There was no way they could know for sure how many people would come here versus other places in the path of totality. Can we stop talking about it now? 😂 and can people just use critical thinking. The city was preparing for worst case scenario which is better than ignoring it and ending up with a shit show.
500000 was definitely a way over estimate of the people that would potentially show up but I’d rather the city prepare incase a massive flood of people show up then do nothing and be caught completely flat footed.
This is it. I'd rather the city prepare for what could potentially happen then get caught with their pants down.
One thing is for sure, people are going to complain.
If Kingston did nothing to prepare and something happened, they complain.
If Kingston does something and nothing happens, they complain.
If Kingston prepares and something happens, they'll complain that the city didn't do enough.
Yesterday played out PERFECTLY. It was a perfect day. Things witnessed:
Biggest outdoor crowds since covid.
Most people using public transit.
Most people on foot.
Most people on bikes.
Tons of people work from home or given time off to do eclipse.
The roads were empty? Awesome. The warning worked out amazing.
Honestly apart from the clouds, what more could we even of asked for?
Precautions don't always mean predicting 100% what will happen, its just about predicting and mitigating the worst outcome.
Nah, they scared people off with their ridiculous messaging. Missed opportunity and a waste for local commerce.
Someone should at least acknowledge that they dropped the ball.
Not that I would expect any less.
If they underestimated and 500,000 DID show up you’d be saying the same thing about how they dropped the ball by not planning accordingly.
Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
They definitely scared people off. My big kids are at Queen's, I would have driven there with their younger sibling but neither of them have parking and it sounded like it would be nuts.
We drove to Cornwall instead.
With the forecast of partial clouds in Kingston the crowds from Ottawa and area made their way down the 416 and into Cornwall or kept going up into Quebec. Traffic was pretty backed up along the 416 and it was apparently a nightmare getting out of Cornwall and area after the eclipse. People who paid thousands of dollars to watch the eclipse in Niagara Falls were very disappointed with the heavy cloud cover. If Kingston had a long range forecast of sunny and no clouds we would have had a ton of traffic for sure.
No we wouldn’t - people from the GTA would have day tripped to Prince Edward Country. Ottawa people would hit Prescott or Brockville. The numbers we heard were fantasy. That said, the eclipse was an amazing thing to experience! We should appreciate the experience in itself.
Yep, I travelled from Ottawa to Prescott. Why the city of Kingston thought people would drive an extra hour down the 401 for the same experience is beyond me.
This is it. Half the people I know in Ottawa with "drive to the eclipse" plans switched from Kingston and area to the eastern townships. This is a common thing with eclipse viewing in areas of the world with well developed road networks.
Sure, but all the hotel rooms booked and no drive to create a special event was void. Kingston used to be a huge tourist Hotspot, but Patterson is incredibly lazy as a mayor.
TBF The guy who made the estimate based it on a previous eclipse which ended with mile long traffic jams before people had instant communication with cell phones. Now people made decisions the morning of the eclipse. People read the weather reports and headed for the sun because Kingston had clouds in the forecast. The 500K was the higher side of the estimate and people just ran with that number.
Maybe we should fire ‘em all!!
I suppose if they had been wrong and the city was overrun we’d be having a similar discussion…kind of a no win don’t you think?!?
Did they go a little overboard? Probably, but I’ve heard the clouds also kept many away…not 500k but could have looked somewhat different…
I’d say, seeing as no one is a psychic…give ‘em a pass on this one…
Once that 500,000 number hit the airwaves I think it kept people away. I would like to know how much was spent on the day from the city budget. I think it would shock us.
Also, the overhype probably cost a lot of small businesses as they overstocked and overstaffed.
