3475 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Linda Hagen Miller -- is her middle name 'Hagen' or did she forget the hyphen?

Anyhow, the transformation of Market Square's Johnson St side has vastly improved lower Johnson. However, I'm not optimistic about MS enticing upper-end retailers to set up shop in the interior or lower portions of the building. Market Square has trememdous potential but as a tacky tourist gimmick or even an "outdoor mall" it can hardly live up to it.

[G-Man]

Market Square really just needs a good overhaulon the paint etc and it would be much more appelaing. Perhpas I nice antique cream with chocolate brown rather than the rust colour that currently invades that space.

By the way I am not upset that we are jumping around my suggested topic. This is how you dig up the good ideas.

But to add to my list of potential tourist stops.

6. Fort Rodd Hill
7. Chinese Cemetary
8. Mystic Vale

[VicHockeyFan]

^ What the hell is a Mystic Vale?

[Ms. B. Havin]

^ I was wondering where that is, too, G-Man.

@ you and Derf re. Market Square: there's something about that empty core that makes the place feel "off," IMO. I'm not convinced that paint alone will fix it, although it might be a good start. I think it would work better, though, if the inside wasn't empty. ...Uhm, I'm not making sense, lessee ...what I'm picturing is a rectangular, shoebox shaped structure built into the interior, with shop fronts that face outward from it toward the walkway that currently runs around the interior at several (2?) levels. walkway broadened somewhat, too, so that it extends into what's currently just air. Some natural light from above (over the walkways) would be good, too.

[Holden West]

^Good plan.

Market Square is a product of the late 1970s inside/outside/inner courtyard/multi-level public/private space retail era.

Compare with other projects from the same era: [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirrah/123062118/in/dateposted/:a75e8]Nootka Court[/url:a75e8], [url=http://flickr.com/photos/boris/96922221/:a75e8]Robson Square[/url:a75e8].

[Scaper]

??? How have I missed this thread...So much to read and so much to comment on!!!

I will comment on this later. Interesting Cnn write up. :?

[G-Man]

Mystic Vale is the nature sanctuary next to UVic it has a creek and a trail that runs through it.

[G-Man]

Mystic Vale

[Ms. B. Havin]

Oops, I got my facts mixed up when I wrote this:

Abebooks dot com got started because the woman who owned Grafton Books (in OB) got so fed up with the cumbersome ways of shipping book orders around the world that her spouse (who at the time worked for the government and was, the hear-say goes, dying of boredom) figured "there must be a better way!" So he and a friend built abebooks.com, presumably under the watchful eye of the Grafton bookseller, and the rest is ...well, you know: legend. (...) Grafton's was sold a year or two or so ago, but it's still a neat story, eh?

From used books to one of Victoria's biggest high tech firms...

Yes, the founders of Abebooks got their start because the spouse of one of them was in the used books business and needed a better mousetrap. And yes, this spouse had a used books business already. But it wasn't Grafton's, which was sold about a year or two ago ...to the Abebooks founder's wife, after they cashed in their founder shares. She loves books, it seems, and can afford to continue to indulge that passion as a business, too. Lucky girl!

[Ms. B. Havin]

Here's a company that's quietly doing cutting edge (no pun intended... you'll see in a moment what I mean) stuff with textiles: [url=http://www.tactex.com/:2ba53]Tactex[/url:2ba53], located right on Bay Street in Victoria. They manufacture a high-tech fabric called Kinotex, which

is a tactile force sensor – a sensor that measures minute displacements due to forces applied on its surface. It is constructed of plastic fiber embedded in foam – it can be made to be flexible or rigid and can operate with soft surfaces or from beneath durable wear layers.

(snip...)

“The technology lends itself to the fabrication of low cost pressure or displacement sensing surfaces. The mechanical compliance and flexibility of the device combined with its non-conductive, electrically inert properties makes it unique among pressure sensing materials. Sensitivity, resolution, dynamic range and accuracy for the material is in many respects comparable to the characteristics of human skin.”

According to [url=http://amputee-online.com/amputation/jan01/index.html:2ba53]Amputation Online Magazine[/url:2ba53] (Jan.'01), Tactex is doing pretty amazing stuff:

A Victoria company is winning awards for its futuristic "smart fabric" technology. The fibre optic-laced material developed by TACTEX responds to the human touch.

If you wanted channel 14, you would simply trace the number 14 on the arm of the chair' It was originally developed for the Canadian Space Agency to give robots a better sense of touch.

The company is now applying the technology to musical instruments, and recently won the "Most Innovative Product" award from a U.S. music industry trade fair.

Brian Slater is the marketing coordinator for TACTEX. He says the technology could also change how people control cellular phones, video games and television sets.

"You wouldn't have to go hunting for the remote anymore," he says. "You could embed all that stuff right in the furniture. You could put all of those kinds of functions into a surface that you control with gestures. So if you wanted channel 14, you would simply trace the number 14 on the arm of the chair."

The high tech fabric can also be covered with leather, plastic or even thin metal.

Note that this is from 2001, Tactex is still listed in the 2006 Victoria phone book, and yet I bet you've never heard of them...

