A Movie Without Popcorn - A Life Not Lived!

Nelson Civic Theatre launches $3-million fundraiser for more screens
                                           Bill Metcalfe, Nelson Star, Jul. 25, 2016

The Civic Theatre's presentation to Council - asking for a letter of support for accessing possible funding-sources - promises nothing less than a new world-order. In this here iddy-biddy Smallishtown. Aiming to impress with a lot of word-wash - while backing the attempt with remarkably little common sense.
A breathtaking disconnect from the reality of Nelson-As-Is. And what an enthusiastic 3 mill could actually achieve towards what's not so Civic about Nelson.

I will look at 2 comments to this Star story instead of the presentation as a whole. Simpler - while no less telling! 

 
1. Comment - Anne DeGrace
..... creating something that is professional, forward-thinking, responsive to the community, and enjoyable for citizens across demographics. The people involved in developing the Civic Theatre care about its future, and about Nelson. I think it's time to trust goodwill and good thinking. And increased sales of popcorn!

Actually this whole thing is not at all responsive to the community; it is not about the community period but only about, for and responsive to a single demographic.

DeGrace - with more glib predictability: If the grant money is to be awarded somewhere, why not have it come to Nelson? While building a positive community resource, we'll create short-term and long-term employment and a stronger local economy.

The old employment-creating thing! How many jobs? 
Just adding more screens doesn't automatically mean more people will come more often and buy more popcorn. Good thinking?

But if - once installed - more screens-means-more-money doesn't - how about turning them into temporary homeless-shelters! Free popcorn and a large coke for the out-of-the-rain demographic? Goodwill? For sure - what with the Civic's inexplicable charitable tax status!

  















2. Comment - Dan Pipe
I quote verbatim - typos, poor grammar/syntax and all as is common today: The whole idea is to build our community, shared expeirence(clapping when a movie is good, groaning when its bad). the smiling faces the interactions with different people you might never see really. Oh, Facebook commenting!

Both he and DeGrace go on about the movies as a community builder. Audience participation. Maybe get laid after! Full-throttle audience participation has only worked once in movie-history - The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Mind you, not at the Capitol where - a few Halloweens ago - audience members - once there - were told by very stiff staff not to throw anything, because they had nobody to clean-up after.
Bummer - as there I was: psyched with/because of a Rocky Horror neophyte-friend, rolls of toilet-paper, Bics and toast! Having learned my part well in midnight-showings at the huge University Cinema in Berkeley. 
There's a light....! And cleaning-up a non-issue.

 
Anyway - there are people who don't want to community-build at the movies but just watch a film undisturbed: no discussions; no loud smart-mouth expressions of approval/disapproval; no noisy scrabbling at the bottom of popcorn-buckets; no mindlessly repetitious bucket-to-mouth feeding all-around; no bovine open-mouth crunching; no popcorn smell; no cell-phone lights/ring/talk!

No nothing - just me in the movie!

   










 





How much exactly does watching Transformers #7 currently cost on a smallish - soon even smaller - screen at the Civic? Aside from the membership-fee: 1 ticket, 1 always-at-least-large popcorn/coke?
If popcorn sales already have to do the heavy lifting - how many more way-overpriced non-local jumbo-buckets will need to be sold to meet expenses when?
And create a stronger economy in the process.

How many paid-up members does the Nelson Civic Theatre Society actually have?




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Nelson: Its Econo-Ducks In A Row!

"In that little bay there are ducks and all kinds of waterfowl, so we could have a peaceful park where people could sit and watch the ducks".
Mayor Kozak in
A lakeshore park at the mouth of Cottonwood Creek?
Nelson Star, 15 July, 2016

In theory. But a park is a success if used by many people for a variety of reasons. If many people went there for its peaceful ambience - it wouldn't be peaceful for long. And what with its close proximity to the Dog Doo Dump - it quickly would become an extension of it. Altogether better - because exercise-conscious dog-owners could then drive right up to it: just open the car-door and off Stomper goes!
With ducks and all other waterfowl driven from the area just like that and for good: bunches of yappy dogs on the loose good boy! and no meter-maids to spare!