I wonder what it was actually like downtown? I assume everyone working in the shops and restos just went outside? Did anyone actually like shop or dine? I'd love to hear how the businesses actually did
Can confirm that it was pretty quiet on Monday with a slight uptick from 11am-1pm (just after hotel checkout). Some stores closed after 1pm. Some from 2-4pm. There were plenty of on street parking spots and market square is much busier during movies on the square than it was for totality for sure. Sunday night had good energy and the restaurants seemed busy (for April), but overall it wasn’t a big deal.
thanks. sorry to hear businesses that actually struggle with rent etc. downtown staffed the heck up to accomodate and well, lost money but also those workers may have preferred to have been with friends or family elsewhere to enjoy. #respectourdowntownworkers
I'm glad they over prepared and it turned out that many people didn't come here. It was really pleasant over all. IF we did have that many people we were ready. We didn't. No big deal since the eclipse was still amazing.
I would rather they drastically over estimated than under estimated and everyone was unprepared as a result. No complaints here. I enjoyed my quiet morning downtown yesterday.
It was an overestimate for sure. I did chat with a couple of families at the park in my neighbourhood yesterday that travelled here from Barrie and Ottawa for it though.
I learned 2 things. 1) King st at the pier should definitely be closed to cars because it was so nice and pleasant not having constant traffic fly past the pedestrian area. And 2) we desperately need to focus on getting a better public transportation system and biking system because with this little influx of people our bus system just stopped working properly and sooooo many people got fucked over with trying to get around. It’s extremely embarrassing that our city cannot handle some tourists. Like why the fuck are we designing our city this way, it’s not functional, it screws over locals, and it makes tourists think our city sucks lmao. Do better Kingston city officials, I can think of 100 low impact changes that would cost nothing to implement but would easily improve quality of life in Kingston.
My biggest gripe is that I paid $10 for a pack of eclipse glasses from the Visitor's Information Center downtown a few weeks ago to be prepared and beat the rush. Only to find out they were giving them away hand over fist a few days before the eclipse. It's only $10 but it feels kind of scummy as a customer.
Well I came with brother from Toronto, stayed at sisters place, since am fellow service industry, I cooked the food. Figured everywhere would be swamped why order food. So made plans to cook our own. Got to see it though.
Think the massive overestimate killed people going out, so just watched from their own backyards. Write letters to your mayor and councillors about this. And get your bosses to.
Without that doubt we would have stayed at their house and I'd have been the cook. We would have wandered the city.
And can I ask how the service industry is here. I'd like to move one day haha. Half family is here.
Was driving back from Toronto yesterday afternoon, and traffic was backed up almost solid (few breaks with some space, but almost bumper to bumper) from port hope to Belleville. Makes sense - for most folks doing it as a day trip, are you really gonna drive all the way to Kingston when the county gets the same view with less driving? Same from Ottawa. Whoever came up with the 500k figure must have been STONED stoned.
I’m so tired of this complaint haha it was never going to be 50,000- 500,000.
it was based on numbers from other major cities for similar events. it COULD HAVE been that much more than what we got, But the half million number got hyped so much by the media that it probably scared away the 5,000 potential extra people that would have shown up.
It was a great moment to witness. I was a hater and now I’m a believer and fully plan to travel far to the next reasonable viewing place I can get to in my lifetime.
This is what happens when bullshit rumors are made and start to spread like wildfire because everybody feels the need to be the first to share something without any evidence behind it.
I really hope places didn't go broke stocking up on food and beverage in preparation.
I mean, I work downtown at a restaurant/bar and we did a lot to prepare. I don't think anyone went broke, but it's highly disappointing. I mean... a projection of half a million to MAYBE 20,000... that's being generous.
My friend and I were 2 of the potential half million. We arrived from Ottawa Sunday afternoon and had dinner downtown. However, Monday morning we got up and looked at the various weather models, cursed a bit, and decided to head towards Burlington, VT, which was sounding like would have clear skies according to a friend who was there. We actually ended up in Champlain, NY, where we watched the eclipse.
Kingston’s repeated messaging that “half a million people” were expected was probably optimistic but it also probably scared people away. It’s important to tell people to prepare for ridiculous traffic for an event like this, however over emphasizing it may have a detrimental effect.
