I agree with Ben. The lack of jobs is a very real factor for people.

I think his comparison to Fort St. John is a little unusual though. PG’s population boomed as a result of the forestry industry, pulp and paper, etc. It is now stagnant and in decline (as is the industry).

Fort St. John’s population boomed as a result of the Oil and Gas industry. That growth too will eventually become stagnant and go into decline (as will the industry). It may take 30-40 years, but it will happen. It took that same amount of time for PG as well.

That’s the problem with “resource towns”. They grow and contract based on the boom and bust cycle of the resources they depend on. PG, I think, is actually a good example of how diversification WORKS. If it were not for the University and the Health care sector in PG, the city could very well have a population of 40,000-50,000 people right now. The city has held relatively steady over the last little while DESPITE the downturn in forestry. Is it better to have a population of 45,000 or 75,000? I’d suggest the latter, even if the growth is stagnant. It’s better than decline.

Ben, there are still jobs in PG, just not as many of the “off the street blue collar” jobs that there were in the past. These jobs tend to follow very specific industries and unless a city is situated close enough to those factors, the jobs won’t be there either. You can’t just create these types of jobs, you need certain types of industry. So the question then becomes, what do you do if you no longer have those types of industry? Do you just say “oh well, the ride was good let’s go into decline mode”, or do you say “well let’s try and replace those jobs with other TYPES of jobs and try and make a run of it”? I think PG has done the latter with moderate levels of success, as evidenced by the fact that the population hasn’t fallen off a cliff.

The missing piece of this story is to look beyond Prince George and Fort St. John. What are other cities that DON’T have resource booms doing to grow? There are lots of those in Canada, but I think you’ll find that they are either very large urban centres, or that they are situated very close to those large urban centres. The exceptions that jump to mind for BC would be Kamloops and Kelowna. So how are they different than PG? Is it really just the sun or are there other factors that draw people to those areas?

PG is not Fort St. John. It’s roughly 4 times the size and the demographics are also different. Also, PG should not strive to be like Fort St. John. That would be a regression. PG has moved beyond the immediate “resource town” distinction and is now into that stage where it has to define its new identity to keep moving forward and growing. It is struggling with this task and I think part of that reason is because it is clinging to this notion that it still has to be a “mill town”. It doesn’t and people need to start recognizing that in order for the place to progress.

Social media, including blogs like this and people like me, are largely to blame, because it’s easy to create a culture of distrust, insults, attacks, and negative perceptions when hiding behind a computer or cell phone screen hurling out poorly informed and knee jerk reactions. How often do we see comments like “those idiots”, “foolish”, “morons”, “stupid”, etc. A great example is how we ourselves have identified our City as ‘potholes and crime’, and yet, that is hardly how outsiders see us. The thing I hate the most about this City is the negativity coming from ourselves. Apart from that, this is a superior City in many ways.

The fact that CN is making an investment in the rail lines between Rupert and Edmonton shows that they see major growth in the port as the global economy improves.

Where Prince George will miss out if Edmonton becomes the main inland port and we lose the jobs that would accompany it. Good paying jobs that would allow the city to see a return on the millions invested in roads, runways, sewer and water extension, etc.

It seems that IPG has put the logistics park on the back burner and has shifted their main focus to downtown. I imagine that they are now putting the spin on how this new direction attracted Embridge to locate an office here.

They can polish the turd that is downtown as much as they like but it will do little to create jobs. Expanding the help wanted section of the local rag is the ticket, be it logistics, industrial services to oil and mining sectors or attracting some new industry such as a LVL plant to the region is the way to go.

I’m totally in agreement with you on this Ben.

“Prince George and likewise Ft St John are not the bastions of culture, we are a community of hard working people whose best asset is to be able to roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”

Nowadays, we protest everything. Any new development is eyed with suspicion. NIMBY’ism is rampant. We have become a culture of whiners and victims.

There are no easy answers, but as I mentioned elsewhere, if we face our challenges head on vs. trying to pretend they don’t exist, we will be better off.

We need local municipal leaders who will give us the straight goods and speak openly about the issues facing this community.

yeah, so start by supporting the Enbridge pipeline. Because coyotes make lousy employers.

