While researching an article on the new drinking establishment proposed for the downtown, astonishing statistics were discovered showing Prince George has the fewest number of bar seats per capita in B.C.
Who would ever have guessed just a few years ago the city would be such a teetotalling town? It wasn't that long ago that Prince George topped the list of bar seats to population ratio.
The stats are no surprise to Prince George's younger demographic - many have already given up trying to find some nighttime clubbing fun, for better or for worse.
In fact, Maclean's Guide to Canadian Universities lists as a drawback for attending UNBC since the near-unanimous student complaint is: "There's nowhere to go out!"
So it seems sometimes, the lack of grown-up entertainment hurts Prince George.
And with the Canada Winter Games on its way, it's time to take back the night.
The city and Tourism P.G. need to revisit the issue and lure proposals for quality drinking establishments to the downtown, otherwise all the visitors in the world over those short weeks in 2015 will only spread the notion there's no fun to be had in B.C.'s Northern capital.
But the city can't start handing out liquor licenses willy nilly in a desperate attempt at making up for thousands of lost bar seats. That'll just land the city back to the mess it was in before the shut down of dingy establishments like The McDonald Hotel, The Prince George Hotel and The Canada Hotel.
But surely we can figure this out. This may be hard to believe, but plenty of responsible grown ups around the world consume all forms of alcohol in fun public settings all the time without going on violent, vandalizing, thieving rampages.
How did Prince George's situation get out of hand in the first place? A nasty element seems to creep into local watering holes, and so far, there's been no stopping it.
Even a seemingly ideal answer like the BarWatch program, which would make it safe for the public to go out for a drink again, becomes bogged down in a bureaucratic maze.
The program was initiated here in 2008 by RCMP Staff Sgt. Jeff MacArthur and a team of Mounties who, with the permission of bar owners on a place-by-place basis, would scope out nightclubs for troublemakers and eject them before any violence could occur.
However last reported, the Prince George RCMP discontinued the program because there was "a legal concern police had no authority and potentially could be violating people's rights."
So let's get this straight: pre-empting violence may be legally problematic, so let's throw in the towel before we're even challenged? Sounds like the perfect recipe for leaving the fox to take over the chicken coop.
Chilliwack RCMP figured it out. The community has a licensee-driven BarWatch program that partners RCMP with local establishments as well as the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch, ICBC, Fraser Health, MADD and fire inspectors.
Prince George needs to come into its own as a destination with entertainment before thousands of athletes and fans from across Canada come to town. And let's not wait until panic sets in and a bunch of dubious business owners get their sticky hands on liquor licenses to start this dark cycle all over again.
