25959 replies to this topic

[aastra]

 

...stop taking pictures of campers and encampments.

 

It's the new normal. Every obedient citizen should understand that park spaces are no longer suitable subject matter for photography.

 

Either that, or the parks are not parks anymore.

 

It might be simpler just to understand both of those things.

 

Every day the new normal looks a bit more like the old tyranny.

[mbjj]

Mayor Helps said last week that she wants people to stop taking pictures of campers and encampments.

 

Stirling is airing the quote on his show as we speak.

Well if I want to take photos of flowers and a tent is in the background, too bad.

[Sparky]

Mayor Helps said last week that she wants people to stop taking pictures of campers and encampments.

Stirling is airing the quote on his show as we speak.

Has she stated a reason?

[Nparker]

Has she stated a reason?

The "most vulnerable" don't like to be photographed (unless it's by the media and it furthers their cause).

[Mike K.]

Has she stated a reason?

Someone wrote her, she said, and said he didn’t appreciate being photographed while living in a tent in the park.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the mayor’s concern is that the negative publicity is getting out of hand, and the joke now is “follow the homeless to Victoria,” a play on Victoria’s mid-century marketing line “follow the birds to Victoria,” or “follow the seagulls to Victoria.”

Cynthia Diadick’s petition is now at 17,212. It rose from 15,4xx signatures since yesterday morning when we posted it to the Facebook page.

[Mike K.]

In case anyone miss our last this morning:

🔹North Park neighbourhood wants public access to Royal Athletic Park ballpark; suggests City add dog run, picnic tables and hygiene stations "without delay"🔹

The City of Victoria's North Park Neighbourhood Association (NPNA) is asking that the City of Victoria open Royal Athletic Park "without delay," and to employ "the same expediency that has been demonstrated by staff and council with existing COVID-19 response measures."

"As the City continues to announce innovative solutions for supporting businesses and residents across Victoria during the current global pandemic, we would like to bring equitable access to green space and outdoor recreation to the forefront. The wider sidewalks on Cook Street have already significantly improved the pedestrian experience and accessibility in North Park Village; however, access to green space continues to be an issue for Victoria’s northern neighbourhoods - North Park, Downtown, Fernwood, and Hillside-Quadra. For this reason, we are calling on the City of Victoria to open Royal Athletic Park to the public for day use. We request that this be done without delay, employing the same expediency that has been demonstrated by staff and council with existing COVID-19 response measures," reads a portion of a letter submitted to the City by the NPNA.

In addition, the organization is requesting that the municipality:
🔹Open Royal Athletic Park to the public for day use for the duration of 2020
🔹Provide picnic tables for dining and seating in Royal Athletic Park
🔹Increase the number of picnic tables and bench seating in Central Park
🔹Provide garbage, recycling, compost collection in both Central Park and RAP
🔹Provide hand washing and water bottle filling stations in both Central Park and RAP
🔹Consider including an off leash dog run in RAP

Royal Athletic Park is the home of the HarbourCats baseball team, which saw its season cancelled this summer due to COVID-19.

[Victoria Watcher]

it's already been open for a week.  i guess they got their demands met.

 

https://www.vicnews....public-picnics/

 

 

 

People are encouraged to bring a picnic or enjoy a family game of bocce in the heart of the North Park neighbourhood.

 

Drop-in times are from 5 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and 1 to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sundays.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 July 2020 - 03:29 PM.

[RFS]

Wait, so just as the left is pushing for privatization of law enforcement, they have also just inadvertently privatized parks?  Way to go guys

[Victoria Watcher]

i don't think it's a private park.  it's just normally locked up and only for official use.   pre-approved groups that pay for access.  not just casual visitors.

 

so it's always acted more like the save on foods centre or westhills stadium or a school gym.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 July 2020 - 03:45 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

When the B.C. government bought Victoria’s Comfort Inn in May to house people camped out along Pandora Avenue and in a city-authorized tent camp at Topaz Park, a Victoria hair salon operator leasing in the building found out from media reports.

 

B.C. Liberal MLA Jas Johal told the B.C. legislature July 13 that the salon operator’s first contact from B.C. Housing about the switch from hotel to shelter was via a construction worker who showed up to board up the windows of her shop, All About Hue Hair Designs.

______________________

 

B.C. Liberal MLA Todd Stone described the fate of Paul’s Diner after another Victoria hotel, Paul’s Motor Inn, was taken over for transition housing.

 

Crime and disorder have made he property unviable for tenant businesses, Stone said, quoting the Paul’s Diner operator: “So far, the only solution that’s been offered for us is writing off $150,000 in renovations, killing 20 good local jobs and giving up on our dream that we we all worked so hard to achieve. If the government doesn’t fix this, it will ruin us.”

_____________________

 

Isaacs described a 400 per cent increase in crime reports in the downtown Vancouver neighbourhood of Yaletown after people camping in Oppenheimer Park were moved into hotel spaces.

 

https://www.vicnews....overnment-told/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 July 2020 - 03:55 PM.

[Kungsberg]

Mayor Helps said last week that she wants people to stop taking pictures of campers and encampments.

