Monday, June 26, 2017

A Day At Cobourg Beach



A Day At Cobourg Beach by Tracy Hanes
526 views, 1 minute, 7 seconds, Published on Sep 10, 2012


This is a beautiful montage of Cobourg beach images that suggest the sublime. Tracy Hanes is a free lance videographer, well-travelled and a fan of equestrian events. She has done other videos of Cobourg.  

Cobourg Beach by Alma Latina Mag


Cobourg Beach by Alma Latina Mag
96 views, 3 minutes, 29 seconds, Published on Aug 17, 2015

This video is a combination of slideshow and video. Alma Latina Magazine has a Facebook presence of Toronto-centred entertainment and political news. The visit consists of a few Latina families lazying about, kick ball, eat, throw ball, eat.

Cobourg Beach by Jenko



Cobourg Beach, by Jenko
69 views, 1 minute, 35 seconds, Published on 6 Sep 2016


This a slick video by a young Filipino-Canadian, stylizing her family’s visit to Cobourg. They travel up to the downtown district and pose themselves inside and outside of Victoria Hall. She has a few videos, one of which is Cobourg Beach, so it was a special day, especially with extended family and friends. 

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Cobourg Beach by Canadian South Asian Sports & Recreational of the Deaf


Cobourg Beach, by CSASROD CSASRODEAF,
103 views, 8 minutes, 32 seconds. Published on Jul 26, 2015


A busload of Sri Lankans belonging to the Canadian South Asian Sports & Recreational of the Deaf visit Victoria Park for a picnic. Unlike the other videos, there is no music track. It is genuine, authentic happiness. Must be something in the air in Victoria Park. Their video channel indicates that they do day trips from Toronto to other locations.

Cobourg Beach Party


Cobourg Beach Party by Nicolin Barnett

Published on Dec 3, 2012 “Good Time at Cobourg beach”
3 minutes, 18 seconds, 1,322 views


A group of young people come to play and party on the beach. They are in great health, happy, having fun and frolic. Simple as that. Got a lot of views though.

Cobourg Beach -- Vlog, August 28, 2016



Cobourg Beach -- VLOG, August 28, 2016
By Verna Diaz, 4 minutes, 15 seconds, 79 views,
Published on Aug 31, 2016

This is a perfect beach to visit with the whole family. Walk on the warm sand, enjoy swimming in the perfect clear water, stroll around downtown of Cobourg, and a whole day soaking the sunshine.


Verna Diaz is new to the vlogosphere. Her videos are very family-focused. The extended family picnics in the park. The grandchildren bounce balls and frolic on the beach. The family gathers to sing a song of back home. The children soak in the water feature. The soundtrack could be less repetitive. Again, we have another Love Cobourg Beach video produced without cost by day tripper tourists. 

Kirby @ Cobourg Beach


Kirby @ Cobourg Beach, by Darren Singian
2 minutes, 55 seconds 175 views 

Published on Sep 7, 2016.  End of Summer Sixteen at Cobourg Beach! Kirby's birthday with family and friends. Beach body at a Beach party!!! Come and get some gains! Follow, like, subscribe! God bless!”

Darren Singian, along with Kirby, and friends, are participants in the World Gym Powerlifting Meets, which explains the bicep displays on Cobourg Beach. When ya got it, flaunt it. It was Kirby’s birthday, so … Darren runs a VLOG for his Filipino family and friends. His video of Cobourg indicates a savviness with the camera and editing. First generation Canucks, healthy, happy, frolicking on Cobourg Beach, and making a charming video.

Darren Singian is also into choreography, check his YouTube Channel.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Day Tripper Videos of Cobourg Beach.

Over recent years Cobourg’s local media were given over to hosting a number of negative perceptions by locals about tourists, who are accused of bringing nothing to Cobourg and leaving only garbage. Meaner things have been said. Hundreds of column inches have been published year after year, always with a noticeable hole in the coverage of tourists to Cobourg.

No newspaper, no blog, no local pundits, have ever interviewed a tourist to Cobourg. No one has any curiosity about who the tourists are. How they regard us.  How pathetic is that?!

Cobourg Tourism has hired professionals to make 20 videos over seven years that have been published on Youtube and Facebook. The number of views and shares they have acquired is remarkably modest. They are formulaic, contrived and mediocre. Cobourg taxpayers paid how much for these videos?

