City crews will continue to tolerate roadside memorials in most cases
Public works policy governing roadside memorials survives review mostly intact
Roadside memorials placed by grieving families to remember loved ones will continue to be mostly untouched by city crews.
The tributes, often consisting of floral displays, photographs and crosses, are only removed in rare circumstances, officials say.
“They’re generally left alone unless we get a complaint about them, or they’re in the way of work we need to do,” Darryl Astofooroff, the city’s public works manager, said Wednesday.
A city bylaw says roadside memorials, usually placed in tribute to people who have died in car crashes or been victims of violence, must not encroach onto the paved portion of a road or sidewalk, or obstruct the sightlines of motorists.
A roadside memorial can also be removed if, in the opinion of Astofooroff, it has become unsightly and not properly maintained by those who placed it.
“If we need to remove it, we try our best to contact the people who created it and let them know what’s happening, “Astofooroff said, estimating a roadside memorial is taken away by city staff only about once every two years.
No city records are kept about how many, or where, roadside memorials are placed.
The city’s approach to the memorials was one of 15 public works policies reviewed this week by council in an exercise that was largely housekeeping in nature.
Some policies, such as ones relating to traffic control in school zones and around special community events, were rescinded because they have been superseded by other regulations.
Others, such as policies on tourist information signs and the roadside memorials, received only minor revisions that don’t significantly change the intent or application of the bylaw.
In 2011, staff proposed a twoyear time limit on roadside memorials, but the idea was defeated by a majority of councillors.
“I don’t think we need a timeline. You can’t put a timeline on the length of time someone wants to acknowledge a death,” Coun. Charlie Hodge said at the time.
Coun. Luke Stack was the only one who supported the two-year time limit as “very reasonable.” Stack also expressed unease about the increasing practice of placing roadside memorials at intersections and along roads.
“That’s why we have cemeteries and special places to memorialize loved ones,” Stack said during the 2011 council discussion.
The idea of curbing such tributes came from a resident who suggested in a letter to the city that while she understood why they were placed, “the truth remains that these memorials are distracting to other drivers, are often in place for years, and are sometimes simply disgraceful.”
The average age at death for someone remembered by a roadside memorial is 24, researchers John Belshaw and Diane Purvey wrote in their 2009 book, Private Grief, Public Mourning, the Rise of the Roadside Shrine in B.C.
Young friends of the deceased, the researchers said, are much less likely than previous generations to accept that grieving is an activity that should only take place privately, or in traditional places such as churches, funeral homes and graveyards.