L E T     'E R     R I  P  !!!!

I think of all sorts of great things during the week and then when it gets to Friday free for all I draw blanks....

I guess I'll fall back on my nuclear argument. It should be obvious to everyone that Vancouver with the Olympics is now target number one in the world for 5th column terrorist attacks that are part of a game theory by hidden provocateurs to drive a globalization agenda. At this point in history Vancouver is in grave danger with the war drums beating for war in Iran by our very own Prime Minister and his neo-con minions.

I propose to mitigate this very real threat we should close the Vancouver port for two months prior and post Olympics. No container traffic (especially from Asia) or foreign vessels should be allowed into the BC inside passage during the games. All commercial container traffic should be directed either through Seattle or Prince Rupert during this period. It would be the only benefits the north would get from the games and just might create long term logistic synergies that otherwise wouldn't be given a chance.

I've been reading a book called 'On Thermonuclear War' by Herman Kahn, written in the 60’s. It’s the global bible on conducting nuclear war, and is so scary it was banned for many years from the public. There are people that plan these kinds of things with calculations as to outcomes, so as to make it policy. Most people don't like to think about this stuff and thus put their heads in the sand... including leaders of the American government tasked with protecting the world from these things. Leaders who refuse to acknowledge that Russia has a fully automated system called 'The Perimeter System' that is a dead hand switch for automated nuclear war in the event they are attacked and decapitated as a nation. If the Americans can't acknowledge the existence of such an apocalyptic doomsday hair trigger device... that when one thinks about it is completely logical on Russia's part... then is there much hope our government will take a potential nuclear threat on Vancouver during the Olympics seriously?

This web link is a real eye opener IMO...

http://www.mondovista.com/hbomb.html

And it doesn't help that we have the same Israelis that are 'training' the forces of the new Honduras coup leaders in the repression of that countries democracy... also acting as the 'advisors' for the RCMP in our border and counter terrorism security.... Its a recipie for disaster IMO.

As I look out into the street, I can’t help to notice how with the new garbage cans, crows have been unable to rip the bags apart and spread garbage everywhere. In a rare move I have to say “good job”, to the city for bringing them in.

I have notice over the last five years a reduction in the amount of garbage around, and number of crows in the city

I think the crow numbers have decreased because peole keep burning those damn crosses on their lawns! I see Hedy baby is making the news again about the Olympic logos on the athletes' clothing.

I guess we should just cancel the Olympics.

On a more important note, why doesnt anybody signal when they leave our wonderful new traffic circle? Any consideration for the people who are about to enter? Maybe the solution is to shut down the new bridge for 2 months and divert all the traffic through Prince Rupert, that will certainly stop any potential problems.

Really, what's she belly achin about?
My beef is with the domano work site. I find the lanes are not clearly marked at all. A lane ends and there is no notice. I saw many times, vehicles ending up in a turning lane and then try to veer out of it. Twice I have seen people almost sideswipe each other over this. This is not a speed issue as traffic was halted to quite slow at this point. I just find it annoying. Had to get it out there....

One would think with the almost 1 Billion dollars we are spending on security for the two weeks of the Olympics that we should be safe. Perhaps we could demand our money back from the security forces if we get bombed!

Using obscure terms and even more obscure references is a little like Madonna and her english accent. It might make one feel superior, but it also makes one look like an arrogant *******.

LMAO @ Green. Satisfaction guaranteed!

Yawn, old news Eagleone.

Hey everybody, 50 km/h on Ospika isn't a suggested speed. It's the speed limit.

Using obscure terms ??????

Eagleone does use a lot of them, doesn't he?

A "minion" is a small onion. (mini onion = minion)

"5th column" is column E on a spreadsheet, thus "5th column = code for the letter "E"

"neo-con" is a new offender. 2 more strikes and they are out.

"mitigate" is the scandal around the Ministry of International Trade and Industry; drawn from the watergate affair

I have similar feelings as Mr.PG, I wont vote for this council again!
Change of topic- how are the negotiations going in the forestry industry? It is a quiet one, but for the foreshadowing with talk of no-smell technology and new expenditures required there by the employer, what's going on? Our biggest employers are involved..no leaks?

Ah ... the culprits who voted for this council are starting to emerge.

I suppose they are thinking we would have been better off if they had voted OTHER.

