There is some bad blood on the editorial team at Whistler Is Awesome. Until now things have been pretty friendly but last week WIA’s own Pat Hui (@couloirphoto) took me down on twitter. It was a semi provoked twittack. Although, I am not a big twitter war guy Pat seems a more than competent foe. GameOn!

Pat’s assault started with a suggestion that I am a back-patter… which (I think) is a fair critique. Way to go Pat… pat on the back for you! He went on to suggest I stop patting the RMOW on the back for a decrease in transit ridership. There is more to the transit story than what is recorded here but you get the point… there is dissension in the WIA ranks. Pat’s source was for the alleged back patting was an unnamed local news publication. If Pat wants to believe stuff he reads outside the pages of WIA that is his prerogative.

If you want to get into the details of our transit tweetgument I’d be happy to… and Pat isn’t shy. The truth is, my first twitter war wasn’t much of a war in the end. I think WIA will survive. Either Pat is too good natured or I’m not tough enough. Ultimately, we agree… there is a still lot of work to be done on transit. So, Pat is putting together some particulars on what how he feels transit needs to change.

I love public input… good, bad and indifferent. If people like you and Pat don’t speak your mind you aren’t represented. I want to represent you at the council table. When Pat speaks I want to listen. When you speak I want to listen.

So I had an idea:

We’ll have a throw-down, a showdown. Hell no, I can’t slow down.

A get together, strategy session over drinks. During the 2011 election for council there were all kinds of wine and cheese meet the candidates events. They were opportunities to meet candidates for mayor and council while imbibing some delicious food and drink. I think we should do something similar again. A Whistler Is Awesome tell Crompton what you think summit. We will get some wine and food at our house or maybe El Furniture Warehouse (which is awesome) and talk politics. Transit, skate park, parks, busking, mtb trails, River of Golden Dreams, government spending, zoning and whatever else you want to talk about.

It sounds good to me… but is useless unless there are people interested. If we do this… will you show? If we do this will it just be the usual suspects (great) or can we draw a wider audience (better)? Let me know!

Recently Council:

1. Received a report about the Whistler Olympic Plaza skating rink for next season. It will be permanent… refrigeration will be in the concrete.
2. Allocated $1.2M from the Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) reserve to 2013 Festivals, Events & Animation program. I am really excited about this! We have been pushing in this direction for a while and it means we will have lots of lead time on preparing and marketing next summer’s concerts and events. Great news.