Blue-Ribbon Panel
By DIANA DAVIS DUERKOP
The waterfront is Kingston's premier recreational resource. It offers opportunity to get outdoors, to be active, to celebrate nature and to enjoy our natural advantage.
But Kingston needs a waterfront that is accessible to everyone, not just a few people, from Collins Bay to Ravensview. Accessible means that people can get to the shore via public walkways. They can ride bicycles on the pathway. Persons with disabilities can manoeuvre their wheelchairs easily, and people can actually use the shoreline and water. There is no shortage of ideas; just ask your family members and neighbours how they imagine the waterfront.
Kingston's waterfront pathway should be widened to offer separate cycling and walking lanes. The gaps in the trail need to be eliminated. The trail should have consistent pavement, signage and other markings along its entire length from west to east. The waterfront needs picnic tables, little fireboxes
to cook hot dogs, bathrooms and emergency communication in case assistance is needed.
Citizens and tourists should be able to visit marinas, walk on the docks and view the harbour from a boardwalk constructed on the breakwater at Flora MacDonald Basin. Private developers must no longer be able to build on the precious little bit of land left beside the water that has not been developed.
Make swimming in Lake Ontario and the western end of the St. Lawrence River a priority. Easyaccess beaches, ladders at docks and life-saving gear would encourage use. Put a couple of rafts out at Richardson Beach, restore the bathhouse, open a canteen and look for the swimmers. Open-water swimming is a natural for this area, so Kingston should have lots of athletes trying to qualify for the long-distance 10-kilometre events at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
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Hang-gliding and sailboarding are naturals for Kingston's waterfront. Provide suitable facilities at the PUC docks, where hang-gliding now takes place. There has been rowing in the Kingston area for almost 170 years. The Cataraqui river is perfect for rowing and canoeing (especially the competitive kind). A long competition course and new, attractive easy-to-access facilities, launching ramps and parking would draw more people to that part of the waterfront, and offer more "on water'" activities. This part of the waterfront is ideal for rowing and Olympic-style canoeing.
Recreational canoeing and kayaking are quite inexpensive activities, but there's no place to launch easily. Launch sites at West Street and at the rowing club are slippery and not planned for getting underway in one's canoe or kayak. As well, those sites aren't designed for trailering a small boat with an outboard motor or a Laser with a mast and gear. Besides, where do you park your trailer while you're out on the water?
The waterfront trail needs to be opened up from Collins Bay to the Woolen Mill, and along the shore to Ravensview. Post historical information all along the trail, as well as information about flora and fauna. There are many varieties of flowers, weeds and trees to see; wildlife is common. Walking tours with this sort of information available in windproof and waterproof boxes could be provided, and would be very popular.
Kingston's waterfront needs a champion. It needs someone or some group willing and able to go to bat for the waterfront, remove obstacles that are in the way and keep a citizen-focused vision in front of everyone. The waterfront champion needs to engage the municipality, province, federal government and citizens. Everyone in Kingston has opinions about the waterfront, and most of us yearn for the day when we can boast about our greatest treasure.
Our waterfront champion will empower us to take pride in what has been referred to as "the crown jewel of Kingston," will advocate for the waterfront and will enable us to find the means to do what Kingstonians wish for. Together we must do everything we can to develop this opportunity. It's long overdue.
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* Diana Davis Duerkop is a former vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and former president of Synchro Canada. She oversaw development of the rowing/canoeing course and river-edge boathouse for the 1989 Jeux Canada Games in Saskatoon. She has an extensive involvement in recreation, particularly swimming and boating, and is a waterfront enthusiast.
Article ID# 1279959
from The kingston Whig Standard, October 31, 2008.
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