1043 replies to this topic

[jasmineshinga]

I took full advantage of the additional comments section once again. Clean up the square, stop the blatant criminality and violence, then worry about a pretty paint job and making it a year-round entertainment space. It's just throwing good money after bad to try and use the venue when the public still has to worry about getting knifed/beaten with a hockey stick during a Jazzfest performance or a pop-up market.

[Nparker]

Not surprisingly, the survey doesn't touch on any of the real problems of Centennial Square as it currently exists.

[jasmineshinga]

Of course not, it's all sunshine and rainbows when counsel looks out their windows. Of course, they may have painted the inside of the glass with their fingers...

[Nparker]

Of course not, it's all sunshine and rainbows when counsel looks out their windows. Of course, they may have painted the inside of the glass with their fingers.

Perhaps there are lingering and ongoing effects from the annual 4/20 smoke-in at Centennial Square.

[Cassidy]

The functionaries and politicians at City Hall are all MORE than aware of everything that's happening in Centennial Square ... of that I can assure you.

 

BUT ... if you were any of them, would you bring it up anywhere, online, in writing, or verbally ...  when the "fix" is solidly in your corner, but you haven't done anything whatsoever of lasting consequence to alleviate the problem?

 

As noted before, it's up to the Mayor and the VicPD Chief to fix the problem by enforcing laws already in place, and refusing to allow a congregation of drug dealers to set up shop under the theater during the Winter, and on the South lawn during the summer.

[spanky123]

The CoV has created a new survey to support their plans for Centennial Square redevelopment. As usual, you can select from any of the 4 preselected responses that have been chosen for you.

 

https://www.victoria...ial-square.html

[Nparker]

...As usual, you can select from any of the 4 preselected responses that have been chosen for you...

Even by CoV survey standards this one is pretty lame.

[Mike K.]

Public safety, the biggest theme that resonates in regards to Centennial, is totally absent from the survey. Completely erased from the narrative.

After 70 years of Centennial Square’s existence suddenly it needs to be improved, just as the public grows outraged over criminality and the effect it has had on the perception of public safety.

[sdwright.vic]

^I picked the answers I believed the city would be least interested in out of spite, then gave a long explanation why in the additional comments.

[Nparker]

Public safety, the biggest theme that resonates in regards to Centennial, is totally absent from the survey. Completely erased from the narrative...

Why bother soliciting input to which the CoV has no intention of responding?

[Bob Fugger]

I like how they use Survey Monkey, which is run out the USA and stored on US servers.  That means that all the data is subject to the Patriot Act.  You'd figure that a director of community engagement making over $150k per year would know that, but that's none of my business.  Oh wait, it kinda is my business.

[PraiseKek]

It should be a homeless shelter and safe injection site

[sebberry]

It should be a homeless shelter and safe injection site

 

That'd be the cheapest option, requiring zero further investment and effort from the city.

[Cassidy]

The survey is the height of stupidity.

 

A million dollars for a stage with no seating (and originally featuring a "water feature" between the stage and the audience ... WHO designs these things?), and when JazzFest comes to town they have to build a proper stage right beside the million dollar joke.

The entire gamut of "shops" underneath the parkade are a vapid collection of dead store fronts, an utterly dead North East corner.

 

There's NOTHING in the square, the only interesting place to sit was the fountain ... before they put the sharp bits on in order to (wait for it) discourage people from sitting.

There are exactly three animated spaces in Centennial Square ... the McPherson Playhouse, the view corridor onto Pandora, and the ultra-narrow view corridor out past Starbucks ... everything else is DEAD 365 DAYS A YEAR (except at lunch in the summer, when the lame stage gets used for an hour or so).

 

The drug dealers, homeless, and street miscreants gather there ... because nobody from the public dares to gather there to bother them, and there's nothing for the public to "gather" for anyway.

 

Having a look at the first few survey pages, I closed it in disgust as every major issue related to Centennial Square in 2018 has been utterly ignored.

 

It's a survey designed by idiots who presume they're getting responses from fools who actually think their opinions matter.

Edited by Cassidy, 28 July 2018 - 11:40 AM.

[aastra]

 

Public safety, the biggest theme that resonates in regards to Centennial, is totally absent from the survey. Completely erased from the narrative.

 

How about the surrounding architecture and the way it engages with the space?

[Brantastic]

Yeah, I was frustrated with the options when I did the survey last week. At the end I emphasized the lack of public safety, the dearth of inward-facing ground floor retail/restaurants to give people a reason to visit the square, and the outdated architecture as the key problems. What's there to do here? Hit up the parkade? The ground floor office spaces? The backside of City Hall? As far as I'm concerned, it's a useless square and just serves as a pedestrian thoroughfare rather than a place to actually stop and stay awhile.

Also, that weird westward extension of city hall at the terminus of Broad Street is just hideous. What on earth is it? I'd love to see that torn down and have some eye-catching tower centred with Broad Street. Perhaps if City Hall built it tall enough it could move offices from across the street at that bland brick low rise with mirrored ground-floor windows and make room for redevelopment there with better ground floor interaction.

[Rob Randall]

It's been mentioned before but I believe John DiCastri's intention was for the shopping arcade to extend all the way to Government Street but it was truncated at the parkade which doomed it as there was no reason or destination that would entice a shopper from Douglas.

[lanforod]

I like how they use Survey Monkey, which is run out the USA and stored on US servers.  That means that all the data is subject to the Patriot Act.  You'd figure that a director of community engagement making over $150k per year would know that, but that's none of my business.  Oh wait, it kinda is my business.

 

While I can't speak specifically regarding how the CoV is using Survey Monkey, this isn't necessarily true. Survey Monkey bought FluidSurveys last year, which gave them a Canadian data centre presence. They've also kept that presence going, one of the key reasons for that is to hang onto their clients that have those precise privacy requirements.: https://www.surveymo...ntre-overview/ 

[Mike K.]

Didn’t someone say that while the City collects comments in the surveys only the multiple choice responses are used for “data collection” and setting policy/referring to the public sentiment? Is that really the case?

[Jackerbie]

Didn’t someone say that while the City collects comments in the surveys only the multiple choice responses are used for “data collection” and setting policy/referring to the public sentiment? Is that really the case?

 

Depends on how much work people want to put into it, and there are a couple layers here. You've got the grunt staff person compiling and coding the responses, the staff person writing the report with the policy recommendations and/or options, and the Councillors who are typically given a giant binder containing every single survey received (including all of the written responses).