27 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Several years back city crews would maintain the boulevard that ran in front of our home between the street and sidewalk. All that changed when one year city crews completely stopped coming around. We haven't opted out of boulevard maintenance and to our best knowledge neither have our neighbours, but regardless of the season city crews are never to be seen maintaining what our yearly taxes claim we pay to have maintained.

Has anyone else noticed this, and if so, what part of the City of Victoria are you located in?

If you do have crews maintaining your boulevards, how often do they do it and what do they do?

As an added "perk" for home owners, city crews were expected to pick up leaves left on boulevards in Vic West starting Jan 4th, but so far we haven't seen that take place anywhere near our home or on any side streets (and Vic West is not exactly the largest area in which the crews do their thing). I'm sensing a deterioration of services that we're charged for but never materialize, regardless of rising property taxes. Is the city purposefully doing this to offload the work to residents while padding their coffers? If nobody complains, they get off scott free, right?

[Coreyburger]

I seriously doubt the City, even if they are dropping maintenance, is doing it to "pad their coffers". A new needle exchange, a safe injection site and a whole wack load of social housing isn't cheap (I am not suggesting this is what is happening. Merely pointing out that the City has a lot of very expensive projects it NEEDS to do in the next 5-10 years).

[Mike K.]

Are you suggesting the City ought to be vindicated from any wrongdoing, if it is indeed charging tax payers for services it has no intent on providing, because it has pressing expenditures elsewhere?

Furthermore I have yet to see any funding allocated to a needle exchange, safe injection site or social housing projects on the scale that would make a difference in the region. I would hate to think that the city is not only taxing me for services it is not providing, but putting money aside for projects that are currently pipe dreams. Two big no-no in my books.

[Coreyburger]

No, but I can see how the budget meetings likely go.

[Rob Randall]

I don't know what happened but the boulevards here on Meares St. between Cook and Vancouver have been edged for the first time in recent memory. I swear I didn't complain.

[martini]

http://www.timescolo...8598/story.html

Victoria officials are wondering what to do with hundreds of kilometres of increasingly neglected boulevards.

There's no shortage of ideas. Some people would like to see them used for vegetable gardens. Others would prefer to see benches or flowers, while still others would like to pave them over. But the city has neither the budget nor the policy to manage the requests.

By its own admission, the city does a poor job of maintaining its 300 kilometres of boulevards, which are increasingly turning into ratty little strips of neglected real estate.

The city stopped watering the boulevards in the late 1990s, and more recently, it's stopped using pesticides to control weeds.

"We've got no water and we've got no pesticides. It's hard to grow grass particularly with no water," said David Speed, city parks general manager.

Yet even as maintenance has been reduced, costs have continued to rise.

The city spends more than $600,000 a year maintaining most of these strips of grass, which run alongside more than a third of Victoria's properties.

The cost is largely offset by a boulevard tax paid by about 28 per cent of property owners who have boulevards in front of their properties. That maintenance -- which costs $2.50 a square metre -- can add up to anywhere between $30 and $575 a year.

Not surprisingly, residents have been opting out in droves, even though that's not a particularly easy thing to do.

"Literally hundreds of blocks have opted out. It's done on a block basis. It's a particularly onerous process in that residents need to get two-thirds agreement on their block to opt out of the program," said Speed.

Geographically, most of the boulevards in the tax program are in the older parts of the community. The city started building boulevards in 1907 and established the boulevard tax program to maintain them around the same time. The program's undoing probably had its start in the 1950s, when, as new neighbourhoods were built, homeowners were simply expected to look after their boulevards.

"From what we can see, other than Oak Bay, there are no other municipalities that are engaged in the tax boulevard program. All other municipalities are leaving the maintenance of boulevards to their residents," Speed said.

City parks staff are consulting with community associations and other groups and have posted an on-line questionnaire with the hope of making recommendations to council this fall about the boulevard taxation program and boulevard maintenance.

Options on the table include everything from dropping it all together to expanding it or setting improvement policies.

"We're getting requests for anything from vegetable gardening [and] fruit trees to paving over boulevards to putting fixed structures on boulevards," Speed said. "At this point, we're largely just turning people away because we don't have the capacity to manage those requests and we don't have a policy in place."

Coun. Philippe Lucas says the city should be able to increase the options for people tending to boulevards as long as they're not putting anyone at risk.

But Rob Woodland, city director of legislative and regulatory services, said the city needs to protect itself by setting clear guidelines for what's permitted and what's not. "The person who trips and falls isn't going to sue the homeowner because it isn't his property. They're going to sue the city," Woodland said.

bcleverley@tc.canwest.com
© Copyright © The Victoria Times Colonist

[Phil McAvity]

I shook my head at that article and decided to make my voice heard to a broader audience by sending this off to the T-C; "This is further proof that what the city does is often completely at odds with what taxpayers want. Even though opting out is an "onerous" process, taxpayers are opting out in droves. That should tell the city something about taxpayer priorities but I have every confidence that things will neither change nor improve. It also seems odd to me that the city has no money to tend to it's myriad boulevards yet it has vast fortunes to spend turning four-lane streets into two-lane streets, lowering the (already low) speed limits and putting medians and plants in the middle? Beyond wasting taxpayer money on these make-work projects and unnecessarily slowing everyone down (thereby wasting everyone's time, gas and money), and creating more air pollution, i'd love to know their purpose. It seems to me that we have more than enough plants in this city without sticking taxpayers with a bill for placing them in the middle of the road. It was also hard not to notice the quote from city parks general manager David Speed, "we have no water". Could there be a better example of civic mismanagement than that since we practically live in a rainforest?"

