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Victoria recreation plans


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#1 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 09 July 2008 - 07:05 PM

http://www.canada.co...a39c8a6a29e&p=2

Here is the best part:

With council giving the groups a nod of approval, they'll now start talking to James Bay residents about what a project involving the three organizations could look like and whether it could also add to the communities' population by including housing.

Is it going to happen quickly? Not likely.

Coleman is the first to recognize nothing happens fast in Victoria. It took almost seven years to replace the wading pool in Beacon Hill Park.

He's seeing it as a five- to 10-year project.


Councillors take a nervous look at recreation plans
Carolyn Heiman, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Back at the dawn of time -- well actually 2004 -- the city of Victoria launched a dynamite plan to spiff up aging recreation facilities including the cash-sucking, dilapidated Crystal Pool.

Called recreation renewal, the logic was that it made more sense to build several larger facilities to replace the Crystal Pool, Royal Athletic Park and seven community and senior centres in Fairfield, Fernwood, James Bay, downtown and Vic West.

The $32-million plan triggered an explosion of outrage in almost all communities worried about losing meeting space, although many of the facilities in question are old and have narrow uses.

The focus remained on what would be lost, over what might be gained. Victoria city councillor Chris Coleman, liaison for the parks department at the time, says he can still feel the scars on his back from the episode.

A beleaguered council hastily retreated from the plan in less than a year of it being unveiled, and the words "recreation renewal" were never spoken again.

In the meantime, Victorians watched as neighbouring communities went full-steam ahead on improving facilities. Oak Bay renovated its recreation centre and built a new pavilion. Langford built an arena.

In Victoria, more study took place. This one is quietly referred to as the son-of-recreation-renewal but is actually called the Recreation and Community Services Delivery Systems Review. Leaving no stone unturned, it brought 30 organizations together to see how the city might move forward with its facilities. It came up with a mushy vision, values and beliefs concept, but has stalled again, this time because the top staff in the parks department were shuffled out the door and no one was left to finish the work. With a new parks director steering the ship, a report is to come to council in the fall on the next steps. Facilities deemed too old in 2004, are older.

In the meantime, perhaps getting impatient while they grow out of their existing facilities, three James Bay organizations are gingerly stepping forward with a grand plan to integrate many of their services. The James Bay Health and Community Services Society and James Bay New Horizons Society and James Bay Community School Society want to end service duplications -- such as three teensy, inadequate kitchens -- and expand other parts of their operations. The society, for example, would like to have bigger health services area for more doctors offices.

A vision of how this might work was unveiled at a recent meeting of Victoria city council, and assuming it doesn't implode on the weight of its complexities, could be a model for other communities still treasuring fiefdoms.

The staff and boards of the above organizations have approved a concept that would see the older facilities replaced with a super structure and surplus properties -- most likely the James Bay Community Project building at 547 Michigan -- used for family housing. Seniors housing could be built at 234 Menzies where New Horizons operated. Depending on how elaborate the plan gets, some see public/private partnerships that include redevelopment of existing commercial buildings and land swaps with the provincial government for a parking lot on Menzies Street where some see a new community building.

With council giving the groups a nod of approval, they'll now start talking to James Bay residents about what a project involving the three organizations could look like and whether it could also add to the communities' population by including housing.

Is it going to happen quickly? Not likely.

Coleman is the first to recognize nothing happens fast in Victoria. It took almost seven years to replace the wading pool in Beacon Hill Park.

He's seeing it as a five- to 10-year project.

Let's mark it on the calendar and hope it happens.

#2 amor de cosmos

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Posted 09 July 2008 - 08:29 PM

The Victoria of 2008 is hardly worthy of all its history/heritage, etc.

#3 Rob Randall

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Posted 09 July 2008 - 09:21 PM

I attended the all-day visioning session at City Hall Carolyn talks about. It was as dull as it sounds. It took us literally over an hour for a huge roomful of people to come up with this sentence:

Victoria is a dynamic city where communities of shared interest, working together, add quality of life activities and services so people enjoy healthy, active lifestyles. The system will be celebrated as a Canadian Best Practice Model and will provide a strong link to social programs and community services, networks and organizations.


It was so dull I almost walked out--something I've never done at any meeting before, and I go to a lot of City Hall meetings. It just seemed so stupefyingly pointless. They tried to be as inclusive as possible--even the ten-pin bowling lobby was there, even though there isn't a 10 pin alley in Victoria. Carolyn was right--everything was mushy.

