Every stock image of Mr. PG is wrong now

And is Prince George actually the safest place in B.C.?

The popular Vancouver-based Instagram/TikTok account SeaBusMemes recently made a post making fun of tourist attractions throughout the province in which members of the cast of Saved by the Bell looked at the camera and said “dumb” whenever a new destination, like the Gastown Steam Clock or Capilano Bridge popped up. And, of course, one of those spots was Mr. PG:

What caught my eye, though, was a comment from one person saying “Hey now, there’s unreasonably priced apartments behind mr.PG now thank you very much

And it occurred to me — we all need to update our stock photos of Mr. PG.

Here, for example, is one of mine that’s been used on multiple news stories about Prince George:

And if you do an image search for Mr. PG, virtually none have the apartments:

For winter, my colleauge Nicole Oud has already been on top of this getting this shot of Mr. PG from last year:

But I’m not positive we have summertime stocks kicking around. And certainly the meme pages and random image searches that come up don’t show this. I’m actually curious — how long until the internet eventually catches up to the new reality of Mr. PG’s backdrop, and will it be before or after he moves to a new location altogether?

Of course, this is also a good time to bring up one of my other hobby horses which is the need to find photos other than Mr. PG to represent Prince George as an abstract concept in news stories. Personally, I’m partial to the Canada Games Plaza/Civic Centre clock tower shot:

Another good one is the CNR bridge but really this is just a way for me to segue into this TikTok that came up in my feed yesterday:

@spencerwalton777Taxi On The Rails #taxi #railway #hiring

Tiktok failed to load.

Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser

---

Regret the error:

In yesterday’s newsletter, I said council had voted against granting a temporary use permit for a youth treatment centre. I was wrong — they narrowly supported it in a 5-4 vote. Here’s the Citizen with more details on the project and the discussion around it.

---

More council catch-up:

• Council provides temporary use permit for youth care facility.

• City to develop bi-weekly Solid Waste Management Plan.

• Prince George City Council to advocate for mandatory Holocaust Education.

• Prince George architect Trelle Morrow receives Freedom of the City.

---

---

Is Prince George actually the safest place in the province? Science is about to tell us

I’ve long joked that Prince George should be considered the safeest place in B.C. vis-a-vis natural disasters. There is no tsunami risk, flood risk exists but is fairly localized, and it’s extremely stable, seismically compared to coastal regions and the northeast. Kamloops and Kelowna have more dangerous heat and drought risks and, based on the past decade, are more at-risk from wildfires, too, though that’s also probably just dumb luck on our part. Of course, I’m not an expert but Glacier Media (the parent company for the Prince George Citizen) says it has talked to 12 industry experts — seismologists, meteorologists, etc — and asked them what they think. But they haven’t revealed the results, yet. First they are asking readers to vote on where they think the safest place is, based on the shortlist provided by their experts. As I write this, Prince George is in the lead, so apparently other people share my hunch. I am very curious to read the results.

---

Quick news:

• Carrier Sekani Family Services have joined the list of folks with ideas for the Prince George Youth Custody Centre, saying they hope it will be a youth treatment centre.

• You know who doesn’t think Prince George should opt out of the province’s short-term rental crackdown? Reddit.

• A proposed frac sand facility north of the city has moved to its next step in the approval process.

• The Cougars remain in second place in the CHL.

• UNBC is offering a continuing studies class focused on AI and machine learning.

• Underwater hockey.

Today’s song:

---

Northern Capital News is a free, daily newsletter about life in Prince George. Please consider subscribing or, if you have, sharing with someone else.

Send feedback by replying to this email. Find me online at akurjata.ca.