North of Somewhere
A Darrin Rigo Weekly Northern BC Newsletter
Twitter to Substack: The Kurjata Pipeline
Like many others, the experience of Twitter has declined to a point where I feel mostly miserable spending any substantive time on there. For me, PG Twitter circa 2020-2022 was a really great place - I made awesome connections, met locals, and in a very small way, felt like I had a place to say things about this city (and region) to people who cared just as much as I do. In a time where lots of people were feeling disconnected, I remember feeling really grateful to have so much connection
That was really nice and now its gone because a silly little billionaire bigot bought the company and, most annoyingly for my experience, boosts opinions of those who pay him (and consequently, people whose opinions I value 0%).
C’est la vie, I guess. Here’s what you can expect:
1. Prince George, and Northern BC meanderings.
It might be politics, it might be a new restaurant, it might be (likely bad) armchair opinions about urban planning. There might be guests? There might be hot takes, there might luke warm takes - I don’t REALLY know.
I guess I’d say if you like following me on Twitter, it will be a slightly longer form of that.
2. I’m interested in being interested. I’m interested in people who are interested.
I feel like there are a lot of people in this city who think that outwardly caring about this city means you’re only a few months away from announcing a political campaign.
This is not that. I believe a healthy city is a place where there’s lots of people who just care and are interested, and want to talk openly, and gather around ideas and conversation.
I see myself firmly in the middle of that camp, with 0 interest and time in the other camp.
3. I’m often wrong about things.
Part of having an active Twitter or (hopefully) an active newsletter is being vulnerable with thoughts and opinions - I think that’s part of why I love PG Twitter so much is that it feels like a place where we have a bit of permission to say things or read things that diverge or converge and maybe we find each other in the middle somewhere.
I have historically gotten my takes wrong (many times) - those tweets are all still alive and well and you can see that across a thousand or so tweets, I have stood corrected over and over again. I look forward to this being a place where that happens still.
4. Every Tuesday. Or mostly every Tuesday? Probably most Tuesdays.
I’ve already got quite a few topics in mind for the next few weeks:
The Visitors Center Conundrum
Municipal Procurement
Most of PG probably doesn’t want to change.
This city is just too small for influencers.
AAAAND a couple guest conversations. That said, I’m open to ideas and you can always DM me or email me @ darrin.rigo AT gmail DOT com to let me know!
Great first edition!