In my opinion, those who are looking at this Council or any other make-up of Council there might have been to fix the problem, you are looking at the wrong body.

I agree with usuallyquiet and Mr.PG and I will not vote for either the Mayor or the council again.

The dismissive and ill-informed attitude displayed by all of them at the recent concerned citizens'attempt to make a presentation of the scientific arguments against fluoride are the main reason.

Scorn and ridicule are an easy way to avoid a serious discussion of why only 3.7% of the population of B.C. are still medicated with fluoride in their daily water supply and 96.3% have either already opted out or stayed away from it altogether.

"Ah ... the culprits who voted for this council are starting to emerge."

Perhaps. But unlike most of the people in this town (and probably most of the people on here), I actually got out and voted.

I guess my write in vote for Eugene Fetterly did not count much!!! At least he is up front and honest.

I can't believe anyone thought Rogers was a good choice to begin with.

I'm having trouble figuring out this HST that's coming in? I want to know how these secondhand stores that make a business out of donated items are going to charge the new tax? I understand about charging GST, because they are providing a service. I thought PST could only be charged once(when an item is bought new). Am I to understand that there will be a 12% charge on secondhand items come July?

A couple of things that just boggle my mind are:

VANOC has officially started paying the homeless people $500 and a bus ticket out of the city to go anywhere but there. I have friends in Vanderhoof who are personally aware of 2 new homeless additions to that community. Just what exactly are they going to do when it gets cold? They have NO facilities there. Shouldn't the media be all over this? I'm sure they would be happy to give an informative interview.

The government can spend how much? A billion dollars for security for 2 weeks at the olympics, but our highly trained ambulance paramedics can't pay the bills on their salary, are kept as part time employees and there is a media blackout so the public doesn't know any of the facts of what is REALLY happening. All of this and they are still saving lives. Their level of frustration is such that many of them are opting for early "retirement" or seeking other ways of making a living. Both sides are stalling and the last vote on the proposed settlement is supposed to take 6 weeks to count the ballots? Come on. We will see delays in response times because there will not be enough paramedics who stay with the service to man all the cars. How sad it is that it must come to that, people will die because of it.

"I can't believe anyone thought Rogers was a good choice to begin with."

Well, given the choice between Rogers and Zurowski (who was essentially Kinsley Jr.), there wasn't really much of a choice. Fetterly? Come on now.

Rogers came across as someone who would lead some change -- which clearly hasn't been the case. The councillors are in the same boat.

Does anyone really think Zurowski would be any different?

We had an autocrat for 12 years or so.

My take on it is that the running of this and other cities of this size in areas where there is little, if any growth, is becoming more and more difficult.

Most of the people sitting in the seats at Council have little background in running a City. They are politicians. They know how to get elected. They are losing more an more knowledge of how to do what comes after that.

Asministration is there to run the City. Administration does run the City. Most of your frustrations expressed here deal directly with administrative matters.

potholes
allocating tax dollars
effective use of money.
efficiency of departments
less make do work and more can do work
less dependency on farmed out work
more guts to take a stand
better control of the policing costs
better communication with the citizens

Council almost takes a hands off on those, at least in the public, since they would be micromanaging. However, they are in a position to say enough is enough. No Council would have done that.

The most recent hire into what should be a very important position does not send a good message to me. Same old, same old.

I live in the Connaught Miller Area. While walking on pine St. the other day across from the school an empty condom box was laying on the ground with a convenience store price tag on it. My question is, what is a convenience store doing selling condoms? We fought to have the Hooker problem cleaned up but it seems to be coming BACK with new faces out there. One Hooker is about six feet tall and wears different wigs. I don't know why she doesn't just put an add in the news paper saying come climb my mountain,she would have every loser in P.G. and area calling. We are getting all these people sent here with problems because we have the services. How many drop out of the programs , how many are sent back to where ever they came from ?
I am really looking forward to my Hard earned tax dollars being spent on this so called Health and Wellness Centre that I think should be part of the Native Friendship Center.

I was listening to the lawyer who got beat up really bad a while back down town on CBC this morning. He had his cheek bone broken so badly that it was rotated. He has lost the vision in one eye. I hope the guy who did this goes to jail for a very long time. I also hope that this gentlemans recovery goes smoothly from now on.
Our landlord before we bought a house was an RCMP officer and he told me to never walk anywhere in PG alone. He also added that Prince George had a lot of very very bad people living here. I have taken that advice.

