Since I try to do my best to improve my little corner of the world, I like to keep abreast of what my wee burgh of P Dot undertakes to address upcoming challenges of livability, Climate Change (or Climate Weirding, if you prefer), and active modes of transportation.

I’m sure most of us have heard that many cities are promoting the use of bicycles, walking, and mass transit over single-occupant vehicles as a healthier way of getting around. (Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or in a cave, you should be aware of this. If not, go back from whence you came)

My wee burgh of P Dot, in a sudden moment of clarity, undertook a massive initiative to map out an Active Transportation Plan in 2014, with an aggressive completion timeline of 10 years (2024).

See link here: 

http://www.avtransitiontown.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2014-06-24_FINAL_Port_Alberni_Active_Transportation_Report.pdf

This is an extremely comprehensive report (some 89 pages long!), and, I’m certain, quite costly.

You will see, in the report, very detailed plans to promote both walking and cycling, with timelines to undertake closing gaps in the pedestrian networks (sidewalks, road crossings, and bridges); and creating cycling networks (protected bike lanes, and cross-town pathways). All Good, you say? Not so fast!

In 2017, a local group, Cycle Alberni, with the support of Alberni Valley Transition Town Society (AVTTS) took it upon themselves to complete a review of the Active Transportation Plan.

Here is the review:

http://www.avtransitiontown.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ATP_review_09.2017_Report.pdf

An equally long and comprehensive report (at 91 pages, it is longer than the document it is reviewing!)

As you can see, in 4 years P Dot has done the very minimum (and in most cases, less than the minimum)

This is distressing, and crazy-making for those of us who pay attention to such things; there seems to be a willful resistance by the PTB’s at P Dot’s “Ivory Tower”.

One stunning example of the “Ivory Tower’s” foot dragging:

On March 21, 2017 the City was awarded a $200,000+ grant from the Ministry of Transportation to build a Multi-Use Path along one of P Dot’s busiest (and most industrial) streets.

See here:

https://www.portalberni.ca/news/march-21-2017-701pm/news-release-–-city-awarded-grant-stamp-avenue-multi-use-path

To date, that path is nowhere to be seen, and the grant has been rescinded, as P Dot took too long to get their ducks in a row.

And now, in 2020, I see that the BC Government has just opened the grant application intake for its “B.C. Active Transportation Infrastructure Grants Program”

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/funding-engagement-permits/funding-grants/active-transportation-infrastructure-grants

Since I don’t trust P Dot PTB’s to act on anything unless pushed, I sent them a message on Facebook:

Me: “Has the City applied for any of these grants to further the City’s own Active Transportation Plan (which has a 10 year completion date of 2024)?”

City: 🙂

City: “That grant intake just opened up and we are all over it”

Me: “Good news. What part of the Active Transportation Plan, specifically, are you applying for funding for?”

City:

Me:

I’m hearing a Cricket Opera here, and it’s pretty tragic.

At this point, all one can do is keep pushing, but if P Dot doesn’t pull head out of hind end, the best thing one can do is move away.

The last person out, please remember to turn out the lights.

After a long absence from these very pages, it was time to come back and Ponder some more…..

Over the last few years, I have taken it upon myself to try my very best to improve my lot in my wee burgh of P Dot; I may be opening myself up to some humiliating lessons in how the “Real World” works.

One of the ideas I had (along with some support from some Fellow “Crazies” in the Alberni Valley Food Hub, and Alberni Valley Transition Town Society) was to try and develop some Community Gardens for the less fortunate; landless; and just Garden Happy folks.

One would think that was an easily accomplished task, since there’s vacant spots of land all over the place around these here parts…..HA!

Most vacant lots are privately owned, with the owners hoping/expecting to get a hefty mark-up on their investment (One lot was assessed at $85,000 and the owner has it for sale at $850,000 – yup yup yup). Totes ridic, as my Millenial step-kiddo would say.

I then sought a listing of vacant, City-owned land from the Fine Folks at P Dot City Hall (aka The Ivory Tower); that was a joke and a half, with some excuse that “we are currently undertaking an inventory of all of our lands; we expect that to take a few months.”

Being a Postie, I’ve walked every square inch of P Dot’s City Limits (and driven a few Rural Miles); there is no way that any inventory of vacant land owned by the City should take that long, but we mustn’t hurry the Fine Folks, y’know?

It wasn’t until I attended a Director’s Meeting on an unrelated topic that I learned that there was a map of potential Community Garden sites made available to a (now defunct) City Committee. Said Committee, of which certain members of the above-mentioned Groups, were sitting on and, if they had been paying attention, could have provided me with that map months ago. This still sits uneasily with me…but, onward!

Having gone over that map with a very fine-toothed comb, I am very disappointed to see that there is not one single available and immediately useful parcel of land anywhere in the limits of P Dot. Anything that is available needs logging, dredging, infrastructure (water lines), and building in order to be useful.

I am extremely disappointed, but not altogether surprised at this; it seems to be yet another setback in a long line of setbacks when dealing with the City of P Dot.

It may be that in order to create Community Gardens, purchasing a vacant lot or two may be the only feasible way to proceed; I will have to ponder on this further.