Your opinions on snow

Plus a history of waterslides and a condo sales leaves one man ironically homeless

With another blustery day behind us, let’s share some of your opinions on snow in the city.

Geoffrey writes:

Regarding the snow plowing, what people seem to be ignoring is how the conversation around the amount of road infrastructure per capita ties into this. If we embraced gentrification of existing neighborhoods, we could have new development without adding onto the already overwhelming amount of roads. Idk. Maybe it's not realistic, but I'd love to see council push back harder on developers who continue to move new construction farther out. 

I get that it's not so simple, but other cities seem to do it better than we do... so what are we missing?

Thanks for listening

And on whether the school district should call snow days, Larry says:

To add to your discussion regarding the call for Snow Days. I would like to say that the School District dropped the ball in having the school parking lots cleaned out before staff showed up on Tuesday morning. When you are adamant that schools will remain open, then you as an employer, have a responsibility for the safety of staff as well as the clients (students and parents) that show up to your facilities.  As the snow was waning Monday night with the forecast calling for it to stop before morning. Snow clearing should have proceeded through Monday night. It will be interesting if this is repeated with the forecasted snow warning this weekend. Attached is a picture of Heritage School’s parking lot at 8 am on Tuesday Feb 21.

And on the issue of Environment Canada’s difficulties measuring snowfall, this comes from Heidi:

Environment Canada has a propensity to report ‘snow’ falling at the airport on clear blue days - primarily, I assume, due to the frequent blowing snow that we get. The sensors catch snow movement, but there seems to be no human there to verify that it is just blowing around or actually falling from the skies above.

Thanks to everyone who writes, comments, shares and hits the heart button on these posts — it’s appreciated!

In like a lion

If you like winter, Environment Canada has good news:

“The overall trend for the next seven days is getting colder again where we will see another resurgence of arctic air towards the weekend and into next week as we will only see highs of minus nine as we get into the weekend.”

“For the first week of March it will certainly be below average and in terms of March as a whole, we will probably be temperatures just below averages.”

Meranwhile, I like the attitude of folks over at the CBC Daybreak North Facebook page where pictures of the biggest snowbanks are being shared:

May be an image of 1 person and outdoors

More school board opinions:

Former board member /current city councillor Ron Polillo is concerned with the union not being allowed to speak:

But former board member Shuirose Valimohamed is defending the move as following policy:

And some fair questions from the public!

I will say the fact that the board hasn’t apparently said anything to media about this whole thing is not a good look for accountability.

Don’t go chasing waterslides

Cool research from UNBC!

Forestry forum

I haven’t seen the link to the video but here are some recaps of Tuesday night’s forum on forestry:

Condo sale leaves man homeless:

Arthur Williams has yet another story about the unfinished Quebec St. condos which, apparently, may be sold to B.C. Housing for supportive housing units which has, ironically, rendered one person who pre-bought a unit there homeless:

Nathan Findlay put down a $725 damage deposit for unit 202 at Quebec Street House on Sept. 23. He was told he could move in on Nov. 1, and gave his notice at his former apartment. But November turned to December, then January, then February and the 36-unit building still wasn’t ready to move in.

In February, he was allowed to move his belongings into the unit, to avoid paying $200 a month in storage fees. Then on Tuesday morning he received a call from an employee of Quebec Street House owners PRP Holdings Ltd. and was told he’d need to remove his belongings from the apartment, and his damage deposit would be returned because the building is being sold.

“I’ve been staying at Airbnbs, I’ve been staying with friends. I’m almost broke. My parents have been looking after my dog for the last three months,” Findlay said. “I just about had a mental breakdown on Jan. 16. I don’t want my damage deposit back, I want a place to live.”

Quick news:

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