Have a nice weekend all!

It has been a sad week for PG as Rick Nelson and his lovely wife Marilynn moved to Kamloops. He was the manager and smiling face at the Mall. A true class act.

Yes, PG's loss is Kamloops' gain.
Rick is a fine gentleman.
metalman.

"but our highly trained ambulance paramedics can't pay the bills on their salary"

Highly trained

According to th Justice Institute the Program of Study is described as being 11 to 20 months long depending on whether it is done part or full time.

"The ACP Program provides in-depth training in assessing, interpreting, and providing advanced life support to the critically ill or injured. This program is offered in both part-time and full-time formats, and may be completed in 11 to 20 months. Courses are delivered using a combination of independent study, classroom sessions at the Paramedic Academy, clinical sessions in hospital and on-ambulance time in metropolitan centers."

http://www.jibc.ca/careers/dept.asp?dept=Paramedic%20Academy

I understand that starting paramedics make in the mid $40 thousand per year range. I am sure many 2 year diploma students from the College system would love to make that much.

A five year level 3 paramedic makes in the mid $50 thousand range.

Not everyone in the medical field can make $250,000 a year.

Re: Shellshadow

"Our landlord before we bought a house was an RCMP officer and he told me to never walk anywhere in PG alone."
----------------------------------------

I just spent a month in Vernon BC and WOW, what a huge difference in their downtown.

Every evening (after 6, 7, or 8pm) there are TONS of people walking everywhere down there... almost no parking available.

I've heard that there are lots of native bands around there but I don't know why I don't see any homeless natives, or street people of any kind.

In the whole month I may have seen 2 people who appeared to look like the street people of PG.

And I have no idea why it's so much different in Vernon but it was great to see.

Hey Gus, Your list didn't mention snow removal and clearing. More on that later, when the snow flies. When we saw that posting for that 95.000 a year job, we were all scratching our heads (yes I work there)and ,excuse the shout, but after reading the posting, were going WTF is this? We talk about trying to save, but I agree that council really needs to step up to the plate and lead. Have any of you noticed that we now have nice painted curbs in the downtown? Done in the last month. Yes, red, blue, white and yellow. Nice new parking spot lines also. I can't help but think that this is a huge waste of money as winter is "just around the corner" and graders and sidewalk plows will scrape the paint off and guess what? Next spring, they will have to be painted again. What a waste of our money.

For those that think that council can change things an article in the last weeks Free Press showed how much council can do as the adminstration withholds information from them. It is time that the administration realized that council is their boss and we the public are the council boss. Right now the administration only feeds the council the information that they want them to have.

But for the council members it is their job to educate themselves and not just to take the information that is feed to them as the only truth. We should all be supporting Brian as he at least tries and yes he may make mistakes but that is better than just following admistration leads.

I see the moderators saw fit to delete my original comment criticising the Mayor and the councillors, which a couple a people agreed with. Not sure the reasoning behind it, but it is interesting which comments are left to stand and which are deleted.

Regarding Vernon, it is the downtown association that pays for any the changes and therefore they control what happens downtown. The association does not go cap in hand to the City, but directs what they want to have happen.

When they were getting two new malls, their reaction was to form their own "mall" and do what they malls do to bring the public in and try to do it even better.

On Sat they had free parking and the stores put store bags over the parking meters so that people did not put money in the meters by mistake.

They have to clear their sidewalks of snow or they are fined and they do it during storms and help each other keep the sidewalks cleared.

They started painting murals on all the blank walls with a lot of the paint and they did not to have the City administration approval.

Empty stores had displays in the windows from other store owners so that people could window shop. They also have a by-law that every new building must have a store front to keep the people out of their cars and on the streets.

The big worry in Vernon that if people have to drive to shop then they might just go to Kelowna.

But one major difference is that the down town has people living above stores and all around it.

Here the downtown association should be working with the residences of the bowl to save their neigbourhoods not push their problems into the neighbourhoods.

re: kagee


Good to hear your comments.

I obviously have no idea how they make it work in Vernon. I just know that SOMETHING IS WORKING.

