Go get 'em Ben!!!

Like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Okay, so those with the big ides are pretty well off ......

Is it back to the same old goup that did nothing for 10 years?

Looking forward to a better web site, Santa Claus Parade, Summer Street Fairs, more flower baskets, another block with led lit stars, new banners .......

Those all did a lot to make changes in the past ..... NOT!!!!!

Where is City Planning in all this?

If the board members are voting in matters where they are in a conflict of interest, it is of no consequence how good their ideas are. These are taxpayer funds and everything should be open and above board.

What did some of them find there realist pair of glasses and figure out the sweet, easy, taxpayer money making deals were all but finished,or they just lose there rose coloured glasses?

best news I have had this year. the ship is infact sinking. Now the next step is for the city to fine ($) all the vacant builds that are owned by the commonwealth group of companies for dangerous and unsightly buildings. Then impose a time line that must be met to either beautify or demolish the buildings. if the time line is not met. fine them again and take away their tax deferals.

So rattyboy, what should be the timeline for the City to demolish or "beutify" the PG Hotel?

beautify is not really an option. should have been demolished with in 6 months of purchase. AND THEN sold to the city. lets not forget the $500,000 that was creamed off the top. and the suspect financing that the mayor had full and complete knowledge of, as he sits on the board that approved the loan. this whole goings on in the down town should be investigated as none of it appearse above board.

Rattboy, this is not about vengeance. Maybe for you it is. But that is not what it should be.

In my view this is about who can:
1. do the best marketing for downtown merchants.
2. do the best for planning downtown
3. has the money and the development expertise to invest in putting new infrasturcture in.

The group in place now has a better shot at accomplishing #1 than the one previous.

The City has to take primary ownership of number 2. They have been doing a lousy job so far ... like 30 years worth of bad ...

The people in the group that just left were best at doing number 3.

It is a three legged stool. Remove one, and it topples.

Once someone understands that simple principle, we may get somewhere in doing something about turning downtown around.

I am not holding my breath, since the most obvious, to me at least, has not been worked on by anyone.

Gus, The good news is you are predictable. We all know from your postings that the Performing Arts Center is at the top of your agenda, Commonwealth, and the DBIA had a drawing for it.
Now let’s see if you will put your name out there and run for council on the issue.

Gus just to let you know my comments are not about vengeance, They are about doing business in this town with good quality people and responcible tax spending. In my opinion the little group that was heading this up are not the group of people we want running the show. They as I suspect might have a differnt motive ($)
as one might accuse you of. If you must Know my personal opinion is that the whole down town should be bulldozed and put an end to 30years of wasted tax money and stop a further 30 years of taxes going into the hole we call down town. the recent developemnet has been to sprawl all around and through out the city and it seems to be working just fine.

"They as I suspect might have a differnt motive ($)"

And what developer do you know who does not have that a motive? You live in dreamland. Learn to work with those who are driven not only by $ but also by what is good for the community.

As far as bulldozing the downtown and the notion that sprawlsville works just fine goes, it shows me that you do not understand the economics of running a city in today's age. You wonder why we are paying the taxes we are and have zilch services, with eroding infrasturcture that we cannot pay to fix? Bulldozing downtown and putting in a Target with a large parking lot will not help.

Gus, I do not know who you are, but if you were to put your name forward on the ballot box this Fall, not only will you get my vote, I will throw in a $100 to your campaign.

i think of all the bloggers, I respect your submission the most.

"Gus, The good news is you are predictable. We all know from your postings that the Performing Arts Center is at the top of your agenda,"

You do?

What is on my agenda is a livable city for the future.
1. air quality
2. connection of city to the rivers
3. removal of CN shunting yards
4. removal of river road industries to a green industrial park outside of city airshed
5. creation and growth of university specialty programs and research park
6. better quality road maintenance
7. better quality snow removal
8. more diverse commercial enterprises.
9. more regional tourist facilities to retain tourists here.
10. an art/creative community
11. a performing arts centre
12. a respect for our heritage through sensitive and selective preservation rather than demolition and commemorative signage.
13. a permanent "farmer's market" in aq building similar to the one on Robson Street in Vancouver
14. Nighclubs for all age groups the way they used to be some 30 to 40 years ago and exist in other communities of similar size.
15. A civic square that is actually used every day of the year - summer and winter
16. a riverfront heritage trail system that is flood proofed and does not take 3 years to fix

...... there are so many things .... they all go to a livable city ..... they all take community effort - volunteers, know-how, money, government support at all levels ...

most of all, they are all things that are available in southern cities of this size ...

so, it needs people who are not fighting each other and are presenting a unified front. It takes politicians who have balls and are not fence sitters.

