What if you could get an email everyday telling you what your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were thinking, where they went, and what they saw on this exact day in past? With social networks and new tools, we may be creating that future.
I’m not being original to observe that the next great front in social media is going to be finding a way to meaningful archive all the information being shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs every day. Before Facebook unrolled its Timeline feature (which lets you visit your status updates and photos from years past), it was described as “the single biggest lost opportunity in storytelling”.
My social studies and history classes growing up were largely coloured by reading excerpts from diary entries of “regular people” at various points, in order to give you a flavor for the time. The things they were recording may have seemed frivolous at the time (reading and writing have at various points been considered time-wasters), but centuries on it’s fascinating– and telling– to learn what was on people’s minds on a day-to-day basis. Today, we are engaging in the frivolous activity of Tweeting and checking in on Foursquare on a daily basis– but who knows how valuable this may be to future generations, if only they can parse the huge amount of data being generated.
Fortunately, we can already get a peek at what that might look like. There are a number of services out there for archiving your data, but I have to say my personal favourite is Timehop. Born of an earlier service called “Foursquare and Seven Years Ago”, Timehop offers a very simple proposition: it will scrape your data from Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook and send you a daily email telling you what you were doing a year ago. For example, here’s part of mine from this morning:
Not a huge deal, by any means. Other days I’ve been reminded of more significant events, like a week ago when my memory was jogged about the visit of Rick Mercer to UNBC, which I covered for Daybreak. Or when I get emails reminding me about past road trips. Those are fun, but so are these banal ones, because it’s the banal things that you’re most likely to forget about. I was greeted by THE EXACT SAME FERRET doing the EXACT SAME THING this morning, but I would have never remembered him doing it a year ago without this email. Today it was fun. If it expands, and in twenty years I get an email from twenty years ago, this will remind me of what it was like to be greeted by a loved pet two decades earlier. How will that feel?
Even more so, imagine if we can harness this sort of a service for future generations. I barely new either of my grandfathers. What if I could get a daily email telling me where they were, what they were doing, what they were thinking, on this exact day in history? It would be a level of understanding about my ancestors that I don’t think has ever really existed– knowing the banalities of their life, which are ultimately the most important things. It even has a name: ambient intimacy. As Leisa Reichelt, who I believe coined the term, writes:
“It helps us get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances. It makes us feel closer to people we care for but in whose lives we’re not able to participate as closely as we’d like.
Knowing these details creates intimacy. (It also saves a lot of time when you finally do get to catchup with these people in real life!) It’s not so much about meaning, it’s just about being in touch. “
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, blogs– they all offer ambient intimacy with people in the present. Things like Timehop– it offers something new. Ambient intimacy with your past self, at the moment, and perhaps one day ambient intimacy with previous generations. There are implications to this. Chief among them is, if we value this opportunity, there needs to be real discussion about how to preserve the systems all this information is built on (it would be a big blow if Facebook were to fold and delete all that data, for example). Questions of how and if we should hand off data keys to future generations, and who we give them to (trained historians? Our direct descendants?) And even the question of whether this is healthy. Katrina Onstad writing in the Globe and Mail skewered the movie “The Social Network” thusly:
“The new film ‘The Social Network’ opens with a portentous subtitle: “Harvard University. Fall 2003.” Ah, two millenia thrice! Allow me to light this pipe while I spin the a yarn of yesteryear.”
She continues, more seriously:
“Social networking spurs nostalgia because it’s changed our relationship to the past, bringing it closer and processing it faster. It’s now possible to find online retrospectives that pensively assess Lady Gaga’s ‘early’ looks. Lady Gaga’s first album was released in 2008.”
So while I’m trying to justify the naval-gazing aspect of social networks as an important step in archiving human history, I might just be engaging in more naval gazing by mythologizing the recent past– my own recent past. Ultimately, the question comes down to: what aspects of the human experience have value outside of simply happening? What’s worth sharing with others, and what’s worth remembering one, two, twenty, or one hundred years from now?
It’s not a question likely to be answered in the near future. But a year from now, I’ll get an email reminding me I asked the question. We’ll see what I say then.
The other day, I posted this to Facebook and Twitter.
Operation BeAnAdult: got taxes done. Updating insurance policies. Getting vaccines. Thinking about retirement plans. This is hard.
