Building Infrastructure for a tomorrow that will never come...
(Or: Pave Paradise and Put Up A Parking Lot)
Now that the $5 Million worth of improvements are done I'll offer a quick recap.
The "upgrades" removed the narrow strip of park - a variety of trees including 60 & 80 year old black maples, picnic tables, a break area, and the only vestiges of shade for a 150 Meters, all completely eradicated in favour of the stark sidewalk and parking for the Ferry. A wire fence now captures the litter.
The wheel well, a fenced curiosity salvaged from an old Ferry, is gone. Other than the signage promoting the hot-springs route and wildlife there's nothing here of interest.
A new washroom, months in construction, 2 gender neutral stalls that double lock - the first door and the second - while the old washrooms had capacity to serve 4 people at a time (at least 2 stalls in each - lady's & men's) they now can only serve 2 people at a time.
They didn't think this through.
That and the fact that they have now have a wheelchair accessible "Porta-Potty" outside suggests they didn't make the new 2 stalls wheelchair accessible, underlining the clusterfuck of government spending.
One would think that an increase in capacity for ferry traffic would naturally imply an increase in services, not a decrease. A piss-wall would have been an improvement, allowing the majority of bathroom breakers quick relief, now, wait outside the one of 2 stalls, the first door locks, enter the bathroom - large, spacious, with a single stall that has - that's right - another lock, so you can double lock yourself into the bathroom for added privacy.
This Ferry Landing, always an eyesore with it's rundown shops and housing, has been made substantially worse by the "improvements", resembling now nothing so much as a Wal Mart Parking Lot, without the convenience of the Wal Mart. $5 Million dollars would have been better spent leaving it alone, not "improving" it, but such is progress.