Urban Oases of Victoria - Songhees Park and Beach
Once again today I was seeing people clamoring for the infamous Victorian waterfront parking lots to be turned into park space. This is something that comes up every few months when quite rightly people wonder why we are using what must be the most prized real-estate in the city for parking cars. I agree that it is terrible that we have allowed it to continue for decades, but it should not all be turned into a single green space park. Maybe a small portion can be green space, but a giant park would be an epic mistake, almost as bad as the parking lots, mostly because they would lead to same problem, underuse of a resource.
But surely a green space next to downtown would be humming with people at all times of the day! Well no and we don’t have to look outside of our own downtown to see what would happen. Directly across the water from the parking lots in Vic West is Songhees Park, a stunningly beautiful park with world class views, amazing history, easy access by foot, bike and car, a beach, benches and green lawns. Given all of these attributes and its location, it should be brimming with people, the beach covered in sun bathers, the benches full and the green grass hosting a few picnickers, but no it isn’t and even pre-pandemic in the middle of the tourist season, the area had few people stopped in it enjoying the fact that it exists.
This is not the park’s fault, in fact, as I said before it is an absolutely stunning place, no the problem with it and with having a giant park below Wharf Street is that there are not enough people to use it. As I have said in previous posts, parks are like a business, you need a certain density of potential users to make it successful. Just as you can’t put a shoe store on every block, you can’t have a park on every block and expect them all to be successful. You need the amount of parks (or stores) to be consistent with the amount of users (or customers) in the area. We don’t even need to go across the bridge to prove the point either. There is already one green space park along the harbour just to the north of the parking lots, Reeson Park. Despite having all of the attributes that any park a couple hundred metres south will have, it has almost no one ever using it. So instead of creating more park space, we should be taking the ones we have and make them better so that they can be used more intensely. This brings me back to Songhees Park because it is so close to being successful. I think with implementing three easy steps Victoria could have a world class attraction that could be the face of our urban parks.
Clean up what is already a good space - As I said there are perhaps the best views of the city here; a beach; a great hard space for events; and lots of green lawns. When I walked through the other day though much of the infrastructure is overgrown with weeds, the lawns covered in goose feces and the beach is just not quite inviting. It wouldn’t take much just to get it back to the way it was planned to be now.
Enhance the beach - In one of the most recent attempts to find a use for the car lots along the harbour, one of the most liked (and also laughed at) ideas was the addition of an urban beach. While I like the idea of it, it seemed wasteful when we have a great one that is just not really known about just across the water. With the weeds cleaned out the amount of beach space would increase. If there was a little maintenance and a couple of large logs added for people to lean against, the beach would be full of people enjoying some sun and the view of downtown.
Activate the space - Most great places have more than one or two or five things going for them. A successful park needs to attract a varied selection of users at different times of the day and in different weather. As I have said, this space has so much already, but it needs a couple more things to take it over the line. Just having people use the beach space would be a great addition. I would suggest that looking at the hard space and seeing if there is any potential for having the hotel add patio seating for its restaurants down below sometimes; or with the city backdrop it would be a great place for live theatre or musical performances. Looking at the green space above the beach I think the addition of some food vending could be a great addition so that you could just hop off your beach towel and walk up to get an ice cream or a hotdog.
With these three items complete, I think Songhees Park could be one of the most popular destinations for locals and visitors alike and right next to downtown. The City is actually working on the northern portion of Songhees park right now, as part of the final layers of the completion of the Johnson Street Bridge construction. That construction resulted in a large new piece of land that the city decided to add to the park. Unfortunately, as they did the planning for it there was no consideration about the park as a whole place and instead the improvements are very focused on the one area. You can read about that piece here.
I would love to hear your thoughts about Songhees Park and what you would like to see there. And remember if you are downtown and looking for a park with a great view that is not too far away (From City Hall, its just 9 minutes away and Beacon Hill is 15) Songhees Park is a wonderful choice.