What do you feel the future holds for Port Alberni?

[The Invisible Man]

This article from Science Daily is about trusting our feelings when predicting the future.

The article says "When we rely on our feelings, what feels 'right' or 'wrong' summarizes all the knowledge and information that we have acquired consciously and unconsciously about the world around us. It is this cumulative knowledge, which our feelings summarize for us, that allows us make better predictions. In a sense, our feelings give us access to a privileged window of knowledge and information -- a window that a more analytical form of reasoning blocks us from."

Thus, if we have a proper knowledge base, the future need not be totally indecipherable if we simply learn to trust our feelings.

What do you feel the future holds for Port Alberni? Will the town change into something entirely different than what it is now?

[Jimmy Sx]

A poor mans Qualicum, sadly.

[pen]

The future is a long, long time . . . at least I hope so anyway. But for the foreseeable future, I really don't see much change beyond a bit more decline for a while yet. Then, inevitably, change will begin creeping in and over time the place will evolve to whatever newcomers and/or returning folk make of it.
My own feeling is that the one change most desperately needed is a lifting of that miasma of despair that seems to have rolled in with a fog a few decades back and settled in for the duration.
I do see a general aging of the population as young folk move elsewhere for work opportunities and retirees with bucks to spare start buying up cheap housing. Yeah, boomers. There goes the neighborhood.

[The Invisible Man]

A poor mans Qualicum, sadly.

The people that developed the city's budget said taxpayers would prefer to keep services intact rather than lower their tax bill. I have a feeling that the majority of people in this town would rather have lower taxes. Most people that I know are trying to cope with the high cost of living and don't give a crap about the museum, McLeans Mill, or any other non-essential service. If city council fails to make serious cuts this time around the town's future will be even more grim than it is today. The writing is on the wall that Catalyst Paper will go under and when that happens things will get rough real fast. That 24% tax increase we paid a couple of years ago will happen all over again. The people that develop those budgets don't seem to care about the reality that most of us face.

[Jimmy Sx]

A poor mans Qualicum, sadly.

The people that developed the city's budget said taxpayers would prefer to keep services intact rather than lower their tax bill. I have a feeling that the majority of people in this town would rather have lower taxes. Most people that I know are trying to cope with the high cost of living and don't give a crap about the museum, McLeans Mill, or any other non-essential service. If city council fails to make serious cuts this time around the town's future will be even more grim than it is today. The writing is on the wall that Catalyst Paper will go under and when that happens things will get rough real fast. That 24% tax increase we paid a couple of years ago will happen all over again. The people that develop those budgets don't seem to care about the reality that most of us face.

Agreed on all accounts, we better get used to snow not being plowed right away. I've said it a lot before, how many private sector jobs{tax base} were lost in the last 10 to 15 years? Now, how many city employees lost their jobs? The answer may shock you, or not you but others...as it seems you are I are on the same page.

The loud minority is all that city officials seem to care about, not our quiet majority, that would love to see some slashing of services. The mill, museum, fire depot{they want more...again}...we are a poor village, who are fixing to be a whole lot poorer when the mill dies.

Pretty sure the city willingly or conviently has it's head in the sand, real lots deep.

[hedder]

"The people that developed the city's budget said taxpayers would prefer to keep services intact rather than lower their tax bill."

Really? How many people did they ask? One? Two?

I find it hard to believe that people willingly accept the future of residential tax increases year after year, for what? Fund a mill that doesn't make a profit? Fund a fire dept. whose wages are increasing this year when the whole country's economy is stalled? Fund seemingly endless city budgets dedicated to trimming trees and mowing lawns?

And if these people DID approve the notion of rising taxes, they deserve what they get, a town bereft of any development, but with great garbage pickup, and well-paid firemen with the newest, shiniest toys around, with many, many unused parks with well-manicured lawns.

Good Lord, we're screwed...

[Possum]

Hedder my love. We were bullshitted again and by the same morose assholes promoting their own agenda. The town is too small for all the delusional add-ons that are being paid for by these same city taxpayers. I cannot imagine why the people feel it necessary to keep a "city" status when it would so much cheaper to go back to being a municipality.

Of course that won't hit the budget in our life time because the various city officials would be out of a job if this happens.

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