Changes Coming To Downtown Mansons

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The audio version of this story starts with Michael Keith’s impromptu response to a car horn sounding off during his Friday, July 12, performance in the Village Commons Music Series.   “I don't want to live in this crazy place,  all the horns are beeping all over the place.  Every time I try to play, I can’t - I hear another horn,  it's probably someone shopping for corn.”  There have been a lot of changes in what Manda Aufochs Gillespie calls the heart of ‘Mansons Landing.’ The big tent where Michael played has been moved  beside the Mansons Hall parking lot for the summer. Cortes Currents did not check to see if  Reef Point Farm is already selling corn at the Friday Market, but Sara Stewart was there. Her stall was involved in the realignment which now connects the Market with the Village Commons. Manda Aufochs Gillespie: "The Cortes Island Community Foundation is really excited to be partnered with our neighbors in particular, the Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) and Manson's Hall  to rethink the Village Commons and heart of Manson's in a way that would be more from the neighbourhood user experience."

"One of the first things we realized, when we started looking at this piece of land that we're calling the Village Commons, is how separated the land right beyond the radio station and FOCI was. As if to say, ‘Who cares about that?’"

"What we want is to have interactive places where we can come together as a community, and flow between. The grants that came with the Village Commons, when CCEDA passed that land to the community foundation, provided an opportunity to do some revisioning taking onto account that has happened in the past with CCEDA and the deliverables that we have to do."

“One of the things that came up again and again, when we were talking to the community, was that  people wanted to feel like there was less division between spaces. They wanted  to park their car, leave it for some period of time and walk between things."

"As you can see now,  the parking lot here at Manson's hall is starting to feel a little bit more organized. It's a little less overfull.  Now there's an overflow parking that's tucked in near the skate park and the museum that is publicly accessible with  a short trail that goes right to the Friday Market, Manson's Hall and the Village Common space."