Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

Letters letters letters

I may change my mind but as of now, the plan is to take a two week break from this newsletter, meaning the next one will be out on or shortly after January 6. Sometimes I feel like I need a break and sometimes I decide I am doing one becaues it’s smart to take breaks sometimes, even if you don’t feel like you need it. This is the latter — the snow and pre-holiday events I’ve attended have helped ease me into relaxation already, so it should come fairly easily. Hopefully you, too, are getting to take some downtime and enjoy a few of the sights before the city essentiallly shuts down over the holidays (a few key events notwithstanding — shout-out to everyone who will be providing entertainment and essentials for the rest of us).

On a completely unrelated note, I heard an ad for PG Toilet on the radio yesterday and it was pretty good. Tagline was something about “working to eradicate the need for yellow snow” and it was about how they are the unsung heroes of outdoor events. Good stuff.

There have been a lot of comments this past week, mostly on the downtown plan, so let’s get into it but we’ll start by directing you to interviews with Coun. Trudy Klassen and Coun. Brian Skakun on why they did not vote in favour of it. Skakun is mostly concerned about money, it seems, while Klassen is also concerned about the money but in a different way: She’s arguging that the more financially conservative thing to do is spend more upfront so the longer-term costs aren’t there, mostly around creating connected infrastructure rather than a bunch of separate buildings, and including a convention centre, which is not on the current agenda:

“The fact that each building is going to be separate means we have all those walls, whereas if these buildings were connected, then there would be shared walls and that would significantly reduce construction costs.”

Additionally, Klassen said there needs to be a long-term plan that takes into account a convention centre, as well as building a space that can be utilized in a winter city.

“When you’re digging in the ground to put in the underground infrastructure, you want to only dig once, because every time you have to dig, there’s an incredible cost,” she said.

“If you can dig once and put in all the infrastructure needed for whatever the plans are for the future or make accommodation for whatever has to go there in the future and ways to gain access, you again are significantly reducing the cost to the taxpayer.”

“The fact that each building is going to be separate means we have all those walls, whereas if these buildings were connected, then there would be shared walls and that would significantly reduce construction costs.”

Additionally, Klassen said there needs to be a long-term plan that takes into account a convention centre, as well as building a space that can be utilized in a winter city.

“When you’re digging in the ground to put in the underground infrastructure, you want to only dig once, because every time you have to dig, there’s an incredible cost,” she said.

“If you can dig once and put in all the infrastructure needed for whatever the plans are for the future or make accommodation for whatever has to go there in the future and ways to gain access, you again are significantly reducing the cost to the taxpayer.”

Anyways, here are some of your thoughts:

Josh Kelley:

I hope if it goes through the mixed use residential is at least 5 storeys to maximize the amount of people living down there. Throw in a bakery, bodega of sorts and some shopping, would make for a great new area!

Meg:

One thing I'd love to see, especially with the lack of parking included in the plan, is some sort of secure bike lockers/storage. I emailed council about this some time ago but didn't get much of a response.

Mandi:

Like Meg, I'm also concerned about the lack of parking in either plan. The parking lot by the conference centre can be quite full if there are events going on downtown, particularly when stuff is happening at the plaza. The parking under the library can also fill up - when a friend and I went down for the recent book sale, we couldn't find a spot down there! - and is intended for library users. If we want folks to come downtown and utilize these spaces, we unfortunately need parking that can handle the anticipated traffic. I like plan #2, and I've no idea where we could fit more public parking (under the performing arts centre?) but the small proposed lot by city hall will not be adequate.

Edit to add: to clarify, I'm not a fan of having giant, underused parking lots, but we need to acknowledge that PG is fairly car-reliant, and folks from out of town will be too, and I can't see us having a park'n'ride site elsewhere so ppl can park outside the core and use transit to pop into this area.

Brian J:

Mayor Yu's concept is...umm...ambitious.

It's quite bizarre that a civil engineer would be touting that sort of solution. Urban light rail requires 3-4,000...maybe more trips per HOUR to be feasible.

Public infrastructure investment really is one the best examples of opportunity cost. A government spends 8B on some sort of light rail system that is not needed, and has no business case even decades into the future...that's 8B that is not used for more pressing matters.

4streegrrl:

if the mayor is suggesting we 'cut into' Connaught Hill, I can guarantee that I'll be chaining myself to a bulldozer (hahahahaha.... No, really, I'll do this). Also, I'm not an archaeologist (I have worked with some, so pretend I know something) but a prominence like Connaught Hill in this area is pretty much guaranteed to have some kind of archaeological features and/or cultural significance. AND there is some really nice Douglas-fir on it, which I prefer to admire alive.

On the arena, Brian J writes:

A 5,000 seat arena seems absurd for the Spruce Kings. Kopar is currently about 2,200. A similar, slightly larger arena would be more appropriate. To be fair, the Spruce Kings GM should not be driving this conversation and leadership really needs to understand optimization to current (with MODEST future capacity considerations) is appreciated by taxpayers.

We can barely fill the CN Centre.

Josh Kelley

2500 would be just fine down there

Phil:

Building a new arena where the Four Seasons Pool was solves the issue for the Spruce Kings as they could continue using Kopar Memorial until the new building is ready. I seriously doubt that it matters which side of Dominion Street the arena and Performing Art Centre end up on. This council seems disconected from reality, and this is just another sign of that.

Josh Kelley:

Exactly. Just flip the locations and get this moving along sooner than later. It’s going to happen so build before costs go even higher in the years to come. I’d still reiterate during any feedback process that another hotel shouldn’t be looked at, instead two housing developments to get more people living and paying taxes downtown.

Some other topics. On snowboarders having success, Brian J wonders:

Prince George and area has produced several world Cup level snowboarders...but as far as I know the area does not have a snowboard club and none of the local ski areas have snow-cross features. Where are these folks picking it up? Is it something they get into when they move away?

On the ads to try to get people to stay in B.C., Marnie says:

As one of the BC to AB losses, I would’ve loved to stay in PG! Bus stop ads don’t help the lack of jobs for young professionals in so many fields.

And on the new McDonald’s PlayPlace tour…

Mandi:

Gosh I'd love an adult-scale playplace - sometimes I just wanna indulge my inner 7-year-old and scramble through a structure!

Kat Louro:

Can confirm the new McDonald's play place is pretty supreme 👌my three year old rates it as "a pretty cool Onadonalds."

If I ever had the funds to open up a Bubba Baloos esq play place, I always thought I'd have a dedicated adult night. Sometimes you just wanna chill in a ball pit while talking about property taxes.

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News roundup:

• Prince George named 13th most generous city in Canada by Go Fund Me.

• Foothills landfill nearing the end of its life, but there are plans for the future.

• PG RCMP still dealing with aggressive behaviour since body camera roll out.

• SD57 on the right track as year comes to an end.

• Teenager's Christmas inflatables display blows up his yard.

• Caledonia Nordic Ski Club preparing for youth/junior biathlon world championship trials.

• Santa makes early stop for hospital patients in Prince George.

• One little sawmill, one big legacy.

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