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) March 27, 2012
I’m joking, but I’m not. For years, there have been a number of things that I know I “should” do but haven’t gotten around to, because there’s no particular deadline. The reason for this can be explained by this graph from the comic Hyperbole and Half, titled: “This is Why I’ll Never Be an Adult“.
I’ve tamed the lower end of this graph– I can work, buy groceries, and breathe. Once a year I can do my taxes, because I know there’s tangible consequences for not doing so. We took on buying a house, and everything that went with that– home insurance, putting in fire alarms, etc. But other things, like figuring out a retirement plan or updating life insurance has always been something that can be put off. Even things like getting booster shots– if I hadn’t stepped on glass last year, I probably still wouldn’t have my tetanus. The reason these don’t get done is because you start piling all these on: will, dentists, long-term budgeting and you hit that “system failure” point. Every once in a while you get ambitious and figure out everything that needs to be done, but then it gets in the way of basics like cooking, and it all falls apart.
As the comments on this comic, and the comments on my own posts, show, this is a common problem. Being an adult is hard. I think part of the reason for this is because it seems like your life is already busy enough– you spend enough time cleaning the bathroom, now you have to figure out what RRSP’s mean?
But this time I realized something. The basics: cooking, cleaning, working– those are things you have to do every day. They don’t go away. But all these other things– the extras. They’re a one-time project.
Get your vaccines? You’re good for another ten years. Find a dentist, go, and you’re set– they send you a postcard periodically, and you show up for the appointment. Figure out what you need for insurance, retirement, etc, one time, and then you just keep paying into them, occassionally adjusting for your changing needs– no more difficult than your phone bill. A will, once done, is done. All of these things can be set and forget. One burst of being an uber-adult and you can go back to coasting at mid-level adult mode you’ve grown comfortable with.
So this is why I’ve started Operation #BeAnAdult. I’ve made a list of things that have niggled the back of my mind for years, with the goal of completing them over the next four months. They are:
Not that bad. Five things, and I’m good to go for another decade.
And I’m hoping for help in this project– if you’ve done any of these things, please tell me how you did it, what research you conducted, who you saw– anything that might be helpful. That is the most difficult thing about this process, I think– you know you’re supposed to have a will, but don’t know how to do it, etc. So if you think you can help– or if you have any of your own questions!– feel free to use the comments, or Tweet me. This can be a group project.
Good luck to us all.
For the first time in my life, I am resigning from a job. For the past two years, I have held the title of station manager of CFUR Radio. I loved it, but the time has come for me to step aside and let someone else take it on. Here’s part of the letter I sent to the board and volunteers of CFUR explaining my decision.
Hello all,
Many of you know, but some may not, that I am transitioning out of the station manager position at CFUR.
I was hired in January 2010. At the time, I was excited to take on leadership of a fully functioning radio station with space to grow and improve. There were many ideas discussed with the board and volunteers of ways to make an already great radio station even better.
Unfortunately, these ideas were soon sidelined by reality. Before too long, I became aware of a number of outstanding issues that, left unaddressed, would threaten the long-term viability of CFUR. These included aging infrastructure, outstanding files, and a not-insignificant amount of debt.
At the same time, I was offered short-term, part-time work at CBC Radio. In discussion with the board, we decided that it would make sense for me to accept the work, with the money saved on salary going towards addressing these deficits.
Two years later, most of the outstanding issues are dealt with or near an end. Finances are where they should be, forms have been filed, and we are close to completing an overhaul of our broadcast system. CFUR has a strong future.
Meanwhile, my work opportunities at CBC have increased dramatically. I’ve gone from an occasional fill-in to a full-time staff member. Technically I’m part-time, but opportunities for full-time work continue to present themselves and hopefully are not about to slow down.
On their own, either of these would be good news. Taken together, they are still good news, but they leave me in a bittersweet position.
There is no longer any reason for CFUR to have someone moonlighting as a station manager. It deserves and can afford to have someone committing to it as their primary work environment. After a lot of thought, I’ve decided that person will not be me.
I applied for CFUR as a recent graduate of UNBC who wanted to make a home and career in Prince George. I also had a strong attraction to working in the world of media. It’s difficult work to find, even in major centres. CFUR gave me that chance.
But outside of finding chances for myself, I want to help create chances for people with similar aspirations. Just as the original group of people who sat down to create CFUR over a decade ago created a situation where a young UNBC graduate could get an actual JOB working in campus radio in this city, I want to be a person who creates more opportunities for people looking for similar work ten years down the line. And I think I’m in a better position to do this by pursuing my chances with CBC.
