Mike DeWolfe : The Daily Edition

With all of this hooplah over the Blue Bridge at the foot of Johnson Street, I have to ask why? As in "Why are we not decommissioning the Johnson St. Bridge?" For a long time, Greater Victoria has been on a vendetta against the car. Esquimalt Road lost lanes. Bay Street lost lanes. UVic has been slowly turning parking lots into buildings. Our city needs to go Green and get rid of the Blue Bridge. The Johnson Street Bridge facilitates a tremendous amount of automobile use. Repairing it will cost a lot of money. Replacing it will use up a huge amount of steel, concrete and it amounts to massive exercise in carbon escape. The City of Victoria turned from its pattern of maintenance expenditures in 2007 to spend just a fraction on the bridge as it aged. The City has the right idea: let it rot. Make a reasoned guess as to the remainder of its lifespan. Then start doling money on the bridge that is key for infrastructure and transport: the Bay St. Bridge. If you think the idea of de...

View Larger Map I left the matinee of Collapse up at UVic with one prevalent thought: grow food on arable land-- moreso, grow it on land that people can get to-- don't put my pepper plants in Mexico: give me greenhouse space. Surely, don't truck my potatoes from California: these are bulky, heavy, low value staples. You can also grow them from the 49° south almost any time of the year. I walked across the lawns of UVic-- manicured tracts of great land enjoyed by rabbits and starving students alike. Last Fall, we were really lucky to be able to go to Sooke Harbour House. It was an inspirational experiment. In some real life version of the Wonka Chocolate factory, most of the plants are edible. A terrific and expert gardener led us around the lands, tearing off leaves, flowers, berries and flora of all kinds. "Eat it," she said. We complied-- flowers that tastes like cherries; a 15' tall bay leaf tree; patios were divided by rosemary bushes and fennel plants. We c...