  

So the tremendous costs of turning the area into a park: landscaping, paths, benches, lighting, toilets and overall continual maintenance - after those of a necessary initial clean-up - would be disproportionate to its benefits. For dog owners YES in a big way - but not for the majority of Nelsonites - and ducks.

While turning this area into an RV-park/camp-ground makes economic sense. Both distinctly separate, while sharing the same facilities. What about renting out tents with basics on fixed lots?
The grounds' size, easy access and quiet, out-of-the-way-while-close lake-location surely has tourists spend a few days - with word soon getting around that this is not just another hills-and-water place along the way.

The current camp-ground is too small - frequently at capacity; awkwardly set-up; with access from Front in tight zig-zags, particularly difficult for larger RVs.
Those with tents may find that camping there means being squeezed-in between/behind sometimes massive RVs and not necessarily on level ground. This is not what "camping" is all about!

Thus far Nelson has appeared neither RV- nor camping-friendly.
Bound to result in bad press - thus fewer tourists.
Sooo... establishing a green state-of-the-art RV-park/camp-ground at the lake is a no-brainer!

The wonderful world of Star comments on what to do with the area now tabled gives us condos; something tech; another park at that end; extending the Dog Doo Dump (a more descriptive name than Dog Walk).

There's no point in addressing condo-proponents; and something tech could be - actually should have been a long time ago - addressed along the south-side of Lakeshore Drive. Now THERE'S a local waste of space - if ever there was one!
CPR or not!

A parkish park and extending the Dog Doo Dump can be looked at together. The whole stretch of lake - from boat-houses to the Cottonwood Creek bridge - should be a "conscious" park - a continuation of everybody-loves Lakeside Park: easily accessible and to be enjoyed by all. Also part of the MMM Group's plans for the foot of Hall: the wharf area. With a dog-walk built-in but decidedly separate!

Too much of Nelson's lakeshore west of the wharf has been (mis)appropriated by dogs - routinely off-leash, a pitbull yesterday! - facilitated by City Hall's benign neglect, including never checking dog-licenses. These days few will go there to just walk - or watch what ducks? - because water and beaches of its coves seem dead - pretty much got that way by dogs chasing each other and people tirelessly throwing sticks in the water to be fetched; the smell of dog-turds/urine - particularly on a stretch of still, hot days - can be dizzying; picking-up turds is not a given - even on the main-path. Who knows what's left behind in thick, often impenetrable while close underbrush: definitely nobody's picking-up there!
Depending on the weather -the main-path is either lumpy-dusty or lumpy-muddy between puddles: unsafe for joggers and cyclists. A solid end-to-end sheet of ice may slope towards the lake during much of winter.

All-in-all - right now dogs are given more space along the lake than people!

Suggestion
Designate two thirds of the path (sandy coves) - starting at the wharf and with no-nonsense signage - as No Dogs Allowed!
Install a securely locked gate at the far end. Clean-up the area: thin-out the underbrush to make beaches more accessibly inviting; plant shade-trees; provide proper seating areas with benches, picnic-tables and views; grade/gravel the path - the Lakeside Park model.
This should satisfy those who want more park, while there also meaning long overdue management of our finite lake-access. And ducks will come back: not only in the very early morning - before dogs - but all day long.

Reserving just the last third of the path (rocky shoreline) for dogs - from the other side of the locked gate to the creek-bridge - is sufficient space for them and more easily maintained and supervised. With a gate at the bridge as well - this one not locked but to be kept closed. Containment - as much a possible.

No-nonsense rules are posted here also, and their disregard is fined. Locals who may grumble that driving there is just too-too much - and there not being enough space for Stomper - need to be reminded that most dogs here are a luxury; Nelson doesn't owe them anything!
You want a dog: deal with it!
This includes exercise on the dogs' - not the owners'! - terms without dumping on the enjoyment of life of no-dog folk!


While the RV-park/camp-ground is announced as dog-friendly - a tourism-plus - for everybody's comfort dogs need to be kept on a short leash within the grounds. But taking those few steps through the gate across the bridge - voila! - it's off-leash dog-heaven. Within fixed reason!