Romantic Getaways (https://youtu.be/3tCEM00jqSo) consists of a middle age couple, (hired models) he white, she not. They disembark at the yacht docks, sniff flowers at the Farmer’s Market, stroll downtown, eat local food, walk the beach, all done to peppy music; not a single hair out of place. It is obviously contrived. Something is missing and it is authenticity, sincerity and genuine happiness.

I will be showcasing videos about Cobourg beach on my blog, Cobourg of All Things (cobourgtown.blogspot.ca) over the next few weeks. The videos were made by daytripper tourists. They are amateur, charming, authentic and sincere. They are unabashedly happy about their visit to Cobourg. All this publicity FOR FREE!

Invariably, these day tripper tourists are from assorted communities of immigrants. Many of the videos were produced by their Canadian-born children. Their day trip to Cobourg is integral to their successful integration to Canadian values.

There is a gold mine of videos produced by day tripping tourists and uploaded to the YouTube commons. Why couldn’t Cobourg Tourism or Downtown Cobourg feature one or more on their social media pages. It is surprising that not a single professional promotional outfit has thought to use images from some of these authentic videos for a montage. Nor have any local videographers. Inside the box is a safe space for them all. There is an incredible lack of imagination.


Enjoy the series of videos. I will attach my own commentary to each video. If you like the video, feel free to ‘like’ it or ‘share’ it. 

Our Trip to Cobourg Beach



Published on September 8, 2013 “The city of Cobourg is about 1 hr east of Toronto. It has a extremely nice clear water beach. We've had a very nice Sunday afternoon visiting this beautiful town.4 minutes, 56 seconds, received 81 views

The video was directed by Amjed Alseed and it stars the
Ibrahim Family, Amjed Alseed, Dana Aziza
Omaran Family, Mustafa, Mai, Rawan, Bashir
Jumaa Family, Mohamed, Asma, Aya, Hamid, Areej

Amjed has made several videos. He has a delightful video of the Salmon Run in Bomanville Creek and another of him Flying Circuits at Smith Falls Flying Club.

Out Trip To Cobourg Beach starts out with children running about, being tossed into the air, and all the happiness is assisted with a sound track borrowed from Toy Story, ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me.’ The family leaves Victoria Park to go uptown to Pizza Pizza, and bring back three pizzas to the Park. They buy more food at the Park canteen. Then there’s children on swings; children playing kick ball with adults, a small girl full of talk talk talk, and three children riding bikes.


At the end of the day, Dad drives the children back to the city, the camera in the car recording the children singing. It is saturated with charm until the very end, when the talk talk talk girl with a touch of disappointment and attitude in Victoria Park says, “We have to go back home.” Fini.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Cobourg Tourism Videos

June 20, 2017

Dear Cobourg Town Council (Brian Darling);

Last May I came across a 2017 promotional video, Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny
The video acquired 195,000 views in a month; it was also shared 2500+ times.

This is what Cobourg Tourism has achieved on YouTube:
1.      Cobourg’s heritage, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/dTZN6xQHJJM,) 484 views, 3 min.
2.      Sandcastle Festival, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/S-dfhMZR5us,)  5,877 views, 41 sec
3.      The Waterfront, 2010, ( https://youtu.be/S-dfhMZR5us ) 393 views, 33 sec
4.      Love Locks, 2013, ( https://youtu.be/r8JfxlfyoJY,) 2,920 views, 55 sec
5.      Sand Castle Trailer, 2014, ( https://youtu.be/6ltTnmpl5Oo ) 2,316 views, 1 min.
6.      Welcome To Cobourg, 2014, (  https://youtu.be/0_p1u8balGw ) 2,021 views, 1 min.
7.      Aerial View of Waterfront, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/0_p1u8balGw ) 884 views, 1 min.
8.      Feel Good Town, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/X1Lle21pHFE )  5,053 views, 1 min
9.      Family Adventures, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/xnCplg8GofA ) 1,035 views, 1 min.
10.  Romantic Getaways, 2015, ( https://youtu.be/3tCEM00jqSo ) 1664 views, 1 min.
11.  Patio Time, 2016, ( https://youtu.be/ini2FvQh6Ak ) 260 views, 27 sec
12.  Adventures In Cobourg, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/ZLvdiT4rbP8 ) 12 views, 26 sec
13.  Family Fun, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/Ojp8dgIg27c ) 14 views, 30 sec
14.  Summer in Cobourg, March 2017, ( https://youtu.be/JcquVet_UV0 ) 20 views, 29 sec

Total views over seven years; less than 23,000
Total number of ‘shares’: ZERO!  