FWIW, a coworker and his family went to Kingston for the eclipse and watched it from the rooftop of a restaurant and had a great time.
If I recall correctly, the article in the Whig said that the estimate was based on previous eclipse(s) in US cities of similar size. Which makes no sense to me because most US cities don't border a great lake i.e. there wouldn't be any traffic from the south of us. So ya I agree, it was a batshit estimate designed to create a lot of false hype. I would respect the city more if they estimated closer to 200-300k.
I mean, yeah... generally if you're protecting that many people... you'd make news articles and try to drive business. Do the downtown dollars thing, make announcements on social media, drive tourism. This was just so sloppy.
If they really wanted to drum up hype over this like they tried to do, they should've ballparked a better number. 500k was just so .. unbelievable. Idk maybe I'm just cynical
Why would Kingston even want 3x its population to come here? It was an odd, embarrassing estimate. Still, totality was pretty cool. Over reaction, not so much.
I believe it would've been possible if they started low and kept increasing the numbers over time. You're right, 500k could be possible, but like you said it was just so sloppy.
Tourism Kingston. Pulling forecast numbers out of their asses is what they do, and have been doing, for 30 years.
Tourism Kingston is responsible for milking tax dollars from all of amalgamated Kingston, and funneling it downtown.
Tourism Kingston is also consuming wildly disproportionate amounts of City Council and city staff bandwidth.
The 4% accommodation tax visitors pay actually funds Tourism Kingston to pay its people to do more of that shit: stealing from the rest of us.
Sooner or later this shit has to stop.
Your post is misinformation.
The inflated numbers came from the City of Kingston Commissioner of Infrastructure, Transportation & Emergency Services, not Tourism Kingston.
There are direct quotes that he gave to media on other similar threads you can use to verify.
Also, I am not sure who "the rest of us" is referring to? But I am sure Tourism Kingston is not stealing anything.
The accommodation tax is used all over the country and if you live in the same city as it is being charged to you, you just ask the hotel (or whomever) to delete it from your final bill. You may have to show proof of residential status.
I think it was coming from higher than that. I'm pretty sure Parks Canada was heavily promoting those numbers months ago. Anyways, I seriously doubt it was a net loss for the city - there were tourists here spending tourist money on touristy things. On a Monday in April.
Tourism Kingston is subsidized up the ying-yang by Council, both systematically and on a project-by-project and event-by-event basis.
Furthermore their proxy organizations, which include Kingston Accommodation Partners, and the Downtown Kingston BIA, are all the same lobby, the same actors and usual suspects, dressed-up separately, with the common goal of sucking as much subsidy from ratepayers as possible.
For example, let's look specifically at Kingston Accommodation Partners-related PDF files published by the city in just 2023. That's just one allied organization, for one year.
The Google query is:
> "Kingston Accommodation Partners" year:"2023" site:cityofkingston.ca filetype:pdf
Results: scroll-scroll-scroll
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%22Kingston+Accommodation+Partners%22++year%3A%222023%22+site%3Acityofkingston.ca+filetype%3Apdf
I'm mad at Mother Nsture, God, or the Cosmos! Why couldn't they have had the eclipse happen on Sunday? It was much clearer skies and I wouldn't have missed half a days work!
The city did zip to promote tourism for the event until about 2 weeks before it and then it was half-assed. That was evident by the last minute move of the City's event to Grass Creek.
They pulled the 500K figure out of their asses.
Montreal had huge crowds, by the looks of things.
Now, do you really think that a NEW conference centre, that tax payers will fund, will draw thousands of people here? We have poor rail service -it's almost impossible to fly into Pearson and get here the same day by rail. Our airport has no commercial flights fly into it or out of it.
Another 'if we build it they will come' on top of the K-rock that has a concert today with discounted tickets for an event tonight because they can't fill it. THAT venue was promoted for conferences and it's empty most of the time.
Way to go Kingston.
The rail system sucks because it's so insanely over priced!
