Well said Benny,the state of downtown IMHO is a joke.I still remember all the city councillors when they were spewing all the pre-election B.S. about fixing downtown.
Lil Collin.... any city councillors,where are you? we the taxpayers are embarrased for you.Is this initiatives Prince George for real?there is an old saying out there "your only as good as your last deal.Well...."what's initiatives P.G's last deal?.....a couple of call centre's ....wow what's next? a new car/dog wash paying the employee's the 6 dollar training wage,it's time for you people at the public traugh to wake up out of the ether...oh ya Collin I love your quote in the paper this morning,in regards to Rocky mountain rails decision not to stop in P.G. "it sting's but dosen't injure our local economy".
Well buddy this fall come election time when you don't get re-elected don't worry ,it will just sting but it won;t injure you...

Good take on things Ben.

IMO we should be looking to have a rail operator based from Prince george and not going through Prince George.

Why not have a rail operator that does PG to Jasper-Kamloops and back to PG? Or PG to Prince Rupert and back?

Why does it all have to originate in Vancouver. Isn't our Airport soon to be an international airport.

Last year I proposed to Initiatives PG that PG needs to rebrand itself as an eco-tourism center and not an overgrown logging camp. I proposed an Eco-tourism 2010 iniative to focus our local efforts on our greatest quality, and that this could be done from the grass roots with volunteer work by local tourism guides, outfitters, and related service entrepreneurs.

Initiative PG response was that they wanted nothing to do with it. In fact they supported VANOC's lawsuit to prevent registration of an Eco-tourism 2010 non-profit society.

The center piece of the Eco-tourism 2010 plan was to develop river tourism and camping in Prince George along the railroad tracks at Fishtrap Island - Moores Meadow. Eco-tourism guides can make in excess of $80,000 a year, or $450 a day.

The wife of George Offet works for Pat Bells office and her direct comments during the VANOC dispute was that 'the last thing PG needs is an eco-tourism initiative for red forest tour operators.'

I guess what we need is more tax payer funded call centers paying temporary $8 dollar an hour poverty rates.

Shawn great web site. I share your enthusiasm and would gladly vote for you although we disagree on one thing.

The downtown even considering the sunk cost is a losing proposition. We lost our downtown back in the early 80's and any further investment into it is not a good use of capital.

I propose we build a new downtown from scratch and locate it next to UNBC along the top of Cranbrook Hill between UNBC and Ospika Blvd. That and a row of rowdy frat houses up their would show case the real Prince George in a safe clean and social environment that people would love to be associated with.

I say the downtown is dead, and our furute is better invested in a new downtown on the hill over looking the bowl, with Cranbrook Hill Crest becoming the Stanley Park of the North.

Time Will Tell

First of all IMO our mayor should be slapped for saying this doesn't hurt and was only dissapointed in the decision. There were to be 5000 people per year coming to town on the rail tour. Remember folks, these are not treeplanters or homeless people. They are railway aficionados, translation, hombres with dough(cash for the simpleton) to blow on whatever they want. These are people that can afford to revist places they vist. As for Chaddermando's "relocating" of the downtown, wake the hell up bud and try to think about that for a few minutes..........

Hav e you come to your senses. Good.

Peace out brothers.

Spanky,you crack me up,keep up the great comments but you gotta take it easy on my man Gordy in Victoria.
I have one more comment about the Rocky Mountain Rail thing,not having them doing overnight stops is probably a good thing.....why? you ask,well.... as the old saying goes "you never get a second chance to make a first impression"
The first impression we would be making on these tourist's would be embarrasing.
Chadermandoo,I love your input but as far as the moving the downtown up to the University,...go sell crazy somewhere else we are all filled up around here.
Lil'Collin and the pretenders(members of council)can't even get the pot holes filled and now your suggesting they just up and move the downtown up to the University....scary.
Skakun,Rogers,Sethen,Moose,where are you people the silence is deafning.

over and out ROCK

***This post was orignially first post in the queue. Thanks Ben for the courtesy to call and let me know it was removed because of a link to my old campaign site. ***

Here's my take, expressed in a letter to the editor of the Citizen:

Dear sir:

One has to wonder to what extent two stories in Wednesday's Citizen - one on Rocky Mountaineer Vacations' passing on Prince George, the other on needles strewn about our downtown - are related.

Consider what our prospective high-rolling European tourist would have experienced. After arriving at an industrial freight yard, our tourist departs the station and quickly realizes he must navigate a highway crossing without the aid of a controlled crosswalk. Moving down Quebec Street, he finds boarded-up shops, rooming houses, and a lineup at St. Vincent De Paul. On to Third Avenue's Pawn Shop row, with a right turn onto Historic George Street, where every second store is empty, and finally, the hotel. Our tourist friend expects our downtown to have condominium developments, museums, performing arts and entertainment facilities, modern sports complexes and more. He would be disappointed.

Considering Rocky Mountaineer Vacations is in the business of providing an exceptional experience to a discerning market at premium prices, surely the state of our downtown played a role. We simply don't have the aesthetics or vibrancy in our city centre to compete. "Too far to go" was a convenient out.

Our concillors will point to Westgate and other such developments as examples of how they are "growing our economy," yet they don't subtract the $80 million or so lost from downtown in the last seven years. This is not economic development; it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's a theft that leaves us all poorer.

The state of our downtown is arguably the most important economic issue our city controls. Our city competes with others for skilled, talented people and entrepreneurs - the engines of our new and emerging economy. The fact is a vibrant downtown is an important factor in their decision to locate here, or somewhere else.

We need to get serious about developing the downtown - and we need to find a city council with the vision, leadership, and creativity to make it happen.

Shawn Petriw, Prince George
(250) 563-7893

Rock, I'll mark one down against for you.

I'm not saying move it right away, but rather over time through zoning and one development at a time progress.

I would zone the edge of Cranbrook Hill Crest as all two story only residential frat houses for the university and college with a stair case on Cranbrook Hill for student access.

Across the street zone it four story only mixed residential and small business. Behind that zone it 6 story only, and across the street from that zone it 8 story or more.

This would work for the creation of a European style self sustained community That has commercial activity at street level with residential units and hotels above that. This creates the critical mass of services and people in one location that allows the urban city deweller to call PG home.

My guess is that it would attract the high end income level with its uban lifestyle proximity to BC's potentially greatest urban park in Cranbrook Hill crest, and forest for the world.

The views would make great post cards looking down on the city or looking at a sky line on top of the hills. These images would sell Prince George on their own.

In addition the fresh start and higher income orientation would eliminate the security issue that will forever condemn our current municipal focal point.

Cranbrook Hill Crest is after all the city center, and not the downtown as the ancients like to think.

Chadder
I hear what your saying about making the university the new downtown and in theory and on paper it all looks and sounds good,BUT a few things come to mind,number one water,cranbrook hill is famous for it's lack of water,number two is,with all the problems with building the road up there can we be reassured that this new downtown of yours won't slough down the hill in years to come and number three have you looked at our mayor and council?IMO they couldn't manage 2 dogs reproducing.The best thing that could ever happen to this city would be to have a someone walk a D9 Cat down George st.Start at city hall and just walk it down one side to the rail tracks and back up the other side,
just my opinion ROCK