If for some reason you are interested in the process you can read about it here.

#4 amor de cosmos

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Posted 09 July 2008 - 09:32 PM

A bowling alley might be kind of cool at Crystal Pool. The usual rec-centre stuff during the day, bowling at night.... maybe.

I bet that meeting actually was as boring as people say it was.

#5 Mike K.

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Posted 09 July 2008 - 10:29 PM

If built, these facilities will undoubtedly be as great an achievement as a perfected golf swing and coffee grain grown vegetables.

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#6 aastra

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 09:55 AM

Victoria is a dynamic city where communities of shared interest, working together, add quality of life activities and services so people enjoy healthy, active lifestyles. The system will be celebrated as a Canadian Best Practice Model and will provide a strong link to social programs and community services, networks and organizations.


I realize these sorts of vision statements are always the first step, but good gravy...if 100 people were to read that statement they'd probably come to 100 different conclusions about what it actually means.

#7 G-Man

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 10:04 AM

I hate vision statements.

#8 amor de cosmos

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 10:11 AM

I hate vision statements.


Me too. I like actual visions much better.

#9 Nparker

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 10:49 AM

I hate vision statements.


Ditto. It reminds me of too many of those awful government-sponsored workshops where navel-gazing is the modis operandi rather than actually learning or producing something.

#10 Ms. B. Havin

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 12:40 PM

This is beyond depressing...
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#11 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 16 February 2023 - 09:31 AM

North Park wants a community centre, just not on the 900-block of Pandora Avenue

Neighbourhood associations push back on plans for a community centre in Pandora Avenue housing development

 

https://www.capitald...-pandora-avenue

 

 

proposed 20-storey affordable housing project on the 900-block of Pandora Avenue was also meant to bring a long-awaited community centre to North Park and Downtown residents.

 

But in a letter sent to council last week, the North Park Neighbourhood Association (NPNA) said  it  no longer supports the idea of a community centre at 926 and 930 Pandora Avenue and is asking for the city to not refer to the ground-floor space as a community centre in its development proposal with BC Housing.

 

In the same letter, NPNA called for the city to designate Pandora Avenue’s 900 block as a “special improvement area,” and take “tangible steps to improve safety and well-being” there. Pandora’s 900 block has a high concentration of supportive housing and social services for those experiencing poverty and substance use.

 

“The use of this space was decided by Council, not the community,” said the letter. “It is misleading for the city to suggest that the space become a “Community Centre” when it does not meet the needs and desires of the neighbourhood.”

 

NPNA Executive Director Sarah Murray told Capital Daily that the neighbourhood association is “keen for a community centre.”

 

“But we also think right now that the Pandora [900] block needs more focus on improving the health and well-being of the people who need it the most,” she said.

 

The association previously suggested several other locations for a community centre and childcare space within North Park, including the Crystal Pool, Royal Athletic Park, and  two locations currently being used for open-air parking.


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 February 2023 - 09:32 AM.


#12 Nparker

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Posted 16 February 2023 - 09:36 AM

For once, I am in at least partial agreement with the NPNA. I'm not convinced North Park needs a community centre, but it certainly doesn't need one in the heart of crackton.



#13 Mike K.

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Posted 16 February 2023 - 12:07 PM

North Park also wanted a new Crystal Pool, just not at the location it was proposed at.

 

Can we trade North Park with Saanich in exchange for something they might have, like the panhandle?


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#14 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 16 February 2023 - 12:15 PM

North Park also wanted a new Crystal Pool, just not at the location it was proposed at.

 

Can we trade North Park with Saanich in exchange for something they might have, like the panhandle?

 

 

:banana:



#15 Nparker

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Posted 16 February 2023 - 01:15 PM

...Can we trade North Park with Saanich in exchange for something they might have, like the panhandle?

I'm OK with moving my hood to Saanich. It can't be any worse than being governed by the CoV. 



#16 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 21 February 2024 - 10:17 PM

Poilievre backs banning trans women from women's sports, change rooms and bathrooms

 

Conservative leader says federal jurisdiction may limit what he can do to restrict trans women's access

https://www.cbc.ca/n...rooms-1.7120972



#17 lanforod

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Posted 22 February 2024 - 03:35 PM

So much bias. How about 'federal jurisdiction may limit what he can do to protect women's spaces.'


Edited by lanforod, 22 February 2024 - 03:35 PM.


 



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