It takes people who are ready to say at every meeting :"IT IS OUR TURN!!!"

Go Gus go, you da man. put your name forward. I know your a bit more to the left than I am, but your oars do hit the water.

Much appreciated "he spoke". If the planets aligne properly, I may give it more serious consideration. I do not know if it would be worth my while. I have tried being a "good boy" working behind the scenes in a so-called pro-active fashion, but am finding that very frustrating with very little true support.

I think the unwritten rule is "keep them busy and they will eventually wear themselves out"

Yes it is our turn. It is time to take back our downtown.

I am amazed at some of the comments on these issues over the past year. A group of private individuals got tired of the downtown rhetoric and decided to do something about it. They raised some of their own money and leveraged other available money and tried to do something. In effect they rolled the dice to see if they could put forth action instead of words.

As far as I can tell, all they got out of it was accusations of fraud, theft, etc, etc. I don't believe for a second that these guys "stole" anything. Did they make some money on the PG Hotel? Probably but I would speculate that they had costs (eg. Lawyers, accountants, environmental due diligence, taxes, interest on debt, etc) that had to be covered as minimum conditions to the transactions. What they probably made was very little.

Some some of the people on the DBIA board try to do something last year to help move a downtown revitalization forward? I think so and it looks like from the stories yesterday that they had accounted for money spent and had a surplus for the incoming board to spend.

And the accusations about conflict of interest with the PG Citizen? Only daily print newspaper in town? Of course they are going to get the lion's share of advertising. They have representatives on various boards in town? We would accuse them of being bad corporate citizens if they weren't.

I ask you, why would anyone want to do anything about improving downtown? There are enough armchair critics around, it's easier to be damned for not doing than for doing.

As pointed out in an earlier article, one of the major problems the city has is underfunding the basic infrastructure. Dan Rodgers said in the paper it is down to the tune of $7.5 million a year and is unsure how to make up the difference. I have an idea--- fund it first--- even if things like downtown heating systems, winter games and yes even the much discussed Performing Arts Center will have to wait.

To put it in terms an ex-sportscaster can understand, you do not put granite counter tops and Italian marble tiles in your house if the shingles on the roof are curling up and blowing away.

The downtown is dead. Turn it into a park.

Great planks in your platform gus but you are already turning into a politician, tons of promises and no mention how they are going to be funded.

Actually, lonesome sparrow, some of the things that are missing are the cost, the benefit, the source of the fund, the ability/desire for the source to pay, the priority, the timelines, etc.

Let us take the police station. Has anyone ever seen a timeline on that? To the best of my recollection it started seriously about 10 years ago. What was the cost then? I sure do not recall? $20 million? The property was purchased sometime during Kinsley's term. Did anyone ever see anything about the ability to pay at that time?

What about that project everyone already has forgotten about - the Cameron Street Bridge. Part of our transportation network. Did we have an emergency fund set aside for that sort of circumstance? I do not recall that. The bridge was shut down for how long before the City was able to decide what to do with it. They were not prepared for it. Why were we not prepared for that eventuality. Why were we not prepared for the eventuality of flooding to the extent that it took 3+ years to fix the riverfront?

What else are we not prepared for that needs a quick ingestion of money if it should happen? Where are the major risks? Who defines them? How transparent is that knowledge or lack thereof to the people of this city?

What on earth possessed the City to bid on the Winter Games? And now, what on earth possesses the Coity to even consider keeping an arena which needs a major overhaul and rebuild and building a brand new arena? What is the return on that investment?

The PAC? It is long gone. Even though the city will likely pay no more than 1/3 of the construction cost which means it will cost around the same as a fourth arena since the other dollars will likely come from the feds and the province, we do not have the money we do not have the money because we have long ago made some bad choices. We do not have the political will. The politicians need to see people support. This is town of hockey players, who do not even support a local WHL team with 4,000 to 5,000 fans in the stand.

In short, we deserve what we get. For those of you who volunteer you know what it is like to do so when you are fighting an uphill battle. There are those who have been emotionally broken and will only volunteer for sure bets. If this city keeps going that way, that will be all that we will get.

OK- take the police station, who at city hall was/is responsible for building maintenance and let it get in such a condition that replacement was the only option and it could not be expanded as designed.