In a short time at CBC, I’ve learned a lot about radio by working for one of the industry leaders worldwide. The access to knowledge and experience is incredible. And though I’m nowhere near as good as the people who’ve been teaching me, I feel like I do have knowledge to share with others who think they might want to pursue the craft themselves.
And so I’m leaving the station manager position, but I’m not leaving CFUR. I will continue to create content for it in my spare time, just as the rest of you do. And where possible, I want to help out with what I can. I plan to apply for a board position at the next opportunity, and if successful, continue to help shape the station’s future. I want to be available as a resource to people starting out as I did, just a few years ago, hoping to make a show but having no idea how. I want to be a resource to whoever is hired in the station manager position, so they feel confident and comfortable taking on what is an immensely challenging, but immensely rewarding, job.
My one regret is that so many of those big plans and ideas that were there at the beginning of my tenure continue to be nothing more than ideas. I wish I had been able to work with more of you individually, and that I could have been more available to you and the station as needed. In all honesty, I probably should have written this letter months ago, but did not. For that, I apologize.
Finally, thank-you. The reason CFUR has been and will continue to be a success is, first and foremost, because of all of you. It does no good to file forms and buy equipment, and then broadcast dead air or canned music. The passion you bring to your programs, the original ideas that get heard on CFUR and nowhere else, are the reason campus and community radio needs to exist. There is no genre of music or subject of discussion that is uninteresting as long as the person presenting it is passionate about it. The fact that all of you give your own time, week after week, to create your shows, is nothing short of incredible. Whenever I felt like the work I was doing was too much for too little, listening to CFUR was all it took to convince me otherwise. I hope you all feel the same.
Talk soon,
Andrew
In the wake of it being disclosed that Prince George Mayor Shari Green had the most expensive campaign in city history (in which she spent more than all five Kamloops mayoral candidates combined [source]), there’s a small debate surrounding municipal elections and financing. Speaking to CBC, Councillor Brian Skakun made the following comments:
“It makes it so much tougher for the average person that wants to run for municipal office, that, you know, doesn’t have their own resources or can muster up that many donations.”
“At some point, I think that there has to be some sort of controls on this. There’s no limits for individual donations, corporate donations, union donations as I understand it, and I think… I think what I’m going to do is try and convince my council colleagues this year to come up with a of resolution and see if we can encourage the Union of B.C. Municipalities and the province to have some types of limits because it just seems to be getting out of control.”
This is one issue: should there be spending caps, so as not to price people out of running (or, in the case of the more conspiracy-minded, to avoid having anyone in anyone else’s deep pockets)?
On the other hand, this is private money, not taxpayer. And might it speak to a candidates’ ability to reach out to supporters, to convince people that they are the right person for the job, and have people support them not only with votes but with their own hard-earned cash?
In other words does it go:
raise money >> spend money on campaign >> get popular as a result of spending money on campaign
OR
get popular >> raise money because of popularity >> get votes for same reasons you got money (popularity)
It’s a question that has long been debated at provincial and federal levels, as well as in other (usually larger) municipalities, but hasn’t yet penetrated into the relatively small-town politics of Prince George. But if people are getting to elected to office with campaign budgets hitting the upper half of five figures, it’s a safe bet the discussion will be had.
November 2011: Prince George mayoral candidate Shari Green outlines her leadership style:
“Public confidence will be restored when council leads by example.”
“We need to live within our means, with financial discipline and by finding efficiencies.”
“I will challenge our staff to find cost savings in every department, and efficiencies in every operation.”
March 2012:
I’ve posted before about why I think using Foursquare is a worthwhile thing, but it wasn’t very well-written. So I’m going to try again with a concrete example.
Last night I had an excellent dinner at one of Vancouver’s best-reviewed restaurants. It’s #1 on Trip Advisor. It doesn’t take reservations, either, so it’s notoriously hard to get into.
I went from hearing about it for the first time to eating complimentary appetizers within half an hour.
We’re down in Vancouver for my wife’s work. Yesterday, we spent some time shopping around West Broadway and were about to head to head to Gastown to look for food when I decided to check Foursquare to see if there was anything good nearby. I fired up the “Explore” option, and limited result to a 1 km radius.
