I share two unsolicted and probably wrong opinions

And how much are RCMP body cameras gonna cost the city? We'll find out... sometime!

I’m starting today’s newsletter with two opinions I want to share. I am not convinced I am right but I am going to say them anyways.

1. The UNBC entrance of University Way should be converted to a roundabout.

2. You do not need to have your headlamp on when you are walking in the winter.

These are unrelated.

On the UNBC one, I mean the point where you turn off the main road onto campus. The amount of traffic there has really increased, so anyone who is trying to turn across traffic can be waiting a while. As far as I can tell, there’s room there for a roundabout and the city already made that great video teaching people how to use one, so really, this should just happen.

As for the headlamps, I am not sure when it happened but sometime in the last decade everyone lost their night vision, it seems. One of the things about snow is that it reflects streetlights and moonlight and such and makes things bright, or bright enough, even when it’s dark out. You can be out at 10 p.m. (and definitely at 5 p.m.!) and have full vision. It’s magical. But not if you are using a headlamp! And especially not if everyone else is, too! I feel like the headlamp thing is just the pedestrian version of headlights arm race. By all means take one with you, and use them for visibility when you’re on streets, but if you’re in fields or walking trails in residential neighbourhoods, try letting your eyes adjust. I know many/most people will feel differently about this, and tell me why I’m wrong, and I will not have good answers, and I know it will have no impact, I’m just putting it out in the world as a person who likes to experience the dark-but-not-actually-dark of winter sometimes.

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Capital projects are on budget, mostly

I got an email from someone pointing out that when the city puts out a Facebook post about bears or garbage cans or snow removal they get dozens of comments and interactions but if they put somthing out about how the city is spending literally millions of dollars it’s crickets. And - they are right: here’s the post on the capital budget report as it is right now:

The report is here. I will say, there are a lot more projects worth more than $1 million than I would have expected, though probably should have. Some are behind schedule. Most are on time and on budget. I do get it’s not that exciting, and is a sign that the city is doing its job and functioning as expected — but that hasn’t always been the case for all projects (**coughcoughcoughparkadecoughcough**) and these reports are a direct result of the calls for more transparency after those so — let’s acknowledge them!

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What are the RCMP body cameras going to cost the city?

The RCMP rolled out more details of the body camera project, which Prince George police will be piloting along with a handful of other communities across the country. One number that came out was cost — $3,000 per user per year. That’s the cost of both the tech itself and the cost of storing/processing/transcribing the data that’s collected by them. The feds are kicking in $5 million annually over the next six years to fund the program which is, I guess, a lot but also that’s the whole country. $5 million divided by $3,000 is 1,666 user pers year funded by the feds. The number of cameras being distributed in B.C. to start is 300. I don’t know how many users each camera will have, but let’s say it’s two peeople, that takes us to 600 users per year, which is about 1/3 of the total money the federal government is kicking in for this project nationwide. So the cost, initially, could be nothing, or it could be something, and it’s still, as far as I can tell, not really clear. The city pays 90 per cent of the RCMP budget locally so this could really be a very small cost or a somewhat large one. Probably not as big as the $5 million the city is already paying because of delayed negotiations between the feds and the police union, but when that’s already there, it might be a bit of a pain when it finally does get the bill at the end of the fiscal year. I guess we’ll see.

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Urban archipelagos

This really isn’t about Prince George at all but it does fit with the theme of a few recent newsletters, particularly the one focused on UNBC’s Rylan Graham’s presentation on the desire young people have to live in urban areas and the lack of options available to make that happen in Prince George and my sharing of Darrin Rigo’s newsletter yesterday where he made another case for urbanism as a tenant of city planing.

I came across a converation between David Roberts and Dan Savage revisiting a piece Savage had written 20 years ago and was refocusing on in the present context arguing that in the United States the political map is not best understood as “red states” and “blue states” but rather urban islands and archipelagos as the base for the Democratic Party. And part of what he argues is that rather than try to appeal to “rural” values the party should focus on making cities better, so more people want to live there and exurban or suburban areas want to be more like them, thus creating more islands.

A lot of it is about the politics of the United States but the part I’m most interested in is the idea of identity — and how people embrace “rural” as a connective tissue and identity in a way that “urban” is not, and there seem to be very few people in positions of leadership who will really champion city living in the same way there are peope who champion rural living.

This does, I think, vageuly tie into the way we think about ourselves — a theme I’ve come back to again and again, in that we (Prince George) self-identity as a resource town when the reality is we’re as much, if not moreso, an education, healthcare and service centre. But again, you won’t really here that come out of the mouths of leadership all that often, especially at a provincial or federal level. This is all sort of vague, putting-it-out-there stuff that I’m mulling over in public, no big conclusions. But there it is for you. Here’s that initial link again.

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News roundup:

• New gold mine in tiny Wells, B.C., gets approval but some residents worry it will change their town forever.

• Six people sent to hospital following two vehicle crash north of Hixon.

• “Lot of variables at play” on international student regulations changes, says CNC’s VP of Student Affairs.

• Prince George Fire Rescue plans to convert pickup truck to medical unit. Medical calls rarely detain Prince George firefighters from responding to fires.

• Community rallies around two-year-old diagnosed with cancer.

• Office of the Seniors Advocate wants to hear from you.

• Council tops up Santa Claus parade funds.

• Jail time for repeat impaired driver in Prince George court.

• In-person services in Northern BC continue to remain sparse: Canadian Mental Health Association.

• Foundry gets boost for youth mental health services from Prince George Ford.

• Operation Red Nose returning for the holidays keeping roads safe.

• College Heights embracing underdog role in Provincial Football Semifinal.

• City councillor, Ginter’s advocacy group says possible Foothills Boulevard extension a bad idea.

• Theatre Northwest brings hit Kim's Convenience to the local stage.

• New exhibition takes us along a scenic and self-healing journey.

• Prince George teacher's Team Canada wins ultimate championship.

• A Merry Morning at the Museum.

• 31st Annual Festival of Trees less than one week away.

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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.