Scrap it and spend the money on road rehabilitation

$14000.00 for Mike Harcourt to appear????? OMG, was he worth it???

I am looking forward to seeing this new budget. Something tells me this new DBIA needs to give their head a shake!!!

Pay for a couple of days to an ex Premier to show up. $14,000 seems kinda steep for that. Wonder what else he did?

More than that, actually, I wonder how much he charged the first time he was up here.

And, more importantly, what was the direct result of the first such venture and then this latest one? I have not seen a thing that made a difference that could be attributed to either one.

Where is the report with objectives for the year and an action plan that came out of all this? Hopefully there was more that was provided than a few pontificating interviews and a speech or two at some gatherings that were a rehash of his last words from the previous time.

Just read the package to Council and looked at the invoices from the DBIA included.

Who paid for the first time that Harcourt was here? If the DBIA paid at that time, did Council micro manage at that time as well and approve that expenditure? I do not recall. How about that other fellow, "Bonhomme Carnival", or whatever.

Can anyone refresh my memory what happened at that time?

Took a drive down 3rd Avenue the other evening around 8.00pm. The streets were empty not a soul in site. It had the appearance of a sleepy little village and appeared quite pleasing.. Only thing that looked out of place were the bars on all the pawn shops.
Another solution would be to stop funding the DBIA. It�s a waste of our tax dollars It appears they cant see what the problems are. Their interest is in building an empire.

There has been a lot of effort made to improve the street appeal all they need is to get rid of the pawn shops and replace them with retail outlets that can supply the needs of our community.
Cheers

There are a few places they could move to. All of them will be in the downtown. All of them will be owned by someone who is a member of the DBIA. Thus everyone is in a potential conflict, whether they are on the Board or not.

To not be in the DBIA is absolutely ridiculous. The selection process then becomes important in order to remove any actual or perceived conflict at that stage.

BTW, in some ways even a City owned property is a conflict. The DBIA Society is not the City. The City raises the taxes for the DBIA to use. The City has a very high level oversight of how those taxes are spent. That does not include details. If they do not like what they DBIA is doing, then they can stop collecting taxes from them after the current agreement is over. That is what happened to the previous Board when they went against the wishes of a significant number of their proposed new members.

How quickly we forget why there is a new group of directors in place. As they say, be careful of what you wish for.

Shut them down, the objectives are already being met by Dan/Dan club and IPG. They are hanging onto a old dream. There done, die peacefully.

Whoa!...Mike Harcourt wasn't worth $14,000 bucks when he was Premier!

"the objectives are already being met by Dan/Dan club and IPG"

They are?

So tell me, what exactly are the objectives, what are the measurable indicators, and how have those indicator numbers changed since the start of IPG and the City's efforts.

Try total leasable retail and office space as an example. How has it changed? How has the vacancy rate changed? How have the rental rates changed? How has the distribution of ground level use changed over time among retail, service, office.

OK, Gus, you walk on water.

why not level from queensway to victoria and start building box stores like every other city. then we could can the DBIA

"Whoa!...Mike Harcourt wasn't worth $14,000 bucks when he was Premier!"

Whoa!...a bit below the belt, perhaps? :-)

Yet, it's well known he isn't famous for being pro-business so how much advice could he possibly give to the DBIA, which is all about...?

Yes, BUSINESS.

Has he switched sides like so many famous others?

Everyone on the DBIA board should be in a position of owning or leasing property in the levy area. Otherwise you have people who don't have to pay the levy making decisions without a cost to them.
I love this new board - they didn't bend over and just hand Mr Rogers $40,000 for his task force which would have meant that we paid taxes twice for his grand plan.
I'm still not sure that they will make a huge difference but they seem to be marching to their own drummer and not in the pocket of city hall.

Bang on ravinggrannie!!!!!

The major danger is actually that the toxes are collected and the money goes to favourite schemes of Council and Administration to benefit the whole City rather than money that benefits the property owners more directly.

We have to remember that the property owners downtown pay several times as I understand it.

1. the actual normal property tax.

2. the additional tax for the DBIA operations and their projects

3. any other special levy whenever "improvements" are made such as a tree is planted in the sidewalk adjacent to their property or more generally to new streetscape furnishings, pavers, planters, etc.