A few blocks away was Vij’s, the restaurant in question. I suppose if I was a foodie or a local I would know about it. But I’m neither. However, I have checked in on Foursquare enough times that it knows I like Indian food. So it told me about Vij’s, we walked for five minutes and it just so happened we arrived at the perfect time– we were just about the last people in the line to get in on the first seating.
This is why I use Foursquare. Not for the badges or the mayorships, even though they add an element of fun. But because I like the idea of living in a world where if I’m five minutes away from a great restaurant in a city or neighbourhood I don’t know well, I’ll be alerted to that fact. Or a great store, or park, or whatever. And the more I use it, the better it gets at recommending things. It can’t tell me the perfect time to arrive in line– that was just lucky– but it did tell me a place I would like was right there.
Oh, and if you manage to check out Vij’s– try the ginger lemon drink. It’s worth it.
I got a couple of comments on my post about policy surrounding teachers and speaking in public about the state of education in the province that I think are worth sharing here.
The first came from Bob Cotter, who shared the policy for School District 46 (The Sunshine Coast). Section 3.17 reads:
3.17 EMPLOYEE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
The Board recognizes that respectful debate about educational issues is important. In that regard, judicial and arbitral jurisprudence has clarified that teachers have the right to engage in political discussion and the freedom to express their views to parents on such educational issues under Section 2(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter). Any restrictions on expression have to be justified under Section 1 of the Charter. Administrative regulations for distributing union/political information on educational matters to parents must be considered within the established legal framework.
It goes on to stress the importance of maintaining the “confidence of students, parents, and the public,” but it establishes very clearly that teachers can talk, which I’d argue is somewhat obfuscated in the policies of SD 57.
That said, I also received a comment from Glen Thielmann, who teaches in the district. His comment is worth sharing in full:
“Great questions, Andrew. Teachers in SD57 often think they are under a gag order of some kind, but I have not actually found this to be the case. I have invested some serious time over the last 5 years as a “activist stakeholder” in our district (via email, blog, twitter, letters, reports, presentations, media interviews, etc.) and have not had any flak over it. I have not held back from strong views as I tried to cast some bright light into many dark corners of shoddy practice and lack of think-time in classrooms, schools, district, Ministry, and Legislature. I have also celebrated success at every turn, especially when it corrects a past practice that was embarrassing or unproductive (and you’d be amazed at how many of these we tolerate). Granted, I have tried to balance critique with positive solutions and I speak in general terms rather than focusing on issues involving specific individuals, so I self-edit based on my perceived limits of taste and ethics. I’ve had lots of great feedback over the years, even a letter of thanks from a former education minister. So I’d say the climate for offering constructive criticism is fine in SD57, even if the policy and response to criticism is in need of work (it seems sometimes that noone is listening). This has been my experience, anyways — I have never been subject to censure. Great link form Bob Cutter… amazing respect for what SD46 has done!”
I’m wondering if any other teachers in SD57 or beyond have experiences to share.
Every once in a while I manage to figure out something that there isn’t already an awesome guide to. When that happens, I like to put it here in order to contribute to the general knowledge of Teh Internets. In the interest of that, here is my guide to “Getting More Memory By Installing Apps Onto Your SD Card If You Are Using Android 2.1 (as Tested on an LG Shine Plus)” (all those words are to make this page more findable by someone searching for the exact same thing I was).
First the background. I have an LG Shine Plus Android phone. It’s pretty good for my purposes, but it runs an older version of Android (2.1). This isn’t bad by itself, but it became a problem when I wanted to add more memory.
Some apps I use (namely Rdio and Picplz) had new versions that I wanted to try. However, whenever I went to install them, I was greeted with the message “Installation Unsuccessful” because there was not enough memory for them. I thought moving from a 4 GB SD card to a 16 GB one would solve the problem, but after I backed up my data and swapped it out, I was still greeted with the same error.
After some Googling, this is what I learned: on Android versions 2.1 and earlier, all apps install on the internal memory. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you have an SD card the size of an external hard drive, you’re going to run out of space.
So here’s how you get around that.