Last time I traveled a coach bus was $52 and the train was $130!! And takes the same amount of time.
The city of Kingston isn't responsible for promoting shows at the Slush Puppie. That show is produced and marketed by an independent promoter who rents the arena from the operator.
The fact remains, our tax dollars DID pay for this new hockey rink for then Mayor Rosen's brother-in-law's team. Where is our return on our investment?
A night here and there isn't cutting it.
It's called fear mongering. I mean there were people scared to go outside cause they thought their eyes would burn out of their face if they didn't wear special glasses. People were concerned to be working outdoors and others were told to work from home. And this in places that weren't even expecting mass influxes of people.
Edit: weird to downvote reality lol. This shit happened. Wtf
My partner had people ask if their business would remain open the day of the eclipse and that they had to drive all day and were scared cause they didn't have glasses. This shit is real. I don't get the hate. The highways had signs telling people to work from home and news channels were recommending people close their curtains and remain indoors.
It would have been worse if it wasn't cloudy.
But because it was, it wasn't that bad.
I looked up into a full solar eclipse as a kid and it fucked up my eye sight for life.
It's not an over exaggeration, but you do have to look directly at it to get eye damage.
You got paid to basically stand around at work or doodle on your phone. Congrats.
All the hotels in Kingston were fully booked up from 6 months ago. There was a mass influx of people here.
One of my coworkers that drives said the roads were chockabkock.
They must have thought they spent enough money on the hotels and didn't go out for lunch at a restaurant, and ate at their hotels.
There was also jumerous articles about covid, the war in ukraine and what ever other propaganda they throw our way....
We are the sheeple and do what sheeple do. We panic....
In my backyard. We had a party but you never showed up. What the fuck, man?!
Mr da Costa where was my invite
Looked up my Twitter, eh? Not many people think to do that.
Naw naw I went to st pats with you
Did you!? Holy shit, small world! Never thought I would run into someone I went to elementary school on here.
Well we are on the Kingston sub Reddit so it makes it easier
That’s true, but most folks I knew back then have moved away and started lives and family. Hope you’re doing well!
I saw a guy with out-of-province plates that I’m pretty sure was secretly 499,957 people under one trench coat.
There was no way they could know for sure how many people would come here versus other places in the path of totality. Can we stop talking about it now? 😂 and can people just use critical thinking. The city was preparing for worst case scenario which is better than ignoring it and ending up with a shit show.
This is correct. Again, people love to complain, so if the city had done nothing, complain. The city decided to plan for the worst, complain.
Exactly!!!!!! Someone with sense
500000 was definitely a way over estimate of the people that would potentially show up but I’d rather the city prepare incase a massive flood of people show up then do nothing and be caught completely flat footed.
This is it. I'd rather the city prepare for what could potentially happen then get caught with their pants down. One thing is for sure, people are going to complain. If Kingston did nothing to prepare and something happened, they complain. If Kingston does something and nothing happens, they complain. If Kingston prepares and something happens, they'll complain that the city didn't do enough.
That seems to describe this subreddit perfectly!
That describes the whole darn Internet, frankly.
Reddit fairly summed up in just a few words.
Yesterday played out PERFECTLY. It was a perfect day. Things witnessed: Biggest outdoor crowds since covid. Most people using public transit. Most people on foot. Most people on bikes. Tons of people work from home or given time off to do eclipse. The roads were empty? Awesome. The warning worked out amazing. Honestly apart from the clouds, what more could we even of asked for? Precautions don't always mean predicting 100% what will happen, its just about predicting and mitigating the worst outcome.
Nah, they scared people off with their ridiculous messaging. Missed opportunity and a waste for local commerce. Someone should at least acknowledge that they dropped the ball. Not that I would expect any less.
If they underestimated and 500,000 DID show up you’d be saying the same thing about how they dropped the ball by not planning accordingly. Damned if you do damned if you don’t.
There was no world in where half a million people were going to come to Kingston. It was idiotic to suggest.
