That fly fishing pond will do wonders in our 7 months of winter. BMX ramp downtown? Yeah that will do wonders to attract the 30 something crowd who still have energy to create a favorable atmosphere.

Dont tell me it can be used for skating in the winter, we already have that downtown at the civic center, all that does is draw a bunch of undesirables to check out the kids.

The subject of downtown has been ongoing for the 40 plus yeas I have lived here, there is only one thing that will bring it back, money, big money. Corporate involvement. Until some deep pockets company deceides to throw bucks at it we are doomed to watch it slide more into the hood that it already is.

I ask you this, why would I want to take my family downtown when they are scared to get out of the vehicle? Maybe a trip every now and then to the Keg or Ric's Grill but thats about it.

Another factor these people seem to forget, it gets cold and snowy here in the winter, does your family want to walk around downtown in the minus 30 or would they rather just go to the mall, take their jackets off and hang around there?

"Presenter, Bruce Haden of Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects of Vancouver told the small gathering there are things which can be done to revitalize downtown, the first step is to find a way to draw more people to the area. "

Hopefully this guy didn't come up here on the taxpayers dime to tell us things that we're heard constantly over the past 40 or so years.

Anyway, it's just a bunch more talk. People are sick of talking, hence only 24 people bothered to show up.

You can not change the mistakes the powers that be have made for 40 years. You have prime shopping areas elsewhere. This is what they wanted then and this is what will always be. All the huge companies have already set up shop everywhere except for down town. Shopping on central, shopping up by Canadian Tire and over by Future Shop will continue to be everyones top choice. It is a shame but the downtown is what it is. A place with riff raff and stores over priced. But Good Luck with that!

Exactly. If I was bringing a big franchise into PG, the downtown would be the last place I would look to set up shop. The downtown is mostly a hub for social agencies and their clients, with the odd business thrown in. People don't want to live in the middle of that, and for the most part they don't want to shop there.

I think there are some great ideas here.
....but.....
It doesn't address the underlying factors that stop people from going downtown...
I refuse to be subjected to being cursed at, spit at, or agressive panhandling. Nor will I subject my family to that.
They want people downtown this is a big factor that needs to be dealt with.
Are they the only factors? No...but they are high on the scale.

Mr. Haden said, if you build it, they will come. Right just like the airport expansion. We are still waiting. I for one will not shop downtown, except for Northern Hardware. I have also lived in Prince George 40+ years, and have avoided the downtown for the past several years. Was hasseld several times while stopped at a stop sign by panhandlers, and some were not that nice, banging on you window etc.

http://www.ricsgrill.com/index.php?l=7&s=

Stompin Tom: "Maybe a trip every now and then to the Keg or Ric's Grill but thats about it."

After dining at Ric's Grill in Kelowna we will not visit Ric's Grill on George Street again until it is torn down and rebuilt to the high modern clean standard of the other Ric's Grills in the chain.

The Ramada has been and still is our only choice when we go downtown.

corect me if I am wrong but the original attraction for granville island was the market. As far as i could tell the last time i was there, the market is still the big draw. There area lot of little specialty shops but there is not a lot of 'interesting things' going on. certainly not enough to draw someone more than once or twice. Besides, i am seldom so bored or even blessed with free time that i need to go to town to see someone doing something interesting!
I do go downtown but not very often. This isnt because people spit at me (i look mean, i have been told). It is because i dont often need what they offer downtown. I dont have to go to the bank or to any govt offices because of remote banking and online resources. I dont go to the movies because there are no theatres of any sort down there. I dont shop there much, except to go to the northern and to one or two gift stores because I can get what i want in the various box stores or malls more conveniently. Is there even a food store down there anymore? I might go to the librairy (becoming increasingly obsolete) or the arena (esp. if it were part of the PGMHA ).
Soooo, unless i want to avail myself of a stripper bar, or a pawn shop, or any one of a dozen social services (aimed at drug users, alcoholics, abused women, welfare,etc.) or go to court (heaven forbid) or walk around a small green space or two i have no reason to go down there. If you put the most amazing spectacle in the world into the downtown core, i would certainly go see it. Then i would leave. Get the idea?

I have told you people what we need to do. I guess I am just going have to get involved. Criminal record or not. You people are not getting it. I am looking up next city city council meeting.

What happened to Smart Growth on the Ground? Does this precinct concept have any connection to the recommendations made by SGOG? Seems to me there's a lack of collaboration and integration. No concrete plan in place.

cldt:
The next regular meetings of Council will be held at 7:00 pm on Mondays, November 2 and 16, 2009 in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The Committee of the Whole meeting scheduled for October 26, 2009 has been cancelled.

Monday meetings are broadcast live on Shaw Cable 10. Council meeting calendars and agendas are available on our website.

http://city.pg.bc.ca/cityhall/clerk/councilschedule/

For more City Council information:
http://city.pg.bc.ca/cityhall/

Oh yeah, not to mention the 2 people who stumbled past, staring and mumbling in the 2 minutes it took me to get my kids into judo.....

caranmacil nailed it.

You need things in the downtown that will ATTRACT people to go there. Stuff like a big hockey rink, maybe a new swimming pool, an expanded casino, new hotels, retail expansion, maybe even part of a campus for a large post secondary school, etc. In short, it's basically everything that we have in the city that council has approved/supported being built OUTSIDE of the downtown, LOL. The whole thing reads like A Dilbert cartoon.

Of course it has to attract people. But, it has to attract the right people who will not be destination users and do nothing else. Swimmers, readers, skaters, are all distination users who will virtually all get back in their cars and then go to do those other things. There is nothing close to ANY of these facilities which will cause people to hang around because they can walk to it.

