I am on holidays right now and have traveled to Jasper, Edmonton, Saskatoon, North Battleford, Regina and Calgary. Amazing what the cities do for tourists and trying to keep you around an extra day or two. The thing I laugh about most is signs in a few cities with their pot hole number and requesting citizens to report them. I haven't had my front end hammered by one yet on my travels and yet I know back in PG to get to my house I will have to dodge, plan my route around certain real bad roads and in general laugh about the pot holes and lack of pavement around manholes that I have been reporting for months and nothing has been done.

Come on city council get with it. Build a nice city for tourists and they will come !
(A nice roadway for us citizens would be nice as well )

HeeHee! Lunarman in the non-union powerhouse of the world and says he can't believe his eyes!

Wished I was with you though... hohumm..

Don't know about the non union powerhouse Yama, everyone knows the good jobs in Sask and Texas north are for the big companies like Syncrude, Suncor, and the potash mines. Guess what buddy, all union shows.

pack your bags yama and let me know when your done ,I will help move your ass out to the non-union powerhouse .{dream on !!HEEHEE}

All unions are not the same. In Alberta and in federally regulated industries scab labour is allowed. The legislation doesnt protect $25 mop bucket packers because if you strike they can replace you with the next warm body through the door. In BC the same janitor goes on strike and even though they could be replaced by anyone you still cant replace them. Thats the real problem with BC unions. The problem isnt protecting skilled trades and such, the problem is protecting totally unskilled labour and overpaying them, leaving no money to fix potholes.

http://www.netdisaster.com/go.php?mode=zeppelin&destruction=massive&sound=on&url=http://www.opinion250.com

Went down to do some shopping on 3rd avenue yesterday. Saw women pushing their children in strollers down the sidewalk. The big difference in the scene was the nice sidewalks lots of green trees benches to sit on and parking readliy available. So why have we increased the police presence. Its dangerous down there is what we are told.

When was the last murder committed or a drive by shooting in the area? Have you herd of somone bring mugged? These are excuses made by those who need to justify their shopping elsewhere.

The shops have few people in them. Would that be because of the planning in our City. So now we have to find ways to bring back the people and our tax dollars are being used for that purpose. and our infrastructure is going to the dogs.

Police buildings to solve our social problems, bridges to nowhere, airlines being subsidize by tax dollars, investments in utilities (Terasen), bioenergy and the list goes on.

Lets start now to make some changes at City hall come November. No I am not runing for council but I whant to create some interst for the upcoming election. And 250 is a great form to help us.

Cheers

Born in BC
Your dreaming again, wake up and get back on the reality train. Don't forget to stop and pickup the Polecat on your way to fantasy land.

Funny thing Bridge, I never would have thought about you running for council.

Colin Kinsley

When are you going to have your bylaw officers do something about the heavy trucks that keep parking over night at the end of Domano BLVD. Perhaps they could bring a DOT cop with them and he/she could write these guys up for not doing their pretrips properly if at all.

Unions have done a great job levelling the playing field. Now any idiot can make the same money after 6400 hours as the person who has 30 years continuous experience. Yup, that's real fair.
metalman.

You antiunion types would just s..t if you new what my lazy union butt gets paid, benifits and time off. So you guys keep slaving away, I just might head over to Timmies for a break. Oh by the way, my employer is doing quite well. I think it might have something to do with the highly skilled union labour he hires.

Our gov likes to keep things from us.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=cb0b868b-7799-4ea7-ab35-612a9a535138

LOL, good one Seamutt. ;)

Randy Pausch passed away this morning. For those who don't know, he is the computer scientist famous for his "Last Lecture" - it resulted in over 3 million YouTube views and a huge book deal.

Here's a link to the video (1h 16 min). You deserve to take the time to watch it:

http://thepulse.ca/node/1116

Re;Bridge

It doesn't take a murder or muggings to justify police officers walking the downtown area. I'm willing to bet that you did not see elderly citizens walking downtown. They're are a lot of very intimidating homeless people of all races and ages in the downtown core.

I've personally seen them shooting heroin, smoking crack, drinking mouthwash and cheap wine, and throwing up on the sidewalks and even in the entrance ways of shop owners.

The police presence is an attempt to "clean up" the downtown area during the shopping hours. I tip my hat to them for trying.

The funding for infrastructure is based on specific "budgets" that are usually planned or drawnout quite a few months in advance. If city hall determines (the next year) that there was not enough capitol available for the infastructure during the previous year then they will make recommendations to increase that funding for the current upcoming year. In short, this is NO infastructure shortfall due to an increased presence of police in the downtown core.