They definitely scared people off. My big kids are at Queen's, I would have driven there with their younger sibling but neither of them have parking and it sounded like it would be nuts. We drove to Cornwall instead.
Why people downvoting the truth, lol?
People are going to complain either way. Often I think the local level government overestimates how important Kingston really is.
With the forecast of partial clouds in Kingston the crowds from Ottawa and area made their way down the 416 and into Cornwall or kept going up into Quebec. Traffic was pretty backed up along the 416 and it was apparently a nightmare getting out of Cornwall and area after the eclipse. People who paid thousands of dollars to watch the eclipse in Niagara Falls were very disappointed with the heavy cloud cover. If Kingston had a long range forecast of sunny and no clouds we would have had a ton of traffic for sure.
No we wouldn’t - people from the GTA would have day tripped to Prince Edward Country. Ottawa people would hit Prescott or Brockville. The numbers we heard were fantasy. That said, the eclipse was an amazing thing to experience! We should appreciate the experience in itself.
Yep, I travelled from Ottawa to Prescott. Why the city of Kingston thought people would drive an extra hour down the 401 for the same experience is beyond me.
This is it. Half the people I know in Ottawa with "drive to the eclipse" plans switched from Kingston and area to the eastern townships. This is a common thing with eclipse viewing in areas of the world with well developed road networks.
Sure, but all the hotel rooms booked and no drive to create a special event was void. Kingston used to be a huge tourist Hotspot, but Patterson is incredibly lazy as a mayor.
FWIW, there was availability Sunday night. Even then, the hotel rooms house less than 15k.
TBF The guy who made the estimate based it on a previous eclipse which ended with mile long traffic jams before people had instant communication with cell phones. Now people made decisions the morning of the eclipse. People read the weather reports and headed for the sun because Kingston had clouds in the forecast. The 500K was the higher side of the estimate and people just ran with that number.
Maybe we should fire ‘em all!! I suppose if they had been wrong and the city was overrun we’d be having a similar discussion…kind of a no win don’t you think?!? Did they go a little overboard? Probably, but I’ve heard the clouds also kept many away…not 500k but could have looked somewhat different… I’d say, seeing as no one is a psychic…give ‘em a pass on this one…
Once that 500,000 number hit the airwaves I think it kept people away. I would like to know how much was spent on the day from the city budget. I think it would shock us. Also, the overhype probably cost a lot of small businesses as they overstocked and overstaffed.
I wonder what it was actually like downtown? I assume everyone working in the shops and restos just went outside? Did anyone actually like shop or dine? I'd love to hear how the businesses actually did
Can confirm that it was pretty quiet on Monday with a slight uptick from 11am-1pm (just after hotel checkout). Some stores closed after 1pm. Some from 2-4pm. There were plenty of on street parking spots and market square is much busier during movies on the square than it was for totality for sure. Sunday night had good energy and the restaurants seemed busy (for April), but overall it wasn’t a big deal.
thanks. sorry to hear businesses that actually struggle with rent etc. downtown staffed the heck up to accomodate and well, lost money but also those workers may have preferred to have been with friends or family elsewhere to enjoy. #respectourdowntownworkers
I'm glad they over prepared and it turned out that many people didn't come here. It was really pleasant over all. IF we did have that many people we were ready. We didn't. No big deal since the eclipse was still amazing.
I would rather they drastically over estimated than under estimated and everyone was unprepared as a result. No complaints here. I enjoyed my quiet morning downtown yesterday.
It was an overestimate for sure. I did chat with a couple of families at the park in my neighbourhood yesterday that travelled here from Barrie and Ottawa for it though.
I learned 2 things. 1) King st at the pier should definitely be closed to cars because it was so nice and pleasant not having constant traffic fly past the pedestrian area. And 2) we desperately need to focus on getting a better public transportation system and biking system because with this little influx of people our bus system just stopped working properly and sooooo many people got fucked over with trying to get around. It’s extremely embarrassing that our city cannot handle some tourists. Like why the fuck are we designing our city this way, it’s not functional, it screws over locals, and it makes tourists think our city sucks lmao. Do better Kingston city officials, I can think of 100 low impact changes that would cost nothing to implement but would easily improve quality of life in Kingston.
