1571 replies to this topic

[Citified.ca]

A rendering depicting Harris Green Village, a 1,500-plus unit rental development with ground floor retail spaces planned for the 900 and 1,000-blocks of Yates Street in downtown Victoria. Proponent Starlight Developments has refined the proposal as it nears its public hearing.

 

1,500-unit Harris Green Village rental dev headed to council with more affordable housing, parkland improvements

https://victoria.cit...d-improvements/

[Victoria Watcher]

That video is great.  It's only 1:15 but still hits all these in the first 55 seconds:

 

Disabled.

Inter-racial couple.

Gay male couple.

Black.

Asian.

Hispanic.

Senior.

 

Not sure if I can clearly see an Indo-Canadian, maybe the boy on the left in the school kids group of 4.

 

Starts with a beach I do not immediately recognize.  But I know it's not anywhere near downtown.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 October 2021 - 11:10 AM.

[Nparker]

I wonder how many people featured in that video are actually current residents of the CoV? Most looked liked actors/models to me. With the exception of a couple of establishing shots, the entire video could have been produced almost anywhere.

[Victoria Watcher]

This still has me a bit perplexed.  I can't place it.

 

 

Somewhere near Mystic Beach, or just generic "waves hitting sandy and rocky beach at forest edge", from a stock video company?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 October 2021 - 12:28 PM.

[Nparker]

Maybe it's a proposed design for the park space in the Quadra-Vancouver portion of the project. 

[newbie_01]

I feel completely alienated by that video because I don't see my specific intersectional identity represented.

 

Cool dev. though.

[aastra]

Victoria's promotional materials are interesting. They rarely include any images of Victoria city that show what it's actually like, and they often include images of natural spaces that are nowhere near Victoria.

[Mike K.]

It's likely royalty-free video material licensed through video licensing portals. You'll see it in promo content for projects in NYC, Toronto, LA and wherever else.

[Nparker]

Of course it is, but it shouldn't be passed off as representing Victoria or its citizens.

[Mike K.]

Ah geez, c'mon. Does the person brushing their teeth with Crest in a tv commercial have to be doing it in Victoria?

[Nparker]

...Does the person brushing their teeth with Crest in a tv commercial have to be doing it in Victoria?

Only if that toothpaste is being marketed as representing Victoria.

[aastra]

I've ranted about this before. Promotional materials for other cities will tend to show off the built form of the place. Promotional materials for Victoria will tend to be vague, showing close-ups of people engaged in a stock range of activities (but not necessarily actual stock images) and showing natural scenery that's well outside the city itself. For years I noted how Victoria's tourism guides and magazines would typically never show an establishing picture of the city itself. Whereas Vancouver, Portland, Ottawa, Halifax, and even smaller places like Nanaimo would typically show the city on the cover and then multiple times again within the pages. In one Victoria guide there were zero establishing shots or aerials of downtown Victoria but there were TWO such images of Sidney! And we can never forget that official tourism campaign from a few years back: "Victoria - Because it could really be any place, right?"

 

Anyway, in this case I suppose I should give them a point for briefly showing a very high aerial from southwest of James Bay at the start, and then the image showing the project renderings at the end. But it still seems odd to me that an ad to promote downtown Victoria living wouldn't have bothered to show some images of the downtown area.

 

FYI: I'm still stewing about the potential for a "duplicated podium" effect along two consecutive blocks of Yates Street. That wouldn't be good. In this case it might be a lucky break that the ground level of the Regent towers will provide such a strong interruption between the two developments.

[LJ]

. But it still seems odd to me that an ad to promote downtown Victoria living wouldn't have bothered to show some images of the downtown area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Showing assaults in progress, pan-handling, meth dancers etc. wouldn't do much to sell the place.

[Jacques Cadé]

Revised proposal being discussed right now by Committee of the Whole: https://pub-victoria...Tab=attachments

 

So far, Helps and Alto in favour of sending to public hearing, even though only 5% of units "affordable" when Council asked for 15%.

Edited by Jacques Cadé, 28 October 2021 - 01:01 PM.

[Nparker]

How much do Benemy/TV hate this proposal?

[Mike K.]

Alto supports moving to a public hearing.

[Mike K.]

Isitt does not support sending the project to a public hearing.

[Nparker]

Isitt does not support sending the project to a public hearing.

I am stunned! 

[Mike K.]

It didn't sound like Councillor Young supported sending the project to a public hearing.

[Nparker]

It didn't sound like Councillor Young supported sending the project to a public hearing.

We all know his thoughts on any building over 4 floors in height.