Aliens land in Fort St. James
Aliens land in Fort St. James
And citizens rate the city as "fine"
On Saturday night I went to the Brain Porter’s show at the Legion. Imagine a pyschedlic Tom Waits performing a northern B.C. War of the Worlds and that will get you part of the way there: Each song was set up by a snippet of a made-for-the-show radio drama in which a morning radio show from Prince George broadcast updates about a strange flash out west along Highway 16 which, it is slowly revealed, are aliens who do not come in peace. Here’s a bit I caught on my phone.
The whole thing was being filmed so I suggest you follow along on Instagram or YouTube if you want to be alerted when whatever version of this project comes out next.
The city is fine
City council’s finance committee meets today and one of their main agenda items is reviewing the results of the budget survey, in which members of the public are able to give their feedback on how they feel city money is being spent and how much value they are getting for their tax dollar in different areas. This is, of course, a self-selected group of people who are choosing to take part but one theme that I find interesting is that, overall, people seem to think things are basically fine.
For example, here’s how people felt about the amount of money being spent on fire services:
And here’s how people felt the fiir servicees are doing:
Likewise, here is snow and ice control:
And this is the same for basically every category — the most popular result for how taxes should be changed, or not, was “keep the same”, while satisfaction hovered between the 3 and 7 mark.
If I had to guess, I would hazard this is because most people only have strong opinions about one or two or maybe three items in the budget — they might really want more money for arts or parks or roads or really want to cut the police budget, and to they’ll make their strong feelings known on those cateogries while basically saying “it’s fine” to everything else. That can be seen, to a degree, in this chart which shows the areas that participants identified as being the most important — while police and fire lead, it’s only slight. Nothing really stands out.
That ambiguity is contained within the report that accompanies the feedback:
Budgets are one of the most difficult topics to engage the community on. While people often have opinions on how much their property taxes are, they sometimes find it to be much more difficult to provide thoughtful feedback on each of the service areas. The sheer size and complexity of a municipal budget can be intimidating.
When we ask citizens their opinions on service areas within the municipal budget we also have to consider the context. If we ask the average citizen how important corporate services is to them, they may not hold it in high esteem, but they may also not understand what it is. Things like mandatory compliance with legislation, risk, and procurement are very important to the operation of a municipality but won’t rank as high as roads or parks in the everyday life of a citizen.
And remember — this is from the most engaged members of the city, the ones who both knew they could take part in a budget survey and took the time to do it. You would probably get even more ambiguity from the general public. Worth keeping in mind when you wonder why council isn’t more responsive to public opinion… much of public opinion is that things are maybe not great, but fine, basically.
It’s over but I just want to capture this delightful artwork from the symphony’s latest show:
Quick news:
It’s also council day. Tonight’s agenda includes the discussion on whether the city should look into opting out of the province’s new short-term rental rules, the council code of conduct, and a pair of presentations from UNBC students on the importance of urban green spaces.
Ivy’s Family Kitchen got a high hazard rating during a complaint-driven inspection on Friday (meaning someone noticed a problem and asked inspectors to come take a look).
$1,000,000 donation made at 30th Festival of Trees in memory of long-time volunteer.
Hiring Superintendent, policy updates, and budget primary concerns for new SD57 Board Chair. Also of note: in a Facebook post, Sarah Holland says she had encouraged Brennan to run for chair and wouldn’t have put her name forward had she thought he was going to.
Emily Dickson of Burns Lake qualifies for World Cup biathlon pursuit, finishes 48th.
Better at Home program helps seniors age in place gracefully.
More craft fairs coming up and a couple more profiles: Woodcrafter inspired by near-death experience; Mother-daughter artists come together at craft fair.
Today’s song is from my favourite new artist, I played this EP three times in a row yesterday:
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