I'm really interested in fashion, especially how high tech infiltrates fashion design. That's the only reason I ever heard about these guys, and it was through google.



Just think, in the 60s it was cutting edge to put on a battery-powered "light" suit. Today, you could put a whole new spin on "touchy-feely" pants...

Oh, and for those upcoming rainy winter days in Victoria, here's an [url=http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/008963.php:2ba53]umbrella by Pileus[/url:2ba53] that takes photos and uploads them instantly to Flickr, and you can browse, view, watch those photos on the inside of your umbrella while you're walking down the street... Ok, ok, the umbrella was not developed in Victoria, but Victoria does have a special connection to Flickr...

[G-Man]

Anyone notice that the Dominion is now called the Dalton Hotel? When the hell did that happen?

[G-Man]

also on the sign it says

"Heritage Acclaimed"

What the hell does that mean?

[Holden West]

Yeah, I noticed that today too. Dalton Hotel and Suites. They probably changed it to escape the bad reviews on tripadvisor.com while still being able to use their DH logo'd items!

[m0nkyman]

Some months ago, a long-time employee of one of the better-known retail institutions (bookseller on Gov't.St.) told me that folks at his place of employ were all shaking their heads when British Importers abandoned its Gov't St location in favour of car-friendlier Harris Green. They all thought it wouldn't make a difference and was a stupid move. Wrong! Instead, BI's business went up 3 or 4-fold (I forget exactly what the fellow said), and the only reason is because the store now has on-premises parking. Go take a look at the parking lot on a Saturday afternoon: I guarantee you'll see only BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches, and the occasional Volvo "CrossCountry" wagon. I walked into British Importers a while back (and retreated quickly, too); price-wise, it's a high-end store that should be d/t. But its customers, which on that day at any rate were particularly snooty and pretentious, don't want to mingle with all the riff-raff d/t, and more to the point, they want to drive right up to the store and disappear inside, without having to be on "the street." The day I was there, the clientele appeared like an inbred clique that measures its status through its shopping habits. They all seemed to know the staff and each other personally -- I felt as though I'd crashed a private party... It was YUCKY.

But ok, fine, if someone can pay over $200 for an ordinary made-overseas-in-a-maquilladora pair of jeans, great. But why aren't those bastards willing to shop d/t? BI left the d/t for business reasons: they're doing much better now that they've taken themselves out of the core of the core. That's what kills me -- there's a reason we have so many t-shirt stores for tourists and not enough quality stores in the core. Victoria's "upper class" isn't supporting it.

Let's see. As one of the people who shop at BI, I'll take personal offence. Yes, the folks at BI know me. It's called service. It may be virtually unknown in Victoria, but I for one love it. I've been shopping at BI since I was a 17 year old kid with a mohawk who got treated fabulously there, because I expected to get treated well... I happen to know that the 300$ jeans I buy there are actually made in either Turkey or Italy. I also know that the folks at BI are making a living wage.

BI left downtown for one reason, and it has **** all to do with cars. It has to do with owning your own building, and it is advice we gave them for years. I'm glad they finally made the jump.

You want better stores in Victoria? Start shopping in them instead of *****ing about how they're for the "upper class".

[Holden West]

I think B.I. used to be on the west side of Broad St. near Broughton. They had a short-lived offshoot called B.I. Sport.

[m0nkyman]

How about everyone list five things that Tourists should do in Victoria but that maybe they don't or may not even know about.
.

Here's a five day plan:

1: A day on Fort St. west of Douglas - Antique row has become restaurant row, and it has some of the best shopping in town (including our store. ).
Go up the south side in the morning, but keep going and check out the castle.. you''re there anyway. the afternoon can be taken up by walking down the north side.
2: A day of art, Start with a tour of Emily Carr house, a trip to the Victoria Art Gallery, then a quick tour of the downtown art galleries on Broad St.
3: A day in the garden, starting in the Rose Garden at the Empress, walking through Beacon Hill, over to Abkhazi, then hit the nursery on Fairfield, back downtown to Dig This, then a quick trip down to the design district to find some interesting wrought iron work at wrought'n'iron, or at Capital Iron
4: A day of design. Yeah, we could probably spend a day in the design district.
5: A day of sports, in the morning a jog along Dallas Road, followed by a game of Cricket or Lawn bowling, or worst comes to worst, a round of golf, a nice light lunch downtown, followed by a bike ride on the Galloping Goose, a sumptuous meal downtown, followed by watching our fabulous Lacrosse team, or the Salmon Kings, depending on the time of year.

[Holden West]

^Nice. Is that your store? Normally I mock "Mock Tudor" but I make a big exception for Idar's crazy castle.

[m0nkyman]

^Nice. Is that your store? Normally I mock "Mock Tudor" but I make a big exception for Idar's crazy castle.

It's a family business, and I'm the son-in-law... and yeah, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudorbethan:1e2ab]Tudorbethan[/url:1e2ab] can be a bit much...

It's not just my store, it's my home.

[gumgum]

Is that the one connected to this one?
[url=http://imageshack.us:6b6e8][/url:6b6e8]

[Oxford Sutherland]

I SEE YOU!