819 replies to this topic

[Ismo07]

I was meaning more in terms of having a lot of great pro players. In terms of representation I'd say NHL hockey has ended up being multinational in a manner similar to soccer, but obviously with fewer countries involved and still top-heavy re: Canadians, because of the nature of ice hockey.

 

It's getting close... In top 10 scoring there are 4 US born players and only 2 CDN.  In top 20 then we see 7 CDN and 5 US.

Edited by Ismo07, 17 February 2023 - 03:45 PM.

[aastra]

Hey, Auston Matthews scored 60 last year. These are good players. I'm not suggesting they're anything like the bums we get for the second team of Vibrant Victoria's 55+ shinny group.

I'm just saying the USA still hasn't really produced any exceptional superstars of the Gretzky/Lemieux/Jagr/Ovechkin variety, and their star players have also never really dominated in the same way the top few Canadian players might have dominated during any given era.

In Howie Meeker's defense, back in 1973 he might not have been thinking there would ever be a ton of European/Russian players in the NHL.

[aastra]

Snowmageddon is crippling, devastating, dangerous, terrifying... but you kids better not think you'll get another day off school because of it. Suck it up, it's winter:

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 4, 1960

SNOW BLITZ CRIPPLES CITY

MORE "FLURRIES" DUE TODAY

Streets Remain Perilous

An unexpected March snowstorm which grew out of forecasted "snow flurries" yesterday left lower Vancouver Island digging itself out of a five-inch snowfall, and had not abated at press time today.

Police advised everyone who could to leave cars at home today.

But in spite of mounting snowdrifts last night, weatherman William Mackie again issued a "snow flurries" forecast for today.

Yesterday's storm stalled traffic, upset bus schedules, cancelled airline operations, sent to hospital a postman with a possible fractured ankle and a woman with a broken leg, and caught two Greater Victoria municipalities with their snow-clearing equipment dismantled for repairs. (aastra asks: possible fractures are newsworthy?)

Temperatures dropped to a record low for the day of 24.9 degrees yesterday, leaving motorists scrambling around stalled cars or heading for the nearest garage in an all-out rush to purchase anti-freeze or chains. Previous low for this date was 26.9 degrees in 1955.

WEATHER PHONE BUSY

The weather office handled 137 calls yesterday. (aastra asks: a call every few minutes is newsworthy? aastra also asks: what are people calling about? That would be a newsworthy topic, methinks. I suppose the people who regularly called the weather office back in 1960 are the same people who regularly check weather apps today and who regularly watched the weather channel back in the 1990s.)

In Victoria city, eight trucks went out at 9:30am to spread salt on major roads, hills, and intersections and by late afternoon, 50 tons had been distributed.

NIGHT DUTY

A trouble-shooting crew was left on guard for the night.

"Of course we haven't been able to do the residential streets," city engineer James Garnett said. "There are 150 miles of them."

SNOWPLOW APART

Saanich was caught with its snowplow dismantled, but had it ready to go to work in the main thoroughfares in the "inner" area in mid-afternoon.

Three graders tackled the snow in the outer areas.

Oak Bay turned out about 35 men, sanding roads and clearing sidewalks in the shopping area... (aastra says: back in the day even little Oak Bay was capable of doing something like this. But nowadays it's a financial and logistical impossibility for any municipality.)

Central Saanich had its snowplow in town, being repaired, but got it back in time to go to work in late afternoon.

--

School Today As Usual

Greater Victoria's school children aren't going to get an extra holiday out of the current winter weather.

..."unless something unforeseen happens" overnight it will be business at usual at all schools today.

Edited by aastra, 27 February 2023 - 11:08 AM.

[Nparker]

#climatechange1960

[aastra]

HBC parkade:

 

 

Daily Colonist
July 12, 1959

Huge Parking Project Most Ambitious in Area

The most ambitious parking project yet attempted in the Victoria area is due to be opened by October.

It is the 460-car "Parkade" now under construction by Farmer Construction for the Hudson's Bay Company.

Adjacent to the HBC retail store in downtown Victoria, the Parkade is a two-storey parking facility that represents the maximum in customer convenience and ease of parking.

ANGLE PARKING

When the two storeys are completed each deck with hold 230 cars. Cars will be parked at angles and there will be wide aisles and turning places.

"Parkade" is a registered Hudson's Bay title for this type of parking which they are adapting to their leading stores across Canada.

The one in Victoria was designed after consultation with U.S. parking experts, and is to the design of Wade, Stockdill, Armour and Partners.

More than 12,000 cubic yards of material have been removed to level off the parking ground from Blanshard Street to store level. Of this, 3,000 cubic yards was solid rock, removed by blasting.

Five-foot diameter caissons have been sunk 60 feet to find foundations for the reinforced concrete columns which will hold the top parking deck. The framework at the store end is already in place and ready for concrete pourers to start work.