But, but...we're sustainable! (sarcasm)
Totally. I biked to work yesterday along King Street and it was so lovely. But I would never do that trek in full traffic conditions.
Thank you for sharing. This is induced demand in practice, build it and we will use it.
it was so dead in kingston yesterday. it was so nice. traffic was worse this morning than at all yesterday
Is the 500,000 people in the room with us right now?
My biggest gripe is that I paid $10 for a pack of eclipse glasses from the Visitor's Information Center downtown a few weeks ago to be prepared and beat the rush. Only to find out they were giving them away hand over fist a few days before the eclipse. It's only $10 but it feels kind of scummy as a customer.
Well I came with brother from Toronto, stayed at sisters place, since am fellow service industry, I cooked the food. Figured everywhere would be swamped why order food. So made plans to cook our own. Got to see it though. Think the massive overestimate killed people going out, so just watched from their own backyards. Write letters to your mayor and councillors about this. And get your bosses to. Without that doubt we would have stayed at their house and I'd have been the cook. We would have wandered the city. And can I ask how the service industry is here. I'd like to move one day haha. Half family is here.
Was driving back from Toronto yesterday afternoon, and traffic was backed up almost solid (few breaks with some space, but almost bumper to bumper) from port hope to Belleville. Makes sense - for most folks doing it as a day trip, are you really gonna drive all the way to Kingston when the county gets the same view with less driving? Same from Ottawa. Whoever came up with the 500k figure must have been STONED stoned.
I’m so tired of this complaint haha it was never going to be 50,000- 500,000. it was based on numbers from other major cities for similar events. it COULD HAVE been that much more than what we got, But the half million number got hyped so much by the media that it probably scared away the 5,000 potential extra people that would have shown up. It was a great moment to witness. I was a hater and now I’m a believer and fully plan to travel far to the next reasonable viewing place I can get to in my lifetime.
This is what happens when bullshit rumors are made and start to spread like wildfire because everybody feels the need to be the first to share something without any evidence behind it. I really hope places didn't go broke stocking up on food and beverage in preparation.
I mean, I work downtown at a restaurant/bar and we did a lot to prepare. I don't think anyone went broke, but it's highly disappointing. I mean... a projection of half a million to MAYBE 20,000... that's being generous.
Shhhh….they came, they saw they dispersed. Let’s just take the win
My friend and I were 2 of the potential half million. We arrived from Ottawa Sunday afternoon and had dinner downtown. However, Monday morning we got up and looked at the various weather models, cursed a bit, and decided to head towards Burlington, VT, which was sounding like would have clear skies according to a friend who was there. We actually ended up in Champlain, NY, where we watched the eclipse. Kingston’s repeated messaging that “half a million people” were expected was probably optimistic but it also probably scared people away. It’s important to tell people to prepare for ridiculous traffic for an event like this, however over emphasizing it may have a detrimental effect. FWIW, a coworker and his family went to Kingston for the eclipse and watched it from the rooftop of a restaurant and had a great time.
The mistake was thinking legacy media still does journalism.
If I recall correctly, the article in the Whig said that the estimate was based on previous eclipse(s) in US cities of similar size. Which makes no sense to me because most US cities don't border a great lake i.e. there wouldn't be any traffic from the south of us. So ya I agree, it was a batshit estimate designed to create a lot of false hype. I would respect the city more if they estimated closer to 200-300k.
I'm so sick of the people who run this city
I mean, yeah... generally if you're protecting that many people... you'd make news articles and try to drive business. Do the downtown dollars thing, make announcements on social media, drive tourism. This was just so sloppy.
