean.”
Has she ever seen the grade from the top to the base of the Clover Point access? I’d like to see her try and control a wheelchair or wheeled walker down a grade like that.
Why is council obsessed with making every square inch of the city “car free”?
And part of their plan is to turn this beautiful unscathed point of land into a freaking circus, with orca statues, painted asphalt and food trucks?
This fantasy dream of council and its staff has pushed me to speak out.
By all means, improve the pedestrian access, protect the green space from idiot vandals who tear up the grass with their cars, and place some picnic tables around the point, but just stop trying to make everything free of cars.
Rick Anthony
Victoria
A nightmare on Clover Point
What did we do to deserve a city council so intent on limiting public access to the green spaces that belong to all of us?
First it was Beacon Hill Park, then Central Park, then Vic High land that might have been used for an athletic track. Now we have a vision for a car-free Clover Point, sprung on us.
It was not city staff who “really knocked it out of the park” on this one, but Joanne Neubauer, who has been observing how people actually use Clover Point.
We need to preserve the point as a lookout for the thousands of residents and tourists who like to access it in all seasons and weathers: families with kites to fly, seniors, those with infirmities, tradespeople, posties — yes, even city workers.
Parking on surrounding streets is taboo, and there isn’t even a bus route that comes reasonably close; so how are all the happy people in the artist’s drawing supposed to have arrived, unless they came by bike or lived within a two-kilometre radius?
And why does there have to be only one “vision” for the area? Clover Point is a pretty big place. You could create a spruced-up part for pedestrians and a vehicle-accessible part existing side by side without having their paths cross.
C’mon, council, do the right thing and come up with some alternatives — and allow the people to have their say!
Barbara Abercrombie
Victoria
Clover Point is windy, inhospitable and rocky
Clover Point is not a parking lot, it’s an area difficult for those to access who are infirm or just plain old, where they can enjoy the sights and sounds of the strait, from their vehicles.
To make this pedestrian/cycle-only access will limit use to daytime, without strong wind or rain. Nothing has prevented access by all modes in the past.
”Public will get a chance to influence the park’s permanent design during a future planning process.” Read: When we’ve laid it all out you can bark all you like, but there it is. We don’t need “amenities.” All we need is what is there, a space to fly a kite and spots to park and enjoy.
It’s windy down there, and rocky, and we can’t retrieve it once we lose it. The idea of four parking spots at the top of the hill being adequate for dropping off grandma in her wheelchair to “roll down” to the area is ludicrous. Someone has to roll grandma back up, in the frequent foul weather.
Patrick Lanman
Victoria
Clover Point idea carries a simple message
I give up trying to understand the principles that drive the City of Victoria’s zeal for initiatives like the recently announced plan to ban motor vehicles at Clover Point.
Sure, extend a sidewalk to Clover Point to improve pedestrian access. But why ban vehicles in the loop?
There has never been conflict between vehicles and pedestrians at Clover Point.
Before renewal of the pumping station began, the Clover Point loop served not just Victorians, but also those elsewhere who enjoy a quick jaunt to the waterfront on a stormy day to spend a few moments near the sea without having to commit to a big walk in inclement weather.
Being close to the sea from the comfort of your vehicle is what makes Clover Point so special, especially for those with mobility challenges.
Like other “improvements” Victoria council has pursued over the past decade (bike lanes that clog main thoroughfares, vehicle closures in Beacon Hill Park, and other vehicle-free areas elsewhere in the city) banning vehicles in the Clover Point loop solves a problem that doesn’t exist.
Thousands of Greater Victoria residents simply won’t visit Clover Point anymore if they have to get out of their cars, especially when the weather is poor — but perhaps that’s the point.
The City of Victoria should level with the rest of Greater Victoria, acknowledge the sentiment behind these initiatives, and say plainly: “Only people who walk or bike deserve to enjoy this place. The rest of you can take your cars and go elsewhere.”
Doug Stacey
Esquimalt
Leave Clover Point as it is
Here we go again! Victoria city council members, many who do not even live in Victoria, are voting on taking away another peaceful bit of seaside, again from everyone including the elderly and disabled.
They gated and locked our entrance to the Beacon Hill lookout for almost a year prohibiting people with mobility problems like me who drive a car from the beautiful view of the Olympics.
I have been going to the lookout and Clover Point to enjoy my picnic lunch for many, many years, and still do. I’m now retired with mobility problems. Clover Point will never work as a park. It is not as protected from the elements as is Sunset Beach and Kitsilano beach in Vancouver.
It is cold and windy 11 months of the year, people stay in their cars to watch boys and girls flying kites and men and women paragliding and the sea.
In all my years I have never seen a family picnic at Clover Point. City council says there’s going to be food trucks and so I guess you can order from your car, at the Clover Point Drive-In.
Colin Craig
Victoria
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