Letter writers and editors at the Citizen have been lashing out at Prince George municipal spending recently, egged on by the CFIB report that claimed our city's spending is way out of line.
But like Medicare recipients in the US railing against government spending, it is not clear that these critics understand either the challenges that the city administration has to overcome, or the opportunities waiting to be seized.
First the challenges.
Prince George has a land area of 82,000 hectares, or about 14 times as large as Manhattan, yet with 20 times fewer residents. That means each one of us has to pay to maintain 280 times as much area as the average Manhattan resident - and they never have to plow their streets.
Even in practically uninhabited developments, like the eyesore near the bottom of Tyner, the city has to pay for street lights and plowing.
And why is Prince George so spread out? Because nobody wants to live in the stinky bowl.
And why does the bowl stink? Because the founding fathers, in their wisdom, placed the downtown cheek by jowl with heavy industry.
This is the modern equivalent of bathing in the sewer.
So what are the opportunities?
Prince George enjoys natural resources and access to wilderness that Manhattanites can only dream about. But we cannot afford to maintain our sprawl, and we cannot force people to live closer together.
The only solution is to attract more residents, and the only way to attract people is to clean up the air and build a beautiful downtown filled with things to do.
The first step, well under way, is to identify steps to reduce the worst sources of air pollution. In the long run, however, the city needs to force the heavy industries to move out of the residential airshed.
Over 30 years or so, all of the big, polluting industries need to be moved a safe distance away from downtown, allowing Prince George to develop into the attractive river front city it deserves to be.
Previous city administrations were content aiming for mediocrity. We should thank Mayor Rogers for showing us that we can do better. By working together we can build a northern capital worthy of the name.
Stephen Rader
Prince George
