7993 replies to this topic

[Spy Black]

Flux capacitor had moved too far to the left.

They moved it back to centre, and the computer reported that it could once again raise the bridge (to the delight of marine businesses in the harbour that depend heavily on a middle ground flux capacitor).

 

(BTW, expertise is all relative on the internet, not at all required in most cases ... with that often very profound lack of knowledge having little, or no, impact on the subject under discussion).

[Mike K.]

Are any of the people who were with the City at the time of the 2009 bridge project announcement still with the City?

[Victoria Watcher]

[Mike K.]

That’s Ismo. The bridge guy is supposed to be Homer Simpson.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

 

 

Reading this thread title, was there ever any serious consideration about renaming the bridge?

 

Who is Johnson?  Quick searches come up with nothing for me.  I'll just guess he was probably a Hudson's Bay Company man (although searching along these lines also come up blank).

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 September 2023 - 03:29 AM.

[Mike K.]

Johnson is a street, duh.

[dasmo]

Perhaps the street was named after the son of John Oliver, politician, premier of BC 1918-27
Like a custom license plate.

[Victoria Watcher]

I just spent another 15 minutes in vain looking for it.

 

Odd.

 

I did come upon this though, so the journey wasn't a total waste.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 September 2023 - 08:24 AM.

[Nparker]

I miss the phone booth.

[Mike K.]

Wow!

[aastra]

 

I just spent another 15 minutes in vain looking for it.

 

What a wiener you are. Instead of aimlessly poking around, why didn't you just man up, grow a pair, and do a bit of hands-on research?

 

(from the Daily Colonist, December 29, 1979)

Edited by aastra, 11 September 2023 - 11:14 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

That’s well-said lol.

Also good work on the research.

[aastra]

Obviously this is a schlong article, so I'll post only a bit of it here and put the rest in the thread "The More Victoria Changes, the More It Stays the Same".

 

 

Daily Colonist
July 24, 1954

Johnson Street Defenders Plead:

"Change Not a Letter of that Proud Old Name!"

What manner of snobbishness is this that would change the name of Johnson Street?

Johnson is one of our most historic streets! It was called Johnson when Victoria didn't have many ?-streets-? or many people!

Certainly, it has had its ups and downs. There were periods when it was as famous in these parts for its gaudy, shabby, bawdy sin as San Francisco's Barbary Coast or Nanaimo's Fraser Street.

 (aastra observes: isn't Nanaimo also "in these parts"?)

NOT ASHAMED
But is San Francisco ashamed of the Barbary Coast? Of course not! San Francisco does its best to preserve and glamourize the Barbary Coast.

Change the name of Johnson Street, indeed! Might just as well expect London to change the name of Soho, or Seattle to hide its Yesler Way.

Johnson Street was laid out in 1858, soon became a main thoroughfare. It was largely a business street, on its lower end, though there were modest cottages, too, with gardens. Farther east beyond Douglas were good homes, and farther up again at the turn of the century a number of very handsome residences of substantial, well-off citizens -- those of J.H. Todd of cannery fame, and William Munsie, a timber merchant.

Miss Madge Wolfenden, retired assistant government archivist and chairman of Victoria section, B.C. Historical Association, is quite properly horrified at the suggestion Johnson Street's name be changed.

"I think it should remain Johnson Street; the name is historically significant; the street has always been there," says Miss Wolfenden.

Mrs. John Hope, a granddaughter of Robert Dunsmuir and daughter of James Dunsmuir, premier and lieutenant governor of B.C., telephoned to say that if the name must be changed she would suggest Queen Street since the street was first named in Queen Victoria's reign, and the change would come in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. However, Victoria already has a Queens Avenue.

Harry Gilliland, immediate past president of the B.C. Historical Association, says: "Johnson Street is part of the history of Victoria. It's a fine old street; furthermore, I once lived in Johnson Street and when I was a boy delivered papers on the lower end; there were some real friendly people living there. Johnson it must remain."

Edited by aastra, 11 September 2023 - 11:38 AM.

[Mike K.]

Aastra’s getting his Willie’s again.