If there is anyone who is a property owner downtown that knows a bit more about all the special charges they are required to pay please feel free to correct or add to that.

I attended the first rally at Third and George where Hartcourt was the featured speaker. I want to know how much that cost.

It is absolutely sickening that $14,000 was paid to Harcourt for this most recent visit, and disgusting that taxpayers have to foot this bill. Gus is absolutely correct questioning outcomes - what are the concrete results of this effort? Why do we have IPG - which is to promote Prince George, including downtown, and now this new DBIA - which is to promote downtown Prince George? Redundant.

And costly. Now, back in the day, there was the Town Centre Business Association - it was a group of local business owners, managers, in downtown, who would get together for lunch, have an occasional guest speaker, it was a goodwill association of downtown citizens devoted to making good business.

I'm not saying 'don't promote Prince George' I'm just saying don't pay for it twice! IPG should be given back the professional reins to do what they are paid to do - build PG. And the DBIA should go back to doing what it does best - making sure their own businesses and their neighbours, draw and do good business.

Which cities have box stores downtown?

To "he spoke" ... could not expect a reasonable response from you. So you feel that all those people who have dabbled in the downtown issue in the post Pine Centre era should not be held accountable and be measured in some fashion or other? Throw accolades at them for what?

At least people like Bartons built a building in the downtown rather than in suburbia!!!

BoM moved out of the downtown!!!

And the Northern stayed downtown when I am sure they have been offered opportunities to move into suburbia as well. As did SpeeDee.

Start measuring and see who are believers and doers who effectively support the downtown and who are not and you will find there are very few of the former.

When talking about IPG and their responsibility with respect to downtown PG, we must remember that their City Centre Ventures downtown development agency no longer exists. The $140 thousand Harris Report has since been mothballed.

Some history from a recent local article:

1964 - The Miracle Centre - Third Avenue covered mall from Victoria to George

1967 - Centrum plan – covered Third Avenue with monorail connection to Parkwood Mall

1974 - Regional Development Commission urges PG to ensure that 60% of retail space be in CBD

1980 - Central Business District Study wants major retail expansion in downtown plus residential development downtown and parks and green space

1980 - Fairview-Cadillac to create 4 block mall on 2nd and 4th and Dominion + Brunswick streets. Dies due to Woodworths pulling out and supportive Councillors voted out

1988 - Discovery Place - a theatre and convention complex - rejected by voters

1989 - The mayor's task force to improve downtown recommend locating UNBC and residences downtown, police foot patrols downtown, other housing, drop-in centres and incentives for developers.

1996 –“A time for Action”. create a public-private commission to oversee downtown developments with action timelines

2001 - downtown Prince George revitalization study –DBIA + City - create a development corporation to spark major projects downtown.

2006 - City Centre Ventures – Harris Report includes a plan to rejuvenate downtown and market the area to investors and developers.

2009 – The current mayor's task force on downtown

2009 - SGOG

2009 - MyPG

2010 - new people on the Board of DBIA

Does anyone care to make up activities for the years 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2015, 2018, 2024, 2027, 2032 ?

Come on, chances are if you follow the past history any ideas that resurect the past will likely come true.

Does anyone out there actually realize what has been happening? Is there anyone out there that understands what is needed to get this place moving?

I think if there is anything to learn from China on those junkets it is how to set goals and how to accomplish them in a timely fashion. We need some Chinese project management skills.

Leave your politics and differences aside folks. The laissez faire approach simply does not work.

A new hypothesis.

Many say the problem with downtown is absentee landlords.

I think the problem with downtown is absentee citizens.

I think the citizens of this community are holed up in their homes and suburban shoppping malls and get outdoors to go fishing and skiing and snowmobiling and hiking, etc.

Then those same people go to urban North America or Europe or wherever to hang out window shopping, sitting at sidewalk cafes, going into galleries and taking in live performances, etc. They leave the socializing in an urban environment to places outside of PG. There is no longer any pressure to create those places here. If one or two pop up every now and then, they are not supported sufficiently to survive.

The issue will resolve itself with several potential changes such as:

1. a higher number of lower paying jobs,

2. an increase of population,

3. a substantial increase in the cost of energy that will raise travel costs,

4. a much longer recession,

5. a greater awarenes of the social, environmental and economic costs of spending money outside of the community

6. a greater interest in supporting community pride.