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The Problem With James Bay

September 12, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Features, Table Topics

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Reprinted with the kind permission of Yule Heibel, (a Victoria resident and author who earned her doctorate in art and architectural history at Harvard and taught at MIT, Brown, and Harvard University), and Focus Magazine (in which this article first appeared, November 2008, Vol. 21, No. 2).
 
James Bay and Jane Jacobs provide food for thought about how restricting usage within designated zones may damage the fabric of our neighborhoods and city.
 
It’s one of the last warm sunny days of September and I’m visiting Victoria’s Tourist District. Created through the James Bay Neighborhood Plan (1993), the City expanded it to include the Belleville Park Tourist (BPT) zone in 2001. Its purpose is to “encourage the improvement of the quality and character of tourist amenities in this area.” Consequently, this area is supposed to permit only transient accommodation and its associated accessory uses (travel agents, hairdressers, restaurants). Sales of goods and transactions related to recreational and pleasure uses are allowed, provided they are directed strictly to transients (hotel guests).
 
After coming across the “Tourist District” moniker recently, I wondered: are cities and their residents better served by differences or duplications? That is, should we encourage zoning that restricts districts to a single use, or should we encourage cross-use within districts and pay attention to how they perform?
 
On a sunny weekend with tourist crowds milling about the harbour, you’ll also find locals using the area: they’re performing or hawking wares on the Causeway, or heading to work at the many hotels and restaurants. This is all exactly in accordance with what the zoning allows (entertainment and sales directed at transients/hotel guests). The zoning regulates the built environment toward a single use (tourism), and controls activity within the district toward that use. In other words, within the Tourist District, the zoning demands continuous duplication of use. Differences, which would entail cross-use or mixtures, are regulated away.
 
Now head over to Belleville Street on a gray November weekday, and the deleterious effects of forbidding mixed or cross-use become more apparent. Gone are the tourists, and the buskers, hawkers, tour guides, and extra staff. The district goes into a kind of dormancy. But a dormant district is underused, and fallow periods permit a false complacency around issues that arose during the active season. Cities must use their spaces well.
 
What brings under-used districts back to life is cross-use. City districts, as Jane Jacobs noted, need to generate diversity, and if they are to be healthy, they need to attract “mixtures of users” to them. In Tourist Districts, it’s not uncommon for locals to feel out-of-place. Diversity and cross-use – both in physical form and in performance—on the other hand, mean that everyone belongs and can feel included.
 
Districts thrive when they are used for many purposes instead of being restrictively zoned to single-uses. This is starting to happen on the Tourist District fringes. On Humboldt and Fairfield Streets, where new residential construction mingles with existing hotel towers, we can observe the emergence of activity that extends into seasons beyond the tourist summer. Residential use brings in other forms of commerce including a weekly pocket market, for instance.
 
Overly restrictive zoning means you won’t have, in Jacob’s words, “different people, bent on different purposes, appearing at different times, but using the same streets.” You instead create situations where only one built form gets approved—in this case, hotels or other tourist-related enterprises. By eliminating other uses, you’re effectively restricting to just a singe category the way the built form itself is allowed to perform. In other words, you’re limiting the ability of the district to perform over time.
 
Our Tourist District was probably conceived both to protect the industry and to provide a “buffer” for James Bay’s residential areas to the south. Additionally, James Bay has a second single-use district, the Legislative Precinct. Its residential area occupies an unusual position, as it’s actually “buffered” on all sides against effective cross-use by strong single-use districts or barriers.
 
It strikes me that these buffers (single-use districts and natural barriers) are in a deadly embrace with James Bay’s residential district. Consider Jacobs on neighbourhood centers: “Centres of use grow up in lively diverse districts… . But centers cannot carry the load of district identification by themselves; differing commercial and cultural facilities, and different-looking scenes, must crop up all through. Within this fabric, physical barriers, such as huge traffic arteries, too large parks, big institutional groupings, are functionally destructive because they block cross-use.”
 
James Bay’s heart is encircled to the east by Beacon Hill Park (large enough to discourage cross-use) and the west by Marine/Industrial areas (Ogden Point, the Department of Defense lands), with ocean/shoreline to the south, all restricting cross-use. To its north, the Legislative Precinct and the Tourist District exert enormous pressure: they sever residential areas from healthy cross-use because they themselves are so rigorously zoned to single-use.
 
