Greater Victoria municipal parks

Capital Daily:

North Saanich adds EV stations and pickleball security

At the June 20 regular council meeting, staff presented a report on the CRD-led regional public electric vehicle (EV) charging network grant application and its two suggested EV charging stations at Patricia Bay Park. After Coun. Stock raised the concern that the Patricia Bay parking lot is always full, council still voted to authorize the charging stations but with an amendment that allows for having them at other locations.

Security hired to close pickleball courts at day’s end

Staff also presented a report on pickleball, where they suggested that North Saanich hire a security firm (at an estimated $3K in 2022) to close the courts at the end of each day in the summer, in efforts to mitigate the sport’s noise.

Coun. Jack McClintock raised concerns that it might be difficult for guards to stop players during their game, saying "I guess we just have to wait and see whether or not it’s accepted by the pickleball community." He added that he’d rather see the courts policed by the pickleball community rather than taxpayers, and is disappointed they haven’t stepped up to enforce this. All councillors voted in favour of hiring the security firm.

Fisticuffs feared over pickleball on tennis courts

(Central Saanich) Council will also receive no fewer than 10 pieces of correspondence both in favour and against pickleball players’ use of tennis courts. Signage was recently removed from the Centennial Tennis Courts, which had prohibited pickleballers from the courts. That has aroused fears of potential "fisticuffs" in the words of one resident, with many agreeing the two sports are not compatible. Pickleball-vs-tennis conflicts have flared up in several Island-region municipalities, even sparking a community centre "coup" for control of facilities.

with many agreeing the two sports are not compatible

 

The two sports are perfectly compatible.   It's no different than a couple good tennis players serving overhand and having a proper game, and on the next court a couple serving underhand and just trying for an extended, friendly rally.  I see more of the latter than former.

Pickleball has just made courts more popular, especially at peak times.  And so suddenly the tennis purists think the pickleball players are taking up space that belongs to them.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 June 2022 - 06:19 AM.

Just a little while ago I saw some young kids ride their bikes off the trail and straight across the middle of a fairway while a group was about to tee off. These things happen. Be aware.

Re: tennis, I gotta say the atmosphere on public tennis courts has always had that undercurrent of intolerance and tension. It was already tennis vs. tennis long before anyone had ever heard of pickleball vs. tennis. The group in the other court was never showing proper respect, never taking the decorum of the game seriously enough, etc. If you've ever played badminton you know this same irritable jerkwaddery is often evident there as well. It just seems to be a part of racquet sports. Even when I was a half-decently serious tennis player I never enjoyed the exaggerated impatience and the curmudgeonly aspect.

In my entire life I don't think I've ever seen somebody on a basketball court give another group heck because they were using a soccer ball. I've never seen somebody question the scoring or the etiquette in another group's game of HORSE. But on the tennis courts you regularly saw this kind of thing.

Demographics, dude.

 

 

Demographics, dude.

That's what I used to tell the people I was playing with. The reason why you're such a jerkwad when you play tennis or badminton is because you allow your demographics to go off the charts. But when you play basketball or ball hockey you tend to keep your demographics at more tolerable levels.

Uh oh.

Sooke opens doors to $1.3-million multi-sport box

The facility was built on vacant land near SEAPARC Leisure Complex

https://www.vicnews....ulti-sport-box/

The box has been built to lacrosse box specifications and will serve a variety of community activities, including lacrosse, ball hockey, basketball and community events.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 June 2022 - 02:30 PM.

Upgrade the darned park then.

Jacques Sirois kneels on the bank of a Garry oak maritime meadow at Cattle Point in Uplands Park, gently pulling aside some vegetation to reveal a flowering plant called tall woolly-heads — Psilocarphus elatior.

While it is an endangered plant, what is rarer still is that it has not been trampled by the sheer number of people who have visited the park since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The park is just being loved to death,” said Sirois, a biologist and naturalist. “The park is overused, misused and vandalized. The lack of a professionally designed tourist infrastructure, such as formal marked trails, some fencing or a boardwalk, means many plants are being trampled into extinction.”

That’s heartbreaking for volunteers, some of whom have spent 30 years helping to restore the park and remove invasive plants, only to see the fragile ecosystems they have revitalized reduced to gravel from overuse. “It’s like a bad movie,” said Sirois. “We have people stealing plants. We recently came upon an area where somebody buried their pet.”

Another problem is the lack of washroom facilities, he said. “When the busloads of tourists come, they find that there is only one porta-potty on site, so people sometimes relieve themselves in endangered plants. People drive their cars on protected areas just to take pictures. It’s a free for all.”

https://www.timescol...e-point-5591295

Sirois said he recognizes Oak Bay faces competing priorities, and he isn’t asking for money.

“We just want them to give us the go-ahead. We will fundraise the estimated $500,000 cost to first design and then build the infrastructure.”

Wylie Thomas, a botanist and restoration specialist who created an Uplands Park and Cattle Point management plan for Oak Bay council, said the situation is urgent, “as we are in the process of losing a biodiversity hot spot.”

Seems great, the volunteers are ready for the go-ahead.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 July 2022 - 04:27 AM.

A few weeks ago, someone who doesn't live in our strata stripped most of the flowers from a lavender plant that grows in front of my condo building. I reported it to the strata president and property manager, but got a lackluster response.

As you can see, they had to come quite a distance in from the street.

Are you sure the perpetrators don't have four legs?

Well I watched it happen, so I was able to count legs and only came up with two.

 

While it is an endangered plant, what is rarer still is that it has not been trampled by the sheer number of people who have visited the park since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet another tragic consequence of the horror: people are enjoying parks.

 

...it’s always a struggle to balance protection with public access, said Oak Bay Mayor...

No doubt, always a struggle. Because Victoria is such an overcrowded megalopolis. The "sheer number of people" will inevitably overwhelm the physical environment. Those precious green spaces are being utterly destroyed by the sheer amount of intense foot traffic. Who could ever disagree with this premise?

Any guesses as to what the future installments of this drama will involve?

 

Well I watched it happen, so I was able to count legs and only came up with two.

So you're not 100% sure? Deer can be crafty.

If it was a deer, it had put on a very convincing middle-aged (human) woman disguise. If so, it deserved all the lavender.

 

Well I watched it happen, so I was able to count legs and only came up with two.

FYI: I checked through the records in VV's archives (on the fourth floor of the Arbutus wing in the new complex) and for some reason I wasn't able to find your official disclosure re: how many legs you yourself have. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just saying some people might find this oversight to be a bit suspicious.

You may be on to something. Some people have suggested I have 3 legs.