1. Backup your data. The internet will help you here.
2. Root your phone. There’s a lot of tutorials for how to do this. I just installed Universal Androot.
3. Install Link2SD. This is an app that lets you move other applications onto your SD card.
4. Partition your SD card into two parts– one to act as normal (for storing photos, music, etc) and one to be the section for your apps. I spent a while trying to figure out how to do this on Windows, and then I remembered I had a Mac laptop. I simply plugged put the new SD card into my phone, plugged my phone into the laptop via USB and opened Disk Utility (an application that comes standard in all Macs). Then I clicked on my phone in the left-hand column, clicked on “Partition” on the right, and made two Fat32 partitions. This was so much easier than what I was attempting to do on Windows that I suggest if you don’t have a Mac you just take your phone and a USB connector to the nearest store with a Mac on display. It takes like two minutes.
5. And that’s it. Now you can run Link2SD, select apps from there and “create links” to send them to the much larger SD card.
The only problem I had is that I had to restart my phone a couple of times before it would accept the dual-partition SD card, but now it’s working fine, with the latest version of all my apps.
Good luck.
Here in British Columbia, classes are cancelled as teachers escalate their job action. This has been coming for a while, and at Daybreak we’ve been looking around for guests to provide different perspectives on the story.
Among those we figured it would be good to hear from are teachers. This led me to reading up on School District 57 (which serves Prince George) policy that affects whether teachers can speak in public or to media. It’s all available from sd57.bc.ca.
First, Policy 1110 – Communications, Section 1:
“The Chairperson of the Board, or designate, and the Superintendent of Schools, or designate, are the official spokespersons for the school district.”
and Policy 1110 – Communications, Section 2:
“The school principal, or designate, is the official spokesperson for the school and is responsible for maintaining positive communications between the school and its community.”
Which both make sense, but I don’t see how either prevents teachers from speaking as teachers, so long as they aren’t presented as speaking for anyone else.
For that we go to Policy 1170.3 – Rights and Responsibilities of Employees, specifically the following:
Section 2.5:
“Subject to the School Act and regulations, the Labour Relations Code and other relevant government legislation, district bylaws and policies and collective agreements, the district believes that employees have, but are not limited to, the responsibility to contribute to the positive climate and reputation of the school, the district and public education.”
Section 3.14
“Employees have the responsibility to follow certain standards of conduct. Employees must: Not engage in irresponsible public comment that would undermine confidence in the public education system.”
What I find interesting is just how open these are to interpretation, at least to my outside eye. What exactly warrants contributing to the positive reputation of public education? Or undermining confidence in the public education system?
Let’s say there’s not enough money to buy proper textbooks for a classroom, and the information being taught is completely out-of-date and wrong. I think there’s a good chance that if a teacher were to say this publicly, there would be some people for which this would potentially “undermine confidence in the public education system.” Does that mean the teacher can’t share this information in a public space? Or to anyone at all, for fear that it might not contribute to a positive reputation for the school or system? And in our post-2005 world– can they put this information in a Facebook status?
What about during this job action? Can teachers talk about things they think are wrong with the way the education system is being handled by government? Or would that undermine confidence and fail to contribute to a positive reputation?
These would be salient issues anytime, but at a time when there is widescale discussion about where public education is going in this province, it’s particularly acute. Moreso because this is the first time this sort of job action and discussion has been accompanied by widespread use of social media platforms like Facebook, blogs, and Twitter. Already, I’ve seen a number of blog posts or Facebook statuses by teachers go viral within their networks. Most of this is happening in other districts, though. Are they governed by the same rules that are seen in school district 57? Or would a critical blog post from a teacher here have different consequences?
I’m well aware that teachers are not unique in being tethered by certain rules surrounding their behaviour in traditional media and social media. Just a while ago, nurses in this province were warned of the potential consequences of overly-lucid Tweets. CBC has its own set of rules employees are expected to follow. It makes sense- you want professionals to look professional.
But if I were a teacher, I’d be very interested in knowing exactly how those policies apply to what I say and do, both in my real life, and in my digital one.
Oh, and incidentally, I tweeted this question earlier. Here’s some of the response I got.
CBC just launched a new music portal. If you’ve used CBC Radio 3, it’s like that, only bigger. If you haven’t used CBC Radio 3 before, it’s basically a whole bunch of streaming music stations of different genres, plus on-demand tracks by independent Canadian artists, alongside on-demand concerts and interviews from all over the musical map. It’s really cool. You should check it out.
But before you do let me give you one piece of advice. You’re probably going to want to make a profile. This lets you share whatever your listening to on Facebook or Twitter, but more importantly it lets you save tracks you hear on the site that you’d like to hear again. It does this in the form of letting you add said songs to a playlist.
