Comments on: Reblogging Johnson St. Bridge conversation

By: Yule

Yule — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:10:33 +0000

I’m not sure I want to support an attempt at a lawsuit, but I’m hopeful that we could muster the needed ~7500 signatures to force a 2012 referendum on the $63m borrowing question – which in turn would pretty much scuttle the “shovel-readiness” of this project (under federal infrastructure guidelines, I think the project would have to be substantially finished by 2011, which isn’t going to happen if there has to be a referendum first). A Facebook group notice says it will cost each Victoria taxpayer an additional $800 to borrow the $63m, and that should make it simple enough to convince people to vote against it…?
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I’ll blog something later.

By: Buat Duit Online

Buat Duit Online — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:31:39 +0000

Great article and really nice pictures.

By: Gregory Hartnell

Gregory Hartnell — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:22:28 +0000

Hi Yule:

Your readers might be interested to read this:

http://gregoryhartnell.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/ccc-president-hartnell-consulting-legal-counsel-to-stop-johnson-street-bridge-demolition/

Enjoy the holiday…

Gregory

By: Yule

Yule — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:50:19 +0000

Thanks for the comment & additional info re support by Victoria preservationists for very large projects. I’m starting to think that this whole JSB project is very much staff-driven (Engineering, Peter Sparanese) and wonder at the lack of public, especially inter-municipal, participation. I don’t think most people (who think we’ll have some kind of design competition to ensure that we get a fabulous new bridge) understand that roads & bridges are a strictly municipal thing & that therefore the City of Victoria can do whatever the hell it wants, with 0 input from any of the other munis, despite the JSB’ iconic & historic significance. And the city leaders are letting city staff drive this very important decision, IMO.

By: Gregory Hartnell

Gregory Hartnell — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:32:55 +0000

Thanks for writing at such length and with such conviction on this issue, Yule.
I took the liberty to reprint your thought-provoking essay in the June number of Focus at the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Blog site (CCC BLOG).
Martin Segger, a former Victoria City Councillor who is also a well-respected architectural historian like yourself and now employed at the Maltwood Museum at the University of Victoria, wrote as a comment to your article:
‘The heritage values underpinning the significance of the historic Johnson Street trunnion bascule bridge are its iconic and monumental presence on Victoria’s Inner Harbour and the fact that it was designed by one of the most famous bridge designers in the world, Joseph Strauss.
‘Would Victoria’s current City Council have wisdom and fortitude to commission a contemporary world class engineer of the likes of, say, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava?
‘I doubt it. So let’s leave the current bridge alone.’
I used that quote and one from your Focus essay in a letter to the editor of the Victoria News, so look for that later this week.
As for the Hallmark Society, they have not been relevant in saving large scale heritage structures in this town since the late eighties. They did next to nothing to help save Saint Anne’s Academy, and that is the reason why the now-defunct Saint Anne’s Rescue Community Coalition and the Greater Victoria Concerned Citizens’ Association (GVCCA) were formed to launch legal action.
The GVCCA was the legal arm of the Concerned Citizens. As you know, we are still here, and we put forward candidates at every civic election in Victoria.

Gregory Hartnell, President
Concerned Citizens’ Coalition