[Bob Fugger]

Next Wednesday is not only Canada Day, but it will also be the one year anniversary of our move to Cook Street Village. One thing that has always confounded me in this municipality is the boulevard tax. Why am I charged for something that I look after, anyways? Ironically enough, the publicly-funded boulevard landscaping gang was at it again on my street yesterday - the day after I mowed my own lawn (which always includes the boulevard).

Until now, I always thought the boulevard tax was a complete waste of money - nothing more than a tax grab. But the photo on the front of the TC this morning actually struck a chord with me. Look at Dallas Road - here we have the possibility to have a vibrant, linear park that goes for kilometres - but right now it's for the most part an unmowed off-leash dog park.

So, I'll pay the boulevard tax, fine - but don't use it to service my boulevard, use it to clean up and maintain those grand boulevards in our city that sit out there unkempt. At the same time, pass a bylaw making it mandatory for people to keep their boulevard mowed, just like we require folks to keep their sidewalks clear in a snowstorm.

[gumgum]

I think this is the third boulevard thread now.

[gumgum]

This is further proof that what the city does is often completely at odds with what taxpayers want. I'd also like to know the rationale behind turning four lane streets into two lane streets (Quadra St, Bay St, Esquimalt Rd), lowering the (already low) speed limits and putting medians and plants in the middle? Beyond wasting taxpayer money on these make-work projects and unnecessarily slowing everyone down (thereby wasting everyone's time, gas and money), and creating more air pollution, i'd love to know their purpose. I also love the quote, "we have no water". Could there be a better example of mismanagement than that since we practically live in a rainforest?

Yeah. I wish they would cut down all the trees on my street, pave over the boulevards and turn my residential street into a four lane highway.

[martini]

I think this is the third boulevard thread now.

I did a search and could only find this one:
http://www.vibrantvi...read.php?t=2507

Maybe a mod can combine them.

[Phil McAvity]

Yeah. I wish they would cut down all the trees on my street, pave over the boulevards and turn my residential street into a four lane highway.

I never said anything about paving over boulevards but of course in your self-righteousness, you missed that. What's more, in the article some people said they would like to see the boulevards paved. I'll try and summarize what I said to make it easier for you; keep the roads for cars and driving.

[mat]

Threads are merged - and retitled to simply Boulevards.

[gumgum]

I never said anything about paving over boulevards but of course in your self-righteousness, you missed that. What's more, in the article some people said they would like to see the boulevards paved. I'll try and summarize what I said to make it easier for you; keep the roads for cars and driving.

Oh god. Get a sense of humour phil.

[Baro]

Beep boop beep roads are for the efficient conveyance of cars beep, boulevards are illogical as the only use for a street is car traffic beep beep boob, what is this human "aesthetics" and "pedestrian experiance" you speak of! Illogical! Inefficient! Self-righteous meat-bags are less efficient than automobiles. Exterminate, exterminate boulevards!

[Nparker]

If the city isn't going to maintain the grassy/planted boulevards then they should start an annual program of paving them over. The current "process" leaves them a disgraceful mess. As for the new planted boulevards popping up in the centre of once 4-lane roads, well they are just ludicrous. Let the roads be roads and the parks be parks, but don't try and turn all of our main vehicle arteries in mini Beacon Hill Parks. Is the city of Victoria deliberately trying to turn back time? Is the 20 year plan to replace concrete sidewalks with wooden boardwalks and ban all cars in favour of horses & carriages? Sometimes I have to shake my head at the priorities of this city.

[VicDuck]

Insanity is all to common these days.

[Phil McAvity]

Boulevard priorities mixed up in Victoria


TIMES-COLONIST JULY 2, 2009


Even though opting out of maintaining boulevards is an "onerous" process, taxpayers are opting out in "droves." (June 27). That should tell the city something about taxpayer priorities.

It also seems odd that the city of Victoria has no money to tend to its boulevards yet it has enough cash to turn four-lane streets into two-lane streets while lowering the (already low) speed limits and putting medians and plants in the middle.

I believe that we have more than enough plants in this city without sticking the taxpayer with a bill for putting them in the middle of the road.

Carew Martin

Victoria

[albe]

Just saying to my self that these appear to remind me of calmer times long gone ,greener and boucolic. Not that I'm hard fast for or agin, some street scapes are warranted attention, some aren't. But would like to see the obstructionist medians to calm traffic abolished, these structures seem to drive cyclists and drivers instantly wacky.
Why not turn? A median in many cases is just a challenge to motorists ,who take all chances and selfish manoeuvers to obviate the medians.
What a hoot. The city imposes this I'd guess because they can.
Trying tooo hard .

[Rob Randall]

This is funny. Do you have one of these outside your home?

http://www.themornin...icle/arbotchery