While it’s tempting to make a whole bunch of stuff like “house-cleaning jams” and “rainy Sunday afternoons”, let me tell you, as someone who’s been there, there are exactly TWO playlists you should make first.
That’s it. You can make others, but you probably won’t use them nearly as often as you use these two. They’re simple to understand– either songs you’ve heard and want to hear again, or songs you’d like to hear, but can’t right now.
And the reason you should make them first is you can’t re-order your playlists. So if the first one you make is “90s Montreal experimental,” then then that’s going to be what pops up first every time you hit that “add to playlist” button. So make “Songs I’ve Liked” your first choice. Because once you start exploring all the music on the site, you’re going to be using it. A lot.
If you need more details, I suggest heading over to the site itself. Or, if you prefer, I wrote about using CBC Radio 3 (the predecessor to this larger site) about a year ago, and you can find that post here. The visuals have changed with this new launch, but the mechanics haven’t.
And if you’d like, you can find me and my playlists right here. Aside from the two aforementioned functional playlists, you can check out some artists from right here in Prince George.
Remember how I just wrote about supporting live music? Remember how I felt bad that I missed writing about Jamie Bell’s show? Well Jamie Bell has found a way to make me feel better about missing that.
He just uploaded Live At the ArtSpace, a recording of that show, plus a few bonus materials. It’s available on Bandcamp for free, but I decided to pay ticket price since I really did want to go to that show and now I’m able to listen to it anyways. It’s not as good as a live show, but it’s a good recording.
This sort of quick, immediate recording is really cool, and I love Bandcamp as an interface for getting it. As a listener, I can play the tracks anywhere with an internet connection, or I can download them and put them on my iPod or rip a CD like it’s 2008 or something. There’s also a sort of “tip jar” option so you can pay more than the suggested price.
A lot of the time local artists don’t have the time or resources to put out an album or merch and so you’re limited to only hearing them when you can make it to a live show (and that’s the only time you can buy their stuff and financially support them, too). I’ve been to a couple of shows recently where you could sign up to get a live recording of the show, and I’ve done it every time. It’s a great new step to supporting local musicians, and I hope it works out for them.
Hey, new census results!
Statistics Canada released its latest population numbers this morning. I looked up Prince George and found three different things: census subdivision, census agglomeration, and population centre. I had no ideas what these are, so I looked them up. Here’s what I’ve found.
Census subdivision:
“Area that is a municipality or an area that is deemed to be equivalent to a municipality for statistical reporting purposes (e.g., as an Indian reserve or an unorganized territory). Municipal status is defined by laws in effect in each province and territory in Canada.”
This is the actual population living within the city limits of Prince George– if you’re in the regional district, you aren’t included, for example.
Prince George’s census subdivision looks like this (via StatsCan):
The population here is 71,974, up 993 people (or 1.4%) from the 2006 census.
There’s also the regional district, which is the broader population that includes Prince George, Mackenzie, McBride and Valemount, and those living outside of cities/villages. Here’s what it looks like on a map (via Wikipedia):
For this broader geographical area there was actually a decline from 92,264 to 91,879- down by 385 or 0.4%.
Census Agglomeration:
“A census metropolitan area (CMA) or a census agglomeration (CA) is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a large urban area (known as the urban core). The census population count of the urban core is at least 10,000 to form a census agglomeration and at least 100,000 to form a census metropolitan area. To be included in the CMA or CA, other adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the central urban area, as measured by commuting flows derived from census place of work data.”
My understanding of this is that this essentially the service area– people for which Prince George serves as the place where they get things like major shopping, hospital stays, etc. In some ways, the “real” population.
Prince George’s census metropolitan area looks like this:
It’s sitting at 84,232, up from 83,225 in 2006 — 1,007 people, or 1.2%.
Population Centre:
“A population centre will be defined as an area with a population of at least 1,000 and a density of 400 or more people per square kilometre. All areas outside population centres will continue to be defined as rural area. This new terminology will be implemented consistently across the Agency.”
So this, I suppose, is a measure of how many people live “in the city.” And in the city means at least somewhat densely populated– so even if you’re in city limits, you may not be in the population centre. Here’s what Prince George’s looks like:
What’s interesting to me is the difference in geographical area between Prince George’s city limits and Prince George’s “population centre.” The city itself is 318.26 square km, but the population centre is only 99.93 square km- mostly centred in what I would say are the main parts of the city: downtown, College Heights, and up towards the Hart. No one east of the Fraser is included, so if you live towards the airport you are not in this region. Same with anyone on Cranbrook Hill.
