819 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Wait a sec... I thought tourists didn't visit places to see the buildings?

 

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Daily Colonist
August 15, 1962

 

Tourists See Victoria: Beauty, Charm, Trash

A beautiful, friendly town with handsome policemen, reasonable prices -- and a trash-laden Inner Harbor.

This is the many-faceted face of Victoria as visitors from the four corners of the continent saw her yesterday.

In a series of random interviews conducted by The Daily Colonist among the colorful crowds of holidayers, these impressions emerged:

"We came for one day. It seemed convenient to take the package tour from Seattle. But we spent most of the time on the bus and only had 10 or 15 minutes for shopping," said Mrs. W. J. Jewell of Los Angeles.

"That old float in Inner Harbor and debris on the water is a sore spot for pictures. You have such a nice flower bed there that it detracts from the composition," said Howard Cox of Whittier, Calif.

"They should get all of the trash out of the harbor. It looks dirty and spoils the beauty of all the buildings," said Joseph Huntley of Los Angeles.

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[Victoria Watcher]

62 was the seattle world fair year.

15 minutes for shopping sounds like the v2v turnaround time.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 01 March 2019 - 07:57 PM.

[aastra]

Daily Colonist
August 14, 1968

Gonzales Problem Not Easily Solved

There are no easy answers to the problem of the logs which cover Gonzales Beach, aldermen concluded Tuesday.

...in reply to a petition... members of the parks committee agreed that the situation was bad and that the Gonzales Beach people had a right to complain.

...the beach seemed to be the final repository for most of the logs which drifted down the coast.

...a boom across the mouth of the bay would be surely smashed by the tides and wind.

[Victoria Watcher]

Gonzales Beach People predated the Village People by almost a decade.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 March 2019 - 04:28 PM.

[aastra]

Some pretty scary forecasts in this article:

 

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Daily Colonist
February 17, 1970

 

Overpass Vs. Belleville St.
$2,000,000 Solution

A $2,000,000 overpass at Blanshard and Collinson will be necessary if the provincial government insists on routing Belleville Street traffic north of St. Joseph's Hospital, says Victoria city hall.

The overpass proposal is the latest complication in the city's efforts to clear the clogged funnel of the Belleville-Blanshard area.

The city wants to extend Belleville Street east through St. Joseph's property to connect with Fairfield Road. The project would create an artery carrying much of the civil service traffic which originates in easterly Victoria and Oak Bay.

The possible overpass would run north-south on Blanshard, spanning the five-way intersection at Blanshard, McClure and Collinson.

City hall officials say that traffic will become a hopeless mess at the intersection in a few years. That is, unless the overpass is built, or Belleville can run through to Fairfield.

"Without an overpass, that intersection will become a maelstrom."

Part of the city's long-range traffic plan involves making Quadra a one-way street running south, and Vancouver one way running north.

A controversial aspect of this plan involves extending Michigan across the northwest tip of Beacon Hill Park to link with Rupert and Vancouver.

A pedestrian walk would span the Michigan Street extension and the existing Superior Street curve would be closed to become part of the park.

Edited by aastra, 04 March 2019 - 10:59 AM.

[aastra]

Daily Colonist

November 28, 1969

Wharf Plan Leaps Ahead

Victoria city council voted... to prepare detailed plans for the Wharf Street harbor renewal project after being told it will attract more private investment in the area...

"With the existing availability of vacant land, the area is now ready for renewal and it is in the best interests of the city that some form of public initiative be taken,"

Without it, said the report, "...the area will continue to be a backwater of service buildings."

 

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Daily Colonist

May 13, 1971

 

Blighted Beauty
Inner Harbor: Victoria's Dilemma

 

(see excerpts from this article below)

Edited by aastra, 25 March 2019 - 08:34 PM.

[Rob Randall]

An overpass at Blanshard and Collinson. Think about that. It's mind boggling. Think about the overpasses you've seen in Vancouver and Seattle and imagine one here. 

[Nparker]

The nearly religious fervour for over-scaled, expensive, transportation infrastructure projects 50 years ago, that promised to solve all of the local traffic problems, reminds me of something that is happening in our region today, but I just can't quite seem to put my finger on what that is...