It's a wonderful town.

I never saw any Pulp Mills but does anyone know what the air quality is like Vernon? Also, what contributes to their air quality reading if they get bad?

On a total different note have you ever noticed how our Canadian Tire Gas Bar seems to be the only one paying 5 Cents a L in Canadian Tire Money all the other ones I have visited in different towns pay 7 cents a L. When I asked the local cheap o's why that is they couldn't tell me but guessed that it was due to lack of competition. Maybe if more people complained they would get with the program.

Alright so I am officially complaining...

I WANT MORE CANADIAN TIRE MONEY...

Hey... maybe we started a movement...

It's lack of competition. Superstore is the same. They give 5 cents / litre in 'Superbucks' but in most other communities I've seen, it's 7.5 cents / litre. Doesn't seem like much, but it adds up.

It might have something to do with how all the gas stations in town change their prices the minute one starts the trend.

The gas retailers are told what the price is today, and sometimes hourly by the distributor.

I was talking to the owner of Race track on the hart. I asked why he no longer displays his price of 2 cents a liter less than everyone else. According to him, the distributor threatened to stop delivering fuel to his store if he did not comply with the displayed price that all the other stations have. How many petro fuel suppliers are there in PG? He still charges 2 cents less, but displays the same as all the other retailers. That was a hint folks.

No gas price gauging or conspiracy here.

For people to care about downtown, we need people to live downtown. Who wants to live in a downtown like ours?
If you build it, will they come?

"For people to care about downtown, we need people to live downtown."

While it sounds true, it is an overused statement that different people see in different ways.

Where is downtown?

People who live between Winnipeg and Victoria are downtown from my point of view.

That picture on the article on 250 about downtown was taken from the apartment building near the downtown Dairy Queen.

There are several apartments/condos between Winnipeg and Vancouver streets. The one on Vancouver and 6th is probably the nicest apartment condo building in Prince George.

While the people may not be here permanently, one should not forget about those who stay overnight, and often for more than one night, in downtown hotels. They probably move around downtown more than even the residents as they go to offices for meetings that they came here for, go to restaurants to eat, go to a pub to relax for an hour or two. The amount of times they are seen outside of their temporary "home" is probably much greater than anyone who lives in a downtown apartment.

I bet that for each 100 people in a hotel, they frequent restaurants and especially downtown restaurants at a rate of as much as 10 times that of downtown apartment dwellers.

When you now put 100 people who are low income into those downtown apartments, that comparative frequency of use will go even higher.

When the Carmel, the 97 Motor Inn, the Sheraton 4 Points, the Casino, the Sandman on Central addition, and the newest Sandman on Hwy 16 built outside of downtown, the hotel rooms took a major shift from downtown to the highways.

There has not been a new hotel built in the downtown in some 25 or so years. Over that time period the Inn has had many proposals and none have come about. I doubt the dollars being spent by the Ramada now will make much of a difference.

Gus-The key words missing about the paramedics are Full time. A starting paramedic works on call/casual for an average of 4 or 5 yrs. They don't get an hourly wage they get pager pay of about $2/hr or a call out stipend. No call, no money.The CNC students will be finding out just how much they don't make, shortly. This is why they have other jobs to pay the bills and for their education.BCAS has been "on strike" since April of this year but how much media coverage did they get?They are harassed by their employer for wearing the t-shirts,stickers on the ambulances or signs posted outside their depots.The employees have had information demos to make the public aware of issues and were slammed in the news/media. The only way they can strike back is work to rule,refusing OT, and no special ops coverage.They were deemed an essential service but I guess its not essential to pay them a living wage,hire more people for coverage,reduce OT burnout and high turnover of staff due to BCAS
mis-management. The paramedics should just shut down and see how fast that gets results, because no progress will be made until you call 911 and no one is available to take your call!
Any takers for the training and dedication it takes to become a paramedic?Want to work for free?

Defining the downtown is critical to the goal of downtown revitalization.
might I suggest everything from 20th to first, from the Fraser river to Winnipeg.

Lots of interesting comments on the vibrant nature of downtown Vernon. I wonder if downtown merchants in Vernon allow transit buses to pickup and discharge passengers in the downtown area?

Are Vernon merchants as opposed to transit passengers as merchants on 4th avenue in Prince George are?