The biggest attraction, I believe, is the library. People get sucked in, and then spat back out again. I doubt anyone has ever done a survey of the origin and destination which has the library as its pivot.

Were they at a restaurant before? The pool? At the Colosseum? Working? Shopping north of the Library? Shopping at Parkwood. A movie?

Then where do they go afterwards?

In other words, is the library an attraction that helps diversify the "downtown". While my mind is open about this, I would be surprised if it would make much of a difference.

The pool is in the same category.

The Gallery also.

The Ice Arena as well, although there might be a bit more spin offs to downtown restaurants and pubs.

BTW, walking is the key. People in PG will not walk when compared to people in other communities. Betcha if you did a bit of a survey of this community and another winter community in Canada, which is just about all of them, we will be among the worst.

Good points gus.

There will always be a percentage of "come and go" people, but I think you are better off having more people in an area and getting 15% spinoff traffic, than no people and no spinoff traffic. Especially a facility like CN Centre, it has a huge potential to provide spinoff just by the fact that it brings at least 2-3 thousand people into the downtown core when they wouldn't otherwise be there.

Almost every time I've attended an event at a city with a downtown rink, you go for dinner before hand, go out for a few drinks after or even just walk around a bit and check out the sights, etc.

Not every facility will "keep" people downtown, but they will help to create a cluster of facilities and services that at least bring people into the downtown as opposed to forcing them out at the end of the day (like an office building does). From there, you can at least start to market the idea of living downtown (facilities within walking distance, don't NEED a car), investing in the downtown (increased populations to market to), increasing the effectiveness of mass transit (more stuff to service with 1 or 2 primarty routes instead of sending busses all over the city), etc. It all ties into the overall strategy.

I also tend to agree with you about the walking comment, although on the other hand, we also contribute to it by spreading the city out over such a wide space. Wouldn't it be great if there were more options for attractive downtown living where people could get by without a car if they wanted? I know it's foreign to many people here, but loads of people in Canada CHOOSE that type of lifestyle. Just look at downtown Vancouver for a great example. People can afford to live downtown because they don't have a car payment, car insurance, gas money, etc. Everything they need to facilitate a modern living is within walking distance. Our climate does make for some other considerations, but we're not unique in those regards when it comes to the rest of Canada or the world for that matter.

Again.
Send out about 2000 questionnaires to a broad spectrum of the city (every neighbourhood)so to speak, and ask them to write back, in 40 words or less why they don't like to go downtown. Put the specific reasons returned into piles. Work at ridding the complaints of the first pile first. All else is just talk. And here I thought "downtown revitalization" was only talked about six months before our municipal election. Seems like it is all year round now. Kinda like a constant voter issue.

40 words harbinger? I couldn't tell them in 4000...
but your idea has merit

40 words? I can tell them in three.

Here are my 40 words (or less)

I dont go downtown because I have no reason to.



Is that simple enough? Will I go for a frozen fly fishing pond? No. Will I go for a skate board park? No. I will go downtown for shopping and entertainment. Right now there are no stores in the downtown area I go to. I go downtown only to go to the post office or go to a restaurant.

I remember back when they built the new libray downtown.
I actually figured that it was the start of a whole new life for the downtown core.
Was I ever wrong!
And there was even a time when I used to like to wander around the stores but now, I NEVER go down there, unless there is a damn good reason for it!(Northern Hardware)
I also agree with diplomat...we were at Rics Grill not long ago and I really question why they are where they are?
I have been to several Rics in the chain and this one is not even close!
Neither was the food.
I also wonder why the Keg is still down there as well?
It's hard to believe that after so many years,they still have not figured out a plan for downtown that works?
The only one I can see that would work?...tear it down!...all the way from Victoria to Queensway!
When we first moved to PG way back when,downtown was it.
That was where you went, because there wasn't much anywhere else,other than the new Pine Center at that time.
Everytime I drive through downtown,I still miss the fun that used to be had down there, and some good shopping too.
Especially at Xmas time!
It's a shame they can't seem to figure it out.

The Granville Island thing. It is much more than a market.

In addition to the fact that it is close to the heart of a city of 2 million and in one of the top rated cities in the world when it comes to tourism, it has a total spectrum of activities.

After Niagara Falls, Granville Island is apparently the 2nd largest tourist draw in Canada. It was, of course, never intended to be that.

It is the campus of Emily Carr University of Art and Design. It has a hotel that is wonderful. There are a few wonderful house boats anchored there. There are several boat manufacturers. The canoe club is there as well as the dragon boat racers. There is a theatre. There is a wonderful foot passenger ferry that goes back and forth through False Creeek. Restaurants galore. Buskers. Specialty stores. Even a concrete factory.

Above all, it is a place to see people and to be seen by people. If you are not into that, then you will not enjoy Paris and you will not enjoy Granville Island and we might as well keep our downtown the place that it is. That, of course, is the question that is being asked now. What do WE want downtown to be. Maybe it needs to continue to be what it is. Maybe it is a reflection of who we are. That is what outsiders appear to be saying more and more about PG. We are our own worst enemy.

Comparing granville island to PAris? I have been to both, there is no comparison. You hit the nail on the head though: 2 million plus a lot of tourists in Vancouver in the first place vs 60 thousand and a handful stopping on the way to alaska.
The whole tourist attraction in the downtown core is a boondoggle so why do we continue with it? If you think that adding a few artsy places and some activities are going to revitalize the downtown you are crazy. Here is another point you all might be missing: Granville island is not downtown vancouver. Have you been downtown in vancouver, not the business core, mind more in the social services/pawn shop alley? Lets stop talking apples and oranges here and discuss our downtown in an honest manner.
By the way, i still think the actual market is the best thing about granville island. Of course, i have never been there as a tourist.