I seem to recall that some snake oil salesman sold the city some exotic African hardwood for the Cameron Street bridge that was supposed to last for many years---it didn't.

Winter games--- I'm puzzled too.

River Road and Cottonwood Park- Nightmare in planning and implementation of repairs.

I think the these are examples why it is time for a major housecleaning in the administration departments at city hall(mayor and council too)


BTW.
PAC-800 seats Vanier- 800 seats will have to make due.

and who at city hall decided that they should be in the land development business, buying up everything that comes up for sale so they can "package" them as required

Vanier ..... can't make do because the SD does not want to play ball anymore. As soimple as that. One can't run a business like operation when one does not have control over the space. That is why all other facilities in BC, such as Sagebrush in Kamloops and the Bell Centre in Abbotsford are owned by the operated by the community and are not in the sole control of the SD. No one in their right mind would bring sets into the backstage area since there is no loading dock and no direct access to stage, for instance. Lonesome sparrow, let rpofessional who know their buisness run tthese things rather than the genral population of the city who do not know any of this stuff. Everyone is keeping quiet about such obvious thngs and I really do not know why. Anyone with half a brains could understand such simple things. Even the Citizen does not put its best reporter on this to find out the real story.

As I said, keep them quiet on the farm and everything will work out in the end. Well, it won't.

Look at the roads where the potholes all magically line up in a row right at the joint of the pavement. DO you think these roadsa are all deterioriating like that because there is only motorcycle traffic? These are mainly four wheeled vehicles, yet only the wheels near the centre line are causing pothole. Why? Because there is a weak spot. Why? because it is at a joint. Well, other roads have longitudinal joints too, so why do only some roads have that probelm? Simple. Becuase the job was not done right and the inspectors missed it or let it go. ... and we are paying for it.

Who knows why they did not maintain the buildings properly. Remember foothills bridge. several years ago there was a small notice somewhere that the bridge would have to be strengthened. It is not capable of carrying heavy truck traffic plus support the service lines running underneath. Get ready for that one. They were proposing to put in some extra concrete girders, I believe. Well, it is getting more expensive by the year. One of these years we will have to shell out $4 to $5 million by the time they get finished. I would love to add all these million here and 3 million there projects that are being shoved aside and sooon we'll have 10 20 30 million.

I am looking for a transparent system. I am looking for a let's get honest with the people in prince george approach. No one is doing that. Not a Stolz, not a Green, not a Rogers. Not one!!
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City real estate ... I do not have the faintest. This city is not moving anywhere fast. I suppose they think it is cheap right now and it will not get any cheaper. And they are crossing their fingers that someone will come in and see those great $igns in front of them and will want to get a "deal" from the city.

If Christy Clark will move some government departments up here, that might work to provide some incentive. We will have a 40% downfall at least in forestry and cutting and associated jobs by 2020 or even earlier and it will last for a good 30 or so years. No one of those that can do anything about that from the point of view of diversifying the economy is doing anything about it.

We are being left to hang while the rest of the province keeps on improving by participating on almost equal footing in the shifting world economy.

Municipalities, especially municipalities our size in the mid corridor of the country are suffering the most. We are not the only ones. Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste Marie, North Bay, Chicoutimi, Fredericton .... they are all going nowhere fast.

http://cwf.ca/_webapp_1097974/Large_cities_key_to_Canada's_success

from the linked article:
"At the very least, Canadians and their governments need to pay more attention to the future of our large cities, for these regions are critical to our demographic and economic success."

So, if you are in a small city, forget it. For the time being the large cities are the winners when it comes to services for its citizens. In a way it makes sense. More people more taxes, more services.

We simnply have to learn that small is beautiful and learn how to handle no growth or even negative growth in numbers. But no one is looking at that as a reality. Everyone is still dreaming we will be like Kelowna. Right now? Not a hope in hell! So let's learn to life with it and become like the best little whore house in Texas.

I don't think some of the large cities are the winners.If Translink gets there wishes granted for all the transportation projects, and proceeds with them in a small timeframe,I believe they will bankrupt the city of Vancouver and it's citizens in no time.Translinks dreams coupled with that cities aging infrastructure,will find them in a bind soon!For christ's sake they can't even find anywhere to dispose of all there trash!

He Spoke,"Yes it's our turn.Time to take back our downtown".I think we have taken it back.I drove downtown the other night and not a soul on the streets.A few vehicles parked in front of the establishments customers were visiting,but no one walking around.They are there for your taking,but other than the odd restaurant,good luck finding anything else to do.