Sunday, August 5, 2018

Blog Watching: Week ending August 5, 2018


Provincial and municipal politics captured a good portion of the attention of our readers this week, with a strong readership found for our items on housing and transportation, as well as the start of the municipal election cycle.

On Tuesday, municipal and provincial officials all gathered together in Prince Rupert, once again making note of the highly anticipated Park Avenue Housing project. With Minister Selina Robinson delivering the announcement that construction on the housing units will start shortly with a hoped for move in date for early in 2019.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice may want to take note of some ongoing concerns from travellers on the North Coast and on Haida Gwaii in particular, that from a bit of bubbling discontent over provincial tardiness in addressing long standing concerns about BC Ferries and other transportation issues.

The path towards the Municipal elections of October began this week, as municipalities across the Northwest began the process of making nomination packages available for those with an interest in making a run for office this fall.

Two streams of data also gained a large readership this week,  with Prince Rupert's Crime Severity Index taking a significant jump when it comes to violent crime in the city, with the Stats Can study also delivering some topics of concern for Terrace municipal officials to consider as well.

And the annual Moneysense survey of the Best Places to Live in Canada was released this week for 2018. With some good news for Prince Rupert, as the community made some strong gains in the annual rankings, while our neighbours to the east in Terrace found their results delivering a signficant decline from one year ago.

However, the story which dominated our list of five on the week highlights the frustrations of those who try to travel from Prince Rupert to points south and west, with BC Ferries in the centre of some of that transportation storm.

A few timely reminders for the NDP that when it comes to Transportation on the North Coast/Haida Gwaii ... there's still a fair bit of work to do -- The summer travel season is making for some travel concerns for residents of Haida Gwaii and those travelling to Port Hardy on BC Ferries, with particular anger growing on the Islands when it comes to a number of transportation issues.     (posted August 1, 2018)

That article was followed by:

Timeline shifts for Park Avenue Supportive Housing in Prince Rupert -- Provincial and Municipal officials gathered on the lawn of Prince Rupert's Transition House this week, taking part in an announcement to lay out the schedule ahead for the supportive housing facility to be built on city donated land next door. Our notes on another housing project just down Park Avenue also gained a strong readership this week, as readers explored some of the background to the Anchor Inn housing option set to open in the fall.  (posted July 31, 2018 )

Nomination forms available across Northwest for Municipal elections 2018  -- The first stages of preparation for the October municipal elections got underway this week with municipalities across the region making nomination form packages available for would be candidates. Our twin archives tracking election related news for Prince Rupert/Port Edward/Haida Gwaii and North Coast Inland areas also found some strong interest this week  (posted July 30, 2018)

Latest Stats indicate that Crime Severity Index has spiked upwards for Prince Rupert; while Terrace continues to top the British Columbia List  -- Prince Rupert's mean streets became a little meaner over the last year, with the annual release of crime stats from Statistics Canada showing an 80 percent increase in violent crime from the totals of year ago, for Terrace this years numbers delivered much the same result as last year, with that community topping the BC listings for the Crime Severity Index for 2017.    (posted August 2, 2018)

Prince Rupert makes moves in latest Moneysense Best Places to Live list --  On a list of a different kind, Prince Rupert has seen some strong momentum in the annual listings of the Best Place to live from the Financial magazine Moneysense, with the city jumping 28 spots from the findings of a year ago. This year however, brings some bad news for Terrace, which is the only other Northwest community measured in the survey, that as Terrace tumbles 81 spots from where it was one year ago. (posted August 3, 2018)

You can find our weekly Blog watching feature posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, making for a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace.

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