Edited by Nparker, 02 March 2019 - 10:13 PM.

[Mike K.]

Even downtown Nanaimo has an overpass!

[Cassidy]

An overpass at Blanshard and Collinson. Think about that. It's mind boggling. Think about the overpasses you've seen in Vancouver and Seattle and imagine one here. 

It makes one wonder about the calibre of people that citizens of the COV are willing to elect into that important office (Mayor and Councillor).

The Parliamentary Precinct empties on a work day in about 20 minutes currently, no traffic jams, and a pretty easy departure (especially for folks who are living in points East).

 

There are traffic jams elsewhere else around town in 2019, but absolutely zero of those traffic jams are within a mile or two of anything around the Humboldt Valley!

[Brantastic]

Odd to imagine Blanshard, Collinson, and McClure all meeting up as they obviously no longer do. I suppose that explains the dead-ending Collinson and McClure at Quadra and Fairfield must have been rerouted to meet with Humboldt. That explains the convoluted, winding nature of Fairfield Rd through that part of town. 

Makes me think of how Douglas suddenly continues through North Quadra when you get off the Pat Bay Highway at McKenzie despite this section starting over a whole kilometre north of where Douglas turns westward as the TCH at Uptown. The two Douglas Streets do align fairly well if you look at a map but it confused the hell out of me when I first moved here.

I assume this must have happened frequently throughout Victoria's history given how convoluted some routes are and how frequently road names change. I've always enjoyed how Esquimalt, Johnson/Pandora, Begbie, Shelbourne, Cedar Hill (briefly), Cordova Bay, Royal Oak, Wilkinson, and Helmcken are practically one continuous road. It can be confusing to explain directions around here for these reasons. "Turn left off Burnside onto Burnside after the underpass". "Continue along Craigflower which becomes Skinner, then becomes Tyee".

[Cassidy]

The two Douglas Streets do align fairly well if you look at a map but it confused the hell out of me when I first moved here.

They line up so well because they were one, straight street from downtown out to the ferries.

Pre-Blanshard Street, the current expressway between Uptown (Town and Country) and Saanich City Hall didn't exist ... there was only Douglas Street to get you out of town.

 

This pic shows the straight shot on the main drag that was Douglas Street out of town, with the curve of the TC off to the left almost looking like a side street.

 

I'm not sure of the date of this picture, but it's possible this wasn't even the Trans Canada at this point, the TC originally coming up what's now the 1A, and onto Gorge Road, then into town.

Attached Images

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Edited by Cassidy, 06 March 2019 - 07:44 PM.

[Brantastic]

I know that now, just not in my first few years here. Thanks for the picture. It's weird to see familiar signage in an otherwise entirely unrecognizable scene.

[aastra]

Underlining is mine:

 

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Daily Colonist
August 23, 1979

 

Truce hope brightens shopping centre feud

 

The final chapter in the shopping centre war between Saanich and the Capital Region District could be written later this week.

 

The regional board agreed... it would drop legal action against the municipality if Saanich agreed to take all future shopping centre proposals to the board.

 

...another shopping centre proposed for Saanich will be affected by the sudden change of plans.

 

Saanich Mayor Mel Couvelier gave the board a commitment that he would call an emergency meeting of council to consider the compromise.

 

"...Broadmead Farms' proposal is caught in the web," Couvelier said...

 

"I'm embarrassed about this whole process. It tends to lay bare the less wholesome aspects of regionalism."

 

Broadmead is proposing a 230,000-square-foot centre on a 35-acre site between Royal Oak Drive and Royal Oak Avenue.

 

"An application of this size obviously comes within the purview of the regional board and would be referred to this body," (Saanich Ald.) Sturrock said.

 

The board has initiated a B.C. Supreme Court action to quash Saanich's bylaw permitting a major shopping centre on the Tillicum drive-in theatre site, and Saanich launched a countersuit.

 

Sooke director Charles Perkins said many board members had reservations about development at Tillicum...

 

Outer Islands representative Jim Campbell strongly objected to the action...

 

"A clear violation occurred," he said. "The issue is the Tillicum centre, but Broadmead is now sneaking in as the issue."

