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PRICE TAGS 96 – B.C. Towns
After a tour by rail and car through southern British Columbia this summer, I realized there are (to generalize) two kinds of towns in B.C. – the stripped or the constrained. You can probably guess which ones I like. But take a tour and see for yourself.
FOR THOSE IN METRO VANCOUVER: AN AUSSIE IN TOWN
Jeff Humphreys, a Director of Humphreys Reynolds Perkins Planning Consultants in Brisbane, will be in town on October 18, 2007. If you’re interested in meeting Jeff to discuss trends and issues in Australia – and the possibility of forming an alliance with those from similar cities – Brisbane, Auckland, Vancouver, Perth – I’m hosting an informal meeting at noon on October 18.
Let me know by return email – pricetags@shaw.ca – if you’re interested, and I’ll provide details.You can also check out http://cityalliance.wordpress.com/
A brilliant issue of Price Tags! What a succinct, visual presentation of the blight that is our commercial landscape.
While I agree with the characterizations in the Price Tags issue (i.e. Kelowna being strip mall hell, etc.), Kelowna is working on its downtown precinct, especially its arts district, with some stunning architecture, such as the Rotary Arts Centre and the public library and residnetial along the waterfront and on the city grid.
On a side note, in the pic shown in Kamloops with the Chapters, you can see that there is a sidewalk on the opposite side of the street to where the pedestrian is walking on the gravel. You can see in the photo that there are marked crosswalks to the Chapters strip mall, so pedestrians have not been completely ignored. Often, improvments such as sidewalks are budget related decisions, not necessarily planning related ones. Where I grew up in Nanaimo (yes, a malled city) there simply were no sidewalks anywhere in our residential subdivision, but that didn’t prevent us from walking to and from school. Only the richer planned neighbourhoods had sidewalks (and underground utilities), and then only on one side of the street. Even some residential streets on the grid in the West Side of Vancouver do not have sidewalks – Blenheim St., I think, comes to mind.
That’s where the lessons you’re taught in school come into play – if there’s no sidewalk, walk on the left side of the road, facing oncoming traffic.
Kamloops is my home town and the city where I started my planning career in the early 80’s, when the policy framework that shaped the subsequent 30 years of growth was finalized. The City optimistically assumed continuous per annum growth of 2% and a population of around 150,000 by the turn of the century. Plans to revitalize downtown, improve the north shore commercial core, and build out the southeast, southwest and northwest sectors were put in place. I well remember a population forecast allocation exercise, where we spread the anticipated growth across the available vacant space on the map, that was then factored into traffic zones and a transportation model and used to justify a web of major arterial roads and bridges (only one of which was built) to move everyone around. In the optimism of the time, it was assumed the City could have it all: a revitalized downtown and north shore, plus big new suburbs on the edge. The recession of 1981 put an end to all that, and for the next decade Kamloops was locked in economic limbo. The City lost population through this period, not recovering to 1981 levels until the early 90’s. Any development was good development, development costs charges were rescinded, and with less investment to go around, what did get built was on the mountain near the highway 1/5 interchange. Only in the past few years has downtown Kamloops seen a bit of a revival. The north shore commercial core has only further declined. Virtually the entire retail sector has moved up the hill to the Aberdeen area. During the period of population decline, Kamloops managed the neat trick of sprawling without growth – adding about 25% to the urban footprint even while losing around 10,000 people. Lots of things have led to the unsustainable settlement pattern we see today. Cheap oil based land use and transportation planning set the pattern, economic desperation fueled the notion that any growth was good growth, a cult of the view and the desire to be close to the outdoors supplied the consumer demand. One key factor without which all of this couldn’t have occurred, and which continues to subsidize it to this day, is cheap electricity. It takes a lot of energy to pump water up to reservoirs 1,000 feet above the valley floor, especially when the water is unpriced, as it was until recently. Municipal amalgamation was a significant if not well documented factor. It is a supreme irony that the taxpayers of North Kamloops, Brockelhurst, and old South Kamloops subsidized the infrastructure for the suburban sprawl that gutted their commercial areas. They now have to drive on the highway or Summit Connector to get to the malls and big box stores, while their own commercial areas struggle to hang on, and lots that were vacant 30 years ago continue to generate dust and tumbleweed. In the past couple of years Kamloops has started to take off again, fueled by baby-boomer retirements, university expansion, and god knows what else. The bulk of the growth still occurs at the edge (even with the recent improvements to downtown), older neighbourhoods continue to deteriorate, and the whole thing rolls on as if cheap oil and cheap electricity will continue forever.
The cover shows me the town depicted has something Downtown Victoria doesn’t have–a BC Government liquor store.
I think Ron makes a good point about Kelowna. There’s no doubt that this town has been scarred by out-of-control development on the Highway 97 — this has been going on for years, even decades — but the city is now making an effort to densify its downtown, strengthen its arts, culture and recreation amenities in the city core, and nurture the inner city economy. So it’s not all bad in K-Town.
I was born in a small manufacturing city three timezones east that only wishes it had the vibrant activity downtown that Kelowna enjoys.
Still, Nelson will always be the gem of the B.C. interior.
Speaking of the Interior, I noticed there hasn’t been a lot of debate in the B.C. media about the expansion of the highway between Peachland and Summerland (effectively the highway between Kelowna and Penticton). Should I assume there was a pressing need for four lanes betwen these two Okanagan urban centres?
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From Suzanne Anton:
Hi Gordon – I loved this Price Tags. Olin and I have probably been to more small towns than many as we trek across the country. [Suzanne and her husban just cycled across the country.]
The difference you describe is immediate when you go to these towns. Some comments:
– remember Wawa? Where everyone got stuck hitchhiking in the ’70’s? One of the best – streets full of people walking and kids playing.
– Worst – absolute WORST – design feature is towns where the school is on the outskirts. Did not notice this in BC but several times in N Ontario and in Maine (we crossed Maine to get to NB this year)
– Nelson is definitely one of the best. They have taken their very wide main street and filled it with cafes and patios. We spent the afternoon in one, one of the best days of our trip.
– other places we liked – Sparwood, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Brockville Ont and Sherbrook Que.
UBCM had a motion this week little noticed but very important – requiring shoulders on roads. Without those, everyone is stuck with their car.
Thanks for all you do,
SA