As said in the post below: Nelson and Kootenay Lake Tourism (NKLT) is in the unenviable position of consistently having to re-invent the wheel. After all - you can only use so many different words to advertise the same old same old.
Also said repeatedly: It's time for Nelson - nudged by the NKLT - to transform itself as a whole from a stopover into a destination. An appropriate RV-park/camp-ground will contribute to making that happen!
The City getting its econo-ducks in a row!

The RDCK presented an opportunity - it's up to City Hall to run with it. 




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A Picture Worth A Thousand Words. And Bucks!

Following is a presentation (here with minor clarifications) made to the Committee of the Whole (COW), 20 June, 2016, concerning the new logo/slogan of Nelson and Kootenay Lake Tourism (NKLT).
In addition there are thoughts about the NKLT's response in the same COW.

Boring Nelson
Unfortunately for Nelson the new logo and slogan are no improvement over the previous ones. Does anyone remember those? The new ones also fail to make Nelson appear unique.

Being unique: key to tourism-bucks anywhere.

Logo
A logo is a face: a pictograph identifying a product, service, place over another with - ideally - must-buy visual impact. It is a determinant in product-, service-, or place-recognition. When strong: potential customers relate positively - curious and eager to buy. When weak: the target-market relates indifferently - reluctant to buy and apt to go with a more focused zap somewhere else.

This Logo
If the new logo - pointlessly jumbled - were not including the word Tourism it might just as easily represent a contractor or plumber. There is no sensitivity, oneness with Nelson, its people and environment. The colorless design as a whole is boring.
This logo is weak.

Slogan
A slogan is a catchy marker in words - a catch phrase. It may be an addition to the visuals of a logo. Ideally slogan/logo form a compelling whole.

This Slogan's Visuals
Visually Free Spirits & Well-Rounded Squares is no different from the logo. The freedom of these spirits is fixed within a soft-drink label; the well-rounded squares are to be found on the same construction-site - and just as boring.

This Slogan's Message
Plans of free spirits probably are not predetermined by a tour(ism)-guide. 
How free can you bee?
If squares refers to the opposite of free spirits: square vs. hip went out of use decades ago. Nobody refers to squares any longer - not even squares! There must be a segment of the NKLT's target-market which has no idea what's meant by squares. Having been around the block a few times - I am well-familiar with that label, but I have never heard of well-rounded squares. 

Confusing  a target-audience means losing them even before they can be hooked - never mind reeled-in.

Also - well-rounded or not - categorizing potential tourists as squares is patronizing.
This slogan is weak.

Seeing that Nelson depends on tourism, and City Hall enables funding for the NKLT to promote us: it would have been more appropriate to present logo and slogan to Council (or just about anybody not connected to the NKLT) for input before locking them in - not after, whereby not giving outsiders the opportunity for feedback!
It also would have been more constructive to have Nelson participate actively in producing logo/slogan. As done with the Canadian flag, stamps, Olympic logos/slogans.

For a truly inspiring logo and one of the best-known globally: see Joan Miro's of 1983 for Spanish tourism. A piece of art and still affective today!

 
  
Here presented reincarnations of Nelson's logo/slogan only connect with each other by their unimaginative heavy-handedness. Neither singly nor together are they likely to inspire an increase in tourism to Nelson and the Kootenay Lake area.

They are not who we are!

Nelson is not boring!

   




















After the presentation to the COW - Dianna Ducs, NKLT, explains that the logo is kept simple because it will often be used together with a picture of beautiful scenery. Sometimes even without the word Tourism. The latter making even less a logo and more unattractive, non-specific location-signage.
Her explanation for/of the double-slogan is that there are many different kinds of tourists coming, even some who may not know the meaning of well-rounded squares but never mind that's okay too. The logic of this escapes.

Clearly - the NKLT is not cognizant of the purpose and power of a logo/slogan as clearly and tightly self-contained tool. Particularly relevant today - with rapid, often truncated communication in visual flash and sound-byte. Instant recognition and time is money more so than ever before. 

A major opportunity here continued to be missed and at least as long as this new combo is in promotional use. Possibly years - like the previous ones. Opportunity missed in the tourism-industry equals fewer tourists! 








Jakob Dulisse
NKLT
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The Goat-Machine

I love Japanese Knotweed! Yes, I know..... regardless...!

