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Sea, land, river

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For earlier materials see Table of Contents

January 23^rd

Grants and sidewalks

Council Meeting tonight

More Grants talk –
Ho hum --- still can be good ’window’ into community

See Tourism/ halibut ‘argument’ below

	Making the world safe for Cars	People have to make their own paths
	One of the recurrent themes this time of year – making roads safe for cars means mere pedestrians don’t count – ‘let them walk in the street’ – see below – The fellow parked onto sidewalk (above) ‘typical’ – he could just move the trailer aside in front of car --- but let Moms with baby carriages walk in street

	From tonight’s agenda
	Grants bring into discussion role of Council and taxpayers

	Library Grant application was very interesting
	Now if Librarian Zelwietro had a contract like the RCMP he could just give 3 year notice to City to build him a new facility

Tim MacDonald and Paul Kennedy from PR Library Board --- appointed by the City --- we should get names of all appointees from last council’s in-camera meeting – don’t hold your breath See video from 11^th -- – Video here

Ask for 19% increase over 2011 (thus 596T$)

For Joe it seemed self-evident the services provided by library were necessary if not essential: --‘we need you to direct tax revenues towards a better future’ (1:58)--- This presents an interesting discussion – bookstores are closing all over North American – replaced by e-books and internet --- Do Libraries still have an essential role? http://www.princerupertlibrary.ca/ http://www.bclibraries.ca/home/bc-libraries/north-coast/

Library acts as an equalizer – not everyone can afford to buy big city newspapers, nor Canadian monthly magazines – but more importantly not everyone can afford a fast internet connection --- plus even on the WWW many databases etc require $$ in form of subscription or yearly license fees---- Thus even more critical to community – In image above (from presentation) JZ emphasized the meeting room use and how its usage has increased – I will argue later that this a function of Civic Center becoming an exclusive club while ‘Citizenry’ pushed aside Can’t afford rent rooms etc

Joe argues Library even more essential in e-books era

I will return to this theme later

	After mild winter – La Nina comes in hard --- freezing temperatures
	Many businesses and residential properties had broken water pipes --- and now extensive repairs begin – here the furniture store and Credit Union pictured

	All the rugs need to be replaced etc
Plus extensive damage to walls

	While we should have By-laws against private property owners pushing their snow onto public property --- the one on left is still respectful of other people (this year/ snowfall)
	But what about private contractors pushing their snow upon our sidewalks – as below – OR even worse the City crews clearing the streets by making sidewalks impassable? – Saves ‘us’ $$ -- perhaps

	This snow pushed up by contractor onto sidewalk --- even making bus stop hard to access --- of course that is one of the ‘jokes’ – City crews come around and clear bus stop ‘landings’ – but then the person has nowhere to walk but the street – ‘but they did not slip getting off the bus’
Another time I will argue this is much a matter of ‘class’ --- the people in charge drive cars --- Poor people take the bus or walk --- thus ‘unimportant’ to policy makers I like the image below – this guy parks in middle of street --- should just tow it away

Council – Video here – ‘quote’ from 1:58 into video

Tourism argues that ‘we’ all benefit – from tax $$ spent on his advertising

I will present his ‘argument’ in full later – but part of it was that DFO ‘stupid’ (mistaken) for closing the halibut fishery to charter boats last September ---- thus depriving ‘us’ of all those sport fishers $$ --- Here is some backgrounders—Hotel revenue in PR been falling since the ‘boom’ year of 2007 --- but notice the trend that non Rupert rising (Haida Gwaii presumably – and the sport lodges etc)

Total Hotel Revenue per year for Rupert -- data on link below http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/data/bus_stat/busind/tourism.asp

And here I have used 2000 (later will compare with 2007) – but note that ‘always’ a fall off in September --- 2011 monthly revenues not available yet

	And the water puddles up
	True it was Sunday – but I saw City trucks ‘driving around’ – still no one bothering to just clear off the street water drains

	Climate Change and sea levels
	Image left from an interesting ‘talk’ on WWW – more later --- but when Rupert does its ‘waterfront’ plan – should take into consideration potential sea level rise --- even now some areas eroding ‘seriously’ along water front http://sackler.nasmediaonline.org/2011/climate_science

Created by LG on 22/1/2012

Last updated on Monday, January 23, 2012