We’ve Lost Our Soul In Prince George

I think Prince George has suffered for a long time with not knowing or being able to identify Our Soul….are we all about moose, trees, rivers, people, urbanization, nature,technology, volunteerism,jobs, all of the above, some of the above sometime, or none of the above consistently enough to create a brand or larger sustainable vision for the community. The moose and City Scape image with Tourism PG is an attempt at branding PG with at least two identities, nature and urbanization.

Although PG has deep roots in forestry it is not the place from which the oil, gas, minerals and timber are being extracted, mined, exploited and sold overseas, although sometimes we act as though PG is the epicenter of all natural resource commodities, at best PG serves as the City that provides many of the ancillary supplies and services, with the transportation sector playing a key role via air, the trucking business and rail with CN’s intermodel facility. PG should, IMHO, expand the logistics park out near the airport and take advantage of lands available for light industrial development at lower costs than Kamloops, Kelowna or Vancouver. This would open up more jobs in PG linked to the natural resource sector.

Thankfully PG saw the writing on the wall and has diversified beyond being a single industry town where jobs in healthcare and education have risen above forestry.

The district of MacKenzie, as a single industry dependent town went through a devastating time….when pulp mills shut down they lost half of their population and workforce. I credit a lot of MacKenzie’s resiliency and bounce back efforts to the ‘mission possible’ attitude,commitment of and for the people and the leadership qualities of Mayor Stephanie Killam.

PG is not without challenges,e.g., high crime rate, poor infrastructure, frequent air quality issues, however we are also made up of folks who live by and practice a “can do” attitude without which we would not have UNBC and many of the civic facilities that exist today.

When it come to our Civic leaders I feel there needs to be a transformative shift from headlines to heartlines. Its time to press the “Play” button and truly represent the desires of the people of Prince George, could start by deleting the “wait and see” option and the alternate approval process.

Looking forward to a wedding in Fort St. John tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

I agree, with a caveat.

Ben says “we are a community of hard working people whose best asset is to be able to roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”

Except the job to be done in the 21st century is not the same job we’ve done in the last half of the 20th century.

Our population has not grown because it has turned over as our economic opportunities have changed and diversified.

But we lag on the culture (attitudes, soft skills) and investments that make the 21st century economy work because we romance what worked so well in the 20th.

“A great example is how we ourselves have identified our City as ‘potholes and crime’and yet, that is hardly how outsiders see us.”

Not so, of course! Crime statistics compiled outside of our city, letters fromj visitors to our newspapers complaining about our terribly potholed roads, annual surveys by a well-known national magazine and the BC Automobile Association (all outsiders) keep giving us outside opinions about our city and solidify the conclusions which every not blind folded city resident comes to when NOT ignoring the all too realistic evidence.

Visitors I had some years ago from Europe told me that although the aspects of nature all around this city are admirable the city itself (except for some nice newer subdivisions) is quite ugly in its rundown and neglected looking state. They said it looks as if nobody cares or gives a damn.

We can tell them to go back where they came from, but how would that address the problems we have?

Outsiders often come from other cities of a similar size which are attractive because money and effort have been put into making them that way on an ongoing and dedicated basis.

Sorry, but if we ourselves have some negativity about this city we have many good reasons to feel that way. What is accomplished as far as remediation and progress as concerned if we turn a blind eye by keeping quiet and putting lipstick on the pig?

‘There was a time where the greater good of the community was the first thought that came to mind. Today we have a culture that says what’s in it for me?’

That’s rich, coming from the guy who vehemently opposed the Friendship House on Queensway, the Baldy Hughes Recovery Centre and the Haldi Road Recovery Centre.

I don’t think Ben or others opposed those centers but they did oppose where they were located. There are right and wrong places for those centers and that is what people were trying to get across.

When one looks at “cities” one can define at least four distinct types of urban areas.

1. village – typically a central service area such as a restaurant, general store, gas station, post office etc. in a typical farming or forest harvesting community = very vulnerable to change as transportation networks and vehicle ranges change to bypass them. Major money leakage of large purchases to larger centres.

