819 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Q: Why is James Bay the dumping ground for this issue?
A: Be patient. In a few years Victorians will warm to the premise that downtown should be the dumping ground for pretty much every issue.
 

 

Daily Colonist
November 28, 1972

"Peacemeal Bandaid"

Laboratory rats wouldn't be subjected to the density that might be in store for residents of James Bay, the James Bay Community Association says in a letter to the city council.

"Why does James Bay have to be the population dumping ground for Victoria? What is the population in the Uplands? Some have the nerve to ask," it says.

"The James Bay Community Association is in principle opposed to the Bay Village project as it is opposed to all developments in James Bay that continue to increase the population density and pressure with no adequate planning reference."

 

[Rob Randall]

The Jane Jacobs anti-highrise movement was slow coming to Victoria. But when it did come, James Bay was ground zero.

[Mike K.]

James Bay was not a desirable neighbourhood back then, and a great place to get mugged. It wasn’t until the 80s that its fortunes started turning around and that coincided with the closure of the docks and the heavy industry that lined its shores.

Quite honestly not a lot of Victoria was desirable as far up as the 70s. Burnside-Gorge was heavy industry, Vic West was heavy industry, downtown was no-hum, etc. And the neighborhoods started to gentrify and with that came the allure of living in the city centre and periphery.

Remember when Fernwood was ground zero for drugs? Or when crossing over the bridges into Vic West would get you mugged? That was the 90s legacy for those neighborhoods. Then suddenly they flipped. Even Rockland had its issues, and you could pick up a monster mansion for cheap, then convert it to a dozen suites.

[Victoria Watcher]

the spring/ridge area of fernwood was bad.  lots of north park was bad.   and yes vic west was not good.

 

i was recently telling an out-of-towner we have no bad areas left.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 July 2020 - 06:25 AM.

[Mike K.]

Even south Oak Bay was ho hum, just a typical middle class neighbourhood where average citizens bought a house and settled down. It was a Carey or a Glanford. The big money went into the Uplands (a part of Oak Bay, I know), Ten Mile Point, nooks and crannies of Cadboro Bay, North Saanich and Metchosin.

[Nparker]

 

i was recently telling an out-of-towner we have no bad areas left.

The question is does the CoV have any good areas left?

[GaryRanson]

The question is does the CoV have any good areas left?

 

Saanich ;-)

[todd]

Even south Oak Bay was ho hum, just a typical middle class neighbourhood where average citizens bought a house and settled down. It was a Carey or a Glanford. The big money went into the Uplands (a part of Oak Bay, I know), Ten Mile Point, nooks and crannies of Cadboro Bay, North Saanich and Metchosin.

SOB it’s still just about the same but more expensive and higher coffee prices.

How far back we talking? It was farmland at one time.

Edited by todd, 01 August 2020 - 10:50 AM.

[todd]

Saanich ;-)

Yes James Bay, Rockland, Fairfield, etc are the same as “Oak Bay”

[Mike K.]

SOB it’s still just about the same but more expensive and higher coffee prices.

How far back we talking? It was farmland at one time.

 

70s. Much of Oak Bay was an average middle class neighbourhood comprised mostly of average working people holding down average jobs.

 

It wasn't until the 80s that things started to change, and in the 90s it developed much more of that tweed curtain thing. By the 00s it was a bonanza among retirees who drove up prices. Uplands notwithstanding, of course.

[aastra]

This thread lives up to its name. One of the very first items on the very first page (from 2006!) was about the Oak Bay Marina development.

 

Anyway, note the reference to the tweed curtain. I'm also inclined to compare the tone and particulars in this article with the recent Northern Junk controversy in Victoria. In the 1960s, people in stuffy Oak Bay wanted waterfront access, places to enjoy the waterfront, etc. But in the 2010s, forward-thinking Victorians do not want these things? These things do not belong, they threaten the city's character?

 

 

Daily Colonist
February 16, 1964

Marina Caters To People

Focal point of the new look on the other side of the Tweed Curtain is the complex of buildings at Turkey Head which will soon replace the 55-year-old Oak Bay Boat House.

...the complex will provide complete marina service as well as undersea garden and a restaurant for those who just want to enjoy the view.

Most spectacular of the three buildings is the circular restaurant with its umbrella roof. Supported by glue-laminated beams, it affords a 180-degree view in an arc from Windsor Road north to Cadboro Bay and east past Discovery Island.

The same view in a smaller arc is repeated in the coffee shop below.

"Everybody will be welcome here," said Robert Wright, manager and president of Oak Bay Marina Ltd., the Victoria-owned company which is building the structures under a 30-year lease with Oak Bay municipality.

PROMENADES
"Some people like to come just to see the small boats in their berths or watch the big boats in the straits," he said.

"We've built promenades so they can walk around and watch what's going on."

FASCINATING
In the depths of the undersea gardens they can watch dogfish, octopus, starfish, sea urchins and anemones, a colorful and fascinating pastime.

The familiar turret of the Oak Bay Boat House will soon disappear.

"But we're putting a 10-foot illuminated five-sided needle on top of the restaurant," Mr. Wright said. "That will be the new landmark."

 

*****

 

Off topic but check out this article about Vancouver:

 

 

Daily Colonist
February 16, 1964

Vancouver Mayor Thinks Big

Mayor William Rathie envisions a $200,000,000 program of construction and reconstruction in downtown Vancouver during the next few years.

