MetroCascade Victoria

Until further notice, I’m putting MetroCascade curations on hiatus. There are some action items that need my attention right now – for more details, click through to our blog.

I expect to be back in September – better and stronger I hope! Till then, enjoy the rest of the summer, everyone!

Paul Holmes blogs about Victoria’s Prodigy Group meet-up at Canoe Brewpub. The Prodigy Group, under-40 entrepreneurs, has over 200 members. Check out the video included on Paul’s blog post.

Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin reports that he’s back, working at City Hall after a brief vacation.

HouseHunt Victoria takes the work of the Victoria Real Estate Board to task in this post.

Meanwhile, the economic downturn has families on staycation in Victoria, which meant a better turn-out for the Dragon Boat Festival, some aspects of which were captured by photographer Benjamin Madison here.

Vibrant Victoria’s blog reports on a new BC Ferries passenger survey. However, via the information on the VV forum, getting off “the rock” to travel from Victoria to Vancouver gets costlier all the time: $72 for a vehicle and two passengers and $112.50 for another group (more passengers?).

The issue that could most pressingly affect Victoria residents and taxpayers is currently playing out online, on local Victoria blogs and forums. I’m refering to the strange efforts of the City of Victoria Council to move forward with replacing the Johnson Street Bridge. There has been very little (if any) coverage from the print media. I posted about it on MetroCascade’s blog on Aug.6/09 – see Off and away on the Johnson Street Bridge.

Although plenty of other blog posts have come up on MetroCascade in the interim – posts that readers might find amusing, informative, and entertaining – but for now, MetroCascade is going to continue publicizing the Johnson Street Bridge issue.

Full disclosure (again): I am one of three people involved with founding the JohnsonStreetBridge DOT org site (I like to write it out that way, to emphasize the .org url). The other two are Mat Wright and Ross Crockford.

Here’s how the city’s scheme is resonating on the blogs: On August 7, Bernard von Schulmann picked up on a 1999 newspaper article (first referenced on the Vibrant Victoria forum here, with a specific post here). The article (written by Jeff Bell and published in the Times-Colonist on Apr.3/99) describes a million dollar repair of the bridge, which was supposed to ensure that the bridge would last for decades to come. Yet a mere 10 years later, the City is telling taxpayers that the bridge needs to be replaced. Bernard writes, “I wonder what happened to the work done in 1999 and if we can get our money back since the promises seem not to have been met?” Good question.

This point was echoed as well by Mike K. on Vibrant Victoria’s blog, 1999 Johnson Street Bridge refit meant to last several decades. Mike writes:

“Victoria’s Johnson Street Bridge underwent a $1,000,000 refit in 1999 that the city’s transportation department claimed would give the historic bridge ‘several more decades of useful life,’ according to a Times Colonist article dated April 03, 1999.

“Just ten years in, the Johnson Street Bridge replacement project is the most pressing issue in the City of Victoria, taking a surprising lead ahead of council’s 2008 election to-do list drafted to highlight the City’s pressing issues like homelessness, affordability and downtown crime.”

Also on Aug.8/09, Gregory Hartnell (who has repeatedly posted on this issue already) blogged CROCKFORD, HEIBEL AND WRIGHT DEFEND THE JOHNSON STREET BRIDGE: New 4 page letter asks Victoria City Council to save it + open up public consultation process. His post draws attention to the letter we delivered to Council and Mayor on Tuesday Aug.4 and the subsequent media activity that ensued when Ross Crockford was interviewed on CBC’s On the Island and CFAX1070’s newsline. See our Johnson Street Bridge blog for more details.

To read the letter in question, click here (the link takes you to the letter, posted on the JohnsonStreetBridge DOT org site.)

On Aug.9/09, Mat posted a blog entry on JohnsonStreetBridge, Link Love – Johnson Street Bridge asking for help in driving up awareness about the issue. It’s staggering how few people have any idea about what the city is planning or why.

On the topic of communication, I encourage everyone to read Mat’s blog post on The Great Firewall – City of Victoria BC. It’s from Aug.6/09 and asks why are our city’s webpages so user-unfriendly, why do mayor and council hide behind a phalanx of gatekeepers that make direct access by voters next to impossible,and why has the city not yet addressed one of its key election platforms, namely to strive for greater transparency at City Hall? Instead the City is offering residents a printed newsletter three times a year – a veritable slap in the face in the age of digital media. At the same time, the City of Victoria has seven full time communications specialists (aka PR flaks). Mat’s post is a must-read – go check it out.

