Downtown Partnership Days Numbered
Monday, October 7, 2013 @ 3:53 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Say goodbye to the Downtown Partnership.Prince George City Council will receive a report this evening calling for the Partnership to be concluded.
This was a Committee established when Dan Rogers was Mayor. Initially called the Mayor’s Task Force for a Better Downtown, it brought together key stakeholders with the aim of cleaning up the core and developing strategies to revitalize the downtown.
With a new Mayor in place in late 2011, the focus shifted away from the downtown, and on to the new “Mayor’s Task Force on Crime”.
The balance in the Downtown Partnership’s “account” is about $124 thousand, money the report to Council suggests should be used for things like public art and tree plantings.
According to the report, there are just a dozen recommendations left of the 69 that were presented when the Partnership did it’s planning phase back in 2009.
Of the 12 items, some are designated as issues the DBIA should handle, two are marked “future” ( Performing Arts Centre and bike lanes/bike storage), some are designated as being linked to the Wood Innovation and Design Centre, and one ( Health and Wellness Centre) is marked as not being the City’s responsibility.
So with all of that in mind, Council will be asked this evening to conclude the Partnership, and redistribute the remaining funds.
Also on the agenda for this evening’s regular meeting of Council, the Mayor’s report on her planned trip to Jiangmen China. She is not asking for Council’s support , rather, her report is informational in that it outlines why she , along with IPG’s Heather Oland and City Manager Beth James, will be heading to China.
Comments
Why not use the money to add a public washroom and some garbage bins downtown. Help people help themselves to making the downtown a better place to be. Nobody would much notice this money if it was used for that… otherwise it will likely get wasted on something else.
Like a trip to China?
Trips to China have separate accounts. Then again, the City is famous for moving money around. Sometimes it is under this thimble, sometimes under that. ;-)
Good post eagleone…… Public washroom downtown is needed. There is one in Revelstoke and it is available for use.
PG has what appears to be a public washroom, located in a similar area to the one in Reveletoke.
The PG “public washroom” is located in the Civic Square, in the library/Art Gallery area.
The difference between the 2 public washrooms is that the one in PG is always locked …. and so the bushes are used as a public washroom.
“Heaven forbid” that our city mayor & council provide a public washroom to the homeless. This demographic doesn’t exist in PG according to them and their supporters!
Great idea Eagleone. Not sure how long they’d last though. They’d probably end up getting trashed and not everyone would be comfortable with the sort of poeple one may encounter while utalizing a public washroom in downtown PG.
OR… fill some more pot holes!
re: public washrooms.
It’s a good idea on the surface, I have to agree with only2c. Downtown public washrooms would just be a hub for crime, vandalism, and a spot for the junkies to shoot up in. This is PG after all.
Honesty about the shape of our society is the first step: It is in need of major repair! The second step is to stop the endless negativity, pessimism and resignation and actually roll up our sleeves and do the right things to start fixing it!
Hopefully, by ‘rolling up our sleeves and doing the right thing’ that means more than sitting on the computer and posting comments. It’s all too easy to say what we ‘should’ be doing…
Our Courthouse is a public building, and they have public washrooms. Problem is they are not open after 5/6pm and on week-ends.
I realize that there would be a lot of *red tape* involved, however you would think that we could use these facilities, at least on Saturdays when the Farmers Market was open.
We should be able to have a stand alone facility, or one attached to a business, if we were willing to pay for it, and the security and maintenance involved.
This is a real problem for families with children when they are downtown. They have to rely on businesses to let them use their facilities, however most have signs. **No public washroom available**
Perhaps our Mayor and Council could solve this problem.
Why is $124,000 just sitting in an account doing nothing? I like the idea of the public art and tree planting that the article above mentioned. It would be great to see a few building get some murals on them and more trees is always a good idea.
According to our City’s website, under Social Development Policy Direction; “Prince George has eliminated homelessness and offers all of its citizens accessible, affordable and safe housing.”
http://princegeorge.ca/cityhall/social/Pages/Default.aspx
Can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge!
I’d like to see a few more murals, the ones we have are great and we have some top-notch mural artists in town. They really brighten up the walls of downtown…well except for teh one with crying African children…that’s a bit of a downer
Why not get the street people involved in a public washroom? Ask them what they would like to see and where and then get them to help build it and police it for their own use. They may respect it that way.
Although expensive to build, public washrooms can be made vandal resistant, just specify stainless steel prison grade fixtures. The one piece sink/toilet combinations look indestructible to me.
metalman.
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