Huber Sets Sights On Council
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Huber says there has been a lot of progress on the issue of roads which was a key issue during the last election, but says there are still a lot of roadblocks for new investment and business.
He says Prince George is spread out, and that is one of the reasons why it is so expensive to service the roads and water, however it’s difficult to encourage infill “You understand why people want to have a lot at University Way because they want to be near the University, you can’t tell people they can’t live there because we want to fill downtown first.”
“The downtown needs to be taken care of by private money, not the city” he says the City owns a lot of property in the downtown and should give away those properties to existing businesses so those businesses can expand instead of “sitting on it like a hen waiting to hatch an egg.”
But downtown has issues, there is a problem with homelessness, drugs and other criminal activity. He says personally, he would invest in the downtown as a business, but would not put in residential development. He says life can “sometime kick you in the ass, and you can end up there ( homeless) quicker.” He says the criminal element downtown needs to be addressed. “It’s a Pandora’s box and it’s been opened” .
On the matter of taxes, Huber says “we have to do, things go up, tires, diesel wages, inflation takes care of that” He says what needs to be done is increase the tax base by increasing the population. “You have to make it investment friendly where investment can set up here.” He says the population will come if there are good paying jobs here, “We have to reduce the red tape, and actively chase these companies to come to Prince George, it shouldn’t be that hard a sell to sell Prince George.”
He says he is not a fan of giving tax breaks, “But if a big company like Caterpillar wants to come here, we should give them a break” as that would provide jobs and increase the population.
When it comes to beautification of the City, Huber says the city “could use some weed eating, but all in all it’s not bad, it’s not bad.”
Comments
Good interview. Pretty down to earth guy. Realistic, realizes that council can’t fix or influence everything. Stayed away from unrealistic visions and promises.
Sounds pretty good, but my only disagreement is no residential development in downtown.
“He says personally, he would invest in the downtown as a business, but would not put in residential development.”.
The way I see it, if you have people living downtown who are willing to spend money and support their neighbourhood, businesses will spring up to support those people.
Prince George has a lot to learn on beatification of their City. The merchants downtown cant even step out the door to scrape the gum, off the sidewalks or shovel of the snow leaving the sidewalks covered with ice . They want the City to do it all for them.
Cheers
While I echo Alex’s concern about how spread out the city is and how difficult it is to encourage infill, I really disagree with his comment about giving away downtown property for free. We have already had some fiascoes with unrealistic incentives to business to establish in the downtown area and I think that by giving away property, there would be even less reason for a business to build or develop. It might work if we could partner with the provincial and federal government for say downtown housing but he says he doesn’t agree there should be downtown residential development.
Living outside the City like Spooner, and Koehler, he does not have to pay for utilities, road, snow, winter games, or property taxes.
He would pay taxes on his rental, or business interests in the City, however that is not the same as paying the above taxes. I have a problem with people voting me a tax increase that they themselves do not have to pay. Business people who live in the City pay the above taxes and also the commercial taxes. People who live outside the City get a free ride on the taxes mentioned above.
I do believe, if he were to look into it, that getting people to live downtown is the way to reinvigorate that area. It has been done in many cities whose downtowns were deteriorating. It completely revived them.
They’ve been trying to get people to live downtown for many years, with little success. It used to go under the banner of ‘downtown revitaliztion’.
Downtown is not the only issue, how about safe healthy neighbourhoods and not pushing the problems into them. That means no hookers strolling the streets, no Johns driving around and around looking for them and no Government Vans driving around delivering needles and condoms, with no clean up plan.
Retired 02:”Prince George has a lot to learn on beatification of their City.”
Well, that would be quite a task because beatification is the first step taken by the Catholic Church in the process of declaring a person a saint!
(Smile).
Has he ever walked the Prince George trails or spent time in the parks where you are faced with unleashed dogs, dog manure, filthy outhouses and inconsiderate dog owners?
Down to earth, feet planted firmly on the ground. I am definitely voting for this fellow.
Youi guessed it PG I’m catholic.
Cheers
Shaping the downtown to model Vancouver’s East Side is not my idea of revitalization. We don’t need a consultant or study to realize the challenges we face.
Those who are responsible for our current downtown situation will be accountable come election day. You want more of the same, keep voting the current candidates back in. If you have a vision for something different, you better look at voting in different people. Pretty clear to me how I am voting.
Posted on Thursday, November 6, 2014 @ 12:23 PM by Palopu
“Living outside the City like Spooner, and Koehler, he does not have to pay for utilities, road, snow, winter games, or property taxes”
Okay PAlopu, those of us who live outside of the city still have to pay:
Utilities: you think maintaining your own well and septic system is free?
Snow: snowblower, blade on truck, tractor, rural road not ploughed so you can get to work, are those free too?
Winter games: the city will benefit from these games, citizens will too.
Property taxes: really? one lives in the country and don’t pay taxes?
Sheet! why have I been paying taxes? I did not know!
;););)
metalman.
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