Some of the reinforced concrete columns will be 36 inches in diameter.

The complete project will take 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, 300 tons of reinforcing steel, and will employ about 60 men until the completion...

EMPHASIS ON EASE

Howard MacKay, manager of the Victoria store, says that the emphasis will be on ease of parking. Customers will drive right in and do their own parking.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist (advertisement)
April 23, 1964

Bay Parkade is a Real Convenience to Shoppers

In this modern day hustle and bustle shopping world one of the most difficult things to find is often a parking spot close to the store you wish to shop in.

The Bay has been a pioneer in Western Canada in solving this problem for shoppers. Way back in the early 1950's the first PARKADE was built in the Bay's Winnipeg store. Since that time every Bay department store has added a modern spacious PARKADE. The name originally was chosen with three factors in mind. The most obvious one of course was the park aid feature. But the historical "stockade" idea is built into the name along with the modern "arcade" idea. Many of the Bay Parkades feature shops with the Parkade building and beautiful brightly lit approaches to the stores.

In Victoria the Hudson's Bay Company erected their PARKADE in 1958. As soon as it was opened the PARKADE was heralded as a real boon to downtown shopping. Customers liked the easy entrance and exit and the wide parking spaces.

Many modern parking areas are conceived as huge one-level lots which mean a long walk to the store for customers. In inclement weather this can be very uncomfortable. The Bay Parkade is the modern answer to this problem. One whole level is completely under cover, offering the customer easy rain-free access to the store. Both levels are built right next to the store which means few steps for the customer and less time needed to shop. How have Victorians accepted this modern shopping convenience? The answer is in the number of cars that continually move in and out of the PARKADE. Thousands of cars daily use the Bay Parkade, and thousands of customers find using the Parkade the easy way to shop.

On the main deck of the Parkade is the Parcel Pick-up Port. This is a convenient feature of all the "at store" parking garages. Customers can phone orders for merchandise to the store and by the time they have drive into the Parkade the items they have ordered are waiting to be placed in their cars. Items purchased in the store can be sent to the Parcel-Pickup area where a courteous attendant places them in the customer's car.

Always well lit, with easy-to-read directional signs, and always clean... the Bay's parkade is truly one of the big reasons more people shop downtown in Victoria every year.

[Ismo07]

HBC parkade:

 

So cool..  City parkades follow in the late 60s...

[Nparker]

RIP Hudson's Bay Parkade 1959-2019.

[Mike K.]

Yes, the 60s were all about reinvigorating downtown Victoria which had lost its magic after the shopping centre boom of the 50s and early 60s.

Centennial Square was supposed to be a jewel in the downtown crown. It’s sort of funny how 60 years later we still think it’s this amazing thing that we’ll eventually get right.

The tide can change very quickly in a small downtown like Victoria’s. All you need is a major player to pack up and it’s a 20 year slide back on progress.

Like, have we considered what losing the Bay would mean? Or MEC folding up? Even Eddie Bauer closing? These are real possibilities.

[Ismo07]

Yes, the 60s were all about reinvigorating downtown Victoria which had lost its magic after the shopping centre boom of the 50s and early 60s.

Centennial Square was supposed to be a jewel in the downtown crown. It’s sort of funny how 60 years later we still think it’s this amazing thing that we’ll eventually get right.

The tide can change very quickly in a small downtown like Victoria’s. All you need is a major player to pack up and it’s a 20 year slide back on progress.

Like, have we considered what losing the Bay would mean? Or MEC folding up? Even Eddie Bauer closing? These are real possibilities.

 

When Eaton's left, downtown was a ghost town...  It was very bleak.  I'm not so sure MEC would have the same effect... 

[Mike K.]

No, definitely not on its own. It’s just a very high profile, large space that occupies an entire block. Eddie Bauer is unique, too, in that is takes up the entire commercial width of that giant government office building.

Which I think is one of my favourite downtown buildings.

[Ismo07]

No, definitely not on its own. It’s just a very high profile, large space that occupies an entire block. Eddie Bauer is unique, too, in that is takes up the entire commercial width of that giant government office building.

Which I think is one of my favourite downtown buildings.

 

Yeah cool building.  It took a while for the GAP building to be taken over.  Too bad they ran into issues in the reno but GR should be open soon...

[Barrrister]

I asked my doctor why she will not generally do telehealth or repeatedly  renew prescriptions. Her answer was that she does not like casinos and that there is a reason why she takes my blood pressure, exams my eyes and hands in particular, and looks down my throat every time. 

 

I just think everyone should have a doctor as good as mine. 

 

I grew up being told that our taxes where higher in Canada because of the great free health care and that made sense to me. Well we still have high taxes but a number of my neighbours cannot get a GP. 

