Interesting. I see they have used the Keg as one of the "Catalyst Projects" in the downtown. Does anyone have an idea of what the holdup is? I have heard rumours in passing but nothing substantiated.

The RCMP building is also outlined as a catalyst project and it notes that the planned construction has been approved. When do you suppose they prepared this document? I bet they had to wait until the alternative approval process had officially failed prior to releasing this.

I also was unaware that there is actually a proposal for a Performing Arts Centre as another downtown catalyst project. Lots of talk, yes, proposal, no. Nice rendering but is it honest to suggest to outside developers that this is in fact a real project at this time?

Overall the marketing package does look good. Best of luck, I hope it makes a difference!

Interesting reading - some good ideas in the document but I have to say the good ideas came to an abrupt halt when I read "A College/University city is not complete without a downtown campus". That may well be the case for the Vancouver's and Edmonton's of the world but PG and UNBC do not have the economies of scale nor geographical necessity to pull this off. Students in a downtown campus would still need to head up the hill on a regular basis for access to the library and other student services. UNBC is just holding its own budget wise - I don't believe forcing them to adjust their spending and budgets in service duplications downtown to prop up the city centre is a good business plan for the university - students and the university are pawns in this plan. Having said that, I believe that an engneering program at UNBC is extremely important - hopefully the city and the provincial government are not holding the university ransom over the location of this program.

Wonder why kind of tax reductions they are going to use to "LURE the unsuspecting downtown...

Did I miss the part of the plan that focused on bringing entertainment options to the downtown core? The plan 10 years ago was to develop some kind of entertainment zone, to attract people after regular business hours.

I like the plan, but I agree that the Wood Innovation facility should be built on the hill instead of downtown.

Nothing significant has happened in this area in the last 10 years, a few buildings (Gaming Centre) were built. Hopefully this will be the "study" that finally kicks it off.

How much money has been spent on "studies" and proposals and plans for the downtown?

Kathy says, "Th train has left the station". Poor choice of a metaphor, Kath. Especially when the train now stops in Quesnel. Try harder next time to pick a better "turn of phrase". OK?

A nice looking glossy publication.

I wish the first words out of that "station" would have been chosen more wisely.
"Our City Centre reflects the spirit and soul of Prince George".
I would not dare tell that to any of the out of town people I know.
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The graph on page 5 is an interesting one, showing the cycle of the vacancy rates for high rise commercial, upper floor (2nd floor?), as well as street level commercial space.

Street level is at around 18% and has never been as high. Lowest was in 1993 at around 2% ... which shows what it could be.

High rise is at around 5% which is close to the lowest it has been, but was at 1% in 1995. Highest was 23% in 2000.

Significantly, in the last 3 years, street level vacancies have been rising while both upper and high rise levels have been dropping.

That seems to indicate there is still a desire to have offices downtown, but no shopping. In fact, a good pirce of information to include would be how much of street level is service versus retail. I suspect retail is continuing to drop off while service is filling some of those spaces. That is not a good condition if I am observing it accurately.
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The brochure tells a nice compact story, a bit disjointed, perhaps, but it is alsways difficult to present a complex picture in as simple a way as possible without losing the occasional connection.
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Yes .... entertainment is most certainly the glaring thing left out ...... restaurant scenes, although the keg is mentioned and pictured.

And, of course, River Park is really pie in the sky stuff. I have not talked to anyone of any importance with respect to decision making in this city yet that is serious about creating the "river"envisaged in the SGOG plan. If there is one fault in all of this is that there are several carots held out on sticks and the organization with the authority to make them come true has not taken the major step to stand behind them from point of view of an action plan with timelines and money commitments.

More entertainment options are definitely needed, especially for the 30-40 crowd. There is virtually nothing in PG that caters to this group unless you want to show up at a pub and eat chicken fingers or hamburgers. Fun stuff!

Regarding the PAC, I think it would indeed be a great project for the city, but I find it funny how it now seems to show up in these documents like it is a foregone conclusion. Wasn't there supposed to be significant public input into this project before it even got to that point? This leads me to my next point . . .

Is this document supposed to be a genuine reflection of what is going to occur in the future, or is it just a glimpse into would "could" happen if the planets align? Isn't there a rather large difference between the two? If we are serious about attracting outside investment, why don't we lead by example and do some things for the downtown on our own FIRST? I think that may give more credence to what we want to accomplish and the fact that we are committed to it.

The PAC is showing up in all the documents because it is indeed a foregone conclusion! It is going to come as sure as the next (heavy snow fall) winter for which we do not have enough money to look after it.

