63 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Speaking of when the place was sketchy... Anyway, we know where we've been, so fingers crossed that they don't royally eff up this redevelopment and create a monster.

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 20, 1972

Blanshard Court Resident:

Helpless Fear Her Companion

"There's just a misery about this place. A feeling of helplessness and a horrible hostility and fear."

This is a resident of Blanshard Court speaking, and she's describing her reactions to life in the low-income development.

"I don't have any personal beefs about it really. The house is fine, it's dry and warm, and there is a housing shortage but..."

"It's so demoralizing. No matter how hard you try all you have to do is look around and get discouraged."

"There's no way out of here."

"There's nothing for the kids to do but run around in packs until they do something wrong and get picked up by the police -- and then the social workers will pluck them off you one by one."

"No matter how nice you make your own place -- and I've fixed the house up and put flowers outside -- Blanshard Courts is still Blanshard Courts."

There are social workers who are supposed to help us -- that's what they are paid for, but as far as I am concerned they are all talk and theory -- they never get round to helping."

"I don't care how friendly or sympathetic they are, as far as I'm concerned they're all theory."

--

"I can't understand the thinking behind the building of Blanshard Court without even a swimming pool or a baseball diamond for the children. You have a big development with a lot of low-income group people crammed together and no facilities. The children have nothing to do but roam the streets or roam the stores and supermarkets, getting into temptation which they don't have the self-restraint to resist, or looking for a project that will cause some excitement."
-Family Court prosecutor Barry Riseborough in an interview

[Victoria Watcher]

That's quite something.

[aastra]

I think highrise redevelopment could work there, don't get me wrong. And there may even be some sense in what they're saying re: you don't want to under-build (the first children who move into the first phase will probably be adults by the time the final phase gets done). But at the same time you need to be sensible and understand the potential for disaster.

 

 

What's the parking proposal here?   Even when the place was sketchy as heck, lots of tenants had cars.

 

It's funny how all of the canned warnings and doomsaying re: the potential negative impacts of even very small developments tends to evaporate when it's a public project, and in this case an extremely large public project. If people like to lose their minds about the potential traffic increase related to a 24-unit building then shouldn't we be working overtime to study the traffic and parking implications of this one?

[Matt R.]

“As part of the new Evergreen Terrace development, Council asked BC Housing to re-exploring daylighting "Rock Bay Creek" watershed, which runs from Fernwood to Rock Bay. There is lots of history on this watershed at: rockbaycreek.ca and rockbaycreek.baremetal.com/index.html #yyj”

https://x.com/mattde...kwKsq-Q8cZlrq-g

Wow I had no idea Bare Metal was still operating.

[Victoria Watcher]

Redevelopment of a lower-cost housing complex on Blanshard Street into nine new buildings containing 900 rental units has hit a hurdle after B.C. Housing said it would not include childcare in the first phase, raising the ire of city council.

The planned B.C. Housing project at Evergreen Terrace, which is spread along two blocks of Blanshard near Hillside Avenue, includes one 20-storey, three 15-storey and five six-storey buildings.

The project, which has been given initial rezoning approval by council, is expected to be built out over the next 15 years and will replace the current 23 1970s-era buildings ­containing 196 lower-cost rental units.

On Thursday, council decided to delay considering the childcare request for a week in order to get more information from the provincial housing organization.


https://www.timescol...opment-11814558

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 January 2026 - 06:22 AM.

[Mike K.]

There is so much daycare space coming online now, that the business case is getting thin.

Government must also know that federal changes to immigration mean the population growth rates we expected in 2024, are no longer expected in 2026. And thus first phase will take a long time to complete.

[Victoria Watcher]

Maybe they can snag a Quality Learing Center franchise?  

[aastra]

An astute observer might conclude that this makes a mockery of the high expectations we continue to place on every little private-sector project re: amenities and such. 

 

Your 4-story job should surely be able to include a community waterslide and Ferris wheel, but the margins of a super high-density multi-tower public project are much too thin for such frills.

[Mike K.]

BC Housing has a daycare coming to the 900-block of Pandora tower, and Chard’s Nest has a daycare.

There are a couple more in the pipeline with daycares. It’s like the latest thing, since we overdid the gym thing.

[Victoria Watcher]

Someone should just invent a gas that puts the kids out for 8 hours. Then they can have like 1 worker for every 500 kids.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 January 2026 - 04:15 PM.

[aastra]

 

 

There are a couple more in the pipeline with daycares. It’s like the latest thing, since we overdid the gym thing.

 

Ideally we would combine daycares and gyms. It's inconvenient that my kid has to make a special stop just to work on his bench press.

[Mike K.]

When it is convenient with a kid?

[Victoria Watcher]

Maybe they can snag a Quality Learing Center franchise?  

 

The sign is available.

 

[corvus]

Seems a bit odd to me that all of the pressure for this is landing on BC Housing - they don't fund childcare? If MECC pulls their funding, which they seem to have done, BCH isn't in a position to cover that under their mandate. They wouldn't have the authority to spend money that way. 

[aastra]

 

When it is convenient with a kid?

 

When I'm the one doing the bench press it can actually be very convenient to have a bunch of small children around (my own or someone else's... doesn't matter). I pile them up on each end of the barbell and then I do a bunch of drop set reps as they gradually fall off.

 

(obviously there's a padded mat on the floor, duh... my wife would flip about the noise otherwise)

[lanforod]

That's ideal. Need a harder day, just gotta give them some icecream and pizza first.

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria city council has postponed for a week discussion of B.C. Housing’s plans to redevelop the Evergreen Terrace subsidized housing project.

Council voted to delay consideration of the project to allow conversations about provision of childcare in the development to conclude between B.C. Housing and city.

“A week is not, I think, long enough to impair the process of this, but sufficient to allow those conversations to resolve,” said Mayor Marianne Alto.

 

https://www.timescol...debate-11846369

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 February 2026 - 07:20 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C. Housing will have to provide childcare in a low-cost housing redevelopment on Blanshard Street, but won’t be required to do it in the second phase.

After the housing provider told the city it wouldn’t be able to provide up to 37 spaces in the first phase of the redevelopment of Evergreen Terrace, as promised, Victoria council pressed pause on endorsing a master development agreement.

In the end, council went ahead with the endorsement on Thursday, unwilling to risk losing 900 units of subsidized housing planned for nine new buildings, including one 20-storey, three 15-storey and five six-storey buildings.

The redevelopment of the site, set on two blocks of Blanshard Street between Hillside Avenue and Bay Street, is expected to unfold in multiple phases over 15 years.

The housing complex currently has 175 low-income townhouses and apartments, as well as 21 supportive-housing units operated by the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness.

 

 

https://www.timescol...ctoria-11875644

[Mike K.]

900 units over 15 years with heights up to 20 floors sounds extremely ambitious, but we shall see.

Clock starts ticking now. This ought to be complete in 2041.

[Victoria Watcher]

I don't even understand social housing with that kind of view.  Not that poor people should not be able to have nice views.   But we should not pay for it.