And if all those words are getting you down, check out Benjamin Madison’s excellent photos of the Johnson Street Bridge, here and here and here and here.

It sounds lame, but one of the big topics for local bloggers has been our heat-wave. Since Victoria doesn’t usually get temperature over 30 degrees Celsius, it’s remarkable that we have had high-heat mid-30s weather for several days in a row now.

And the bloggers continue to weigh in: from Miranda Roach and a laid-back approach here to A Runner’s Tale ’s record of pain here ; and back again to Trainharder Jarhead ’s ‘bring it on’ response here to a query from Victoria Klassen about what to wear. Victoria Dogs tells us humans how to keep canines cool in eight easy steps ; Loose Moorings found that it even got too hot on the water ; and Elizabeth McClung describes what it’s like to be confined to a wheelchair during a heat wave.

For another very different kind of heat check out Davin Greenwell whose photo is on the cover of this week’s Monday Magazine. It’s a terrific capture, and announces the upcoming Victoria Electronic Music Festival. So hot, it’s cool.

Oh, and Vibrant Victoria reports on how Victoria’s Mayor Dean Fortin takes heat for hiring additional communication staff.

S-ss-sss-sssss-sssssssizzling!

The weather has been hot, and unusual, too – Victoria bloggers weigh in.

Five Star Whale Watching has some stunning photos of Saturday’s thunder-and-lightning storm (thunder & lightning are not a typical summer occurrence here). You have to click through (and scroll down) – beautifully amazing.

Meanwhile, there were fires not just in the sky, but on land: several buildings burned, most notably a disused motel that had become a magnet for social disorder. Save Feral Human Habitat has an interesting take on the popular response (”let it burn”): Another empty building burns. Read it now and maybe change your mind. (Save Feral Human Habitat also has a blog post about its new tv station if your firelust runs to onscreen pixels.)

Next, take a look at Barbara Julian’s provocative post, Let’s Get Rid of Multi-culturalism in Canada . Sounds rad to soft Canadian ears, but you go read this and tell me she doesn’t have a point.

Finally, Cafe Jabbaccino writes Dear Robbers , a post about being robbed – not just once, but twice. Hers is whence the “chainsaw enemas” line.

Ok, folks, there are many more Victoria creatives to explore on MetroCascade, so go take a look.

Here are some posts from the last 48 hours that caught our eye at MetroCascade…

First off, I want to mention a new website and blog that folks in Victoria might want to know about, but I have to give full disclosure: I’m an author on that site. It’s Johnson Street Bridge, and it’s a site designed to inform the people of Victoria about the City’s plan to replace the existing Johnson Street Bridge – to the tune of at least $63million. (The city is hoping to get 2/3rds of that covered by the senior levels of government – Provincial and Federal – but brace yourselves, it will without a doubt get more expensive, and there’s no guarantee that Province or Feds will step up to the plate.)

At present, I’ve got a couple of entries up on the site (start with Bad reason, 1; now there’s also a Bad reason, 2 up), as does Mat, who informs us about Johnson Street Bridge jobs! and reports on the City’s new advisory committee. Explore the rest of the site as well.

In other political news for Victoria, check out the commentary on the Province’s newly announced Harmonized Sales Tax. On Saturday, Sean Holman blogged Living in Harmony, and the day before, Friday, Mike from Vibrant Victoria wrote an informative post, HST to increase average Victoria house price by 3.4% , and Paul Willcocks posted his thoughts on The HST, Gordon Campbell and the Clark government : all three well worth checking out.

If all of this political stuff has your heart rate in the stratosphere, grab a dog – or check out Victoria Dogs , which blogged up a storm about how you and canines can help one another. Some of the entries go back to July 23, but most recently you can learn about walking rescue dogs – which might calm frayed nerves.

A 4 day digest? That’s an unplanned pile-up, but here goes: the most active categories over the past 4 days are photos (36 posts), politics (29 posts), hightech (24 posts), and sports (23 posts). That’s followed by music (16 posts), business (6 posts), and movies (12 posts