The neighbourhood is surrounded by all the obstructions on Jabobs’ list, minus the huge traffic artery. Yet even this barrier could still emerge if Dallas Road morphs into a ring road for the area, which would effectively strangulate the center. It would be better for the neighbourhood if trolleys or a fixed-link public transit route actually criss-crossed through the area, rather than going around it. That would bring cross-use into the center, and cross-use is what James Bay needs more than buffers.
 
Because the surrounding districts are single-use they effectively limit cross-uses within the residential district. This raises the question: should the neighbourhood continue to reinforce the barricades (strengthen surrounding single-uses), or should it figure out ways to increase porous cross-use within all districts? Which strategy would promote better district performance, expressed through diversity and health?
 

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Does James Bay Need Some Welcome Signage?

September 4, 2009 by admin  
Filed under For Your Consideration

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Image Credit: Paddlehead at hipsterchic.com

This is the first in a series of MyJamesBay Opinion Polls, aptly called "For Your Consideration".

Periodically we’ll be polling all those who live, work, play and stay in James Bay, Victoria, BC on a number of different topics.

Every place has unique natural features, a history, and as well as a man-made environment including amenities not to mention might be called a personality or a collective spirit.

To put things into perspective and get the ball rolling, here are some things to mull over or ask yourself the next time you’re sitting beside your favorite pondering pool:

1) How would you describe James Bay (Victoria, British Columbia’s oldest neighborhood) in twenty-five words or less?

2) What makes James Bay unique from other neighborhoods and places to live in Victoria such as Fairfield, Fernwood, VicWest, Downtown, or perhaps Oak Bay?

3) What things attracted you to this neighborhood (a good job, a great place to live, tourism and hospitality amenities, parks, etc.?)

So, don’t be shy, take a peek at the question below and …tick off a box or fill in the blank. Deadline for this poll is September 30, 2009!

 

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What to do with gaggles of geese that won’t go away?

September 3, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Features, Mile Zero Musings

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“Mother Goose” (that proverbial teller of children’s tall tales) is most welcome to inhabit the shelves of school and community libraries not to mention retail stores, but heaven forbid that she actually decides to plop down in one of our premier pristine parks, (particularly Beacon Hill situated on the eastern edge of James Bay).
 
What has local politicians and some fine folks sounding the avian alarm bell of late is the fact that our famed “Canada geese” actually have the temerity to disobey prominently placed bylaw signs reading “no overnight camping in parks or streets permitted”.
 
Even more galling is the fact that this species of many-splendored migratory fowl has been dubbed by some penny-pinching, non-nature enthusiast city dwelling types as a “nasty nuisance”.
 
Recently, it seems that these individuals were shocked to hear that the City of Victoria had depleted the public purse by some $6,500 (in order to clean up the guano from more than a few gaggle of geese).
 
No doubt they’re sick and tired of all the uninvited "fine feathered friends" who are fowling our nest by spending their sabbatical leave in our "beautiful British Columbia" green spaces as well as our majestic "City of Gardens"). If truth be told, they’re problably not impressed by any living creature that does not even bother to clean up after itself (even if it is part of our Canuck natural heritage)!
 
Judging from the op-ed pages of the local newspapers, purging the place of poop (be it the kind left behind by geese, gulls, pigeons, canines and horses), is a “sticky” topic on the minds of disenchanted taxpayers, tourism officials and perhaps a few engaging in flights of fancy who would like to “gather up the non-migrating geese and send them to a farm environment”. Better yet, maybe the geese could shipped off to colonize the moon along with all those dreadful methane-emitting cows, (be they the sacred ones or the secular variety) — at least two solutions to the pesky problem of global warming!
 
Speaking of birds and beasts flocking together and how to get rid of their guano without breaking the budget line or the bank account (which is a delightful diversion from the myriad of mucky meetings on the Capital Regional District’s sewage options), perhaps the elected representatives and eager beaver bureaucrats will humor us by finding time to focus on things that really matter like “peace, order and good government”, (after all, isn’t that the Canadian motto)?
 
 
 

 

 

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Birds With Different Feathers Flock Together In James Bay

August 15, 2009 by admin  
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Image Credit: RaChaChaCha at flickr.com

While it is said that "Birds of a feather flock together", in James Bay, (Victoria, British Columbia) "birds with different feathers" find friendship and much more in what some might refer to as "not-your-average nest".

