Songhees Park - The Next Chapter
Last year I wrote one of my “Urban Oases” articles about Songhees Park. Since then, the City has finished a massive new addition to the park. If you want to read my somewhat tepid opinion of Songhees Park from last time, you can find that article here. Surely, an addition of almost a third more land should make Songhees Park the perfect relaxing destination downtown. We will see.
The first question some might have is why this land wasn’t always part of the park and that is because at one time this land was actually part of the road and rail approach to the old Johnson Street Bridge. In shifting the bridge to the north, a massive amount of land was uncovered. I was always on the fence as to whether turning it completely into park space was the best idea and as I walked away from the space on my last visit, I still am not completely convinced it was the right choice. I know, everyone likes a park, but as I linked in the previous Songhees Park article, and will again here, park space is not a public good just because it exists. It becomes a public good as it is used by the public, if it isn’t then there is either need for improvement or it should become something else entirely.
So what are the improvements? What was previously just a mound of dirt has been beautifully sculpted into a combination of gardens, lawns and pathways. Perhaps the best part is that right at the top of the hill is a circle of stones that provide a beautiful lookout over the harbour. No matter what, I know that this perch will be a place that I come back to often. Sitting on the stones watching the harbour ferries and seaplanes move about with the backdrop of the city is a wonderful experience and would encourage you to go and check it out. To the east, the new portion connects to the seating plaza that overlooks the Johnson Street Bridge passage. There have been some improvements here for bike and pedestrian connectivity and again it looks quite good. To the south the pathways connect in with the older part of Songhees park. There is also a new mini-jetty that pushes out into the harbour as well though it isn’t clear exactly why it is there as it provides the same but less impressive view that the top of the hill and the seating plaza do. Next to the jetty though, is a little (too little) sandbox that is supposed to be a beach type place to lay a towel down in the sand. This should have been much, much larger, but it will be interesting to see if it gets used. On the two trips I have taken to the park, despite it being a hot sunny day, the space was empty. Another nice aspect that pulls on the theme of the mini-beach is the beach grasses that have been planted near here. They are maybe a little to perfect in their rows, but it is a very beautiful aspect of the park, if a little sterile. And that gets to one of my main criticisms of the space, sterility. The whole park looks like it was designed to be featured in Modernist Park Magazine (not sure if it exists, but if it does, they are on their way to do a photoshoot). There is a cleanliness to the park that makes it feel like it is to be looked at more than enjoyed. This may change over time if it becomes a destination park, but I worry that it will actually actively discourage lingering.
I know that parks are a popular thing to give people, as I said before though, there has to be a need for them. We have so many underused parks and creating more of them only adds to a growing problem of emptiness and underuse. Parks are supposed to vibrant people places and that serves a couple of purposes: It makes people want to go there and it makes people feel safe when they are there. I think that there may be a bit of a feedback loop as well with the city, if there is a park that is not being used a lot, it may only get the barest of upgrades over the years. A good example of over designing a park for no one is just about a five minute walk from here (I will talk about park density in a moment). If you take the E&N Rail Trail towards Esquimalt and continue along Kimta for about 100 metres you will get to a small stairway through a metal trellis arch. This is one of the entrances to perhaps Victoria’s least known park, Songhees Hilltop Park. I can remember when the park was built in the early days of the planning for the Bayview developments. I was quite taken with the design, especially some of the semi-industrial aspects that were added to go along with the nearby railyard, however, more than a decade later when I have been there, there is never anyone there. In fact, it kind of feels like it isn’t even a park and instead just a part of the tower development at the top of the hill, but it isn’t. The lawn is mowed and I can tell that city gardeners have been working hard on the beds, but it is lifeless and this is what I fear for Songhees Park as well. A well manicured empty space or simply beddings next to a walkway.
Songhees Hilltop Park
There are two solutions to this problem, one is controllable and one isn’t, at least to a degree. I am going to start with the less controllable aspect. As I said at the outset, parks are not a public good just in their existence in a city (this is very different than parks outside of cities which are usually there to preserve a natural piece of land or water), you put a park in a city as a place of respite for people. If people don’t use the park than it is to a degree, a failed park. Parks tend to get used more as there are more people that need them. As I have said before, a park should actually be seen as more akin to a grocery store than to anything else. You require a certain population density within a certain proximity of a grocery store for it to work and the same goes for a city park. I know that I will get angry notes back saying well I use such and such a park once a week and I like it empty, but that is not good land management in a city. Parks should be people places. Now the city can’t really control the amount of people living in an area, but they can determine whether enough people live nearby to warrant more park space and I would say that in the case of Songhees Park, the answer is still no. My last visit before writing this, on a hot August day, just after lunch and there was a grand total of two people besides me in the new portion of the park and that included the seating plaza next to the bridge. But all is not lost…
As I said, there is a second more controllable aspect to parks. If you have a park with not enough people living nearby than you need to give people from further away a reason to come to the park. I think that there are already two attempts in this new portion of the park: First with the rock ring at the top, and second with the sand beach portion at the water. Unfortunately, as with so much that is done in this city it is a tepid attempt to draw people from afar. The beach portion should have been three or four times larger to start with and I would suggest that there needs to be something other than just the view to make people go there. I personally would love some sort of interactive art installation like the defunct musical stairway at the Yates Street Parkade. I would also have built a kiosk next to the seating area that the city could lease out to a coffee business or an ice cream vendor (or two so we could have both). With those additions there would be a possible 5 things to do (coffee, ice-cream, sand, view, relax and sit-down). With that many sticky aspects to the place I am sure it would be much more popular and likely filled with people. A last addition that would help extend the season would be some sort of rain shelter. As it is now the park is pretty open to the elements and I expect in the depths of winter, few are going to want to stop and sit down.
Pretty and sterile spaces can still be successful, it is just a lot harder for them, especially if there is not the population to support it. I am holding out hope for Songhees Park and hoping it doesn’t stay empty like its little sibling to the west.
Tell me what you think would make you go to Songhees Park and actually stay for a visit?
