HE SHALL OVERCOME
AP photo

American voters elect Barack Obama president
likened it somewhat to the aboriginal issue in Canada. She said, without a hint of irony, that she believed his election changes it all. "This means we are equal," said Stewart, who grew up in the U.S. South in St. Louis, Missouri, and remembers distinctly working on a housing project with young African-Americans called Pruitt-Igoe in 1968 as a 15-year-old. -- See BIG on page 3

Local residents react to historic vote
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff Prince George resident Patty Stewart cast a ballot in the U.S. election. On Tuesday evening, shortly after Democrat Barrack Obama was declared president, she could not contain her enthusiasm. "I am thrilled. I am absolutely thrilled," said Stewart, a 20year resident of Prince George and Citizen columnist, who has retained her American citizenship and lives in Canada as a permanent resident. Said Stewart: "I never ever thought in my life time that I would ever see an African-American be president. I never did until Barrack Obama came. It's momentous. It really is momentous for the country." She noted that it's hard for Canadians to understand the Africa-American issue in the United States, although she

President-elect Barack Obama, left, his wife Michelle Obama, right, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, wave to the crowd at the election night rally Tuesday in Chicago. See full coverage on page 16.

Ball park road named Del Laverdure Way
LAVERDURE

-- see page 6

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2008

www.pgcitizen.ca

$1.25 (HOME DELIVERED: 62 CENTS A DAY)

The price is right

Crime rate down, police stats show
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff C r i m e r a te s i n P r i n c e G e o r ge dropped dramatically in the first nine months of 2008, compared to the same period last year. In virtually every category the number of crimes was down, according to data released Tuesday by the RCMP. In all there were 8,356 offenses committed in Prince George up to Sept. 1, compared to 11,175 during the same period of 2007. So, is Prince George a safer city to live in now? "Based on the stats, I would have to say yes," said RCMP Const. Gary Godwin. "And if you are not in some way involved in the trafficking of drugs, you are especially safe," he said. All homicides in 2008, including the two recent killings that took place after the reporting period for these statistics, involved the drug trade. Drugs are the recurring theme in almost all categories, said Godwin. Most of the property crimes, robberies and violence in the city is in some way related to getting money to buy drugs or maintaining the local drug industry, he said. The biggest drop among the statistical categories was the aggravated assault heading, which plummeted from 15 in 2007 to five in 2008. "We did a lot of good police work on (the organized crime gang) the Crew and put a real dent into them that started to pay off this year, and they were the ones cutting off fingers and other acts of violence, all over drugs," Godwin said. -- See FOCUS on page 2

Smith takes aim at top 10 on dance show
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff SMITH Tonight is critical for Prince George's Izaak Smith as he strives to become Canada's favourite dancer on CTV's So You Think You Can Dance, Canada. Now in the top 12 dancers, Izaak needs to survive tonight to make the top-10 when the reality contest will change from the judging of couples to surviving alone based on the number of votes received, said his local dance instructor Judy Russell. "Starting on Nov. 12, it will be the number of votes that will decide who stays and who goes home and who will become Canada's favourite dancer from the top-10 survivors," she said. -- See VOTING on page 2

Residents upset over city roads, survey finds
by MARK NIELSEN Citizen staff The condition of the city's roads continues to be a sore spot for Prince George residents, according to results from the latest quality of life survey from University of Northern B.C. On a scale of one to seven with one being very dissatisfied and seven very satisfied, 29.5 per cent of the 648 respondents said they were very dissatisfied with road and street maintenance. In all, 76.1 per cent gave road and street maintenance a rating of three or lower. -- See COUNCILLORS on page 2

Citizen photo by David Mah

Teresa Kineshanko gives the thumbs up to the 99.9 cents per litre for gas at the Esso station at 20th Avenue and Spruce Street.

INDEX
0

58307

00100

8

Annie's Mailbox . . . . . . . .19 Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Business. . . .. . . . . . . . . 26-28 City, B.C. . . . . . . . . 2,3,5-7,17

Classified . . . . . . . . . . . 21-24 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . 18

Horoscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9-12 World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,16

High : 4 Low : -5 page 2

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