This oldest neighborhood in the province’s capital city plays host to some pretty boisterous birds — be they the sometimes hilarious home-grown ones that tend show up at noisy neighborhood meetings, or the vexing variety that leave their tell-tale white markings behind on cars, rooftops, and the heads of unsuspecting tourists who casually stroll about the ‘hood without a handy dandy umbrella!

Let’s face it, In this neighborhood, you can pretty much lay an egg, cook someone’s goose or be a night owl and few give a hoot…as long as you’re for the birds! If truth be told, James Bay is probably the best place to be:

  • crazy as a loon (though loons don’t frequent the place as we have no bogs or marshes),
  • as graceful as a swan or as happy as a lark (we prefer optimistic and polite birds if you please),
  • as hoarse as a crow (and we’ve got plenty of the noisy ones to go around),
  • as mad as a wet hen (in a monsoon or a ‘mist’ as we call it),
  • as proud as a peacock (they love to lollygag about the streets of James – a good excuse to flee from Beacon Hill Park),, 
  • as silly as a goose (although try not to avoid being too foolish in a wild goose chase or you may end up tarred and feathered)
  • as free as a bird to spread your wings, talk turkey or do whatever you please (except ruffle someone else’s feathers, foul the nest of others, or run around naked as a jaybird unless it’s in the privacy of your own nest),
  • as wise as an owl (although "hooters" who create a public disturbance at night in parks are neither wise nor welcome),
  • as well dressed as you wish (by putting a feather in your cap after you’ve earned an esteemed title like, "Cock of the Walk"),
  • as punctual as you wish (however the early birds tend to get the best worms around this neighborhood),
  • as scary or strange as you wish (but only on Halloween when "Bats Out of Hell" are considered real winners), and be
  • as humble as can be (we have an "equal opportunity" neighborhood that take everyone under its wing including the ugly duckling, the gone goose, as well as any lame, dead, or sitting duck and last but not least, the one  referred to as "no longer a spring chicken").

Frankly, we’ve haven’t got much in the way of a pecking order around the place (unless you’re one of those rare birds that can lay golden eggs).  No problem - you can probably rule the roost as long as you share a few of your golden eggs and wing it like all the fine feathered friends who call this wonderful place home!

 

 

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The Landmark Lighthouse At Ogden Point

August 14, 2009 by admin  
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One of the most prominent features of the Port of Victoria is the Ogden Point lighthouse that lies at the end of this two kilometer long breakwater built at a cost of $5 million  in the early years of the last century.

Today, it is a symbol of strength amidst the tumultous storms that crash upon its stalwart stones while at the same time protecting the cable-laying ships that often remain in port during the winter months when heavy seas prevail.

The Ogden Point Breakwater and lighthouse beckons many a visitor throughout the year including walkers and joggers, not to mention tourists and even the locals who choose it as the perfect spot to propose marriage, to catch a ling cod or to dive off the sea-wall in search of an elusive octopus!

 

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James Bay Cultural Directory

August 14, 2009 by admin  
Filed under People, Who's Who

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The James Bay neighborhood has a rich treasury of talented artisans, artists, crafters, entertainers, musicians, performers, photographers, potters, sculptors, videographers, and writers; (hopefully we’ve covered all the bases!)

ARTISTS – VISUAL

Amanada Gaunt, (Plant Materials Artist), 64 Menzies Street, Victoria, BC – Email: kamanda[at]island.net 

Ann White (Photography – Images from France, England, Bhutan, Namibia and West Coast), 432 Heather Street, Victoria, BC – Email: annwhite[at]shaw.ca

Anne Hansen, (Visual artist – seaside theme), Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.381.7313. Email: annebike[at]look.ca

Aurafidelite Arindam, (Visual artist specializing in botanical drawings), 205-425 Simcoe Street, Victoria, BC – Email: auraart[at]telus.net

Avril Nolan, (Visual artist, Metis ancestry themes), Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.382.7512

Carolyn Sadowska, 43 South Turner Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.386.2518. Email: carolyn[at]queencomedy.com

Kirsten Brand, (Painter – Studio 222), Victoria, BC – Email: kirstenbrand[at]shaw.ca

David Ladmore, (Paintings/Etchings), #7 – 103 Menzies Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.361.3243 – E-Mail: davidlaurieladmore[at]shaw.ca

Dean Lewis, (Caricature Portraits), P.O. Box 5791, Victoria, BC, V8R 6S8 – Tel: 250.370.7764 (During the summer months he’s down on the Inner Harbour Causeway, and in the fall, he is busy with corporate and special events.)