Every morning - on my rounds at Lakeside Park - I pass a stretch of the stuff along the fence of the little woodsy hideaway - between the Seeds greenhouse and the playground - which by rights should be mine.

I love the relentless energy driving lush foliage up and across at great speed - seemingly ever taller and farther overnight.

Karen MacDonald - she of all things green - plans to deal with the issue once-and-for-all come fall.

The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) very earnestly lets loose 65(!?!) goats on a six-by-six-meter Knotweed spread, 2 meters high. The goats munch their way across the patch within 45 minutes. Just the leaves, though. With 65 this shouldn't be a surprise - in fact, what takes them so long! What should surprise the lab-coats - with goats usually eating just about anything - why they don't eat the juicy stems. Whatever - this goat-machine clearly does not present a long-term solution to the Knotweed problem: stems and roots remain uneaten, and all will be back to normal real quick.
Another thing surprise surprise! When the UFV goats are done with the weed they get going on what grows next to it. And next to that!
Conclusion of this experiment (should be!): Goats will be goats. And Japanese Knotweed will remain Japanese Knotweed.

Which takes me to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia/China where - in the mid-90s - I teach public health issues, doctor/patient relationships and Qi Gong at the Inner Mongolia Medical College.
Hohhot is Mongolian for Blue City, because a long time ago here are many clear streams; the steppes sway with luxuriant grass and wildflowers; mountains are thickly covered with healthy trees; the sky has a deep clarity. From farther away - all has a silvery-blue shimmer.
Shaman originate here - they are the conduit between the mongke tengeri/eternal sky: as father - and fruit-bearing earth: as mother.
Sa man riding their drums.

Then nomads begin to cluster in villages; they become sedentary. And drums sound louder and more insistent! Sheep and goats overgraze pastures close-by and farther and farther away; trees are cut-down for building-material and firewood. Leading to erosion. To eventually turn silvery-blue shimmer into dry hardscrabble. The predictable usual.
Sheep and goats remain. Continuing to eat anything-nothing!
Sometimes - to Westerners - the Chinese zodiak seems to call the Year of the Goat also Year of the Ram. That comes from - except for cashmere from specific goats and mutton/yang rou - clearly from sheep - to Chinese a goat being a mountain-sheep/shan yang.

 
The 90s are early days in Beijing's recognition that desertification in the north is a threat to itself as China's capitol and calling-card. Dust-storms up there have been common around April/May - they are becoming more frequent a few hundred km farther south in Beijing.

So - for years now planting trees in the north to put a stop to all this has been the thing to do. Today with while not enough success.

Taking me back to Hohhot.
And goats.

Every year college freshmen are for a day taken to the same village and the same hill to plant trees: this well-recorded by TV and newspapers as the good fight against rapid desertification-creep.
For the students it's all great fun and funny. Fun because it means a day of no classes and funny because of this:

The villagers - with their few goats locked-up somewhere not to get in the way - quietly watch the annual ritual unfold: students are led up the same barren hill as last year's batch. To plant the little trees they carry in their little bags. We are not talking hundreds here at great speed - and for good reasons. They also carry short sticks.
Instructions are to somehow get their trees into the ground. This is not easy because there's no topsoil: that was all blown away as dust a long time ago - and what's left is sun-baked clay, rocks, pebbles and patchy dust-pockets. So students - telegenically dirty in no time - hack, drill, stab, poke holes into the ground with their sticks, pop in trees and perfunctorily fill the holes with clay-bits, pebbles, dust to just keep treelets upright. For the cameras, possibly moms watching this on TV.
There's no water for these trees!
Students finishing first are interviewed by the media on how it feels to fight the desert - for Beijing. It feels just great!
And when all is done students and media-types get back on their buses and take off, drinking a lot of Fanta on the way back to Hohhot. Aaah! To a job well done!

  


Here comes the funny part. The students know that as soon as they are gone villagers bring their goats up the hill and have them eat every single tree just planted - because in this heat, without water up here and hardly any rain ever - these trees don't stand a chance.

So - planting trees is good!






This one's for Karen!




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Park(ade) This!

Currently the City is running a Nelson Downtown Urban Design Strategy: largely focusing on basic benches and bunting on Baker. 
Connecting the superficially quite separate need to repair bits of the Parkade with that strategy is an opportunity of possible major impact on downtown.

