Dean Peacock
New advertising slogan:
"Cobourg,Ontario... Please pack up, leave and don't forget your welcome mat!"
In response to the latest article and editorial in the Northumberland News (
March 11,2010 Edition) about the ongoing saga with Victoria Beach and Park, I think it would be wise for the city leaders (elders) to revisit the town slogan and maybe consider changing to the one I have provided above. Or: "Town(Country Club) closed for members only. Please take your business, your jobs, tax dollars and invest somewhere else." Maybe even: "Let's not be polite unless you are white."
I bet you would be really surprised to learn that my family and I are new residents in Cobourg. We moved here in September after throughly enjoying our visits during, what I have since learned, were the two busiest long weekends of the year. King Street was alive; the beach was full; children, from toddler to teen, were everywhere playing and just downright enjoying themselves. A great place, we thought, to bring a family of two preschoolers and one part time teen. A place to play and a place to watch them all grow into adulthood. Well... Baa daa ding ding... ding ding ding!
I do not buy the arguments that the residents here use as an excuse. Like "... It is too crowded for
the residents to enjoy their beach" or "...they leave all their garbage behind" and " ... they don't spend any money."
Come on now. This is a spectacular beach in Cobourg. It has always been one of the great joys of all cultures around the world to pack a picnic and snacks so that a family can spend a relaxing and inexpensive day bonding with the sand between their toes. And leave their garbage behind-hopefully in the receptacles that are provided!
As for suggestions that we should charge for admittance for visitors (not locals, of course) like they do at Presqu'ile. Hmm... How's this for an idea. How about we turn the area into a Provincial Park, like Presqu'ile, and have the Government buy up a fair chunk of the beach front housing(at Government assessed values) to make room for more green space and parking. This concept certainly will give the opportunity to charge for usage. Unfortunately, to be fair, we would all have to pay to have our day in the sun.
Visitors do spend money in this town when they visit. We did. We found a nice coffee shop, had a nice dinner, and bought some gas (a Cobourg pet peeve I've heard that I had to throw in) for the trek back to civilization. I would suggest the real penny pinchers are the locals.
As I go for my almost nightly walk through the downtown core it always shocks me on what a ghost town it is. The clock turns five, the streets are empty, and most of the bar staff do not know what to do with themselves. And in the day, unless it is sunny and warm, the area is only slightly more active.
If you truly, honestly feel that the local merchants are getting shafted then get out there and support all of them. Get the town to support them. Revitalize the area. Give them tax incentives, grants, so that they can renovate to improve their chances for success. I think there are only two or three places in the core I have not been in since relocating here. With that, there are maybe only a half dozen places I would take guests to. The majority are eye sores inside and out. Some places smell and have the look of the local ghosts still sucking back a two pack a day habit. The LCBO stinks of rotten stale booze probably from a pallet of stubbies being knocked over late in the seventies. This is what the tourists(the enemy), visitors, business leaders... are noticing and telling others. Clean the area, spend some money, or close it down for good.
I'm guessing some(most) of you are wondering why we are still here. Well... my wife loves the beach,my children love the beach, and gosh darn it, I love the beach too. The majority of my forty plus years of life have been spent within walking distance of a beach and I cannot see that ever changing. So we will watch closely how this all plays out. We will either vacate the area and contribute to the continuation of stagnant growth, or...
Dean for Mayor !!!
(catchy, isn't it!?)
14 comments:
We already have two Peacocks hanging around in administrative positions, do we need another?
Personally I would like to see a Burd and a Partridge on Town Council.
It is a good post though, and I encourage the newcomer to send it to the local paper too. Everyone should read it.
I tried. The local newspaper refused to print it unless I was to cut my opinion in half. I felt that I was unable to do this so... I needed to find other avenues to voice my displeasure. Maybe you or one of your readers has some clout here?!
And for fun... My wife decided to start a facebook fan page. Guess what it is called??? ;)
-you can never have enough Peacocks!! :D
The council has just imposed some new “rules” and police surveillance to intimidate and annoy park users. However it is not the park visitors that are the problem. It is the town’s policies that are the problem.
For several years the town has used the tourism bureau to create a tsunami of publicity encouraging visitors to come to Cobourg. And, not surprisingly, they come.
Unfortunately the town has failed to check what the capacity of Victoria Park and its surrounding streets is. The capacity is clearly exceeded when we have weekend beach users, plus the Canada Day festival, plus Rib Fest plus basketball championships all in the same place at the same time.
The solutions are:
- Stop the town’s publicity to attract more and more visitors,
- Relocate part of the Canada Day festivities to the green area between the Victoria condos and the Harbour,
- Relocate Rib Fest to Donegan Park - after all Donegan Park was used by the horse show for many years.
Of course it is rather pathetic that Cobourgers don’t like black people on their beach, especially as when white Canadians go the Caribbean they expect blacks to keep off their own beaches.
PS Dean
Your slogan "Dean for Mayor" could get confused with Dean McCaughey, and might lead to unintended consequences.
There is a new shop going in downtown Cobourg! I curiously asked the construction crew and they tell me it is... a pawn shop. That is two pawn shops, The Bargain Shop and a Liquidation World(on the busiest corner). All this on the three block strip.
