The past few days they have been talking about banning cell phones while driving in the legislator, ironically at the same time I was speaking with some people down in California about that exact thing. In California it is already banned and fines are handed out if you are caught holding your cell phone while driving. So we were discussing a new feature in Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles called Sync. It is powered by Microsoft and is a hands free solution to well, almost everything, but the point is not about what it can do. The point more or less is there are solutions if cell phone use is banned.

I can see both sides but I have to say I lean more on the side of banning it, especially in Yellowknife. Before you jump on my back just hear me out and then you can definitely have your say in the comment section. Over the last 2 weeks alone I have encountered 2 situations of driver while on the cell phone. The first, I just could not believe. I was on my way home on a Friday afternoon down Franklin just passing the Aven Manor when a driver came up beside me going the same direction. When I glanced over, I couldn’t believe what I saw, this person was steering with what I assume to be their leg because it definitely wasn’t there hands. Both their hands were occupied with “other” things. One hand holding a cell phone and the other a cigarette. The other incident was with a commercial van driver nearly cutting into my truck because they were, you guessed it, not paying attention while on their cell phone.

There are many solutions nowadays for hand free cell phone use, whether it is built in your vehicle or just a bluetooth headset. I guess another question would be determining if the problem is using your hands while on the phone or just being on the phone with someone.

What are your thoughts on this topic? For or against?

I have to know what your thoughts are, Yellowknife. I know the topic is on your mind because not only was it pointed out in one of last weeks issues of the Yellowknifer but and in this weeks editorial. The old Uptown vs. Downtown debate. What is your stance?

It has been said that Uptown is the place to be these days. More parking (so they say), cleaner, less clutter and closer to home for many. Ever since day one I have been on the fence and even if I was for one or the other I probably wouldn’t share it here. So instead I will try and bring to light some of the pros and cons or compare the two.

Parking

When it comes to parking, the downtown core can be a little hectic to find a place. A lot of the time the majority of meter parking is taken, taken by other shoppers and workers, but don’t go blaming them. They need a place to park as well and they have a job to do. There are very few parking lots, only one really comes to mind, the Yk Centre one. Which of course is full and crowded most of the day, but props to the management for trying to enforce the time limit so it is being rotated.

But then again much of this can be the same for uptown. Take for example the Walmart, Marks and Tim Hortons parking lot, now there is a bad design if I ever saw one. It is an accident prone space and over crowded to say the least. Especially when you have a Tim Hortons coffee rush, you end up with a drive through line through Walmarts area. Then there is the fact there is a fenced off closed down gas station smack dab in the middle of it all, but in all there more parking available or you don’t have to pay a dollar an hour.

Distance

This is where I think Downtown dominates. Everything is all within short walking distance, from mall to mall to mall. Not only is it nice to have stores so close to each other, it begins to start to feel like a community. I’m going to use Yk Centre West for example, as I work there, because everyone is right beside each other you start to get the sense of community between the stores, which in the end will benefit you the customer.  Now I can’t vouch for the other malls but I’m sure there is something similar and to me the downtown store seem a little less corporate and a little more local. As you can tell having to walk outside for more than 3 minutes is not something I like, so my uptown shopping experience would be more like the following. Drive up, jump out of car, run in to store, run out, drive to next store, repeat process, because if I have to drive to each place chances are I’m not going to take my time and enjoy it. The benefit distance wise for Uptown stores is how close it is to the majority of residents of Yellowknife. You have both Finlayson/Range Road area and all of behind Walmart as well as Northlands area.

The People

Now I’m really not going to get into this one, but I think everyone who reads this will understand what I mean. Uptown just does not get the same kind of people, purely because it is Uptown and not downtown. The issue of loiters has always been one for the downtown core but there has never been a good solution so that is why I think some business owners have taken the matter into their own hands and moved. Which is understandable, is it not?

Okay Yellowknife, you have heard the arguments, is there anything you have to add? Where are you went it come to this debate? Are you for Downtown or Uptown? One thing I did not add is the new addition to the Uptown core, the Centre Ice Plaza. Do you think the addition of an indoor outlet mall will take a bigger chunk out of Downtown than normal?

A lot of people, myself included, have decided to pay to get the Yellowknifer and other NNSL papers online and recently they have also started sending out mass e-mails with the headlines in tomorrows issue.  Now I don’t have a problem with this; I get so many e-mails a day it really makes no difference. But I am just one person out of the 600 people who receive it. NNSL didn’t, as far as I’m aware, announce they were going to do this until after people received the first e-mail.

The one thing that worries me and possibly others is how they send out the mass e-mail. Of the 600 people who receive it, again myself included, they can all see everyone elses e-mail address. So for example if a person were to click “reply all” they would be sending their message to not only NNSL but to everyone else who also received the e-mail. Funnily enough this has already happened twice; two people have chosen to unsubscribe from the e-mail and accidentally clicked “reply all”. So everyone on the list received the message, OPPS.

This could also be a bad idea in many other ways. One for example would be if I decided to send an e-mail to all those NNSL recipients marketing YkOnline, which I would NEVER do, but you can see the effect it would have. People would not be happy.

I am not trying to take a stab at NNSL, am only pointing out something that businesses should be aware of. I will also e-mail them (and make sure not to click reply all) about the issue. Yellowknifers, what is your take on mass e-mails for businesses? Do you disregard them and opt out? Do you know of any solutions to fix this issue? Let everyone know below.

I was recently informed by Nancy via Twitter that Javaroma has canceled their free Internet Access because of a $700 Internet bill they received. I can’t say I’m surprised that they got the bill, it was bound to happen. What really shocks me is how it only happened now. They have had free Wifi there for years and surely people have taken advantage of it before and downloaded that big file or movie.

What I really don’t understand is why they are not looking in to their options. There are many Internet Cafe/ WiFi Hot Spot solutions out there. Look at Starbucks, they are partnered with AT&T, Boingo and others to provide WiFi access at almost every shop across North American. That’s a damn lot of Coffee Shops so surely our one Javaroma can come up with some sort of solution. If you Google “Internet Cafe Software” instantly you find several companies that offer software that can be used to regulate users Internet usage. I am also willing to bet if a small fee was tacked on to being able to use the Internet, people wouldn’t mind. I mean if they are spending $6 on a coffee, $5 for a hour or day of Internet shouldn’t be a big deal. Am I not right?

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think they are going in the wrong direction in this online era? Should they charge for Internet use? Let everyone know in the comments below.