Doug Rhodes, chairman of the neighbourhood association, takes a cautionary approach on the topic. Creating a heritage conservation area "might be a good idea," but the proposed location is sizable. As well, it includes homes not within the style the researchers describe.
"Who would be the winners and losers?" Rhodes wonders.
"I bought the book (published by UVic and including a chapter on the neighbourhood). It is a very academic approach that doesn't seem to involve the people here now.
Another (IMO) choice quote is this, since it relates to the question of what's the city, what's downtown, where are the boundaries:
High school teacher Brian Whitmore still visits his childhood home on Glasgow Avenue where his parents have lived since 1952.
It would make him a little sad to see it redeveloped. "I walk my mother now, and up and down the streets it is becoming a family neighborhood again. I see these kids running down from Quadra school. It is a great place for kids to grow up again even though it is practically inner-city now, as opposed to rural."
And finally, this little story at the end:
It was also the kind of neighbourhood that defined the '50s family ideal. Kids were sent out the door to play with instructions to be back by suppertime. Play might not have been any safer. It just seemed that way.
Ireland said he spent time playing on railway flatcars, "I wouldn't dare do that nowadays."
Whitmore called it a neighbourhood "run by the children. No one got in the minivans and went to various adult-organized activities. We lived and played in our children's world. It was an incredibly imaginative world."
So imaginative that he recalls building a straw house among the trees. "We made a wonderful house. Then we created a kitchen. Then we added an oven. And then we decided to cook in it. ... I've never seen anything burn so fast in my life. The whole field was on fire before we could run home."
There are 3 other heritage-related articles in today's paper, but they're locked. They're in the Capital & Van Isle section, p.B03.