I have been visiting Nelson for many years. In fact, I was born here and lived my adolescent years in Nelson. With a lot of visits, I certainly have seen many changes; some good and some not so good.
I thought the hippy years were bad with all of the crude people that had moved to Nelson. It was really disgusting.Then after a while Nelson cleaned itself up. It had some nice stores to shop in, varying from higher class to junk stores and average ones.
I just came back from Nelson and I have to say that Baker Street is back to being full of dirty young people asking for money. Most of the nice stores have closed and all there seems to be is nice restaurants and a few nice stores.
Having people sitting on the sidewalk takes up so much space and the stone sitting areas are gross and taking up parking space.
It isn’t the most inspiring atmosphere for a tourist to visit. Nelson used to be known as the Queen of the Kootenays. I think that title is long gone.
The beauty is still there, but I don’t think the chamber of commerce has any visionairies to keep the city clean and make it desirable for tourists.
In fact there was a write up in our Seattle paper from a travel reporter about Nelson and he kind of stated the same thing about the bohemians, dogs and bikes on Baker Street.
Well, I just had to write you and hope that someone in Nelson can clean it up. It is an interesting place.
Anice King
Seattle