Repairs planned to Nelson parkade
"The parkade was identified on our list of facilities as needing repairs," facilities maintenance manager Petert Sinstadt said. "The extent of these repairs, including cost and timeline, is yet to be fully determined."
                                                                Nelson Star, May 25, 2016


Clearer is that during repairs over a quarter of the now available parking-slots won't be, and reason would dictate that the work is done during off-season. What with Kevin Cormack, CAO, admitting in the same article that downtown parking is limited. Compounded by evidence that - although car sales as such are down somewhat - in a year-by-year comparison sales of SUVs and bruiser pick-ups are up 18%.

The photo here of the Parkade - with a general faded-grey actually poor-exposure overlay - doesn't anywhere near convey the depressingly gloomy-dingey neglect of the real thing.

While it clearly is here to stay for years to come - this write-up does not mention a general face-lift for the structure, which - while imposing in its naked bulk - is a visual deadzone, particularly in close proximity with the leafy Court House across the green-on-green boulevard, the Hume Hotel of 1898 next door and Touchstones - formerly City Hall and in the same grand manner as the Court House - directly across the street from the Hume.

Few people walk by here. Turning their eyes on the Parkade they will look into the dark at-your-own-risk hole of a frequently unguarded entrance and to its left deep space of more dark.
What with drivers in both directions having to focus into and out of a tricky intersection and the Parkade not demanding visual attention: probably few - definitely not City Hall ever - look at it, are even conscious of it as a unit in context.

While the City owns it - a contractual operator runs it. Meaning - until this current routine assessment of structural viability: It's not my job!

 


For many who drive downtown to work this is a guaranteed place to park for the work-day, week, month, year. This is the place where they begin their day downtown and end it.
In depressingly gloomy-dingey neglect.
Way to go, day!
For unaccustomed tourists this assault on their sensibilities must be even more disconcerting. First and last impression: Welcome to dinge! Come back soon to dinge!
Worse yet after dark! Can we talk about safe?

BUT!

What with cars clearly not going away and street-parking becoming more and more difficult: international city-planning - for some time now - has been looking at the unavoidable fact of parking-garages needing to be embraced, thus making them creative statements. Always stunning at night. Sometimes turning them into multi-purpose structures where not only to park one's car but spend time shopping, be entertained.

Our Parkade's bland face lends itself easily to a make-over with imaginative physical facade-additions (day) and dramatic lighting (night). As in examples throughout here.
Perfectly located to become the catalyst for substantiating a new district: a grander downtown developing around Vernon/Ward.

A less shop local center - all buildings interconnected with stunning lighting: Parkade > Hume > Touchstones > City Hall > Court House > Parkade. The 2 possibly most substantial buildings in Nelson - across from each other - are visually dead after dark. One the local hub for arts and history - the other the local hub for justice (I know, I know!). The heart of the city - City Hall - doesn't beat after hours: a part-time heart. The plaza in front - supposed to become a meeting-place when? - currently also shuts down after dark. The bear sculpture..... what bear sculpture? The Hume - heritage for days! - has a glimmer of very intense - edgy in contrast - light running around its top in a narrow band. And this works! More would work more!

One wonders how many people - particularly when alone - are scared of entering the Parkade thus don't - even less inclined after dark. A clean, bright even engaging interior would take care of that: make being there welcoming, inviting. As in a fun-option for parking!
The rooftop is used once a year for the Nelson Road Kings' party after the Sep. car show. Why only then?
Special official/private events? Live rooftop music for all of downtown?

With this Design Strategy City Staff once again is running an out-of-town consultant: once again to organize a vision. What we need on Baker is to vigorously hose-down all heritage buildings. Vision that!
More exciting could be the prospect of creating a dramatic Vernon/Ward district.
A place to ooh-and aah!

Bringing locals and tourists downtown after dark!

 

With plans for Parkade repairs seemingly nowhere near locked-in: while they're at it - this is the time to turn the whole structure into a creative statement. Possibly get the current consultant involved. A confluence of possibilities. To eventually follow with building by above-mentioned building. In lights!

A bold vision!

  

Will Johnson

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