Mending Millie’s Lane
A few months back, you may remember I wrote a two part series on why I didn't really think that the City of Victoria should be spending over ten million dollars on buying some land for a new park. You can read those two articles here and here. One of my main issues with the expense, apart from the location, was that the City already has several park spaces around Victoria that need significant upgrades and putting that money into a new place, when we already have parks in disrepair, seemed like a bad way to be managing our resources. One of the public spaces, right in the middle of downtown, that could use some civic attention is Millie's Lane.
Millie's Lane, also sometimes called Odeon Alley, is that space right between the Odeon Theatre and the Era building to the west that winds its way between Johnson Street and Yates Street. The laneway is named after Millie Hawkes, who used to run a shoe repair shop in the space for many years. There are still a number of shops that line from the lane on the southeast end and there is an old building that houses numerous businesses on the northwest end. The southwest corner is now home to the bakery, Tombo, which is owned by the same people as Crust on Fort Street.
For most of its life, Millie's Lane was just that, a laneway for pedestrians. It was narrow all the way through, including the southern portion abutting Yates Street. When the Era building was completed about a decade ago, they provided some extra space and the City added some street furniture and nicer steps to make the space as it is today. The idea was to create a mini-public plaza right in the heart of the city for people to relax in or maybe to grab food from one of the many eateries in the area and sit down and relax. None of this has really ever happened and it started right at the beginning. The City added some concrete planters that could be used as seating and some individual metal chairs, which theoretically should have been enough but they made two big mistakes. First, for whatever reason, they decided that every chair in the whole plaza should have a “No Smoking” sign on them, and they made it so that the individual chairs didn’t face each other, but instead looked off in random directions and they couldn’t swivel. So unless you went to the square alone, you didn’t want to sit in the chairs. Plus, I find that their metal construction, while good for surviving the elements, is extremely uncomfortable. The Victoria blog, Needs More Spikes has written on the chairs in the past.
Since it was first created in 2015, the plaza has been updated to remove the signs and the chairs have been painted, but apart from that, the square has mostly stayed the same, except that because of those initial missteps it never became a public destination. The superfluous “No Smoking” signs created a staid, clinical feeling that made it so no one wanted to go there. Unfortunately, the initial reservation by Victorians to use the space, led to the square not getting the attention it needs. The space deteriorated, and now feels rundown, despite being just a decade old. The laneway is still used as a cut-through occasionally. I use it pretty regularly just because I love a good mid-block walkway, however, due to some dark corners and a lack of general use, it is now mostly used for drug consumption. While people will say this is a Victoria social issue, it is not, it is a design issue. Even Jane Jacobs talks about what happens in parks that are not maintained or designed correctly in her 1961 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. To be successful, a park has to be used and to be used it needs to be a destination or in an area that is already very busy. Millie’s Lane has gone quite a bit down the spiral of disuse and misuse now.
For plaza in the middle of the city, the current state of Millie’s Lane is pretty bad, but it doesn’t have to be that way and I think that the City could easily make this the popular plaza it should be, given that it is surrounded by businesses and homes and sits along a busy street that has lots of pedestrian traffic. In my opinion, the City needs to focus on three things to make Millie’s Lane a real public asset for Victoria:
Activation - Things going on
Beautification - Making it a jewel in the middle of downtown
Relaxation - Create a space that all people want to go to relax for a bit and watch the City move past
I will dive briefly into each one of these items. For the first one on the list, I think that if the City does nothing else, activating the space will do the most to change its use. Bringing people into the space that wouldn’t normally go there will change how the space feels. Millie’s Lane actually has a really natural space for gathering right in the mid-point which is probably the most beneficial spot you could have it. I am sure that there are fire exits into this space but it still could be easily used by buskers, or maybe even live theatre. Given that it is next to the Odeon Theatre, I could see the northern space at the very least having some sort of light activation that maybe just included old movie posters being projected onto the walls. The City did install string lights above this portion at one point, though I am not certain that they are still on all the time. Something lighting up the space, especially at night in that northern alley is a must. A further evening improvement could see the performance space replaced with a couple of food carts. This would bring people deeper into the laneway and due to the timing, wouldn’t interfere with the greater amount of food businesses that are open during the day (not that I truly believe that food cart and restaurant customers are the same).
For beautification, it wouldn’t take much. As I mentioned above, a light activation could work focused on projections. One of the hidden opportunities of Millie’s Lane is that the building at the northwest corner of the laneway is actually home to the Vancouver Island School of Art. A collaboration with the students of the school, the businesses, residents and the City to create some murals or other types of art installations seems like a huge untapped opportunity, and a great way to advertise the school. Murals along the walls around the buildings at the southeast corner that relate back to the businesses there (a tattoo shop, a Jamaican restaurant and a video game store) seems like it could be pretty cool. One of the trees at the south of the square does not seem to be doing very well and should be replaced. I am not sure of the types of trees that are at the front but if they are similar to the ones at the north end that have created a pretty amazing tree canopy, that would be great. Also near Yates Street I would maybe turn down the water on the fountain just a bit so that it is not constantly spraying water outside of itself and would allow people, especially on a hot day to relax next to it.
Finally, relaxation. I know that many people will think that when you have a space with negative social uses occurring, making the space more comfortable and inviting seems counter-intuitive. However, the space is being used like this currently, precisely because it is not being used by the broader population more extensively. I personally think the chairs need to go and in there place there should be a number of small, moveable table and chair sets. This allows for the space to be rearranged by those using it during the day. You could have larger groups join in for lunch, or take one chair to set it in a sun ray off on your own, whatever you wanted. In a perfect world, Tombo would take down the fence into the square and simply allow their space to spill out across the pavement (the fact that they have a fence between their patio and the square is very telling actually). This would also allow for the seats to be rearranged if there was a performance or removed if there was going to be a market or perhaps a number of food stalls in the evening. It is a small change, but I think it would have a dramatic impact on the park space and the surrounding area. I have added a little map of where my suggested changes are.
I would love to hear your thoughts on what we could do to make Millie’s Lane more popular. Let us know in the comments!
