Blogging about defensive architecture and police in Victoria, B.C.
At the risk of being unpopular, let me suggest the following: the two proposed play areas for downtown Victoria – at the former Tent City site, and Reeson Park, a.k.a. the Whale Wall – are first and foremost about displacing poor and homeless Victorians. Creating space for children and families is a distant and secondary goal.
Read MoreLast week the CBC published an article about a Vancouver property management company installing concrete balls to block people from accessing alcoves. Vancouver’s hate balls haven’t rolled across the Salish Sea quite yet, but Victoria is already doing much the same thing.
Read MoreThe sloppily added bricks on the planter in Odeon Alley are an obvious example of defensive architecture, but there are plenty of aggressive pieces out there, policing Victorians’ sitting habits. Let’s take a quick tour.
Read MoreThe art at Yates and Douglas is an exercise in pretending Victoria’s downtown is a fun, welcoming place for everyone to enjoy. It might even draw your eyes away from the multiple attempts to police and exclude people from the same space.
Read MoreOdeon Alley isn’t just policed by Cineplex on the theatre’s north-side turf. The south side of the alley is both public and private, and defensive architecture runs its entire length.
Read MoreOdeon Alley – also known as Millie’s Lane and Maynard Court – runs beside the Odeon Theatre, from Johnson to Yates. It’s peppered with signs telling you what not to do. Rule number one: “no loitering.”
Read MoreThe corner of Douglas and Pandora is being redeveloped with office buildings and a plaza “for the enjoyment of the general public.” Before that proposal was unanimously approved by Victoria City Council in 2015, the city and the developer agreed that there should be limits on who can use the plaza, and how.
Read MoreAlways one for keeping up with the latest trends, Portland Hotel Society is building a wall on the Pandora Avenue side of its Johnson Street Residence. And what a wall it will be! Only the tallest marginalized Victorians will be able to access the valuable stairwell, stones, and no trespassing signs inside.
Read MoreOne of the most ubiquitous examples of defensive or hostile architecture in downtown Victoria is the un-sleepable bench, which is intended to decrease visible homelessness in the downtown core.
Read MoreCentral Baptist Church has walled off a covered area outside its entrance and installed a spiked fence and locked gate. It’s getting a lot of well-deserved attention as a highly visible example of defensive architecture, but it’s far from the only one in Victoria.
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