As for "significant" public input, no amount of input will change what has already been decided, get used to it, is my suggestion.

The PAC is showing up in all the documents because it is indeed a foregone conclusion! It is going to come as sure as the next (heavy snow fall) winter for which we do not have enough money to look after it.

As for "significant" public input, no amount of input will change what has already been decided, get used to it, is my suggestion.

The City will have to get funding for the PAC from other levels of Government plus local tax dollars. This is the kind of BS that the City pulls off. They are already talking about the PAC as if its a done deal, knowing full well that they will have to go to a referendum, or an Alternative Approval Process to borrow the money.

This time they crapped in their drawers because of the high cost of the Police Station, the Community Energy System, and the Winter Games, they will not have any money for the PAC. Im sure they are aware of that, so they are using the PAC in the correspondence as propaganda. So whats new??

If the city keeps piling up debt at the current pace, we could end up in the same situation as Camden where basic services are threatened. They have just laid off one half of the police force and one third of the fire department.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20110118/NEWS01/101180357/Camden-layoffs-Job-cuts-take-effect-in-struggling-city

One does not have to as far as Camden. Apparently Penticton is in some kind of financial bind because of extending itself too far when it came to building some kind of venue which turned out to be a white elephant.

Solution: Lay off about 20 city employees.

We could start by laying off City Council and Mayor?

What exactly does City Centre Marketing Plan mean? Are we selling the centre of the city? To whom? Dan McLaren? Are we going to buy it back from him at twice the price? So many questions.

City Center would be the golf course lands or Spruceland... not the Downtown. The Downtown is out of the way East side of the city... more propaganda I guess.

Dan Rogers said last election we would have a vote on the RCMP station and the PAC. We all know he changed his mind on the RCMP station... now they are talking about a PAC like its a foregone conclusion.

This PAC issue tells me we have no accountability starting at the top in the Mayors office on down. Typical politicians using perjury to get a perception... this time it was either perjury to the electorate at election time in promising a referendum on a new PAC, or its perjury to those they are disseminating this marketing plan knowing full well a PAC still has to go to a referendum where chances for approval are slim at best.

This lack of accountability for perjury is why people don't have faith anymore in the political class and the democratic process.

Hard to believe the tax payer pays for these reports, which are essentially political platforms for an elite downtown opportunist class.

NMG wrote:

"Regarding the PAC, I think it would indeed be a great project for the city, but I find it funny how it now seems to show up in these documents like it is a foregone conclusion"

NMG .... I agree with you totally. However, it is not only the PAC. When one reads through the document one has to extract fact from fiction - projects that are happening and about to happen, and projects that are on a wish list to Santa Claus.

So, If I am an astute developer from outside and wish to invest in some palce that is exotic to me, the first piece of information I would want to gather is to determine for myself exactly where these projects lie.

That is why I wrote in a previous post, the key to the whole thing is who exactly is it that is going to be the key go-to person that is in the position of taking the next step to "closing a sale". THAT is the important part of this.

The brochure is just a hook with a worm on it.

For those who think the PAC is a project that ought to have a vote, you are missing a much greater expense - bringing the "river" to the downtown of Prince George by removing entire blocks of land, including the one the Day's Inn is sitting on.

Looking closer at the presentation, I wonder why that area is called River Park. I mean, the River is not there. They took a lot of trouble many decades ago to fill that area in so that the occasional river would be gone.

Also, notice that the PAC is associated with the "Civic Core". With the water moved in there, where the heck is it going to go? No space. So how is the City proposing to do this.

Far too many cooks in the kitchen from the looks of it.

Then we have this quote:

“Prince George is in the traditional territory of the Lheidli T’enneh people – the people of the confluence of rivers. With its abundant resources and beauty, the area has been the home of the Lheidli T’enneh for many generations. Like the rivers, the Lheidli T’enneh aspire to move ahead as an organized, highly motivated, determined and self-reliant nation.”
– Chief Dominic Frederick

I was tossing and turning all last night trying to figure out exactly how that fit in with the CityCentre "prospectus".

Perhaps there is a parallel there because the City is trying to "move ahead as an organized, highly motivated, determined and self-reliant city"?

It would be nice to have at least a hint of how our City mommies and daddies and Chief Dominic Frederick might gain support for each other in their endeavour. ;-)

I agree Egelone .... the City Centre should move every couple of generations.

NOT!!!!!!

I can just picture it now ..... "come to Prince George, Canada, the world's most famous moving City Centre." LOL ...

Then again, they moved the capital of Brasil ... and Punjab ..... so why not move the centre of a city.

