Travel to any other city in the province and you will quickly tell who cares about their community’s outward appearance. I recently did a trip down to Delta and went through many towns and cities on that trip. Something as simple as curb markings and hydrant markings denotes a community that cares about keeping people informed and advised just with some simple paint. Yellow zones are no parking zones, blue zones are wheelchair and handicapped parking, red zones are transit stops. These zones are enforced by the community’s bylaws office.
Prince George, on the other hand, sees it’s inconvenient to repaint these zones and bylaws has a hard time enforcing these requirements. Or so I have been told. I guess making the community look like it cares about its appearance is a challenge for city administration. I wonder how much money is being saved by not painting these zones once a year or once every two years? Is it shown on the books as a capital savings? Is it even on the books at all?
Now I am not negative about Prince George, I am actually the opposite, I am pro Prince George. We can always do much better, but we seem to lack the will to do that at the highest level and it shows. Curb markings are guidelines to the motoring public. They help visitors from making an accidental mistake when they park. People learn by cues, signs and markings are those cues. When they don’t exist, that means it’s a free for all. Even worse when there’s no enforcement.
I am mentioning this when there’s financial waste at city hall. Provincial grant money to change “perspectives” of the downtown, really?
How about a ticket for parking in a handicapped zone you didn’t know was there except for the sign posted against a building and not close to the zone in question?
Who was the genius that moved all the signs up against commercial buildings and away from the curbs to notify motorists? How much did that move cost us?
My concern is the latitude given to some departments to make changes without public notification or consultation? Where are our councillors, our public representatives before the city? Why are they not up to speed with what the city is doing?
These questions linger on, unanswered.
John Zukowski is a Prince George writer.