[Nparker]

...I just think everyone should have a doctor as good as mine...

What's a doctor? I haven't had one in such a long time I can't really remember what they do.

[Mike K.]

I grew up being told that our taxes where higher in Canada because of the great free health care and that made sense to me. Well we still have high taxes but a number of my neighbours cannot get a GP.

Yes, that was the common line of thought when growing up. That we paid more taxes, for a better social safety net.

[aastra]

In 1970 it was a self-evident fact that people move around. In 2016 it was something to be debated. The purpose of news (and politics) is to test the memory and forthrightness of the reader.

 

 

National Post
Mar 23, 2016

As B.C. homeless shelters report a spike, there are fears a tide of homeless people is headed west

Homeless people, it is said in Canada, do not migrate.

If someone is sleeping rough in a doorway, they’re a local who fell through the cracks —- not some out-of-town drifter who came in search of warmer weather and better soup kitchens.

“I think it’s an unfortunate myth that people come here because it’s nice outside,” said Victoria mayor Lisa Helps.

Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang, a psychiatrist who specializes in homeless issues, laughs at the suggestion. "How do they afford to come?" he said.

"Nobody’s born homeless and travels the country looking for a homeless bed; give me a break," he said.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
June 28, 1970

Drifters Flock to Cool-Aid Bunks

On a wall in the hallway leading to the bunkroom of the hostel is a sign advising transients to "do their own thing" but to do it somewhere else if alcohol or drugs are involved.

At 10p.m. every day, the doors of the hostel are opened to the wanderer and transient youths from all over North America -- "straight" and hippie alike...

Another visitor at the Cool-Aid hostel in St. John's Church was John Thomason, a 19-year-old from Fort Wayne, Indiana. He had been on the road for 2.5 years in the United States.

...he arrived in Vancouver June 18 -- his first jaunt to Canada -- and came across to Cool-Aid in Victoria the same day.

Thomason said he has usually been flat broke throughout his travels. "I get my bread by panhandling for change and people often take me in for the night. If I am in a town and can find no work or food, I ask for work at a cafe. If they have no jobs they often give me food anyway," he said.

Thomason said he sleeps in hostels whenever possible and has often slept on the roadside.

Thomason's next destination was Long Beach, after which he was to strike out for Toronto, then back home and back to school

Eighteen-year-old Stu Vickers, another guest at Cool-Aid, hitchhiked across from Newmarket, Ontario, his hometown.

He worked as a laborer in a mine for a month in Thompson, Manitoba. "My boss didn't like long hair so he laid me off 'til I got it cut. I moved out," he said.

Young people drifting into Victoria invariably hear about Cool-Aid's hostels one way or another.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 2, 1970

Have Voucher, Will Travel

Needy Turned Into Transients

Young Victoria area welfare applicants are being given travel vouchers to go to Vancouver instead of receiving aid, members of the Victoria Low Income Group charged during a meeting Thursday night.

Group president Walter Olszewski showed photostats of vouchers, which he claimed had been given to 12 young people by Victoria social workers when they applied at the office.

"They're deliberately making transients out of these young people -- when they get to Vancouver they get another voucher to get back here."

An invitation is to be issued to all poverty groups in Canada, asking the poor to come to B.C.

A suggestion made by Steve Brody was endorsed by the meeting.

"If they're poor and hungry, at least they won't be cold here," said Brody.

...national conference of the poor is to be held in Toronto in December, with a federal grant of $51,000 to sponsor it.

Edited by aastra, 02 April 2023 - 12:18 PM.

[aastra]

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 24, 1970

Rotarians Told Amphetamines Biggest Danger

Victoria Cool-Aid worker Charles Barber told the Rotary Club Thursday, although heroin may eventually kill the addict, amphetamines are more dangerous because they ruin the body and mind much quicker.

Barber said Cool-Aid is "violently opposed" to the use of amphetamines (speed) and once made a film about it which has been shown in Victoria 175 times.

He also said that judging from the number of young people going to Cool-Aid for help that the use of heroin in Victoria increased during the summer.

Chemical drugs, such as LSD and mescaline, when bought off the street are of dubious quality, Barber said.

"You never know what you've got -- it's garbage." Even the highly poisonous drug strychnine is sometimes put in the chemical drugs, he said.

Barber said Cool-Aid sometimes asks the RCMP to analyze new shipments or varieties of drugs should any happen to come to Cool-Aid's house at 958 Balmoral.

Drugs, liquor and sex are not permitted at the house, which gives temporary food and lodging to transient youth.

Barber said marijuana use is beyond parental control and they may as well face this fact. He said the number of young people using marijuana is incalculable and that the age of people using the drug is increasing all the time.

Barber said his own "personal" feeling on marijuana is that it should be legalized -- but legal or not, he said, the drug is unlikely to be shown more dangerous than alcohol if used socially.