 

Update on the Mayor & friends’ latest city placemaking:

 

There are, indeed, as others have reported, many more tents opposite South Park School. Some tents go, some new, some shifted, but overall the number has increased.

 

There are LOTS of new tents along Bridge Way, from Douglas St all the way to Goodacre Lake, and set up close to the pedestrian asphalt walk. Today was the first time in my life that I felt afraid to walk there, in the middle of a beautiful summer day, as I saw what has sprung up there recently and the behaviour I was seeing.

 

Quite a lot of city crews and fire dept personnel were very busy removing stuff from some sites in the bushes around Beacon hill flagpole, or dealing with garbage elsewhere. No one was being moved on; this was just clean up and checking for fire hazards. City pick-up trucks were full of rubbish. I wonder how city staff (Parks, Bylaw) morale is these days.

 

The martial arts guy in the huge tent in the gravel field has been there for 3-4 months.  As you can see, he obviously feels ownership of half the field. As he is always out there practicing with a large sword, his exclusive placemaking seems to be working, if only for him. Most of the other tents are at the northern end of the field.

 

There is a new CoV-sanctioned shower set up (City water & hose).

 

MANY more new tents are now set up near the baseball diamond and between there and the ‘watering can’ (west side of Circle Drive, opposite Beacon Hill Drive-In).

 

Overall, I give the new placemaking effort an F grade. They have removed some amazing placemaking (that they inherited from previous, better-woke folk) that many, if not most, of their citizenship used to feel comfortable using, and replaced it with this. 

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[Nparker]

When the B.C. government bought Victoria’s Comfort Inn in May to house people camped out along Pandora Avenue and in a city-authorized tent camp at Topaz Park, a Victoria hair salon operator leasing in the building found out from media reports. B.C. Liberal MLA Jas Johal told the B.C. legislature July 13 that the salon operator’s first contact from B.C. Housing about the switch from hotel to shelter was via a construction worker who showed up to board up the windows of her shop, All About Hue Hair Designs.

______________________

 

B.C. Liberal MLA Todd Stone described the fate of Paul’s Diner after another Victoria hotel, Paul’s Motor Inn, was taken over for transition housing. Crime and disorder have made the property unviable for tenant businesses, Stone said, quoting the Paul’s Diner operator: “So far, the only solution that’s been offered for us is writing off $150,000 in renovations, killing 20 good local jobs and giving up on our dream that we we all worked so hard to achieve. If the government doesn’t fix this, it will ruin us.”...

#whatsalitltecollateraldamage

[aastra]

Low capacity, respect spacing, we were here first... Maybe those tenters should join up with the downtown residents' association?

[aastra]

...we would like to bring equitable access to green space and outdoor recreation to the forefront.

...access to green space continues to be an issue for Victoria’s northern neighbourhoods...

 

The tone-deaf timing of this NPNA thing feels like yet another trolling effort. If equitable access to green space is really a principle in the CoV then how do we explain the Beacon Hill Park situation? Is the NPNA's "me me me" tunnel vision so comically exaggerated that Beacon Hill Park (Beacon Hill what?) doesn't even register in their awareness?

 

And this grating crusade to portray North Park as both ultra-excluded & ultra-exclusive at the same time... give me a break. Why are they always acting as if the North Park neighbourhood boundary is guarded by the 50-foot wall from King Kong? Is the prospect of a North Park resident™ walking to a park in another neighbourhood really so distasteful? It's not as if every North Park resident™ lives at the same address. A park or playground on the other side of official neighbourhood lines could be more convenient & accessible for many North Park residents as compared to a hypothetical new park within North Park itself.

 

The neighbourhood designation is ultimately just a designation. If people have to (gasp) venture into North Park to go for a swim then why is such a big deal if people have to (gasp) venture out of North Park to go to a park? The boundary is just an imaginary line on a map, it's not real.

[Nparker]

The NPNA is ruled by nutjobs. I imagine they blindly vote for TV candidates too.

[A Girl is No one]

I notice the NPNA did not include needles safe disposal bises in the new park of RAP. It was a long list of demands, but somehow they missed that. I wonder why...

[On the Level]

Stop knocking the NPNA.  It it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have the wonderful new pool we are about to enjoy!  Not.

[Awaiting Juno]

I think what really needs to be hammered home, is that what we're doing isn't working.  The NPNA deserves to have their parks, Fernwood deserves their parks, Fairfield deserves their parks, James Bay deserves their parks - this should not be about who doesn't deserve a park - this has to be about the protection of parks for the benefit of Victorians and being able to identify appropriate courses of action to protect those resources.  We need to set boundaries around what can or cannot be done - and the wholesale defacement of public resources is not acceptable.  

[Victoria Watcher]

maybe npna just wanted one freaking park in this entire city that does not have all-night and most-of-the-day homeless campers. 

 

they got it at RAP.  plus presumably a parks or security staffer on site all open hours too.  safest park in the city now.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 July 2020 - 05:55 AM.

[A Girl is No one]

It’s close to where the mayor lives, go figure.