As we've noted, urban designers strive to emphasize a "sense of place," to build a town upon the natural uniqueness of its setting, the general qualities of its environment. When the designer first approaches the site of a city, he or she takes note - or should take note -- of its landforms, the three-dimensional nature of its topography. We're looking at the foundations. The original builders of Nanaimo were well aware of their new town's physical characteristics, its topography - they could hardly fail to observe what was there --, but, alas, they didn't treat its original landforms with full respect. In Nanaimo's beginnings, the attitude was as Frank Lloyd Wright suggests:

"Natural features of our fresh beautiful...(original) landscape are thus, at the beginning, crucified by commonplace efficiency."

We see that the original settlement of Nanaimo was constructed on what was very nearly an island. For the sake of "commonplace efficiency" and convenience, however, Nanaimo's inlets and much of its adjoining shorelines were filled - mostly with waste from the town's coal-mining operations. In Nanaimo's earlier days, there was a clear possibility of creating a Venice-like city, but, if such a thought even arose at the time, the aesthetic possibility was lost. Luckily, all was not extinguished. The landforms of the original town site - of what is still recognized as Nanaimo's central core -- are so sufficiently robust and powerful that the essential island-shape of the old city is perfectly clear to the eye of even the casual observer. The island-shape emerges especially clear as one approaches the old central core from the north, as one crosses Pearson Bridge and begins to descend into the automobile-oriented jungle of "Terminal Ravine."

To the left one sees the sedimentary escarpments - basically beautiful native stone -- which rise up perhaps fifty or sixty feet from the man-made floor of the ravine. The escarpments seen from this point form the western boundary of the old downtown area of Nanaimo, and they wind around the north end of the perceived island shape and form the shoreline on its eastern side. The physical form of old downtown Nanaimo is thus dictated by this topography.

The escarpments are undoubtedly a nuisance making access to the old downtown difficult. In no small degree are they the immediate source of its decline. What is to be done? The solution, obviously, is to make an advantage out of the difficult island form, to actually emphasize that form and design an urban complex on it that has a very distinctive character. One still imagines a similarity to Venice, and now more aptly to the Italian hill towns, some of which are practically automobile free.

We note that it is essentially impossible to create a shopping mall style development on our near-island. There is, of course, the successful Harbour Front Mall, which sits very close to its southern end of the near-island. The odd thing is that the success of Harbour Front Mall does not extend to the near-by Commercial Street that winds from the Mall along the length of the near-island.

In this situation, an over-all urban design treatment must be brought to bear on discovering new uses for the near-island areas. To make that new urban design treatment a real possibility, one must resort to one of the procedures offered by the Main Street Center: a management system for an old-downtown revitalization process. Perhaps a design competition would facilitate solutions. Urban designer Roger Kemble offers possibilities:

As for linkage imagine how beautiful we could make the city if we exposed the outcroppings and linked them together as a lineal park, connecting to the all ready beautiful amenity of the sea wall.

Some of the cliffs could be used for rock clambering enthusiasts.

They could become arboretums to show off local flora. They could become habitat for urban "wild" life: I'll bet they already are! Businesses could use them for, as an instance, Ricky's, Gena's and other restaurants' outside summer dining.

With more flora, not just trees, ivy and salal too, they would temper the urban environment and absorb some of the traffic carbon monoxide.

The cliffs virtually surround downtown. What an urban design asset they could be if they were placed under the jurisdiction of the Parks Dept. May be they are now? Since they appear to have no real estate value then they should all be dedicated.

For the time being they pose no expense, so just preserve them until such time as there is the political will to spend the money to enhance them.