509 replies to this topic

[aastra]

VICTORIA IS GOING TO BE LIKE A MINIATURE MONACO FOR CANADA AND WITH THE MONACO, COMES A LOT OF PEOPLE."

Victoria is sooo small, it's even smaller than cities that are but a fraction of its size.

Monaco is the size of downtown Victoria and has a total population that's less than the combined population of Oak Bay & Esquimalt. As far as I can tell, Monaco draws something on the order of 6 million tourists per year (this number includes Italian and French "excursionists" who don't actually spend the night within Monaco). There are ~2,500 hotel rooms in Monaco. Tourism Victoria says there are 7,000 rooms in Greater Victoria.

Granted, Monaco is very dense -- much more so than Victoria or any Canadian city, obviously -- in terms of population and in terms of hotel rooms. But it's dense because it's tiny.

Thus -- and keeping in mind the proposed highrise development in Victoria's suburbs -- it probably would have been more correct to say, "Victoria is going to be like a gigantic Monaco for Canada...".

[Ms. B. Havin]

Ha!, good call, aastra!

[m0nkyman]

Monaco is also closer to the rather large city of Nice than Sidney is to Victoria.... walking distance really.

[aastra]

I guess that means we need a casino and a bunch of highrises in Sidney ASAP.

[Caramia]

Haha aastra!

I would LOVE a passenger ferry to Vancouver downtown! BC Ferries once sailed out of downtown, I'd love to see a return to that.

[Holden West]

Summary from The Victoria Daily Times, Sept. 16, 1899.

The Victoria Daily Times had a frustrating day trying to find prominent businessmen to comment on the proposed subsidy for the Port Angeles ferry.

The city is proposing a bylaw to pay the operators $17,500 a year for 20 years.

Businessmen had promised to get back to the paper, but few did by deadline. All those who did said they were in favour of the subsidy.

Summary from The Victoria Daily Times, December 15, 1899:

The Victoria Daily Times reported city council and the Port Angeles ferry promoters have failed to agree on a subsidy and it looks like this scheme is to be abandoned. The promoters say they will not accept a city subsidy of less than $17,500, but council wants to give half that along with other restrictions which make the scheme untenable.

[G-Man]

They were probably to busy thinking the effect of the Y1900 bug on their steam train time tables

[Holden West]

An old friend of the Harbour may move a little closer:

New proposal to move Kalakala to Port Angeles

The owner of the 74-year-old ferry Kalakala wants to bring the dilapidated boat to Port Angeles, restore it and make it the centerpiece of a new waterfront development.

From 1935 to 1967, the Kalakala - its name means "Flying Bird" in the Chinook tribal language - ferried cars and people between Seattle and Bremerton, and Port Angeles and Victoria, British Columbia. The distinctive vessel became an icon for Seattle and a popular attraction for locals and tourists.

[Bingo]

We used to have some additional charm in the Inner Harbour when the Marguerete was still operating. But instead of keeping her sailing, she ended up in the scrap yard. If some politicians have their way the Johnson Street Bridge will suffer the same fate.

[Bernard]

We used to have some additional charm in the Inner Harbour when the Marguerete was still operating. But instead of keeping her sailing, she ended up in the scrap yard. If some politicians have their way the Johnson Street Bridge will suffer the same fate.

The problem with the Princess Marguerite was that the ship was rather old and would require a huge investment to keep it operating into the future. Even with the investment it was unclear how long the ship would be able to operate. Few ferries are kept in operation past about 40 -50 years. The Marguerite was 50 years old when the service came to an end.

Meanwhile people should consider the fate of the Coho, the ferry is now 50 years old and will have to retired in the not so distant future. The Coho has outlived the Queen of Sidney and Queen of Tsawwassen that were based on the Coho design and built after her. Does the Black Ball line have the finances to put a new ship on the run?

[Holden West]

Meanwhile people should consider the fate of the Coho, the ferry is now 50 years old and will have to retired in the not so distant future.

Uh, why, exactly?

[G-Man]

It would be good to see the Kalakala again. I have fond memories of looking at her mothballed in Seattle.

[Holden West]

Meanwhile, Coho staff interviewed by the Times Colonist wax poetic about the 47-year-old vessel. Call the ship "aging" -- only two in the B.C. Ferry fleet are older -- well, those are fighting words. Employees line up to tell stories of how well maintained the ferry is.

"It easily has 30 or 40 years left in her," said Ryan Burles, vice-president of owner Black Ball Transport Inc.

source

[victorian fan]

It would be good to see the Kalakala again. I have fond memories of looking at her mothballed in Seattle.

The Kalakala made the biggest waves on Dallas Rd beach. Great fun to play in.

[Holden West]

Ryan Burles, CEO and president of Black Ball Ferry Line of Victoria, which owns the vessel, said that Black Ball in 2001 was strongly considering the purchase of a new ferry -- before the terrorist attacks on the United States that year dramatically cut ferry ridership by 20 percent or more.

