Thank you!

Some street photography from a rainy November morning in Vancouver. 📸

We built a city we can't afford. YouTube video by North of Somewhere

I made a video essay about urban sprawl in Prince George and the many ways living in a broke, car-dependent city sucks.

Link:

Crossroads Brewing What one restaurant meant for downtown and why our response to losing it matters.

Is there a Prince George news/ongoings/community on this thing?

If there is, I wrote a thing about the downtown PG Crossroads fire here:

darrinrigo.substack.com/p/crossroads...

Hanging on, still! It’s been a weird year and I think a couple lucky breaks from the public sector have definitely propped us up to keep things moving into 2026 but it’s been a very different way of doing business. Very few private sector projects.

me, 5 years later

#iremember

How I long to bring back the non-chain convenience stores of my 90’s childhood.

You’re killing it, Colin. I really appreciate all the work you’re doing. Let’s grab a coffee or beer one of these days!

As a precariously employed freelancer that contracts in many of the industries affected by these stupid tariffs, let me just say I’m pretty nervous about the future of my business right now.

I’m still figuring out who is on this app from PG Twitter but for those OGs, a little life update:

Britt and I sneakily eloped to Jasper and got married yesterday. ❤️

Our (early) Christmas present this year to each other was a new vacuum that has a laser on the front that shows you how disgusting your floors are and counts how many particulates are sucked up and it's the greatest joy a 33 year old man could ask for.

There is something beautifully nostalgic about a handful of Gen Xers in my life who still use Facebook like I did in high school.

The Civic Plaza Lights Up Downtown Hot chocolate and urbanism at its finest.

@darrinrigo.bsky.social has already written about what this tells us about people's desire to have a destination downtown darrinrigo.substack.com/p/the-civic-...

The Civic Plaza Lights Up Downtown Hot chocolate and urbanism at its finest.

I wrote a newsletter about what small urbanism things we can learn from successful winter events in the downtown core of Prince George.

We talk about walkability being good for all, changing perceptions, and even one of my favourite @brenttoderian.bsky.social concepts of "sticky streets."

Link:

I don’t know how big the Prince George skeeting scene is but if you missed the Festival of Trees, it was an absolute beauty event.

WHO SAID WE CAN’T DO NICE THINGS DOWNTOWN.

I'd have to go back and track this but a charitable estimate is 50% of my flights in the last 2 years have had significant delays. 2 of which this year were completely cancelled the morning of due to "equipment maintenance."

Strikes, having to pay for 1 checked bag, less amenities - all for more $.

The federal government isn't in charge of shelters in Prince George.

But big capital spends that get more money in our community means instead of spending 60% of our budget on RCMP and road maintenance, maybe we spend 40% and have extra $ to deploy into housing and shelters.

I think that's a nice ideal - to redirect funds for big federall infrastructure into municipal social programs but both need to happen simultaneously.

Improving the flow of people (thus commerce) with big federal $ will dramatically increase the amount of $ in our municipal budget.

We've all done the 4am PG airport arrival for the 6am flight to Van.

Imagine getting on a train in PG at 6:00am and even with a couple stops in major hubs, being in Vancouver by 10:00am.

I know it's expensive and ambitious but it's just wild there is like almost no federal discourse on this.

One of my great annoyances at the state of Canadian politics is how little time is spent even CONSIDERING projects like high speed rail.

Everyone I know is angry at the 2 airlines and the price gouge/service decline spiral we're stuck in. You know what's good for predatory corps? COMPETITION.

Amen.

As someone who used to tweet multiple times a day then slowed down to almost 0 after the exodus of everyone in the dark days, I have no memory of what I used to have to say about anything at all.

I'm learning so much.

Oh my goodness, I did not see the Feeds button. I feel like they need to move that to the top beside Discover.

THANK YOU.

Day 5 of posting my photographs on Bluesky until the algorithm starts showing me other photographers.

#photography 📸

@bsky.art

I'm not sure I understand. Is there anyone interesting with similar interests from my hometown even on this app??? Sure wish I could find them

That plays out in a few other areas like those who believe in forced rehab for homeless folks because "we need to try something to help them" despite almost all peer reviewed data that it only creates bad health outcomes for them in the long run.

Lots of nice ideas that don't play well together.

The best broad example is the classic "I'm socially liberal but fiscally conservative" archetype. It's a nice idea buuuut social safety nets (socially liberal policies) require money (more taxes usually).

One of the few nice(?) things about party politics is they do tend to run together cohesively.

I think the only beef I sometimes land in while trying to engage with politically "nuanced" people is the rate of contradictory beliefs seems a bit higher? I can provide examples but I hope that makes sense.

Maybe that’s because of the degree to which X is amplifying the real worst of it all, but even seeing my own impulse to retreat into somewhere comfortable is kind of surprising.

IDK. I think I have no idea what’s happening anymore.