Accessibility Key To Recreation in Prince George
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Prince George, B.C. – Parks, recreation, athletic endeavors. What do you forsee in these areas in the city of Prince George as we make our way through the second decade of the 21st century?
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Whatever your ideas on park and recreational use, the City is asking you to pass those thoughts along as it prepares the first-ever Community Service Master Plan. The City had an information booth set up at Pine Centre mall last .html)
Kosec says the surveys are available on-line and in a paper copy in many facilities. “And that’s probably the main source of feedback that we’re going to get, other than we have all these discussions and meetings and interviews going on with various user groups and agencies at the same time.” The major public engagement, inventory of present facilities, demographics and trends will lead to the compilation of a background report which will say “what we heard and what we found out about our recreation facilities, services and programs. That will go out to the public and council before a draft plan is created.” That draft plan will be presented at an open house in June and will be finalized in the fall.
Kosec says judging by the level of input city residents are keen on the plan. “Definitely people are very supportive, people want this, need this. And it’s very important because this is going to help us determine community needs.” And she says accessibility seems to be one of the keys residents are focussing on in this process. “It’s no surprise, people are looking for year-round recreation and they want accessible, easy wonderful opportunities outside. They realize that Prince George has so much to offer outside and it’s about being connected to everything, being able to get from here to there and being able to do what you want when you want.”
The surveys will be going until March 21st and you can access them online by going to the city website www.princegeorge.ca and find on the front page links to the Community Services Master Plan. You can also access it through the Community Living menu on the home page.
Comments
Accessibility? Really that’s rich for PG.
Here is a good example of PG planning for accessibility.
The previous Kin 1 had cut outs to allow a wheel chair access to the stands area and a nice spot for the wheel chair person to sit with the people in the stands at the front row.
The new Canada games Kin 1 does not have wheel chair access to the stands. It does have elevator access, so those in a wheel chair can sit in the back behind the stands, but one elevator is out of service and the other has a lockout that only allows the Cougars access to the elevator. So tough luck for the wheel chair fans that want to watch at the new Kin 1. This kind of thing would be illegal for the private sector, but for the city of PG its par for the course.
As it stands now the city spent $19 million dollars to remove the access for wheel chair family members to watch games at Kin 1.
I think just as important as having new facilities… would be access for the 25% of the city that lives in the Hart having a footpath that is not a highway lane down from the Hart into town. The Hart after all has no city parks other than one small ball diamond.
IMO it should be a provincially funded trail since highway 97 is a provincial highway through an urban area with no consideration for foot and bicycle traffic. The highway doesn’t even have proper lighting or a shoulder area to walk on… its just two undersized highway lanes and a curb with rain gutter and a ditch or snowbank over the curb.
It might cost $3-4 million dollars, but I would like to see a paved route with bidirectional lanes for two way traffic and paved to a quality that one could long board, skate board, roller blade, ride a bicycle, or jog through nature if need be from the Hart into town and back. The rest of the city has sidewalk access to town so why not the Hart?
Furthermore why not look at adding some kind of solar powered motion detection lighting to the Hartto Nechako trail while they are at it.
Also it just seems so obvious every summer that PG should have a proper parking lot at Foothills Bridge and Edgewood. This parking of a hundred cars on the shoulder from the bridge to North Nechako is a safety hazard and obviously people are speaking with their actions by using the area. Where is the accessibility there?
While they are at it they should preserve the Edgewood interface area with the river for future park area and a river trail system. maybe land swaps with some of the vacant land downtown if need be, at least then we could get some property tax revenue from all the city owned land downtown.
IMO
Maybe a staircase from the end of Massey Drive up Cranbrook Hill to UNBC would be a good investment as well. So many students live in the apartments at Massey and Ospika that it only makes sense from a recreational health perspective as well as ‘accessibility’ (in both directions, considering shopping and employment for students staying at the university).
We need a good grouse grind sort of properly lit staircase to the University and it should have been done 20-years ago when University way was first built.
And what happened to all the garbage cans in the city parks. Are expected now to pick up other peoples garbage and then pay $6 to dump it at the land fill after? Maybe we are spoiled now for thinking that is something that should be standard equipment in a park or on the trails, and part of regular maintenance?
I could keep going too… Cottenwood park with its dilapidated unrepaired trails nearly a decade after the ice jam… unpaved trails from Fort George to the Nechako River Road paved portion so it rules out roller blades, skate boards… ect ect.
PG is certainly no Red Deer when it comes to well managed parks and trails, much less a Kamloops, Kelowna, Lethbridge, Victoria, or Nanaimo.
Good luck with that Eagleone haven’t you heard we need a PAC!?
Lots of interesting comments, do you plan to fill out the survey because i’m sure the City won’t be transcribing info from Opinion 250.
Eagleone you forgot quesnel in your examples. Small town with a first class trail system.
Have the same issues with the narrow rough side lane in the Westgate, Non Voyage area. No thought given to pedestrian traffic what so ever let alone the heavy vehicular traffic.
How about Peden hill, not even a goat trail for pedestrians.
Hey but we need a PAC to park fat butts.
Eagleone I totally agree with you on the pathtic goat trail that runs along Hwy 97N. It doesn’t really start anywhere and doesn’t go anywhere. In the winter, even if it was plowed regularly, the hwys crew drives by with their blade down and flings all the hwy snow back onto the trail. I would not want any members of my family walking that little goat trail. Its dark, its muddy this time of year and piled deep with snow in the winter. If you drove up to the top of Ospika Hill at Tyner you’ll see a PAVED trail right off Ospika heading towards the university. A paved trail… just for walking or jogging or what have you. If anybody spends any time in College Heights you’ll see that almost ALL of their ‘walking’ trails are paved. What is up with that?
As far as there being no parks up the Hart, I can only think of a few: McMillan Creek Regional Park – nice trail leads to meadow over looking city. Good parking lot. Nordic Park and the park that’s off Dagg Road behind Timmy’s on E. Austin – by Eagle’s Hall. There might be more, but those came to mind.
I agree with Iam4sam: Eagleone you need to take the survey and add alllll of this input. Its great stuff, but not if this is the only place you share it. Just sayin’.. Each of us should take the few minutes to fill it out and add our two cents worth. I filled it out the other day… and I didn’t hold back !!
Great, if the City is ever looking for a place to spend millions of dollars, Eagleone has plenty of ideas. But we have a PAC to build first. ;-)
Someone help me understand this; they (Mayor & Council) unilaterally voted to raise the user fees for swimming pools, ice time, and other recreational facility use, and now they are asking for input on accessibility?
Yup, raise the rates to reduce recreational accessibility for low income families, then ask question about accessibility to recreation in PG. Wonderfulâ¦.
Yup I’ve filled out the paper survey and I’ve encouraged everyone in my family to do the same. There are a lot of great ideas out there for PG, so I encourage everyone to participate and fill out this survey and maybe the city will start to get it what the local priorities are. This is the blue print for the next decade so I think it is important if one wishes to make PG their home over that time. Implementing this will be the job of the next couple of councils, so maybe when the time comes I will run as well to see it through, but time will tell.
We need a pullout for vehicles picking up hitchhikers on Peden Hill. After we build a PAC.
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