You suggested that "we have to find ways to bring back the people" to shop downtown, well... cleaning it up by using more police officers is just one way. And we do need more.

Myself, I don't believe that our infastructure is falling apart. Have you seen all the BIG paving projects that have already been completed so far this summer?

5th ave has been repaved, and so has 10th ave, Ferry Drive from Ospika to Westwood has been repaved, there is currently work in progress to repave the highway up to College Heights (also known as Peden Hill), and there are more projects ongoing or already completed to date.

The biggest beef I find that the citizens of PG voice their opinion about are the unbelieveable amount of potholes still existing in the city. And I have to agreee that there are far too many, but that does not indicate that our infastructure is falling apart, it's just a possible sign that city hall needs to increase funding (to hire temp workers) so they can tackle this very sensitive issue.

I'm not sure what bridges you seem to believe go to "nowhere" but the only one that comes to mind is the Cameron Street bridge. This one is currently being replaced as we speak. So we'll just have to be patient. It takes years to plan, fund, and build a bridge. Each one is a custom job with custom requirements and demands.

As far as our cuty council goes, it's already a proven fact that we'll have a new mayor after the elections. Don't be surprised if you're not happy with the new mayor (or council). They're very difficult jobs that continually put these people in a negative limelight. I wouldn't want any of their job for all the money in the world.

I received a response from a friend years when I asked him if he would ever consider running for a seat on city council. His reply was... "Hell no, why would I want to do that, then everybody will hate me".

Words well spoken.

Have a GREAT day!

NTG
Lets start now to make some changes at City hall come November. No I am not runing for council but I whant to create some interst for the upcoming election. And 250 is a great form to help us.

Cheers

Kudos to the city for closing down two of the exchange sheds. Smart move, I wonder how much extra landfill filler that generates. One of the reasons given for shutting the sheds down was people might pickup your discards and resell them. Wow what a reason. If a person wants to pickup, maybe fixup and resell what I discard then the more power to them. Isen't that one of the ideas of recycle.

Union or non union? Who cares as long as every person is happy with where they are at, and able to make a good decision. Many union people want or need the 'power of people' behind them. Good for them. Many non union people are able to do what they want and provide well for there families and retirement etc. without the union...good for them. What gets me is that some of the pro union commenters here insist that if you are not a part of a union your skills are not as good, and somehow everything non union people have is because of a union. Likewise the non union posters feel that the unions are somehow allowing the inmates to run the asylum. Do what works best for you, and don't knock the other side. Have a great weekend.

newtechguy; Tell us which councilor are you.

It doesn't take a murder or muggings to justify police officers walking the downtown area.

And your reasoning goes on through your entire post in that fashion. Therein lies the problem. The things that the City does most time are not justified but some airy fairy idea dreamt up at City hall and they go with it.

Let me repeat, I saw a mother pushing her child in a stroller". My wife and I are seniors and never hesitate to shop along 3rd Ave. The people will never return to shop on 3rd ave. They are all shoping up along #16 West.Thanks to our City for the planning they have done.

The infrastructure of a City is not just paved streets. Check the sidewalks and even the curbing is deteriorating. We hear commplaints about water usage. Has the City ever checked their watermains to see how much leakage there is.

Frankly I dont think our streets are that bad. Sure a few potholes and given the winter temperatures what would one expect. I have driven on streets in other cities where they are just a big patch job. And notice that the City was quick to saddle us with a 4% levey before any work began.

I will not say more. But my advise to newtechguy is get out of bed and check out the information that you have given us.

"Hell no, why would I want to do that, then everybody will hate me".

Words spoken by one with an inferiority complex.

Cheers

Hey Zoom you make an excellent point. Love your style.

Cheers

Zoom, what gets to a lot of people, are people that take for granted what some union people sacrificed their lives for.
They did this to make other peoples lives better. Some think it is all because their union OR non union employers are giving them what they get, out of the kindness of their hearts.

Many union people actually died or lost everything fighting for the things many people on this planet enjoy as part of their way of life today.
IE; medical, dental, pensions, shorter work weeks,better pay for work that makes employers rich, you get the idea.
If you disagree with this fact, then you should do some research into union history.

I agree when you say who cares if someone is union or non union, if you are happy thats fantastic.
However you are not seeing union people coming onto this or other sites and attacking non union people about being non union.
In fact what you see going on is non union people coming onto these sites and outright attacking union workers like they are the scum of the earth.
Union workers are coming here and defending themselves against all the attacks.