Donna Eichel, (Visual artist who augments her sculptural paintings with aluminum), 140 Government Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.360.0939.

Elsie Goplen McLeod, (Painter, specializing in oils with varied subjects), #316- 215 Oswego, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.389.2908

Eugenie Parker, (Visual artist specializing in paintings and collages), 15 South Turner Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.383.2249. Email: eugenie_p[at]hotmail.com

James Lawler, (Self-taught visual artist, wildlife and landscapes), 302-1470 Dallas Road, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.598.1532. Email: jamesart1924[at]yahoo.ca 

Janice Beiles, (Photographer specializing in everyday scenes), 62 Government Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.472.3553

Jeff Molloy (Paintings & Sculptures), 1126 – 440 Simcoe Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.882.0514 – Email: jeff[at]molloy.ca

John Boehme, (Mixed Media Artist), 106 Superior Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.920.4284. Email: johnboehme[at]hotmail.com

Kathleen Daunhauer, (Character paintings), 2-589 Toronto Street, Victoria, BC. Email: kdaunhauer[at]shaw.ca

Laurie Ladmore, (Visual artist specializing in interior landscapes), 7-103 Menzies Street, Victoria, BC. Tel: 250.361.3243. Email: davidlaurieladmore[at]shaw.ca

Leudke Creative, (Graphic & Web Design, Illustration & Fine Art), 314 Niagara Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 1G5 – Tel: 250.380.2925 – Email: brandon[at]brandonleudke.com

R.C. Maxwell, (Abstract Artist), Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.544.0100 – Email: rcmaxwell[at]shaw.ca

Marnie Miiller, (Painter; studio open by appointment only), 5 – 108 Dallas Road, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.477.2665 – Email: marnieart[at]shaw.ca 

Roberta Pyx Sutherland, (Visual artist specializing in textured paintings with luminous color and gold-leaf), 314 Huntington Place, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.220.4887. Email: rpyz[at]me.com

Rosalinde Compton, (Visual artist specializing in oil painting, watercolour, pen and ink art cards, prints, matting & framing), 507 Simcoe Street, Victoria, BC – Tel. 250.382.3999. Email: rosalindemaria[at]shaw.ca

AUTHORS

John Adams, local historian, storyteller and author, 634 Battery Street, Victoria, BC V8V 1E5 – Tel: 250.384.6698 Fax: 250.384.2833.

Danda Humphreys, Victoria historian, author, and conference speaker, #1102 – 548 Dallas Road, Victoria, BC V8V 1B3 – Tel: 250.382.8029 – Email: dandaH[at]shaw.ca

H.R.H. Quipping Queen, online humor writer, Victoria, BC – Email: quippingqueen[at]shaw.ca

MUSICIANS/MUSICAL INSTRUCTORS

Michael Heaney, (Pianist/music for all occasions), Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.384.0235

N. Strand, (UVic B.Mus, 5 years’ teaching experience, performs regularly in the Victoria area. Lessons are held in the James Bay United Church (511 Michigan Street), Victoria, BC – Tel: 778.430.1756  – Email: nstrand[at]gmail.com

PERFORMANCE ARTISTS

COMEDY/IMPERSONATORS

Carolyn Sadowska, ("Laugh With Liz" – Queen Elizabeth Impersonator), 43 South Turner Street, Victoria, BC. Tel: 250.386.2518. Email: carolyn[at]queencomedy.com

The Sunshine Clown Band, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.383.4001.

VOCALISTS

Janalee, (Jazz & Blues Vocalist), Victoria, BC – janalee[at]goddessofsong.com (This singer/songwriter not only lives in James Bay, she performs a local haunts such as “Heron Rock Bistro” and Sips Artisan Bistro).