Wait ... stupid me, why did it not hit me sooner .....

Quote from the "prospectus"

"Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us . . . Think big"

We need to move the capital of BC .... move Victoria to PG .... just thinking big here...... ;-)

Could it be that "think big" could be part of the problem. I cannot count how many of these "big" ideas have wilted and died on the vine going back to the Cadillac-Fairview proposal in the late 1970's. In the mean time downtown just seems to be getting worse.

How about a new slogan "think reasonable" or "think do-able" and actually get something done. To keep funding endless studies and marketing plans is a waste. You know what they say about people who keep doing the same things over and over and expect different results.

Our City Centre is in the same realm as our Astrological birth signs.. One moment it here and the next its there.

It seems much more logical that the City Center is the intersection of highway 16 and 97, or 5th or 15th and Central. Downtown is next to nothing and no development East of the River, so how can that possibly be City Center... its the downtown, run down and not much of a community focal point other than a business district for government and bureaucratic related commercial activity.

Our focus on it diminishes PG's image and the community spirit away from the great strengths that PG really has.

If we were talking about social City Center it would surely be the CN Center, Kin Center, UNBC part of the city.

If we were talking shopping, then City Center would surely be Pine Center and the golf course to Costco's.

If we were talking residential, then surely City Center would be the area around Central to Ospika.

I fail to see how re-branding the downtown as some kind of City Center sales pitch will change anything for that part of town other then generate more political miscommunication in the importance of that part of the community to the communities future going forward, so as to get the allocation more tax dollars to its subsidization.

Why are no tax dollars promoting growth in residential development in the EXISTING City Center for residential, shopping, or social... why always trying to engineer Gus with city tax dollars to move it to the Downtown? Why the agenda at the expense of other 'Centers' of the city that have just as much right to promotion with our tax dollars as the 'Downtown' has?

Hence IMO the reason why the city powers would like to sabotage the potential of the golf course lands as an analogy of what they do in policy to the entire city in handicapping its potential all in the name of resurrecting the downtown with tax dollars.

I just don't think centralization is in PG's character to begin with, and to try and force it by out of touch (home owner tax paid for) bureaucrats at IPG and City Hall with an insufficient population at the expense of the rest of the city is asinine. Focus on the communities as regional hubs within the city building better sub communities and a greater diversity of development and the city will grow and with this growth more commercial services will be required in the downtown, and eventually it to will grow too as all ships rise with the tide... but to force social, recreational, shopping, residential and other types of centralization to the downtown with political engineering only keeps this city down IMO.

I see where the probelm lies, Eagleone. You do not know what a City Centre is. I think you may have enlightened me about the problem we are facing.

We need some awareness raising.

As I wrote, that is the failing of the "prospectus" .... no people ....

The front cover .... not one person visible ...

Page 3 - 2 blocks of Victoria St. one car, no people.

Page 4 - City Hall public space, no people

Page 8 - 2 different blocks of Victoria, no people and a few car lights with long exposure photo

Page 9 - yeah!!!!! finally some people in a Civic Centre Plaza special event shown in a very small picture - a gtoal of 7 small pictures on that page, only two have people in it

Page 10 - 3 small pictures - looks like the one of the Inn has 3 people in it

Page 11 - 4 small pictures, two have people in it, in one they are chopped below the head/chest

Page 12 - 2 small pics of Duchess Park, one has a 2 or 3 people in the atrium

Page 13 - 3 small pictures - one posed, one with two construction workers on the job, plus veterans plaza without people rather than one with people laying wreaths

That's it .....

Could have had:
1. George Street pedestrian street events in August

2. Santa Clause parade.

3. People in the Gallery

4. People reading books/magazines in the library

5. People sitting at the few outdoor patios that are left - Cimo, Twisted Cork, Taco place, Kelly O'Bryan, White Goose ... and sneak in Earl's ... which is the only really active patio in town that people flock to .....

6. People walking on street and waiting at corners for light to change.

7. People shopping on 4th Avenue ... there are some nice street shots to be had there.

8. people lined up to get into nightclubs

9. People buying sausages from street vendor.

10. people sitting at Starbucks at Ramada.

11. People entering businesses - Royal Bank Building, Northern, North 54, Nancy O, Humus Brothers.

I think someone in PR at the City/IPG needs to gather a good portfolio of PR photos.

you forgot a few

12. Firefighters basking in the warm glow of a fire bombed gang storefront.

13.Pedestrians staying active ducking for cover in gang shootouts.


14. Street corner gatherings to exchange cash for mood enhancing chemicals.

15.Free MMA events after the bars close.