Why do you think these people would do these things?
I think the reason is pure and simple jealousy from some and others are possibly employers that are scared out of their minds that they may become unionized.
They are here to put fear into people.

I think the reason the no skills comments have come into this is because it is simply a way to help defend ourselves from the anti union attackers.
After all when people get pushed into a corner they will fight back.

Remember, it's not the union people that start these fights on the internet.

Hey bridge you should go shopping along George st and many of the other cross streets downtown.
Anytime I have been down there I am constantly nagged for smokes, spare change and my doggy bag from the restaurant.

I have walked downtown with people who are not from this community and travel all over North America as part of their business. The topic will typcially turn to the state of the urban fabric both from the infrasturcture point of view as well as the people who are seen in the downtown point of view.

Things they will notice:

1. The downtown area is rather large.

2. there are virtually no boarded-up buildings.

3. There is a "wow" factor when they walk into businesses such as the one which is now in the previous Royal Bank building on 3rd.

4. There is a "wow" factor when they walk into some of the nicer restaurants downtown.

5. they notice the pavers, banners and other streetscaping along 3rd avenue.

6. they wonder why we do not have people sitting in front of the restaurants, banks, office buildings, etc. begging

7. they wonder why there is no one huddled up in alcoves or even right on street corners in sleeping bags or with cardboard boxes

So ..... like Bridge, I think that we are pointing the finger of why downtown is not working as a shopping area at a scapegoat for those we should really blame ..... ourselves ....

let's face iot, no one in this town is interested in actually "being" downtown.

The only way that we would be downtown is to do exactly what sveral people keep on saying .... bulldoze it and put up a Westgate box store heaven .....

And even then they would not be down there unless we run a 4 lane arterial diagonally through the Gateway to bypass that part of town more directly and the same for the nortern access .... to many turns, traffic signals and "stuff" happening along the way that is really unecessary for the trip to the new downtown automobile oriented mecca.

Smart Growth Now for the Downtown of Tomorrow.

;-)

Hey... Hootbird... you forgot to put the "d" in your "iot"...

"let's face iot, no one in this town...."

:-)

BTW... next time you have those observant visitors come to visit and you are planning to walk around to show off the downtown, let me know... I'll hop up to tag along to point out the true history and explain the obvious present for you.

:-)

V.

Bridge;

No I'm not a city councillor, I'm a skilled union employee.

First off. I respect your opinions and you help make the city a better place to live by voicing them. That's the great thing about democracy and freedom of speech. So kudo's to you.

But I'm not changing my stand. We need cops downtown. I refuse to go down there if I am going to be (and I have) harrassed for money,asked for smokes, have homeless people sit on my car (it's happened to me)... or if I have to step over or walk through puke, or step over or walk around someone passed out on the sidewalk, or step over or walk around hypodermic needles, broken bottles, crack pipes... (should I keep going?).

It doesn't take a murder or muggings to justify police officers walking the downtown... and that's a fact. We need em, so be it. If you're a senior and your walking around downtown then good for you. But what about all the other seniors (and there's a lot of em) who won't even drive through there.

As for city council allowing for the construction up highway 16 West where else were they supposed to put Walmart, and Home Depot, and Canadian Tire, and ALL the other small stores like Timmies, Taco Bell and A & W... where were they supposed to go? On 3rd Ave? 4th maybe? There's no room in the downtown core for them. They had no choice... allow it or lose it to another city. That's the way cities work.

Did you know that if the city repaired all of the sidewalks in PG that require repairing that it would cost $30 million dollars? (According to a news recent article I head on a local radio station.)

They just don't have that kind of money available. Because of this they focus on ONLY the ones that exceed a variance of 1 inch, and even then, (like the potholes) that can't get to all ofmthem.

Every city has complaints about water usage. That always has been, and always will be. 30 years from now with a million different water restrictions in place people will still find something to complain about concerning water usage. I conserve water as best as possible. Beyond that, it doesn't ruin my day.

You mentioned the watermains and that's a very interesting comment. How did you come to this conclusion? (I'm NOT being sarcastic here as I am truly curious).

Is it a well known issue that municipalities have leaking pipes?

I certainly agree with you on the 4% levey that the city requested before any work began. I was not happy with that one.