2.town – at least one major industry with some longevity employing several hundred and more people which draws other services in to provide addtional jobs ….. quite vulnerable based entirely on well being of the single industry. Considerable leakage of money from the community for goods and services.

3. city – multiple companies centered around a single industry originally, which has diversified into several other industries be they goods or service producing – the keyindicator is a diversification has taken place to level off the peaks and valleys. Money leakage has been reduced, but it is still considerable, with money turning over more frequently in the city before it exits.

3. metropolitan city – fully diversified; satellite communities built around it for proximity to economical and vast variety of goods and services to accommodate an almost total spectrum of lifestyles. The area is fed by the regional hierarchies of cities, towns and villages which can span a distance of thousands of kilometres typically state/province and national as well as internationl- Vancouver versus Toronto versus New York.

Fort St John still fits in under level 2. Grande Prairie, on the other hand, is well on its way to level 3. Fort St. John is not in a good location to overtake Grande Prairie, nor is it in a good economic position to do so.

It will take a miravle for PG to hit anywhere near a metro level of Urban development. With some economic changes in the future that are impossible to project, it might be possible in 50 years to have at it, who knows. If it ever reaches 150,000 or so population, there might be a chance. The key is diversification and reduced money leakage.

Kelowna is well on the way to move to a level 4 small metro urban agglomeration servicing what is becoming a linear urban agglomeration from Vernon to Osoyoos.

I agree with most of the posters here such as NMG who stated off by putting people on the right track.

Now … as to this soul business. Not a single person has written about that at all as far as I am concerned. Jobs and age are not the soul of a community. They might be the culture of a community. In my mind and dictionary culture and soul are not the same.

Comparing PG to Kamloops…
Back a long time ago the Yellowhead highway was being completed. The highway splits to go up to PG or Down to Kamloops at Tete Jaune.
For fun and PR it was decided that the city fathers at the time of both PG and Kamloops would hold a tug of war at the meadow at the foot of Mt. Robson. The winner of the tug of war would have the mileage sign to their city top most on the sign post at Tete Jaune…
It was silly but a fun idea.

Locals from Valemount and McBride showed up to witness the fun. Just before the appropriate time the folks from PG show up in a couple of cars… dressed more for a day at the office… a few minutes later Kamloops shows up. Two full tour buses full of supporters, the Kamloops Rube band and of course the council members… Pretty much a three ringed circus… Do not remember who won but I sure remember the stark difference between the two approaches…

“Losing one’s soul” is like losing compassion, ambition, hope, passion for the new and exciting, being in a rut. The officials of a city can demonstrate by their actions and decisions that they have not lost the positive attitudes that do the most good for the greatest number of people, all the while creating a youthful, progressive and positive ambience or atmosphere….

Alas, when a great number of residents are given for many years a cold shoulder and the short end of the stick in a matter that concerns all of the community (artificial water fluoridation, practiced by Prince George and NOT practiced by 98% of B.C.) it is in my opinion an indication that there is indeed a real lack of soul – or the lack of the positive qualities I described above.

Sad, to say the least. It wouldn’t cost a dime if PG would do as the rest of the province, so money is not the issue.

Whatever it is, it’s deeply entrenched and without a soul, compassion or understanding, in my opinion.

Not easy to pick out the central thesis of your argument, but I agree, there is a large faction of people in this city who feel they are ‘owed’ something. I recently listened to a middle-aged woman in the rural fringe of city limits accuse the city of isolating her teenagers by not providing city transit to her neighbourhood. She failed to realize that it was HER choice to live in a rural location, and her lack of efforts that failed to find alternatives (bicycles, carpooling, etc).

But I would disagree that the young people in Fort St John are more prosperous in than in Prince George. They may have more money but they certainly don’t have more community. The time I spent in FSJ, I was taken aback by the rampant racism, sexism, drug use, and indulgent consumerism amongst the ‘young and hip’ in FSJ.

Because I am young, I am constantly surrounded by other young people every day in Prince George – there is no lack of them. And they work very darn hard to build community in this town. What they do lack is representation in any of the powers that be. All governments levels, federal, provincial, municipal, fail to represent that wishes and concerns of young populations.