Mercedes Ghosh, (Jazz Vocalist) – Tel: 250.380.7932 – Email: mercedes[at]mercedesghosh.com

PLAYWRIGHTS

David Elendune, a barista at James Bay Coffee & Books is a British-born director who has also written four plays including his most recent one, "Good Night Uncle Joe" (sponsored by Victoria’s Langham Court Theatre), and performed in Victoria’s 23rd Annual Fringe Festival.

POET

Hubert Meeker, Poet.

SCULPTORS/POTTERS

Birgit Piskor, (Modern cement sculptor), 570 Niagara Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.858.4334. Email: birgitpiskor@gmail.com

Elaine White, 62 Government Street, Victoria, BC – Tel: 250.382.0317. Email: whiteelaine[at]shaw.ca

 

 

 

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Ten Fun Facts to Tickle Your Fancy About James Bay

August 14, 2009 by admin  
Filed under Fun

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For those who have short attention spans, here’s a brief summary of facts about this unique neighborhood.

1.  Approximately 14,000 people live here; regretably, the census takers and city officials have been unable to determine as yet how many ghosts of pirates, rum runners, and former ladies of the night also make this place their home.

2.  The neighborhood, which is approximately one square mile in circumference,  is surrounded on three sides by water and the fourth side by the city’s biggest park; it’s also home to the city’s largest private outdoor swimming pool, (which is great if live there but you can always try the next best thing…skinny-dipping at midnight in summer before the men in blue catch you!)

3.  It is a excellent example of West Coast Marine climate where in the neighborhood it’s often cooler in summer than downtown, while in the the winter it’s typically warmer (which is good news because folks here rarely have to shovel the white stuff, but the bad news is that unless you own a slicker, a great pair of galoshes, or possess web feet you might not be able to figure out if it’s your nemesis raining on your parade or simply the God of Continuous Cloudbursts having some fun at your expense.)

4.  Birds love it here. The crows scream bloody murder in spring while the pidgeons, seagulls and Canada Geese (who spend the winter here) leave their tell-tale tracks everywhere; (hence the need for a bumbershoot anytime of year).

5.  Horses also reside here from May until October (pulling carriages full of gawking guests to the community); they also leave smelly souvenirs from time to time (no not the guests, the fetlocked folk).

6.  It is the transportation hub of the city where one finds: a cruiseship terminal, a terminal for the "Coho" ferry to Port Angeles and "Victoria Clipper" to Seattle, a Canadian Coast Guard base, a mini-ferry dock, a Westcoast Pilot Authority dispatch center, a marina full of houseboats, fishboats, pleasure craft,  not to mention kayaking and whale watching boats, a public boat launch area, a Helijet landing pad, the arrival and departures of seaplanes in the Inner Harbour (bound for Vancouver), a bus depot and storage facility for tour busses in winter, a pedi-cab service, a motor-bike rental facility, an ambulance dispatch center, a horse-drawn carriage service, not to mention a myriad of battery-operated scooters driven predominantly by seniors, not to mention owners of petrol and pedal-powered vehicles, as well as pedestrians, Dallas Road joggers, and marathon runners. (Note: We’re waiting with baited breath for the powers that be to approve it as a landing spot for aliens from outer space.)

7.  It is loved by canines and their owners who both prefer to run off-leash whenever the spirit moves them; cats, kids,  and clodhoppers are usually obliged to run for cover.

8.  The most favorite pastime of residents in summer is complaining about the black soot from the stacks of the cruiseships, the noise of the tour buses, float planes and helicopters, pooping pests, and the odd odours emanating from the ocean lapping at their front door; in winter it’s the humungous amount of fetid hot air wafting about the hallways of the provincial legislature or the inner sanctum of the City Hall downtown causing some to concern among residents that it might be a hitherto unidentified source of swine flu.

9.  It is the only place in the city where you cannot sleep on the beach or overnight in your car because there are 13 hotels, inns, and numerous B&Bs ready to take your cash or credit card for the privilege of staying in their rather fine premises that also come with perks and privileges including a money-back guarantee, a morning newspaper, and a bowl of fruit loops or a bowl of berries, big nuts and bran flakes (just to remind you the hospitality to be found in the Capital of Fruits, Nuts & Flakes)!

10.  There are at least 50 purveyors of peace of mind offering a place to babble over beans or a bottle of berry berry good booze and fantastic food, that also provide a taste of James Bay talent, and a hint of the entertaining eccentric folks who live, work, play and stay here!

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