Signage Welcomes All to Downtown
One of two signs erected to welcome folks to Downtown – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Two new signs in the City of Prince George are in place to welcome those entering the downtown core.The signs, (one at Queensway and Upper Patricia, the other where 5th splits to 4th Ave) were made possible by a grant from the Northern Development Initiative Trust. The $40 thousand dollar cost of the signs was part of a quarter million dollar Placemaking Grant given to the City in 2015.
“We’ve been working on this concept as part of a larger Placemaking program” says Downtown Prince George Executive Director Colleen Van Mook.
Of course, there are more than the two entrances to the Downtown, and Van Mook says other sites may be considered in the future. “The two locations that we chose were, what we thought, would be very good unobstructed sight lines that you are entering our downtown and we were able to work with the City to put the signs in these locations and have the infrastructure that we needed for lighting and those kinds of things. We hope we can put more signs up in the future, but for now, these two locations seem to work for us.”
She says the signs are important to solidify the Downtown’s identity “We want to make sure people know there is a downtown and we are working to attract people to the downtown to live or to work or to shop. So we are realizing we have to be proud of our downtown and we are proud of our organization which supports the businesses downtown.”
The signs were created by Northern Capital Wood Products , and reflect the branding Downtown Prince George adopted prior to the 2015 Canada Winter Games. The signs feature an area where special event messages can be added.
Comments
Forty THOUSAND dollars for 2 signs ? !!!
Indeed. They’re nice, but why such an enormous cost?
You could build a tiny house for that and give a homeless person a place to live.
They should add this to the signs.
***Maximum time allowed in the Downtown is 3 hours*** Any parking in excess of 3 hours are subject to a substantial parking ticket. **Alternative choices are Spruceland Shopping Centre, Parkwood Shopping Centre, Pine Centre Mall, and College Heights Shopping Centres,. where free parking is available.
The blank piece of wood at the bottom is going to read:
Spare Some Change?
I like it, no stupid slogan, just a welcome sign!
Axman, you just made me laugh! But, so very true!
Well, I sure hope that in the next little while you won’t see a mess of posters and signs hanging all over. Pretty hard to see a message while driving by it. How many people will walk by to read the notices?
special message>>>
park more than 3 hours, not all at the same time, in the downtown core in a day and get ticketed.
If the people at city hall really cares about downtown businesses they would make it free parking while shopping downtown. It’s cash grab for the city and keep the shoppers away from downtown. Open up all of the parkades free parking. The people at the city killed the downtown. Took the Casino away, built a beautiful ice rink away from downtown, hotels are being away from downtown. If you want the downtown to thrive build downtown. Have a safe weekend everyone.
So we build downtown, where do we park. Went to the Studio Fair and no place to park. New buildings have to have parking. Where do the employees of the city park. Are they exempt. I have to pay to park along with many others who work downtown and some just work 4 hours part time and have to pay to park. Let’s be fair. Start to charge the employees of the City. There has to be hundreds of them and too many ride around at the city expense with vehicles. When I see a City truck parked at Costco It did raise my eyebrows. Just saying.
And, did you find out whether the driver was purchasing a work related item, or was on a lunch break from driving around the city all day doing his/her work instead of bringing the vehicle back to the yard, picking up his vehicle, driving to Costco to get whatever he needed to get that was personal, driving back to pick up his work vehicle and going back to work?
You are making too many assumptions. This is not the Gulag.
I believe you must work for the City. When would a driver have to pick up parts for the City when they have a department that does this. If it was personal I would think he should do this all after work. I only have half a hour lunch , and when I have to pick up something it is done after work. When you drive a city vehicle I would think you should be carful as like a cell phone that you can take photos , the citizens are now watching the workers if they feel this is unnecessary. After all they do get a good wage. Also seems you know about the City , where do the staff park. You did not answer the thought as you are probably exempt from paying for parking.
You believe wrong. I am retired. I have never worked for the City. I am, however active in the community. I have been in union positions as well as in management, both in private enterprise and public.
Do you think that just because you only get 30 minutes for lunch, that everyone else should get no more?
Do you think that those whose office is a vehicle for much or all of the day, that they cannot pick up a slice of pizza and whatever at a Costco? Perhaps you do not know that Costco has a food outlet. Or maybe even to pick up some fruit in the grocery section, or a magazine to read over lunch at 30% off, or have a purchase order from the City for a work cell phone for one that was boken. The possibilities are endless.
So if he went to Boston Pizza for lunch, would you have a problem? I mean, what sort of automaton manager/supervisor of people are you?
I am glad the City spent some money so that I get this warm and fuzzy feeling every time I drive downtown.
I am sure I will go downtown much more often now. ;-)
Speaking of signs, why was the Welcome To Prince George” sign, removed when they 4 laned Hwy 97S, never replaced?
Cause your not welcome if you come from the south.
That’s a good observation. I watched when they built the sign on 97 South, just West of the turn off to the airport. Many people spent many hours building this sign and putting it up. I cant remember the cost at this late date however I’m thinking it ran close to $250,000.00.
In any event when the expanded 97 this sign was torn down, and disappeared never to be seen again. I would guess its buried in the back of the City yard somewhere.
That’s what happens when you have poor planning, and lots of money.
Actually, I think it has a lot more to do with what happens when some get tired of a sign. It was very stylistic and modern. Some simply do not like it.
Many in this community probably prefer the sign at the east end of First Avenue which was placed there in 1999 at a cost of $26,000 with Rotary contributing $9,000 that allowed them to put the Rotary Wheel on the sign.
Of course, it had the words “BC’s Northern Capital on it. Quite frankly I do not know whether those pretentious words are still there. Many tourists probably did not realize that BC has two capitals, one for the south and one for the north. ;-)
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