Employers too, are filled with aging and overpaid senior staff who should have retired already and allowed the proper succession of young people into their careers. The CBC did a piece of delayed retirement and found the majority of working seniors just didn’t want to stop working. VOLUNTEER already! Young people are relied on the fill our volunteer needs, but the struggle to pay the bills. Meanwhile we have a huge working population that should be retiring and filling those volunteer need, but don’t.

I think they feel they are ‘owed’ something. Like a pension that is more than the annual income of most people under 30.

“What they do lack is representation in any of the powers that be. All governments levels, federal, provincial, municipal, fail to represent that wishes and concerns of young populations.”

Amen to that!

It’s not only the young people who feel that all government levels fail to represent them properly. Older and real old people too have started staying away at election time because they feel so frustrated.

What to do? Beats me!

Prince George and curmudgeonscurse … excellent posts… a start to where I think we need to take this conversation …

Remember what our neo-mayor stated … we need to have a conversation ….. this is the type of conversation we need to be able to have ….

Many years ago we had a healthy community committee of City Council. It It lasted for about 2 years. People on Council and administrators really did not understand what a healthy community is. While it has something to do with medical health, that is only a part of it.

Having a soul is a starting point. If one wants to put it into a pure functional measurable to start with, then think of it as being the reason why we live here rather than in another location.

curmudgeonscurse, some seniors have to work as they do not have enough money to live on as all governments and utilities keep putting the cost of living up. But you are correct that the seniors should move on and let the young people have a chance. In Holland they had the problem of young people not being able to get into teaching, so the government pensioned off teachers over 50 as the government felt that young people need the jobs so that they would get married and have families.

As for no soul, we lost that years ago. Remember when a dance studio had the street people moved from Queensway into the Miller and Connought areas (then in less than a year the studio moved). I talked to people in the downtown assoc. and said that they way to help the downtown was to help the Miller and Connought areas but it is like talking to a brick wall. By the way I do not live in the Miller or Connought areas but I am upset to see neighbourhoods have problems that were just moved from one area to another.

Graymare:”…but it is like talking to a brick wall..”

The brick wall (MP, MLA, NH, City Officials, etc, etc) would say to that: ‘Well, you talked to me, I even replied to your letters (sometimes) and emails (sometimes) and I listened! What else do you want? Were you thinking that a brick wall had a soul? You fool! Now I don’t want to talk to you any more!’

Next….

I guess I want to believe that they really want to hear what we have to say, especially when we put out ideas that can help or at least should get people talking. But you are right PrinceGeorge, they do not want to listen or help people, they just want to toe the party line and get their paychecks.

Highest crime rate, worst roads, high unemployment….and a Mayor that is the best example of “In it for Me!” and we are in awe why P.G is a laughing stock in B.C? Why WOULD someone want to live here……

We lived in PG for almost a decade and have been gone for a year now. We had a great experience in PG for a variety of reasons; cheap housing, reasonably good services, restaurants that we wish we could still go to, good employment, good friends and neighbours, pretty good schools and proximity to lots of good fishing.

What we couldn’t live with anymore was the pulp stench, the awful appearance of the city, the distance to other large centres, etc. but most of all we had to escape the tediously long Winters and all the crap that comes with it (snow, ice, gravel, rock chips, huge sludgy melt puddles, shovelling, expensive tires, etc etc etc.)

We moved internationally to a warmer climate and we can’t believe we stayed in PG so long now that we know what life can be like in a significantly more esthetic and suitable place, for us, with clean air to boot.

Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of people who love PG for all the right reasons and I don’t blame them for staying, but we wouldn’t live there ever again.

Hope your sunny weather continues.

George has had its day but we refuse to admit to it. In the 60’s when the pulp mills were being built we missed the opportunity for a good viable future but we thought that the good times wood go on for ever and there are those that still believe that we can become a large City

The problem is that bigger is not better and until we loose that vision Prince George will continue to decline. And that image is slowly dragging us deeper into the mirage.. Until we start to focus on our City and forget about the economy things can never improve . We will just remain a grubby mill town..