That would be the kind of defintion I would use Loki.

In Vancouver, for instance, the West end is not the Central Business District. Neither is Yaletown. That is not what keeps the CBD surviving.

The west end is the original residential section of downtown Vancouver. It generated the retail/restaurant and other small street level businesses on the main traffic arterials - Davie, Denman, Robson. A place like that is found in almost every city adjacent to the CBD.

Yaletown is the "planned" part of town which is attempting to copy the West End. It is doing relatively well.

The CBD has some full time residents, but most are short term hotels and apartment hotels.

Even the recent planning exercise shows the highest residential density in the Winnipeg-Victoria corridor.

Starting to draw people there is much easier than plunking someone down into an apartment on Dominion and 6th. Work at it from the edges rather from the centre out. Success will be much easier to achieve one small step at a time.

"I live in the Connaught Miller Area. While walking on pine St. the other day across from the school an empty condom box was laying on the ground with a convenience store price tag on it. My question is, what is a convenience store doing selling condoms?"

Of course this littering problem could easily be solved should the government limit the sale of contraceptives to specific retailers ..... right????

That's just what society needs, to limit access to safe sex aids to the illegal (but ever present) sex industry.

...be happy you only found the box...

Norm,
How about we put a bus stop in front of your house & everyone can use your living room to stay warm while they're waiting? Sound good?

Rambleon I would like to let you know I have seen condoms laying on the street,it would be nice if these loser Johns would take their dirt home with them , my concern is for the Children in the area , this problem should not be in residential areas. The new superintendent is going to have to deal with this , get the Johns when was the last Sting??

Wally mart no longer sells fabric. Fanny's Fabrics diskapeared a few years ago. I think Fabricland is in a warehouse waiting for a building with the right square footage, location, parking and zoning. I could be wrong on that, though. No place to buy sewing fabric in this town now. Don't mention Quesnel. I was told the fabric stores there are nothing to write home about. Think about it. If you were Fabricland, where would you like your new store in this gritty little mill town? Downtown? the Hart? College Heights? A rental building or a new expensive free standing building? Next to a pawn shop or needle exchange? A lack of fabric retailers doesn't bode well for sewing machine retailers. So now after the train not stopping here, sewing machines don't work here. What a town!

Why did Fabricland move from their old location.????

You can get some fabric a Kathys Quilt downtown. Might be expensive.

Walmart killed off Fannys, Zellers, and the one in College Heights, now they have closed down. What is that all about.

As for the Manager of Pine Centre Rick whats his name. He worked here for thirty years at a pretty good job, and as soon as he retired he left town. Seems like a lot of people do this. Rather strange when you consider that while they worked here they fed us a bunch of BS as to how great the town is, but once retired they cant get out fast enough.

A lot of people retire to find warmer weather, less snow to shovel, move closer to family, travel...
Many different reasons to leave PG. I love PG and have lived here all of my life and it has been very good to me, but I sure don't plan to retire here.

You're right, bitter, it shouldn't. However, your knee-jerk reaction to limit access to contraceptives as a solution is absolutely assinine.

I enjoyed the letter in the Free Press regarding fluoride from a REAL scientist rather than a Dentist. Maybe our coucilors can eat some crow and learn how to research before they pass something illegal and un-ethical on us. Lets get back on Fluoride issue and get it removed. Kevin James Millership was responsible for the Kamloops referendum and far as I know someone is suing Canada now for water fluoridation..

Old age and cold don't mix well with a lot of people. I'm beginning to look at warmer climes as well and it's due to age rather than preference.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/11/2/94

Here is another study from REAL scientists. Four, to be exact, who have PhDs.

L. L. RUSOFF PH.D.
J. B. FRYE JR. PH.D.
J. E. JOHNSTON PH.D.
W. W. FRYE M.D., PH.D.

This study again demonstrates that the ingestion of a recommended level of fluoride ion during calcification of teeth and prior to eruption is of value in increased resistance to dental caries.

Just because someone is a real scientist does not mean that he/she agrees with other sientists. Just because there is 75% agreement in general does not mean the 75% is right and the other 25% is wrong. All one can say with any degree of accuracy is that they are in agreement.

It is also true that laypeople will seek out the science from professionals who they agree with. To do otherwise would be counterproductive.