"We had been looking at a vessel BC Ferries had for sale," he said last week, identifying it as the MVQueen of Sidney and adding that the vessel would have had to be upgraded.

"When 9/11 hit, we decided not to go forward with it, and that was obviously a good thing," Burles said.

http://www.peninsula.../NEWS/312279989

[VicHockeyFan]

You know, I was down at the terminal this afternoon and something struck me. There is not a single sign anywhere on the terminal building that says that Black Ball Ferry is the Coho ferry, and that it goes to Port Angeles, WA.

Imagine, there are all those carriage tours, bus podium sellers, and here is this great huge terminal, featuring a pretty novel ferry ride to the US, for a very reasonable price, and they don't even bother to advertise it to the hundreds, if not thousands of tourists that walk by the terminal every day. Not a single sing.

Would it kill them to put a 5' x 5' star burst or sandwich board on the outside of the terminal that says "Ferry excursions to beautiful Port Angeles, Washington - just $15" or whatever the walk-on fare is?

There are thousands of tourists in town that came in another way (BCF, airport, car, bus) that might be thrilled to know they can go to the US for the day or the night by big ferry.

Holy bad marketing, Batman.

The ship takes 100 cars and 1000 passengers, and I bet it never sells out of passenger space with that ratio. It's not like a BCF that has lots of people picked up and dropped off on each side. They might even try a day excursion rate, only good for same-day return to fill some capacity.

Don't even get me started about how they could make that ship a much more attractive, tasteful floating billboard for the service. I can tell you I've been among tourists a million times as that ship comes in, and nobody has a clue what it is or where it goes.

[sebberry]

Would it kill them to put a 5' x 5' star burst or sandwich board on the outside of the terminal that says "Ferry excursions to beautiful Port Angeles, Washington - just $15" or whatever the walk-on fare is?

Probably too much red tape at city hall with the sign by-laws for them to bother

[Bob Fugger]

You know, I was down at the terminal this afternoon and something struck me. There is not a single sign anywhere on the terminal building that says that Black Ball Ferry is the Coho ferry, and that it goes to Port Angeles, WA.

Imagine, there are all those carriage tours, bus podium sellers, and here is this great huge terminal, featuring a pretty novel ferry ride to the US, for a very reasonable price, and they don't even bother to advertise it to the hundreds, if not thousands of tourists that walk by the terminal every day. Not a single sing.

Would it kill them to put a 5' x 5' star burst or sandwich board on the outside of the terminal that says "Ferry excursions to beautiful Port Angeles, Washington - just $15" or whatever the walk-on fare is?

There are thousands of tourists in town that came in another way (BCF, airport, car, bus) that might be thrilled to know they can go to the US for the day or the night by big ferry.

Holy bad marketing, Batman.

The ship takes 100 cars and 1000 passengers, and I bet it never sells out of passenger space with that ratio. It's not like a BCF that has lots of people picked up and dropped off on each side. They might even try a day excursion rate, only good for same-day return to fill some capacity.

Don't even get me started about how they could make that ship a much more attractive, tasteful floating billboard for the service. I can tell you I've been among tourists a million times as that ship comes in, and nobody has a clue what it is or where it goes.

Have you been to the other side, lately? Scenic Port Angeles ain't what it's cracked up to be. You ought to send your idea to the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce - I fail to see the logic of spending our (Tourism Vic?) tourism advertising dollars to send people away to spend their money elsewhere?

P.S. Who dies and made you moderator?
P.P.S. What's with everyone changing their avatars today (yours as well as Jacque Cade's, who is now Black Jacques Shelaque!)

[VicHockeyFan]

Have you been to the other side, lately? Scenic Port Angeles ain't what it's cracked up to be. You ought to send your idea to the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce - I fail to see the logic of spending our (Tourism Vic?) tourism advertising dollars to send people away to spend their money elsewhere?

P.S. Who dies and made you moderator?
P.P.S. What's with everyone changing their avatars today (yours as well as Jacque Cade's, who is now Black Jacques Shelaque!)

Does Black Ball get or pay any Tourism Vic dollars? TV gets $ from room tax, don't they? I'm just saying I bet there are lots of, say, Germans that show up here direct from Banff, and if they see they can go to the USA they might. Or do they need a visa first? Well, Canadians that come from Toronto then. USA day trip sounds fun.

Nobody died, it just came up in conversation. New avatar was called for. Rockford never took charge, he didn't even like to take the gun out of the cookie jar. Donald Draper means business.

[Bob Fugger]

Nobody died, it just came up in conversation. New avatar was called for. Rockford never took charge, he didn't even like to take the gun out of the cookie jar. Donald Draper means business.

Yeah, but Rockford knew how to take a punch and still look cool enough to mack the ladies. And of course, there is the Camaro...