We need an entire new staff at City Hall. People that can focus on improving the life style of our City by looking at our infrastructure, our parks and creating an image that will be appealing to those who pass through our City. We have to start looking in word and forget about expansion. When we start to provide for those who live here only then can we grow.
Cheers

When we consider why Prince George is in the stall position (population wise) then we must consider what brought us to the population we have today, mainly the Pulp and Lumber industry. This industry is not growing in Prince George, but rather is shrinking. I am really thankful for UNBC & CNC and now the Cancer Centre which has helped diversify our economy. But we still need more; young people with young families can not live on ten dollar an hour jobs, so they must move where the good paying jobs are. Enbridge will not bring many long term jobs to our City, once the pipe line is built you do not need much of a workforce to baby-sit an oil line.

Prince George has a lot going for itself and with the right leadership is on the cusp of greatness. Unfortunately our current leadership is seriously lacking and are bankrupt for ideas; who cannot see beyond fourth avenue.

We keep reading how PGs population has been stagnant for 30 years…I have to wonder who is living in all the real estate that has been developed in the last 30 years? Look behind Walmart, that wasn’t there, subdivisions popping up every where and no population growth? Really?

Jim: “…I have to wonder who is living in all the real estate that has been developed in the last 30 years?”

Families who lived together years ago now have grown up kids who live in their own homes.

My cohort of PG’ers in our late 30’s has declined by over 25% from what we amounted to in our teens. When 75% of an entire generation leaves the city and that cohort is in its prime family years now, then its no wonder PG’s population has gone stagnant.

One look at demographics and we see a boom in the over 50 cohorts, so we know people that can’t retire anywhere else settle for PG. Its a start, but that isn’t the kind of demographic that is interested in building a city for its future livability.

One look at our school population and we see the population has has halved in the last 15 years… nearly two dozen community centers aka schools have been closed and sold to junk yard collectors that chase playground trespassers off with a shot gun. Would be parents no longer have the option of a family supporting job at Rustads, Winton Global, North Central Plywood, Lakeland Mills, Clear Lake, Neatherlands, Upper Fraser, BC Rail, and a variety of other smaller mills like Canadian Woodworks… we’ve lost family supporting jobs at places like Woodwards, Safeway, and many small business entrepreneurs only to be replaced with minimum wages at Walmart and Superstore… if someone said this would be the case 15-years ago I’m not sure anyone would believe the prediction/forecast.

If PG lost its soul its because it lost its family supporting regular folk jobs, and thus lost its family aged cohorts that would have replenished the younger generations… that is a simple enough conclusion, but its only half the story. Thousands of jobs have been created in the oil and gas and mining sectors… tens of thousands more in potential diversification… the problem is no one wants to live in PG anymore when they can just as easily catch a direct flight from Kelowna or the Island to the places they work in PG’s back yard.

A big part of this resident drain is the shape of the community and the inappropriate quality of the rental and housing stock in the city. Only in PG can you drive down a main arterial road and see weeds growing out of the median the size of a small car… weeds everywhere and landscaping efforts minimal… a poster above said it shows a ‘we don’t care attitude’ and that is what PG civic attitude is all about for those that are left behind.

IMO the biggest problem for PG is the narrow minded downtown revitalization partisans that insist PG can only grow if we throw more money at the downtown and more money at propaganda to tell outsiders how good PG is. Why not focus more on improving the great neighborhoods PG has (some of which have fantastic air quality), improving the cities own fiscal situation (reducing the debt obligations) so as to be truly ahead of our competitors, and attaining a reasonable standard for our roads and right of ways.

In Melbourne, the richest city in the former British Empire, the highest quality of life of any city in the world, the most parkland per capita of any major city (4.5 million people), and the third ranked university city in the world… they have no mayor, no single person in charge… its build a great city by committee… politicians are elected to represent each area of the city and they work like a small parliament of equals for the greater good of the whole city. A former resource city PG could learn to grow up from IMO.

Jim13135 wrote: “I have to wonder who is living in all the real estate that has been developed in the last 30 years”.

The simple answer is that the number of people per dwelling unit is decreasing.

In 2001 there were 2.47 people per dwelling unit in PG. 10 years later it was 2.26.

The median age of the population changed from 33.9 to 38.1 = less children and aging population.

The change in population from 2001 to 2011 was a loss of 432.

The increase in housing units was 2,452. That reflects apartments, houses, rental suites, etc.