This is what Cobourg Tourism has achieved on Facebook:
1.       Cobourg At Dusk, July 2015, 14,659 views, 441 shares
2.       Romantic Getaways, July 2015, 2,494 views, 77 shares
3.       Kiteboarding In Cobourg, December 2015, 9,262 views, 229 shares
4.       Cobourg Does Summer, July 2016, 2,518 views, 37 shares
5.       Family Fun, August 2016, 522 views, three shares.
6.       Adventures in Cobourg, August 2016, 3,521 views, 38 shares

Total Facebook Views; almost 33,000.
Total Facebook shares; 825.

Overall total: 56,000 views
Overall shares: 825

A Facebook search of “Cobourg Tourism” brings up three sites. Two are unused; they should be deleted to avoid confusion.

A YouTube search of “Cobourg Tourism” brings up four sites. Each site has two, three or four subscribers who will never receive notice of a new uploaded tourism video because Cobourg Tourism does not upload them to the ‘old’ site. This is inconsistent. It is unhelpful to those who search for Cobourg Tourism and have four choices of the same thing. It’s unfair to accept subscriptions to a site that will never deliver. It’s clutter. It would be preferable if these four YouTube sites be consolidated into one site and all new videos be up-loaded to that single site.

It would be advantageous if there were more linkages. Once the new videos are uploaded, the Town should email Town staff with the video links, and suggest that they post them to their social media, for their friends and family from afar. Suggest that service clubs link the videos on their social sites, request to embed a particular video appropriate to a site, eg. embed the video that includes the Ecology Garden in the Ecology Garden website, or harbor yachts on the Cobourg Yacht Club site. Cogeco could broadcast these videos in subwindows, eg as they do with photos. DBIA could forward the video urls to all of the businesses to share on their websites. Why does Cobourg Media, Cobourg News, Cobourg Now, Northumberland News, Northumberland Today, not host the videos? Why can’t these videos be linked/embedded in a sidebar on the Downtown Cobourg Facebook site?

One video of a Port Hope event gets 2500 shares in a month; Cobourg Tourism gets 825 shares from 20 videos over seven years. Hmmmmm. What’s missing?

It would be advantageous for Cobourg Tourism to develop a coherent policy and protocols concerning how best to promote the videos before spending any further money on new videos.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

YouTube Videos of Cobourg Beach

YouTube Cobourg Beach

(https://youtu.be/k9Kji79-KTk) young people having fun, 3 min, 1289 views
(https://youtu.be/Bzwv1XiIViE) tourist children having fun, 10 min., 4816 views
(https://youtu.be/cGXxh2KZOcY) Just A Lil Trip With The Family To Cobourg Beach. 15 min, 108 views
(https://youtu.be/3LvcVPWQ5nk) Hong Luo visits & makes a charming romantic video of Cobourg beach, 8 min. 83 views.
(https://youtu.be/H-w3ICvpccA) Verna Diaz family visit the beach & sing, 4 min, 78 views,
(https://youtu.be/QRhNCj_KeHs)  “End of Summer Sixteen at Cobourg Beach! Kirby's birthday with family and friends. Beach body at a Beach party!!! Come and get some gains!” 3 min, 169 views.
(https://youtu.be/VMoOIh10WOA) a bunch if deaf people visit and have a great time, 8 min. 101 views.
(https://youtu.be/bDbbIu-mwKg) Tracy Hanes visits Cobourg beach; sets it to music. 1 min, 521 views
(https://youtu.be/sd2KG9lCJik) jumping off the pier 10 years ago, 35 seconds, 6421 views
(https://youtu.be/XfgusBfA7Ec) jumping off the pier, 48 seconds, 1389 views.
(https://youtu.be/006o4pa285U) Jenko visits; makes a beautiful music video of Cobourg, 2min, 66 views

(https://youtu.be/98fak1662hw) amjedo makes a love video of Cobourg, 5 min, 69 views

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Darcy Street Railway Crossing Sidewalk Condition

The barrier prevents any passage of those seniors on mobility devices. It also prevents the passage of anyone on a bicycle. This is attested by the well worn paths leading out to the street, placing them in danger. In the image Looking north, there is a drop-off on the west side of the sidewalk, making it hazardous to those requiring walkers.

Below are two sections of sidewalk, one between the tracks, the other immediately north of the tracks. Their condition is pitiful. There is no sidewalk in Cobourg that is in worse condition than this. It is a hazard for everyone.