Re: 鈥淥ptimize lively public waterfronts around Victoria鈥檚 Inner Harbour,鈥� comment, Sept. 16.
People sometimes forget that nothing is something worth doing. The availability of green spaces in which 鈥渘othing鈥� is designed other than a pleasant landscaped area greatly enhances the city experience. In the core of any city, there are plenty of buildings and facilities 鈥� what makes a city really livable are idle zones, in which you can just enjoy the ambience or sit and be contemplative.
Our movement toward highly designed public spaces and away from more modest green lawns and trees is turning the city into a bland variation of every other city core. The area around the downtown side of the new bridge is a great example 鈥� what used to be a fairly green and landscaped area is now more or less just a concrete expanse of sterile but 鈥渇ancy鈥� urban design.
If we keep going this way, the entire Victoria city core might as well just be Coal Harbour II.
Walter Ash
Victoria