Just look at this dynamic as a for instance:

1. teenagers in 2001 living at home move out by 2011 – move into an apartment, move out of town, etc. That increases the need for new dwelling units in one case and reduces population in the other case.

2. Young couple move to PG, rent or buy a dwelling unit, are childless or will have a single child. Will increase dwelling units, but keep average number of people per dwelling unit low, especially when compared to earlier families of 4.

Melbourne, eh?

We are not talking a metro city when we talk Prince George. We are not talking a City that is a capital City of a state or province.

Here are the facts about declining population in Australian small towns and cities that are remote, not satellites to growing metro areas and located in poor sinlge indutrial settings – farming and mining in Australia’s case.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f95845417aeca25706c00834efa/1d90c1ef4ac928d5ca2570ec0018e4f7!OpenDocument

from the above link
“While the majority of small towns existing in 1986 had experienced population growth by 1996, nearly a third (31%) declined in population. 10% had declined by more than 10%. Most of these were inland.

“Towns in decline between 1986 and 1996 were usually inland in wheat-sheep belts, dryland grazing regions or mining regions. Conversely, most towns experiencing substantial population growth were coastal, located around metropolitan capital cities, or associated with growth in particular industries such as wine growing or tourism.”

We have to stop pretending we are something we are not. Start understanding what we are and do not compare us to large metro areas which basically grow themselves in a world economy.

Gus we are not all the things you say we can not become despite the natural potential, and that more than anything is the real shame on PG. Most people know this and shake their heads blaming the politicians that share a part in the blame. In reality there are a lot of optimistic believers in PG… just listen to all the people that after all these years still insist PG is on the cusp of great things.

As well the cities you cite in Australia… they happen to be statistics for cities under 20,000. Most all of them (95%) were under 3000 people (greatly skewing the value of the statistic in the case you are using it for)… hardly comparable to PG. I think they only had ten towns in the whole country that lost over 500 people over that decade (I don’t think any were over 5000 people towns)… Northern BC alone has that many towns that lost 500 people.

My point was if we want to be a city that builds on its own momentum someday we should learn from real leaders in building a great community people want to live in that are not based on a top down centralized business model.

Yes people want to live in a city that serves their needs, but it shouldn’t be at others expense.

Other world leaders grew up from being mining towns playing on their strengths and not being afraid to have sprawling suburbs of family homes with development to service these suburbs in clusters, rather than focusing entirely on the center… with sustainable community growth in the periphery (ie the Hart, College Heights, Foothills, Salmon Valley, Airport) it brings wealth and opportunity to grow for all.

That or we can open up a downtown robot zoo and advertise as a city where you will loose your soul… a future Barkerville of sorts thats all automated.

Eagleone wrote: “As well the cities you cite in Australia… they happen to be statistics for cities under 20,000. Most all of them (95%) were under 3000 people (greatly skewing the value of the statistic in the case you are using it for)… hardly comparable to PG”

What you do not understand, eagleone, is that PG grew big time when 3 pulp mills set up shop here. Since then it has maintained it population, more or less, because the government has seen fit to increase its service capacity in the health and education fields so that more people can access both services in the region.

PG, is a regional centre which services many, if not most of the 20,000 and under communities to the west, the same to the north up up to the Pine Pass at least, the few there are to the east, and even to the south as far as Quesnel with a split happening at Williams Lake which shares their service needs with PG and Kamloops.

When something happens to those smaller communities, we feel it here. We are very much dependent on them for some of our livelihood.

If one does not understand that, and IPG as well as its forerunner understood that.

“Other world leaders grew up from being mining towns playing on their strengths”

First of all, mining is not the be all and end all. Far from it.

Since the death of the middle ages, as well as throughout the Roman and Greek empire in the west before those “dark” times the workd cities of today have grown because of trade. Moving raw materials and goods from where they can be found, to places where there were concntrations of people who needed and wanted them. There was a hierarchy of those cities very much based on reasonable travel distances as well as access to local resources.

Over time, the smaller communities died off while some grew to be larger. A very simplified version can be seen along Hwy97, the old Cariboo trail with all its stagecoach houses spaced based on a days travel. The only one to survive and grow far beyond what it was, is 100 Mile house.