The population here is 65,503, up 437 (0.7%) from 2006’s 65,066.
So…. no mindblowing changes. Growth isn’t exactly keeping pace with Canada (which grew by 5.9%), and definitely not with British Columbia (up 7.0%). The Peace is booming, the northwest continues in something of a decline… Prince George is just staying the same. While my inclination is that a lack of rapid growth isn’t exactly a bad thing, I’m sure others will disagree. It will be interesting to see how this information is interpreted and used in the coming years.
Following up on this post, I did email mayor and council my questions about the positions eliminated at city hall. Here is the reply received from Mayor Shari Green:
“Andrew, on behalf of Council, here are responses to your questions below…
1. Why the elimination of the environment division not proactively disclosed to citizens?
On January 17th, Mayor and Council hosted a media conference to overview 2012 Operating Expense Reductions in three areas: general overhead, personnel and grants. During the media briefing, information was provided about program and service impacts associated with personnel reductions. This included reference to the discontinuation of the Environmental Services Division which would require a re-evaluation of the City’s energy, air quality/clean air, carbon neutral and greenhouse gas management programs.
2. When, if ever, was this information going to be proactively disclosed?
This information was proactively disclosed at the January 17 media conference. In addition, the media has been provided with a statement and summary of City of Prince George initiatives related to environmental stewardship. That statement reads:
The City of Prince George is committed to preserving the environment and supports a community approach. This approach acknowledges there are a broad range of actions, strategies and commitments that can be made by individuals, community and interest groups, the education sector, public health organizations, businesses, and all levels of government to maintain a healthy environment. The City has strong partnerships with lead environmental agencies and will continue to build these relationships. The City has also taken a multi-departmental approach to environmental stewardship and as such, the City’s commitment to the environment remains strong. Innovative approaches to environmental sustainability transcend the organization and are reflected in initiatives such as:
* The Downtown District Energy System;
* The City’s E3 Fleet Program;
* The City’s transit policy (Free Fare for Clean Air);
* The City’s Sustainable Procurement Policy;
* The micro-turbine system installed at the waste water treatment plant and;
* Civic building energy audits and upgrades.
3. When, if ever, will citizens be told what other positions have been eliminated as a result of these reductions?
At the January 17th media briefing, information was provided about program and service impacts as a result of reduced personnel capacity. An overview was provided in relation to Parks, Community Policing, CN Centre, Civic Centre, Environmental Services, Development and Transportation Engineering, Long Range Planning and Parks Planning, Communications and Social Development.
The City of Prince George will not be providing a list of affected positions in order to ensure employee confidentiality for the 9 people directly affected. “
What catches my attention is this part of Mayor Green’s reply:
“On January 17th, Mayor and Council hosted a media conference… During the media briefing, information was provided about program and service impacts associated with personnel reductions. This included reference to the discontinuation of the Environmental Services Division.“
I was not at that briefing, but other media was, including one of my colleagues. Tape was collected of the meeting that preceded it, and I listened to it, but heard no reference to the discontinuation of the environment division. In the interest of full disclosure, this tape does not include any comments made to media after the meeting. However, if you look through the media reports following that briefing, no reference is made to the environmental services being eliminated or discontinued. It is simply referenced as being affected, alongside other divisions. Here are media reports following the January 17 media briefing:
The Prince George Citizen:
“The layoffs and eliminated positions are in the city’s parks, long-range planning, community and social development, community policing, CN Center, Prince George Civic Center, environmental services, development and transportation and communications divisions.”
“The 28 positions are in parks, community policing, the CN Centre, the Civic Centre, development and transportation, long-range planning and park planning as well as communications.”
“City Manager Derek Bates says it is not yet clear how the job losses will impact service levels. The job losses are spread out through; parks, community policing, CN Center, Civic center, Environmental services, Development and Transportation, Long Range planning, social development and Communications.”
“City Manager Derek Bates says these cuts will affect 9 different areas of city services.
“In the areas of parks, community policing, C-N Centre, the Civic Centre, environmental services, development and transportation engineering, long range planning and parks planning, communications and social development.”
