I have lived within walking distance of Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, B.C. all my life. It is a jewel, a must visit, a park bursting with history.
When my kids were young we’d visit Beacon Hill virtually every day. We’d count turtles and eagles, watch squirrels dig for peanuts, collect feathers and visit baby goats in the petting zoo.
At night you can lie on the grass beside the band shell and see bats circling in and out of giant cedars. This summer, my husband and I watched heron fledglings being fed in the uppermost branches of a tree near the old stone bridge, their outstretched wings and prehistoric cries eerie and compelling.
It seems that every decade or so, someone, or some supposedly well intentioned group, focuses on Beacon Hill Park and all the green space (read: real estate) and proposes that the park needs “improvement.”
There was a movement pressing for community gardens in Beacon Hill in the early 1990s, another group got it in their heads to try to develop a tea room up at The Checkerboard House, a dilapidated building which, for years, provided respite from the elements at the top of the hill.
Now it’s been asserted that there is a traffic problem in the park. That speeding and aggressive drivers use it as short cut on their way to and from work. In an effort to discourage cars, parking spaces have been reduced and new signage and road blocks installed.
I can’t fathom why anyone would use Beacon Hill Park as a short cut. Who are these speeders? Where do they work? At the Legislature a stone’s throw away? At the tearoom in James Bay? The corner store? And where are they coming from, the Uplands? Have I missed something here? It doesn’t make sense to cut through the park if one is in a hurry because, quite simply, it is not a direct route to town.
I have difficulty picturing impatient drivers zooming past the cricket pitch and petting zoo, leaving startled peacocks in their wake. The park doesn’t need road blocks. There are enough endorphin fuelled joggers and cyclists, tourists walking in circles seeking directions to Good Acre Lake, the bathrooms, or both, who slow traffic down already. Not to mention the horse drawn carts, Pedi cabs and wayward ducks traversing those roads morning, noon, and night. You’d have to be daft to drive through there on your way to work. You could get stuck in there for days.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that a side effect of this scheme also diverts the solitary few who cruise that particular edge of the woods and frequent Lover’s Lane.
Whatever the agenda, it should go without saying that the funds our city is pouring into this project would be better off invested into safe shelters and methadone clinics.
Photo Credits
All photos by Margaret Blackwood
Hi Sandi and Lorne,
Thanks for your comments! I think in essence we do agree. The park is lovely, a refuge. The only issue I have about traffic in Beacon Hill is this one. It is wasteful to divert funds to a non-cause, particularly when there are so many more urgent causes downtown. And now, there’s a flippin’ ferriss wheel in Centennial Square!
Hi Margaret, I would have to heartily disagree. I do agree that Beacon Hill Park is a wonderful, quiet refuge in an increasingly busy city. The traffic changes are designed to make it even more so. My enjoyment of the park has increased since the changes were introduced – it is now more relaxing to walk, run or cycle through the park with less interaction with cars. Cars dominate our spaces elsewhere. The park is a place where we should be able to wander, slowly, appreciatively, with minimal concern for traffic. I see that happening now – whole lanes and connecting lanes are now dedicated to parents pushing strollers, people strolling, exercising and so on. It’s now more of a people space, while still allowing vehicles to pull into the parking lots to drop people off.
I disagree. The city has more than enough places for cars. The fewer in this lovely park the better.