 

"The (regional) plan was deliberately and effectively breached and now they (Saanich) want a pardon."

 

"I'm not prepared to give a pardon..."

 

"We are being misled by Saanich. Broadmead is not the issue here, it's the Tillicum centre that's the issue."

 

SaltSpring representative Michael Clements agreed that the issue at stake was the regional plan.

 

 

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Daily Colonist
August 23, 1979

 

Park on harborfront to cost nearly $200,000

 

Developing Reeson Park, half an acre of Wharf Street waterfront near the Johnson Street Bridge, will cost almost $200,000, Capital Region Board directors learned...

 

The land was given to the regional district 15 months ago by Victoria businessman Peter Pollen and Gorden Reeson, with a proviso that it be made into a park.

 

Concern over cost of the project was voiced by three directors.

 

Central Saanich Ald. Hill questioned spending such a large amount on one park while money was lacking for improvements at other regional parks.

 

...Victoria Ald. Tindall said he was amazed at the cost escalation...

Edited by aastra, 25 March 2019 - 04:48 PM.

[aastra]

Daily Colonist
August 23, 1979

 

New police chief must be outsider

Special skills needed for 1980s, alderman says

 

Victoria must go outside its police department to find a successor to retiring police chief Jack Gregory, says Ald. Robin Blencoe.

 

The top administration appeared to be either "unwilling or incapable of changing its management style," he said...

 

"The department needs new blood, we have to go outside to find a new chief,"

 

Some officers on the force wanted changes made, he said, claiming to know of many officers who had been concerned for some time about the operation of the department.

 

"...we have lost a number of good men out of utter frustration."

 

Blencoe wants to see a person hired with special skills "to meet the challenge of the difficult 1980s."

 

...major emphasis should be a return to a stronger sense of community, to break down large institutions into smaller units that people can understand and to whom they can relate, he said.

 

"We need a chief who is sensitive to this developing attitude and committed to finding ways of bringing the department and the community it serves much closer."

 

The new man should be totally committed to cooperating with other social and criminal justice related agencies in a team approach to combat urban social and criminal problems...

 

Equality of opportunity was another obvious trend of the 1980s, he said...

 

...Gregory's successor should... be prepared to make changes that would increase the morale, motivation, and productivity of the force...

 

"As an elected official I have to be concerned about the type of person we hire," he said. "...it's essential we get someone who has a strong sense of community, someone sensitive to the needs of the future..."

Edited by aastra, 25 March 2019 - 04:49 PM.

[Mike K.]

Good lord.

[Sparky]

Says Robin Blencoe who went on to serve in 3 ministerial positions in the provincial cabinet...only to be found guilty of workplace sexual harassment by a human rights tribunal and had to pay his victim $5,000.

.....the more things change...

[aastra]

A bright idea in 1980 has turned into a problem that needs to be addressed just one generation later:

 

 

Times-Colonist

June 16, 2006

 

'We are wasting our waterfront,' says hotel boss

 

Rowdy and illegal activity in downtown Reeson Park is troubling Earl Wild, the manager of the nearby Regent Hotel at 1234 Wharf St.

In commenting about a plan to invite street vendors into the park to change its ambience, Wild said Victoria should have a bigger vision for the waterfront, one that would bring regular folks to the area.

"We are wasting our waterfront," said Wild who would like to have a waterfront walkway from the Johnson Street Bridge through to the Inner Harbour. Instead, he said, pedestrians see ugly parking lots.

Still, Wild is happy that the city will offer a street-vending licence for the park, which is owned by the Provincial Capital Commission.

"I don't see where it can hurt. The more activity you have around the place ... the more legitimate activity ... the better."

Victoria council approved plans Thursday to allow a street vendor in the park -- possibly a coffee or hot dog seller -- in the hope that the service will attract visitors beyond the transient population that likes to hang out at the park.

[Victoria Watcher]

did that hot dog vendor fix it?

[Nparker]

From the Daily Amagoogle Inter-neural NewsTweet, March 25, 2055:

 

"Victoria is wasting our waterfront...pedestrians see ugly parking lots."