He declined to set an exact time limit on the development but said "it's certainly in the cards if Vancouver is ever going to be the metropolitan city that planners predict."

"We've got to start to think in this kind of figures," the mayor said in an interview.

"After all, the Place Ville Marie in Montreal cost more than $100,000,000 and it is just one project."

Edited by aastra, 05 August 2020 - 08:14 AM.

[aastra]

Oak Bay is supposed to be British! Stay on theme! (just a joke, relax)

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 23, 1966

Image Suffers

Pretty Girls Fiasco On Oak Bay Float

The Oak Bay Board of Trade is the group responsible for the Oak Bay image -- the tea and crumpets, rightfully British image -- that the municipality presents at the Victoria Day parade and other celebrations.

"One year we deviated from our usual theme for the parade. We had a lot of pretty girls on the float instead. But you should have heard the complaints -- and mostly from Oak Bay people themselves," Miss Geddes said.

"Oak Bay people are wonderful," she says. "They love the tweed curtain nonsense which is becoming so well known, and they're always able to laugh at themselves."

Edited by aastra, 17 September 2020 - 01:58 PM.

[Mike K.]

It aspired to become a little Vernon within a larger town that tried to become a larger Vernon.

[Nparker]

 "One year we deviated from our usual theme for the parade. We had a lot of pretty girls on the float instead. But you should have heard the complaints -- and mostly from Oak Bay people themselves," Miss Geddes said.

There were no pretty girls who drank tea and ate crumpets?

[aastra]

Wow, here's a 1960 reference to the tweed curtain. That's the oldest I can find in the Daily Colonist archives. And note the crowd of 75,000 at the parade. That would have been a mob comparable to the big nights during the 1994 Commonwealth Games (metro Victoria's population in 1960 was ~150,000).

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 25, 1960

City Had Dandy Time Over Holiday Weekend

Victoria had a wonderful time over the Victoria-Day weekend.

"There was such a spirit of friendliness," Mayor Percy Scurrah remarked yesterday, looking back over the three days of fun. And others noted the eager, holiday mood that prevailed at the big parade...

CHEERFUL CROWD
The cheerful crowd that watched the parade Monday in bright sunshine was estimated at 75,000, and the two-hour parade, like the crowd, was the biggest ever.

The crowd, 10 or 12 deep in places, applauded enthusiastically the bands, the floats, the visiting and local drill teams, the service units that came by in the long procession.

Photo Caption: All possible vantage points, even uncomfortable ones, were fully occupied by parade crowd estimated at 75,000.

Photo Caption: From behind "tweed curtain," Oak Bay representatives came to rib themselves, to great amusement of crowd.

Edited by aastra, 05 August 2020 - 07:47 AM.

[aastra]

 

There were no pretty girls who drank tea and ate crumpets?

 

That was my point when I said "stay on theme." Jokes are always funnier when explained in full.

[aastra]

Nobody mentions the physical size of the cities and metro areas, just like they don't mention it today. Pretty crucial detail when assessing real growth. Also, I have no doubt the pro-suburban bias in Victoria politics was really energized during this time (it still lingers), hence fueling things to come like the Centennial Square project and the Blanshard-Rose project and so many unfortunate demolitions in the downtown/old town area. Saanich was growing like crazy, Victoria was not.

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 7, 1961

Demotion Rubs Salt Into Victoria's Wounds

Latest figures released by census compilers are expected to fee more fuel to Mayor Percy Scurrah's wrath.

The figures, which rank Canada's 17 metropolitan areas according to population, show Greater Victoria has dropped from 13th to 14th position.

The statistics rub salt in the wound by showing Victoria has dropped from the 19th largest city to the 24th.

In the metropolitan survey, Victoria was squeezed out by metropolitan Kitchener, which has a population of 155,512 (in 1956, Kitchener was in 16th place, with a population of 128,722. While Greater Victoria's population jumped from the 1956 total of 133,829 to 150,760, it failed to match the population boom of Kitchener.

In the city-proper tabulation, Victoria, which had ranked 19th in size out of Canada's 30 biggest cities, dropped down to 24th.

Of Canada's lesser "big cities"... Verdun and Victoria were the only ones that showed a population drop. Victoria's population was recorded at 53,861 in the last census, compared with 54,584 in 1956.

[aastra]

Why were there so many stories about children driving cars back in the day? Was this incident even real?

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 25, 1960

Speed Demon -- Nine
Hunted by Police

They mature early in Saanich

But even so, it was a little too much for A.W. Dysart... who spotted a nine-year-old boy driving a car along Burnside near Douglas last night.

It was even more amazing that the car the boy was driving was later reported stolen by its owner...

Mr. Dysart gave chase at speeds of 75 to 80 miles an hour and caught the child when the car stalled at Burnside and the Trans-Canada highway.

The boy, only four feet tall, said he lived on Quadra and Mr. Dysart decided to drive him home. But when they arrived at their destination and the disturbed residents denied any knowledge of the boy's identity, the lad ran off. Police were still looking for him early today.

[todd]

70s. Much of Oak Bay was an average middle class neighbourhood comprised mostly of average working people holding down average jobs.

 

 

 

Some of them are still here.

[aastra]

^Do you have a sighting to report?