Nelson: Waterfront and Downtown Plan, Pages 46 - 47

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More accurately:
Sustainable Waterfront and Downtown Master Plan
Approved by Nelson City Council, Jul. 11, 2011
198 pages very long; here pages 46 - 47 are of interest.

There is a Highlights version - 4 pages - with catch-phrases and you-get-the-gist pictures; tying-in directly with the telling double-whammy of pages 46 and 47 in the long version.
Both versions can be downloaded on the City's website. A hard copy of the long version is available for research at the Nelson Library.

This plan, which is one of Council's strategic priorities, describes a 20 to 30 year vision for developing and linking these two areas of the city and ensuring a vibrant and sustainable future.

Many - if at all - might focus on the Waterfront part of the title/name - having waited for years to see THE waterfront-plan: definitively and safely locking-in protective measures for land-meets-water. As if! But as not that - this plan is pedestrian, with nothing locked-in legally. Soft-focus projections.

Scene 1
The Plan is a massive patchwork quilt, comprising small factoid- and picture-bits, stitched together earnestly. And predictably.
The factoid-bits are of utilitarian - sometimes threadbare - fabric from around here; Grandma Nelson had been collecting them for years in her sewing-basket.
The picture-bits - many but not all from the same basket - are a tad more colorful and give the design some much-needed zip.
There are also fantasy-bits of often flimsy quality - neither particularly creative nor particularly practical. Pretty to look at, mind!
The backing of the quilt is sustainability-fabric of wishful-thinking weight, thus possibly not strong enough to make this quilt last 2 to 3 decades. Decorative on a wall yes, snuggle into for the duration no.

With Grandma Nelson's eyesight not the sharpest (on low income too!), she relied for pointers how to put all these bits and pieces together on some big-city acquaintances. Expecting them to know: just because of their big-citiness. They were helpful for sure - also the ones to convince her to use these fantasy-bits - but their city-flash sometimes overwhelmed Grandma, sometimes did not really relate to her. Like bits 46 and 47.

Scene 2
The Plan - in two parts - is an exhaustive/exhausting inventory of what is: the
                                                                                        appearance of buildings, places,

stuff in between and how to get from one to the other; the second part is: what the appearance of buildings, places and stuff and how to get from here to there could be. This is not very imaginative: some feel-good possibilities, in parts divorced from the reality of Nelson.
Sustainability in the title is a taken-for-granted economic upward movement - on the ground that's not the case now and seemingly won't be in the foreseeable future. By the current look of things, at best Nelson can sustain its flatlining economy - the future may look very much like today, just more dear and more dingy. Supposedly this plan reaches way into years to come, but 1. it's not particularly bold/visionary and 2. who knows how we will think - if we think! - in years down the road.

I ran-off copies of about 120 pages, initially thinking this would make interesting reading. Being a visual person, I looked at the pictures first, many of which are not local. And came to a full-stop with pages 46 and 47. I have not moved beyond them, except for a desultory peek here and there.

Scene 3
These pages - put side-by-side - show a rather realistic computer simulation of the City Hall plaza, as envisioned by those who put all this together. Superimposing Master Plan in bold lettering.
The view is head-on from the middle of Front St. On the plaza itself it shows trees (nice), a children's playground, some parasols (nice) over to the right end a kiosk selling coffee (soon bankrupt). Along the Front-St. curb we see more trees (nice). There are children playing on the sidewalk (!) - parents are involved (!!) - and to the very left a young couple - with a baby in a stroller - is just about to cross the street on a diagonal (!!!). Front Street! In front of City Hall!
You get the picture: small children running loose on the sidewalk of the busiest and most complicated street-situation in Nelson. With the worst air-quality. One of the fastest too, often with loaded logging-trucks barreling up on Front, passing City Hall to turn right onto Vernon. And definitely the most dangerous street in Nelson, where to the immediate right of the pictured scene a young woman got killed by - yes - barreling up and around just before City Hall! Dead Man's Curve!
This general construct is fixed by lack of alternatives.

The Highlights version - also in bold lettering - says The proposed plaza in front of City Hall is an ideal location  and size to become the city's primary 'outdoor living space'.

Whereas in reality it surely is the worst in Nelson - for a playground. And seeing that this simulated playground - with little children spilling out onto the sidewalk right along Front and families even crossing there - is the Master Plan's double title-page, one has to wonder about the depth of the consultants' knowledge of Nelson.

Neither do these experts come-up with a concrete proposal for how to get across Front at Hall easily - while talking about linkage and gateway in the plan. Leaving it at that!

Anyway, just reaching City Hall with a stroller nust be a quest: Two sets of traffic-lights may have to be maneuvered. The shorter crossing from the traffic-island to the Court House is a must for everybody - but not part of the lights-system and without even an elementary cautioning sign. That on top of the white pavement-bars repainted only in mid-autumn and faded most of the year. In winter its two ramps are often in deep slush.

Well, actually there is a cautioning sign, but not before the crossing - where it should be - but about 10 meters behind it to alert drivers to traffic merging on Vernon. An alert before the crossing to possibly disastrous merging with pedestrians is unnecessary.

I have never seen anyone with a stroller down here: Why would mothers want to bring their children into all this - they can go to the park and park! And be safe! And breathe! And have quiet! With a huge playground for the kids!

So I haven't gone past pages 46 and 47.

Scene 4
The planners stated an obvious positive point though with proposing that the City Hall plaza become a social focal point/area: much seating, exhibits, food, performances. I wrote about that extensively farther below in post: Nelson: (T)arting-up the place, Sep. 4, 2011, including giving the plaza a real name and opening/brightening-up City Hall itself. But hold the playground!

In the meeting of the Committee of the Whole (COW), Feb. 20, Leah Best of Touchstones brought-up a plan to light the outside of the Touchstones building.
Not brought-up was this as a step towards introducing brightness and life at night to this downtown area, with 3 significant heritage buildings in a tight triangle. Touchstone's single-focus idea of lights seems to be myriads of clear light-bulbs stuck to the facade in Christmas-lighting fashion. Not only would that blindingly polarize the area and hide the building's facade visually - energy-costs/waste would make it prohibitive.

Idea
Open-up the area, expand downtown - with the City Hall plaza as active go-to even in the evening - by painting Touchstones, the Hume and the Court House with colors in light! As is now done in many European places - consistently drawing crowds to their heritage buildings. And a bit around the top of the Hume already!
This surely of economic benefit: offering Nelson itself as a tourist-attraction even at night - now dark and closed-down and because of that a missed  economic opportunity.
See also previous post farther below: Nelson in Living Colour, Dec. 1, 2011.

Of course, the immediate predictable reaction to this may be: Leave this sort of thing to the Cultural Development Commission (CDC) and the Community Heritage Commission (CHC), and there's no money!
Well, neither the CDC nor the CHC is looking at Nelson as a whole - and the heritage sector specifically - as in need of rejuvenating/revitalizing to initiate an economic upswing.
And City Hall has yet to come around to realizing that in order to make money - it has to spend some first.

Bring-on color: in paint on Baker and in light in this triangle!

The Sustainable Waterfront and Downtown Master Plan does not deal with our economic reality deciding: sustain exactly what. The plan lacks creative spark, and the City needs to consider that economic growth will not happen by itself or through more procedure - but through creative thinking only!
Creative thinking welcomed (and filed) from all - money or not - not just that of those seeing themselves as local arbiters of culture, art and taste.

                                                                                                                         Alive!