As far as the comment "Hell no, why would I want to do that, then everybody will hate me"... It's no secret that politicians are probably among the least appreciated bunch, but not everyone has it in them to drag their family through a politically public lifestyle. I've seen city councillors heckled in public with their kids or wife present and it's NEVER a good sight. It doubt it has anything to do with an inferiority complex and everything to do with there quality of life.

But you're entitled to your opinion and I respect that. (Really I do).

Take care for now.

NTG

Come on, downtown isn't that bad. I'm down there almost every day & rarely have any kind of issue with the "locals". People are such candy-asses.

Okay NTG... among those who know, watermains in ALL cities/municipalities leak.

Simple fact.

The real question is... how MUCH do they leak ??

Many cities do leak detection or water audits... either with contractors or with their own technicians. These audits are not cheap ... so each city adopts an "allowable" leak percentage margin. When this margin is exceeded and there is no obvious evidence, ie. new fountain in the middle of a street, that city might undertake an audit.... which is when they find out how many of their system's valves actually work !

Furthermore, many buildings leak water without detection... ie. frozen, unrepaired underground lines, pinholes in service tubing, constantly running urinals, toilets etc....

The cost of "leaking" water is huge, not just from the actual pumping and system cost, but also from the repair/replacement expense.... and that is money that could fix a lot of visible problems.

V.

Thanks RRrabbitt...

I did not know that. Interesting to say the least.

"Allowable leakage"... I'm not a big fan of that term.

---------------------------------
Re; Death to Socialism

So if I don't like to be harrassed for money, asked for smokes, have homeless people sit on my car, step over or walk through puke, or step over or walk around someone passed out on the sidewalk, or step over or walk around hypodermic needles, broken bottles, or even crack pipes then I'm a candy ass?

Tell that to the seniors who do NOT go downtown for those (and many other) reasons.

Actually, with all this discussion about the downtown core being safe or unsafe (depending on who you are) it would be interesting to see some sort of study done to determine what percentage of people don't go downtown (and why not). I may have to stick my foot in my mouth (or maybe it'll be you.

Either way, I'm booking a pedicure right away... don't wanna take any chances.

NTG

Speaking of water, which some of you are. I installed a water meter!!!! How about you all?????

newtechguy ....

I think you should make your self a bit more familar with the realities of municipal infrastrcuture in North America.

Think a through a bit from the start. English speaking North America, unlike much of Europe, had a baby boom after the second world war. In addition, North America had a continuing influx of immigants.

What did tht mean in terms of infrastructure? Major building boom to go along with the baby boom. On top of that, the economyu grew by leaps and bounds beyond the percentage indicated by the population explosion. Cars also became the preferred mode of transportation ... suburbia developed ......

Most of that infrastructure is now 55, 45, 35, 25 years old ..... it does not last forever. We do not build like the Romans in case you have not noticed. 20 year; 30 years, and a baseball or football stadium is "tired" and needs to be rebuilt becuase people like NEW stuff, or the OLD stuff was not built to last.

ALL of North America is facing the same probelms that Prince George is facing. North America is not set up to maintain stuff. Their stuff gets replaced.

Sewer is m y parent's neighbourhood are startng to back up more and more. It is 50 years old in a large City. The sewer lines are 50 years old. The trees are 50 years old. The roots from the maturing trees are getting into the cracks of the decomposing drain pipes. The city checks every two or three years with a camera sent donw the pipes to see if they can cut the roots to make it last longer until they have enough money to put that subdivision on the sanitary sewer renewal system.

Yes, water lines are the same problem. nothing unique about that. You just have to have an interest in what is going on around you to know that. It will be getting worse here before it gets better. We are entering the 40 to 30 year age range for when more than half of this city was built. Time for maintenance is coming.

Hey owl,

Good points made by you... and well taken by myself.

Thanks for pointing it out. I appreciate your comments.


NYG

Does anyone have time and a little knowhow on working a camcorder?

It would be a good U-TUBE clip showing what downtown PG realy looks like!

It is the East Hastings of the north.
Have a great Weekend....

I paid 1.25 for gas in Edmonton today while on vacation. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr pg gas stations

Complaints on water usage, well show me the facts. Lets find out where the water is going. Lets force water meters so young families foe one example, who tend to use a lot of water and who's incomes usually aren't all that great can pay through the nose. Is it homes using the water? Is it businesses? Lets see some facts, not just generalities before another lotus land feel good is forced on us.

I just came up 5th, why waste money on paving when the manhole covers are not level with the road. Other cities seem to do a decent job levelling the covers. The road is just as ruff now as before the paving.