“The departments that will be affected are Parks, Community Policing, CN Centre, the Civic Centre, Environmental Services, Development and Transportation Engineering, Long-Range Planning and Parks Planning, Communications and the City’s Social Development Programs. “
So if the fact that the environment division was being eliminated was “proactively disclosed” by the city, it was information that was either missed or not reported on by six separate media outlets.
Even a week later, in a Citizen story about PGAIR being worried about how the reductions would be affecting them:
“on Tuesday Mayor Shari Green announced the elimination of 28 jobs at the City of Prince George, including positions from the city’s environmental services department.
“Two out of three positions in the city’s environmental services department are gone,” PACHA president Dr. Marie Hay said. “To me, I think that is shortsighted and unwise. I can’t really believe the people of Prince George would agree to something like this.”
Later in the same story:
“Green wouldn’t comment on how many staff were cut from the city’s environmental services department.”
I emailed Mayor Green back, asking:
“Going through our records of the event, as well as what was reported by other media, I am failing to find reference to “the discontinuation of the Environmental Services Division.” It was said and reported that the environment division would be affected alongside other areas (CN Centre, Civic Centre, community policing, etc) but I am failing to find any mention of the discontinuation or elimination of environmental services.
If you can point me to where the elimination/discontinuation of environmental services was proactively disclosed, it would be appreciated.”
“Andrew, the City stands behind its earlier email of today in response to this question. “
This post was originally titled “Challenging Prince George mayor and council to show “courageous leadership.” I’ve changed it because I don’t enjoy the tone of “challenging,” but left this note because it’s fair to know the original content/context.
Yesterday, I went on Daybreak North with this story: The City of Prince George has cut its environment division.
As I say in the piece, this seems to be a direct result of the layoffs enacted last month in order to cut costs. As was widely reported, 28 jobs were eliminated– nine layoffs, the rest through vacant positions not being refilled. In this interview following the announcement. Mayor Shari Green said the affected divisions would be
“parks, CN Centre and the Civic Centre, community policing, our transportation development services and long range planning, things like that.”
“parks, community policing, CN Center, Civic center, Environmental services, Development and Transportation, Long Range planning, social development and Communications.”
“parks, long-range planning, community and social development, community policing, CN Center, Prince George Civic Center, environmental services, development and transportation and communications divisions.”
Shortly after, CBC asked for a list of the positions being eliminated. The reply from the city was succint:
“The City of Prince George will not be releasing the titles of discontinued positions.”
I followed up with a phone conversation with Chris Bone, manager of communications and civic engagement for the city. Here’s what I tweeted immediately following:
#princegeorge city spokesperson Chris Bone says job titles not being released to protect confidentiality of those let go… (cont’d)
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) January 19, 2012
(con’d).. as for positions that are vacant and being eliminated, Bone says not releasing titles gives city time to transition… (cont’d)
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) January 19, 2012
… (cont’d) however, Bone would not comment on when or if taxpayers can know what positions #princegeorge is cutting at city hall..(cont’d)
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) January 19, 2012
..(cont’d) Bone would also not say whose decision it is not to make the positions being cut at #princegeorge city hall public information.
— Andrew Kurjata (@akurjata) January 19, 2012
However, it turns out some of this information is just sitting there. For example, you can look around and see which job postings the city had out there that have been pulled. Additionally, as I say in the interview, you can just compare the organizational chart of 2011 with the current one and see the lack of an environment division. I did, and once I did, all I had to do was call up city hall and ask if it was indeed gone. The answer, every time, was yes. No one was hiding this fact. It’s just no one was proactively disclosing it, either.
There can be a debate about whether in tight economic times the city should pay for a purely optional environment division.1 I’m interested in that discussion, but I’m also interested in this one: when, if ever, was the city going to proactively disclose the elimination of the environment division?
This comes down to a question of when citizens/taxpayers should be allowed to know the decisions being made by councilors/staff. So these are my follow up questions, to mayor, council, and any relevant staff.
In the wake of the layoffs announcement, Mayor Green said “It takes willing and courageous leadership to make change happen.”
I’d argue it takes more courage to actually tell people what that change looks like.
UPDATE: I got an answer.
Ad nauseam
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March 30 2012 | ∞
image via artthreat.net
Yesterday, the federal budget came down, and included was the announcement that the CBC would be getting a 10% cut. While there is obviously a serious side to this, members of Twitter took to the humorous side, reimagining what you might call popular CBC programs if they were pared down. Here are some of my favourites (and contributions):
Filed under: CBC, social media | Discussion