Gibsons Landing at its best

It occurs to me that I've been hitting the urbanism/built environment/planning theme pretty hard on Howe Soundings in the last couple of weeks. Maybe I'll give it a break - but only after today. With summer approaching, I've been spending lots of time down in Lower Gibsons, and that's got me thinking about the town and the way that it is.

And on Sunday, it was great. (Saturday, too, I'd imagine. I was at work.)


The Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival hosted a free outdoor concert in Winegarden Park, and the crowd was about as big as I've ever seen there. The sun shone. The audience - two hundred people, maybe? - lolled on the grass. People ate ice cream. A few surreptitiously enjoyed a beer or two. Lower Gibsons was at its best.

Outdoor events work really well here, and I'd wager that the physical setting of Lower Gibsons has a lot to do with that. The village, you'll acknowledge, is set in a depression formed between the Bluff and the steep slope up toward Mt. Elphinstone. It sits right above an enclosed, C-shaped harbour. Winegarden Park is right in the middle of that curve, which might just be the best possible place for a public space in the whole village.


My friend Courtney, who comments on here, knows a thing or two about urban planning. She recently made some remarks here about prospect and refuge - namely, that the success of public space (among other kinds of space) hinges on a combination of exposed spaces and enclosed ones. In other words, neither deep caves nor exposed, windy plains make good city parks. Winegarden Park, though, seems to have both prospect and refuge in abundance. Prospect, in that you can see the North Shore mountains, and refuge, in that the shape of the land around provides a feeling of enclosure.

For another thing, it's accessible by the seawall path, which puts it just steps from take-out fish and chips, incredible burritos (have I mentioned the burrito place on the wharf?), kayak rentals, Gramma's, a good swimming beach, etc.

It's a great space. But the thing is, when there isn't anything happening there, it's often nearly empty. Which is a shame. I'd love to see more musical events down there. And what about outdoor theatre? What about holding the farmer's market - or the existing Sunday market - down there? Or parking a taco truck at the bottom of the park, thus converting the whole space into an outdoor restaurant?

Something to think about. Anyway, bravo, Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival - you make the town come alive.