He said if a youngster abuses the use of marijuana, as a person abuses use of alcohol, he obviously has problems, and if he wants help, Cool-Aid will give it to him.

Cool-Aid does not advocate the use of marijuana, but lets people choose for themselves whether they want to break the law.

"We tell people the truth as we see it. If a person comes to us with a problem beyond our competence we refer them to appropriate help."

Barber said Cool-Aid can call on assistance from any of 18 doctors, 12 dentists, five psychiatrists, or four lawyers.

Cool-Aid's attitude toward transient youth, Barber said, is that they promote Canadian unity by learning what the people and their country are like.

Travel makes a person a better citizen, he said, because it exposes them to other life styles and banishes fears and hate.

Barber said the people of Victoria deal with the youths in a civilized way and they are generous in the help and support they give Cool-Aid.

[Nparker]

Lying about homeless migration was one of the lesser of Lisa Helps' transgressions during her time in office.

[aastra]

In 2003, downtown's woes were very much about perception.

In 2023, downtown's woes are still very much about perception.

And Robinson's on Broad Street doesn't have much to say about the issue (except, of course, when it gets quoted in the newspaper about the issue).

What's going on here is not organic. Neither the issues, nor the news coverage of the issues, nor the politics around the issues. It should be obvious by now. Not just for this particular issue, but for all persistent issues.

I'm not saying there isn't any truth in it, or that there aren't any real underlying issues and experiences. Of course there's some truth in it. Of course there are real issues and experiences. But I am saying there's a reason why the exact same beats are repeated year in and year out, for decades running. As we're constantly reminded, our perception is VERY important. Do we perceive, or don't we?

 

 

Times-Colonist
February 9, 2003
 
Give our regards to Broad Street Series: The Red Zone
 
As Stuart Clarke touted the benefits of street revitalization, a greasy-haired young man with khaki pants and a weathered overcoat bolted from his store with $1,000 in merchandise. Clarke had been talking about how improvements to Broad Street had chased away some of the street people from around ROBINSON'S OUTDOOR STORE and neighbouring shops.
 
The police and city officials acknowledge problems with addiction and homelessness and have developed a downtown action plan that also involves health officials.
 
Most say Victoria has one of the safest downtowns in North America. Others say the street population problems are chasing away tourists and shoppers.
 
Still others suggest IT IS ALL ABOUT PERCEPTION.
 
Clarke and some of his staff easily caught up with the thief, recovering four expensive waterproof jackets. However, they had no interest in holding him for police.
 
Apart from their major concern being getting the jackets back, they feared that the man could have been violent, perhaps even pulling a dirty needle on them.
 
And, they said, no one wants to miss a day's work to sit in court only to have the thief get a slap on the wrist.

--
 

 

Times-Colonist
April 16, 2023

Victoria businesses walk a tightrope over PERCEPTION of downtown

While businesses are hearing negative PERCEPTIONS of downtown, they are also dealing with the day-to-day reality that it isn’t all doom and gloom.

Dale Olsen (Outlooks for Men) said Victoria’s street problems are not unique as most cities in the country are dealing with the same thing and it’s symptomatic of a growing centre.

“I still don’t feel downtown is dangerous or dying. It’s simply in transition, ALWAYS IS, this just happens to be a rough patch,” he said.

Erin Boggs, partner in ROBINSON'S OUTDOOR STORE on Broad Street, added that while the store is doing really well they experience shoplifting several times a week and their frustration is growing.

“I always try and be really positive because we really want people to come downtown,” she said.

Boggs has hired security and considered a number of expensive infrastructure upgrades such as doors on changing rooms and new security tags. She has spoken with other business owners about hiring security for Broad Street.

While it’s a challenge, Boggs said they are still trying to find that delicate balance about raising their concerns and not wanting to scare people away from downtown.

“That’s why we’ve always remained really positive and not really spoken about it..."

 

[Nparker]

Clearly, staying positive is making things all better downtown. 

[aastra]

It's curious how negative perceptions only seem to be impactful re: downtown. There are no end of negative perceptions related to Amazon & online shopping in general, or related to Walmart & big-box shopping in general. Many of those negative perceptions are legitimate and 100% justified. And yet when did we ever see a news item about their business suffering because of perceptions?

 

Downtown cores used to be the heart and soul of every city. That's what they were created to be. No surprise, that's why downtown cores have been targeted to further certain agendas. The following quote is from the 2023 T-C article, but I've made the same point many, many times before:

 

 

“The real frustration that we’re feeling is that if this was in any other community, it wouldn’t be acceptable — if someone was camping on someone’s front porch in Fairfield that wouldn’t be acceptable,” she said.

 

They're pointing out the reader's hypocrisy and double standards.