Virginia City, in Nevada, is a tourist town, while the City which serviced that and other mining towns like them has grown into the San Francisco and the entire Bay Area of today. Why it and not Virginia City? As they say in real estate – location, location, location. Access to ALL forms of transportation, especially the sea, diverse economies around the agricultural belt of California, etc.

Gold made California, then the agriculture, then the movie industry, then the computer industry as well as government research facilities. Diversification. The climate and scenery were and are the real assets of California as are the access to the riches of the hinterland.

Remind anyone of Vancouver? It took a long time for the rest of Canada to understand that.

I think the link is to a very good opinion piece about what does “soul of a city” mean.
http://urbandirection.blogspot.ca/2010/05/soul-of-city.html

From that opinion piece, some of the more important statements:

1. “Having a high percentage of people from the city, distributed across income brackets, means that people across the city have memories of the city.”

2. “if half the city does not pay attention to itself, well I still think its souless.”

3. “in the end successful cities are those that encourage people to live in them and raise their children in them. Not all these cities are functional, but they do have people passionately fighting for, well, their souls.”

from another site ….

“There are two ways of looking at cities.

“The first is that of the tourist, the newly arrived foreigner who looks at the buildings, monuments, avenues and skylines from outside.

“There is also the inside view, the city of rooms in which we have slept of corridors and cinemas and old classrooms, the city made up of the smells and lights and colors of our most cherished memories.

“To those viewing them from outside, one city can seem much like the next, but a city’s collective memory is its soul and its ruins are its most eloquent testimony.”

Now, take that last paragraph and look around you at what this City thinks about its heritage ….. NADA!! There are by far too few people here that understand what that means and how important it is to the soul of a city.

BTW, based on some of those notions of what it means for a city having a soul … essentially memories that get passed on from generation to generation … cities like Fort St. John would just be finding its soul.

Wonder if it will have more success at that some 50 to 100 years down the road than PG seems to be having.

From another blog come these words of wisdom:

“That’s how we see cities – they are our histories in bricks and mortar. ….. the best cities offer us places not just to work, play and sleep but for our lives to unfold in unexpected and colourful ways.

“But here’s the rub: can you manufacture the ingredients you need for the maps to appear? It’s not enough to have tall towers or smart communication systems. It doesn’t help if your city is carbon neutral or has its own app. Without history, without layers, serendipity, without the chance for remembering where your dad once got off the bus, can a city have soul?

“Too many cities-from-scratch planners pretend to care about such things but really don’t. They are throwing up perfect technopolises with gleaming metro stations but they are ones that I fear will never get renamed Proposal Point or Love At First Sight in anyone’s mental map.”
—————————————-
In my quick search on the internet about the topic of cities and their souls, it seems that the most popular thinking all goes back to memories…..

What makes a person who he/she is? What is a person? What is the soul of a person? Thinking outside the religious answer to that, I think it needs to be the past experiences and retained memories of those past experiences.

In my mind, it is the same for a city. It is the collective memories of the people who give the city its soul. Because a successful city remains for centuries, it embodies the most important memories, of both good times and bad in physical places, both natural and man-made.

That is what the heritage commission in this city should be about. But it is struggling with that duty to this city.

Analyze this Ben….

Prince George has lost its “soul”? What the heck are you talking about?

What is this mickey mouse comparison to a community that has black gold flowing out of the ground? Any community can look good with both boots dipped in that black crap!

And what is this about “spirit” and the good old days….your thoughts reflect an attitude of the way it was, pining for the past to re-appear?

News flash, it ain`t coming back. This is the 21st Century.
My opinion is that our community is alive and well, yes, and holding at 74,000 people. I have gladly lived here for 30 years. There have ben a lot of changes since we moved here and for the most part I believe they have made Prince George a much better place to live.

In my opinion our City and region has been reloading from a foresty based community to a much broader based service oriented region. Yes, it was out of neccesity, but that is what evolution is all about. We did`t dry up and blow away like some forestry communities.
The old days are not coming back. I would suggest that anyone who thinks it is should get out and smell the roses…
Yes they are a different colour and yes they smell differently but they are roses.