Simon Yu said he thought plans developed by city administration played it too safe.
Prince George City Council finally approved a direction for the Civic Core Plan at its final meeting of 2024, but Mayor Simon Yu doesn’t think it shows enough faith in the city’s future.
Yu’s vision included not just a performing arts centre and 5,000-seat arena, but an expanded convention center connected to a high-rise hotel and a high-rise apartment building, a new plaza behind the Civic Centre and a rapid transit line. On Connaught Hill, a new amphitheatre would be built along with either a new orchestra hall or IMAX theatre.Sitting down with the Citizen on Dec.
Looking at what city staff produced, the mayor was blunt. He said it was plain and that they played it too safe.Fundamentally, because Prince George is a hockey town, Yu said a new arena must be part of a redesign of the core. Without it, he said people won’t accept a new performing arts centre because they’ll ask why Vanier Hall, Theatre Northwest and UNBC don’t already meet those needs.
Because of Prince George’s location, the mayor said he envisions the city as being a gateway to the Arctic and serving as a conference space for people in the territories where they don’t have suitable locations. Yu said he believes that the city must project self-confidence and a vision not only to show private investors that they mean business, but higher levels of government as well.
Yu said he plans on meeting with other mayors during the upcoming BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George to discuss the energy picture in Northern BC, including the Tidewater situation. On a chair in his office, the mayor laid out pages from the 2023 and 2024 Prince George capital budgets as well as the draft capital budget for 2025, which is set to be deliberated in January.
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