In a world where more and more places are looking just like each other it’s nice to come home to Bowen and notice how distinctive our community looks. Looking from side to side as the ferry docks, the homes on Snug Point look cosy, the forested cliff of Dorman Point looks challenging and dramatic, Norma’s marina and the public dock are wonderfully quaint while the Union Steamship Marina has a more exotic air with large pleasure craft that could have just arrived from almost anywhere. As you leave the ferry, shops and restaurants greet you on one side of the street and dense forest on the other. In short, you know that you have arrived someplace unique.
When we think of the sameness of places we tend to think about arriving on a freeway through sprawling suburbs only to be dumped out on a street that looks like Kingsway complete with car dealerships and McDonalds. But lately I’ve noticed more and more how the rejuvenated downtown cores of towns and cities all seem to look the same. Trees grow out of holes in the sidewalk, there’s a Starbucks on the corner in a brick building with an old-fashioned awning, and cyclists wind their way along the waterfront promenade. While these areas are pleasant enough and the locals appreciate them, they are the cookie-cutter creations formed by replicating patterns that have worked well a thousand other places.
So I look at our humble little village so desperately in need of a face-lift and enjoy the irony of the fact that we succeed in creating a wonderfully unique space because we are too incompetent to replicate those proven patterns that work so well everyplace else. I mention this because I’m getting the feeling that more and more people are getting a bit embarrassed by how shoddy Snug Cove looks. One of these days some group will start lobbying for another grand scheme to redevelop the entire street. So before that happens, maybe we should look at some little things that could be done that would improve it without destroying the entrance to our island.
The first thing that bugs me personally is the north dock right next to the ferry slip. It should be the most valuable space on the island but all it has on it is eight potted plants and four picnic tables. One wonders which municipal department should be asking for expressions of interest from people who might want to rent it and use it for something constructive or at least entertaining. The next thing that strikes me is the painting on the concrete wall as you drive off of the ferry. It was cute several years ago but now it’s like having your kids works of art still taped to the fridge after they’ve left for university. There is an excellent artist on the island willing to paint a new mural for the price of the paint. I think that we should take him up on it. Then there’s the matter of the number of telephone poles that line our main street. I’m a bit torn on this one. On the one hand they’re pretty ugly but on the other, the first thing every redevelopment scheme does is to bury the power lines and take out all of the poles. It won’t be long before telephone poles will be considered quaint. And that will probably be a week after we spend a fortune to get rid of them. Of course there is that one just above the entrance to Blue Eyed Mary’s. It pretty well blocks the sidewalk. In the early 1990s when I was organizing the laying of the paving stones on the sidewalk I tried to talk B.C. Hydro into moving it. I didn’t get very far but I still live in hope.
Coming a little further up the street but on the other side is the giant timber frame that use to hold the welcome to Bowen map. The sign blew down years ago but the frame will probably be there until it rots. Right across the street from it is the former site of the Oven Door Bakery, before it burned down a few years ago. I was pleased that somebody finally cleaned it up and put in a picnic table. Now if the Municipality would just repair the sidewalk it would almost look like somebody cared. Proceeding up the street there are other bits and pieces that look pretty tacky and wouldn’t take much to clean up. But it just doesn’t get done. A cynic might suspect that it is being allowed to deteriorate just to justify the next redevelopment scheme but I think that it’s more like getting used to looking out of dirty windows. You never think to clean them until the first really sunny day of spring when you suddenly realize how bad they look.
Just think of me as that little ray of sunshine reminding our maintenance people that its time to spruce things up a bit.
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