I totally can see new business(investment in the community;tax dollars) going yippee over this... Good grief!
Greg-
As I am new to Cobourg, I really do not know who Dean McCaughey is, or what he is recognized for.
I do disagree with your solutions as it only addresses the problems that the locals are compelled to complain about. In the big picture what I really am trying to say is if you want to fix the unemployment problem(by bringing business here)... the cut backs at the hospital... the deterioration of the downtown core... then you must make downtown welcoming, the beach welcoming, and stop pretending it is the uncle nobody wants to say anything to.
And for those wondering... I am a Peacock from BC. I am not related to any others that live here now or before.
Yeah keep the cops out of the park, but what are you going to do when some drunken local bully kicks sand in your face?
If you're serious about running for Mayor, you'd better study up on who sits on Council. Dean McCaughey, a staunch and obnoxious conservative, has been there forever and is a skilled player of the game. One of the boys for sure.
Re the view often expressed here that it would somehow be racist or generally bad taste to charge admission to visitors to Cobourg Beach, the city of Plattsburgh NY which has a beach on beautiful Lake Champlain has been doing it for years. $7 a day for outsiders, city residents get a free pass. Check it out-- http://sites.google.com/site/cityofplattsburghrecreation/plattsburgh-city-beach
This is a response I sent to Greg Hancock after receiving an email. His email is very informative and thorough about the area. I just would prefer to keep the dialogue open so all can have their say:
Thanks Greg for this very insightful email.
I guess because I am a resident of less than a year I feel I do have the ability to speak freely about what I see and hear towards what I think is a major problem with this area.
Before we moved to Cobourg, my wife and I, our two young children lived in a town called Penticton BC for five years. Twice the size, virtually a carbon copy of this place. A gorgeous beach town where retirees also come to make their home. And why??? Because at some point in their travels they came across Penticton, thought it was "a great place to stay forever." - town slogan ;)
The big difference between Cobourg and Penticton is that the latter does try to balance what is needed for all generations so that the city can attract all ages to make the area sustainable after the seniors move on.
When I was living in Vancouver I can recall this big protest in North Vancouver because the residents of this one area, Deep Cove, were against further development that encroached into their press tine area. A little bit hypocritical when someone bulldozed that press tine area in the first place so that those people could live there, I thought?! What I see in my short time here is a community of people who somehow found this place, in their travels, and want to keep this area their little secret.
The locals, the transplants, want all the big services available but fail to realize, ignore that the senior tax base alone cannot sustain providing the top of the line health care services. So if this community continues to publicly state the area is too busy in the summer in a effort to keep tourist dollars away... if this community continues to fail in attracting new business, new tax dollars, young families, ... then this community will have that hospital heliport everyone seems to fear. What is that saying??... " You can't have your cake and eat it too"
When you have a chance check out the video below. I found it to be a very interesting piece that was aired on CNN Monday.
Best regards,
Dean Peacock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8dsKFiWx3Q
How many entry points to get into Plattsburg beach? Victoria Park is open everywhere, so a fence would have to be built with only two or three checkpoints, where staff would have to be hired. The fence would have to go down to the water, so that casual strollers along the water's edge couldn't get through without first being checked. Bad idea.
I note in Plattsburg, the fee is $7 per CARload. There are no parking lots IN Victoria Park, so ...
Ribfest can be located at Donegan, or Jammes Cockburn, or even on the grounds of the Industrial Park where there's lots of parking and the sound systems can be cranked up.
Wally,
Re Plattsburgh beach. Just because we might charge visitors for access to Cobourg beach to defray costs doesn't mean we have to set up a Stalag 17 there with gates, fences and guards. Visitors could buy a weekend pass, i.e. a coloured wristband and our security people who are already supposed to be patrolling there could do random checks, just like happens on the GO Trains. If you're found on the sand without a pass you pay a fine. Not a perfect system, some would avoid payment, and it would only be worthwhile doing on the weekends, but so what. Most visitors would comply and the beach revenue would give Cobourg taxpayers a break.
Anonymous: You're not serious. What makes you think Cobourg residents own or would even want to own this beach? It's the one thing you have to attract people to this town. Oh, yeah. You don't want people in this town.
Note to anonymous: We don't have security people at the Park, we have "Goodwill Ambassadors".
I'd much rather be harrassed by a goodwill ambassador than a security person, it sounds so much friendlier. Makes it all OK.
Some may have noticed that I have been carrying on a dialogue in the Northumberland News comment section of the original story that compelled me to write an opinion piece(http://www.northumberlandnews.com/news/cobourg/article/150004). Obviously I have spent time responding to beach residents affected by what they feel are the problems associated with that area. Democracy in action... all opinions count. My original goal of creating conversation has been accomplished. People are talking, sharing ideas, and showing that they truly care about where they live. I will add that whomever that was that suggested the idea of turning the pier into a true vibrant wharf gets the idea of enhancing this area, this beach. And if we can get the owners of the King Street buildings to put some fresh paint on the exteriors... we certainly might be able to create an area that new business finds worthy of making a base at. I fear that by just making the mayor's office modern will not do enough to satisfy corporate needs.
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