[Johnson Street Bridge] General discussion

[Bob Fugger]

Originally Posted by Holden West

One of my favourite parts of the City's Johnsonstreetbridge.com placeholder site is this banner ad:


You just can't make this stuff up, folks. The comedy writes itself.

I'm missing the joke - the banner ad is for Islandnet?

[North Shore]

Ha ha - just went to look at www.johnsonstreetbridge.com, and it's full of links to Mat's JSB.org and VV. Not quite what the city had intended, I'm sure!

[Holden West]

Originally Posted by Bob Fugger

I'm missing the joke - the banner ad is for Islandnet?

The banner ad leads to one of those semi-scam sites that promise a steady stream of no-strings government cash. In reality, in return for a very hefty fee, a useless list of government grants is mailed to you--the same info you can get by going to the government's own website.

The fact that the bridge replacement plan hinges on the hope that a big government cheque is forthcoming is just an extra bit of coincidental comedy.

I hate to blame the City, as they delegated to Atomic Crayon and they delegated the placeholder site to IslandNet.com who probably don't pay any attention to the generic banner ads Google coughs up and they probably weren't expecting any actual visitors to their standard-template placeholder site before it went "live" anyway.

[G-Man]

Originally Posted by Bob Fugger

I'm missing the joke - the banner ad is for Islandnet?

Its at the bottom though I am sure it changes all the time.

[Holden West]

Originally Posted by G-Man

Its at the bottom though I am sure it changes all the time.

In that case I'm certain we can look forward to ads promising an sturdy erection worthy of Joseph Strauss' best efforts.

[VicDuck]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

I'm hoping neither funding goes through. I'm sure the province will be stingy with money until the budget September 1st. The feds, I dunno. For once I'm feeling lucky that we never vote prov.lib or fed.con near here.

Then the City doesn't have to borrow money. REFURBISH it in phases, over 10 or 15 years and use normal funds. Forget about the improved approaches, that's a colossal waste of money.

I doubt the feds will pitch in because Harper on his visit never mentioned the bridge to my knowledge.

Campbell is to busy with the Olympics and other multi million dollar projects in BC's center of the universe.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Ms. B. Havin

^ Who was the host, do you know?

Correction, it was Adam Stirling that was the host yesterday....

[mat]

Originally Posted by Holden West

The banner ad leads to one of those semi-scam sites that promise a steady stream of no-strings government cash. In reality, in return for a very hefty fee, a useless list of government grants is mailed to you--the same info you can get by going to the government's own website.

The fact that the bridge replacement plan hinges on the hope that a big government cheque is forthcoming is just an extra bit of coincidental comedy.

I hate to blame the City, as they delegated to Atomic Crayon and they delegated the placeholder site to IslandNet.com who probably don't pay any attention to the generic banner ads Google coughs up and they probably weren't expecting any actual visitors to their standard-template placeholder site before it went "live" anyway.

Today's blog article on jsb.org explains this - and why it is important.

http://johnsonstreetbridge.org/?p=300

As a web developer and consultant for local and international clients one of the jobs is to ensure all the websites they own are in their name (domains are assets), and that their online identity is configured correctly. Allowing a placeholder page to display competing links, and adverts that are scams, is a stupid mistake - it was pointed out to the city in a previous blog post over a week ago, yet it's still not fixed! Very easy to create an under construction page, or temporarily re-direct the domains to the City of Vic main website.

This is a screenshot of the johnsonstreetbridge.com placeholder page



and a close up of the links



This illustrates the City of Victoria's lack of understanding, and care to details, when in comes to online media and communications.

[Holden West]

^I like that constipation ad, too.

Is your pet project suffering because the government cash pipeline is blocked? Are neighbours receiving stimulus funds with regularity while you're left waiting on the pot?

[Bob Fugger]

Originally Posted by Holden West

The banner ad leads to one of those semi-scam sites that promise a steady stream of no-strings government cash. In reality, in return for a very hefty fee, a useless list of government grants is mailed to you--the same info you can get by going to the government's own website.

The fact that the bridge replacement plan hinges on the hope that a big government cheque is forthcoming is just an extra bit of coincidental comedy.

Ahhhhhh, now I get it - I read banner ad and understood that to be at the top. Now, I don't think we can blame the City at all for this. I mean, they haven't hired any of the three new communications resources, so how can they be expected to keep tabs on minor things like this with only four existing comms people!?

[VicHockeyFan]

I think the site is locked down now.

[mat]

Originally Posted by VicHockeyFan

I think the site is locked down now.

Well - that got a reaction finally!!!

[Ms. B. Havin]

Originally Posted by Bob Fugger

I mean, they haven't hired any of the three new communications resources, so how can they be expected to keep tabs on minor things like this with only four existing comms people!?

Actually, I thought they had hired at least two new people, at $60K per head (an additional $120K in city salaries, thx), which I believe is more than they pay firefighters in Victoria.

(At this point I could say something snarky about how putting out PR fires must be more important than saving lives by putting out real fires, but I'll control myself...)

(I could also make a pun about how the city's communications department isn't exactly providing a firehose <groan> of information.)

(In fact, they've locked down the hydrant...)

[G-Man]

Just looking back at the beginning of this massive thread some four months ago and noted that the new bridge was originally tagged at 30 million vs 25 to fix the old one. How did the new bridge more than double in price before we even started planning it?

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by G-Man

Just looking back at the beginning of this massive thread some four months ago and noted that the new bridge was originally tagged at 30 million vs 25 to fix the old one. How did the new bridge more than double in price before we even started planning it?

Approaches plus 30% contingency jacked it up a bit.

[G-Man]

The approaches were spoken about in the 30 million dollar amount.

[VicHockeyFan]

Well who knows then. What's 30M anyway? They might as well just round it up to 100M. That's only like three arenas.

Blue Bridge Bicyclists:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115845997330

I notice TC lifestyle reporter Sarah Petrescu is an admin....

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by aastra

If they were to re-route the road on the west side, methinks the real estate they'd gain on the site of the old curve would be worth a lot of money.

True, but what are the chances they'd sell this land? They'd probably just make another useless park.

[G-Man]

Despite my objections to getting rid of the old bridge, this project would probably be the ideal type of project for P3.

Get a private company to chip in a whack of money say half, in exchange for the land opened up and permission by the city to allow a certain density on the parcels.

[Holden West]

^Sounds good, but the Mayor and other lefties on Council (and their backers) are not fans of P3's.

[VicHockeyFan]

Originally Posted by Holden West

^Sounds good, but the Mayor and other lefties on Council (and their backers) are not fans of P3's.

Yup, they have already expressed concern that there are "fair wage" provisions on the replacement.

You know, I have a good feeling there is no upper-level money coming for this thing.

[G-Man]

I'm a lefty but can still see the benefits of taking money from greedy capitalists to suit my visions.

[VicHockeyFan]

I've submitted my request to address council on this matter on August 27th.

So far my rough draft goes "We the people..."

Seriously though, I hate people that read off a letter. Christ, just mail the thing. Come see the real deal, I promise entertainment....

[Bob Fugger]

That's great! I suppose I ought to put my money where my mouth is and petition council, as well.

[VicHockeyFan]

This is Genevieve Rainey, she's playing Soprano's tonight...



Listen:

http://radio3.cbc.ca/

..and she appears to be either a JSB fan, or hates waiting at open bridges./


edit: Uh, oh, G-man's not gonna like the size o' that pic....although it looks fine on my 60" monitor.