By John Francis
Did I mention that we’re in Europe? We’ve been to Lisbon, Tenerife (that was a mistake) and Madrid. A few days ago, we flew to Paris.
The great capital cities of Europe offer quite a contrast to our situation on the Bruce Peninsula.
There are some things Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula (MNBP)has managed to get right. Example: I think MNBP has more public toilets than the nation of Italy. But there are a lot of areas that remind me of my grade school report cards: “Johnny needs to pay attention”.
Our public spaces, for example.
Northern Bruce Peninsula’s public spaces — roads, parks and so forth — vary from poor to dreadful. (Except for cars. We do a great job of making our communities convenient for cars.)
POOR: Lion’s Head Beach Park is lovely but a large chunk of the municipally-owned shoreline is off-limits to residents so that the municipal campground can offer waterfront campsites.
DREADFUL: There are very few sidewalks in MNBP and no bike lanes.
DREADFUL: the head of Little Tub Harbour in Tobermory is dominated by pavement and the ugliest pine trees known to man. The pine trees are a non-native species, planted decades ago with the intention that they would be trimmed down to low clumps. The trimming never happened and now they block the view of the harbour and their needles kill everything under them and make it unpleasant to sit.
Then there’s the pavement.
There’s a paved picnic area on the south side of Little Tub Harbour. I’m not making this up.
Arguably the best views in Tobermory are from the shoreline at the west end of the harbour. Fortunately, that land is controlled by the municipality. Unfortunately, it’s a parking lot. (Paved, of course). As one Tobermory businessman observed some decades ago: “I’m pretty sure those cars don’t appreciate the view.”
There might be a bit of light on the horizon. A proposal by the Tobermory and NBP Chamber of Commerce calls for removing the ugly pines and building a viewing deck on the south side of Little Tub Harbour, leaving the native trees in place. This initiative has the enthusiastic support of the business community (repeated unanimous votes of support at Chamber of Commerce general meetings) as well as broad public support. Funding could be made available from STA and parking revenues. The proposal will come before Council on March 9. Cross your fingers.
But the Minch Anchor Deck will not solve the other problems — car-centric communities dominated by butt-ugly pavement.
We need to pay attention. (By “we”, I mean Council, not staff. Staff are doing a fine job with the limited budgets they get.)
Pedestrians and cyclists matter. And how did we manage to have absolutely no cobbled surfaces in a place where limestone is literally everywhere?
Here are some photos that illustrate what can be done to make public spaces attractive.
