Another year has come and gone, and it was an eventful one for downtown Prince George.
“I think we have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly,” said Colleen Van Mook, Downtown PG’s Executive Director.
She said some of the good included coming out of pandemic restrictions and being able to host full events that helped create a sense of community again.
“That is what downtown is all about, we have a diverse amount of entrepreneurs and businesspersons who are part of our downtown on a daily basis.”
Van Mook said Summerfest Saturdays and farmers markets were two high points of the summer, followed up by the similar Fallfest and Plaid Friday in the fall and winter.
“We decided to really work on enhancing that and reminding people how fortunate we are as a community to have those two farmers markets,” Van Mook said.
“Those Saturdays seem to be the ideal way to activate our downtown.”
The bad and the ugly were under a microscope this year, especially around election time.
Van Mook said the “social dilemmas” we see in Prince George are also seen across the country, and make downtown “complex, and troublesome in a lot of ways.”
An increase in the number of encampments and people living in them led to more people inhabiting downtown.
She said she is thankful for groups like the Prince George Brain Injured Society for working to tackle litter, and DART for cleaning alleyways for needles every morning.
“We have been a victim, like our businesses, there has been a lot of vandalism.”
As an example, three blocks of lighting that was put up on third avenue disappeared overnight.
“These are the things that are frustrating,” Van Mook said, “it does not make sense that someone would take the lighting, but they did.”
“Although we are faced with the unpleasant impact of what our society is going through, we ask people to come and support downtown, be a part of working to make things better.”
Overall she says things are not perfect, but they “have a lot of faith in the future of downtown.”
“As a community and a downtown, we need to work together to get to that point.”
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