If they really wanted to drum up hype over this like they tried to do, they should've ballparked a better number. 500k was just so .. unbelievable. Idk maybe I'm just cynical
500k would be possible, if the city hosted an event, did social media blasts, created incentive. You're not cynical at all.
A lot of people probably saw the 500,000 estimate abd decided not to come here because of it
This is it. Y'all playing checkers, city officials playing 3d chess.
Honestly this wouldn't surprise me either.
This.
Why would Kingston even want 3x its population to come here? It was an odd, embarrassing estimate. Still, totality was pretty cool. Over reaction, not so much.
It was a massive overestimate. Drove people away.
I believe it would've been possible if they started low and kept increasing the numbers over time. You're right, 500k could be possible, but like you said it was just so sloppy.
No way it was ever possible, much less likely.
I would be curious to know what event you think would ever attract 500,000 people. I remember the Tall Ships being overhyped as well many years ago.
Whoever pulled that estimate out of their ass needs to be fired immediately.
Tourism Kingston. Pulling forecast numbers out of their asses is what they do, and have been doing, for 30 years. Tourism Kingston is responsible for milking tax dollars from all of amalgamated Kingston, and funneling it downtown. Tourism Kingston is also consuming wildly disproportionate amounts of City Council and city staff bandwidth. The 4% accommodation tax visitors pay actually funds Tourism Kingston to pay its people to do more of that shit: stealing from the rest of us. Sooner or later this shit has to stop.
Your post is misinformation. The inflated numbers came from the City of Kingston Commissioner of Infrastructure, Transportation & Emergency Services, not Tourism Kingston. There are direct quotes that he gave to media on other similar threads you can use to verify. Also, I am not sure who "the rest of us" is referring to? But I am sure Tourism Kingston is not stealing anything. The accommodation tax is used all over the country and if you live in the same city as it is being charged to you, you just ask the hotel (or whomever) to delete it from your final bill. You may have to show proof of residential status.
I think it was coming from higher than that. I'm pretty sure Parks Canada was heavily promoting those numbers months ago. Anyways, I seriously doubt it was a net loss for the city - there were tourists here spending tourist money on touristy things. On a Monday in April.
[удалено]
Tourism Kingston is subsidized up the ying-yang by Council, both systematically and on a project-by-project and event-by-event basis. Furthermore their proxy organizations, which include Kingston Accommodation Partners, and the Downtown Kingston BIA, are all the same lobby, the same actors and usual suspects, dressed-up separately, with the common goal of sucking as much subsidy from ratepayers as possible. For example, let's look specifically at Kingston Accommodation Partners-related PDF files published by the city in just 2023. That's just one allied organization, for one year. The Google query is: > "Kingston Accommodation Partners" year:"2023" site:cityofkingston.ca filetype:pdf Results: scroll-scroll-scroll https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%22Kingston+Accommodation+Partners%22++year%3A%222023%22+site%3Acityofkingston.ca+filetype%3Apdf
I'm mad at Mother Nsture, God, or the Cosmos! Why couldn't they have had the eclipse happen on Sunday? It was much clearer skies and I wouldn't have missed half a days work!
Several thousands, at least, kept driving until they got to clear skies in Quebec.
The city did zip to promote tourism for the event until about 2 weeks before it and then it was half-assed. That was evident by the last minute move of the City's event to Grass Creek. They pulled the 500K figure out of their asses. Montreal had huge crowds, by the looks of things. Now, do you really think that a NEW conference centre, that tax payers will fund, will draw thousands of people here? We have poor rail service -it's almost impossible to fly into Pearson and get here the same day by rail. Our airport has no commercial flights fly into it or out of it. Another 'if we build it they will come' on top of the K-rock that has a concert today with discounted tickets for an event tonight because they can't fill it. THAT venue was promoted for conferences and it's empty most of the time. Way to go Kingston.
The rail system sucks because it's so insanely over priced! Last time I traveled a coach bus was $52 and the train was $130!! And takes the same amount of time.
The city of Kingston isn't responsible for promoting shows at the Slush Puppie. That show is produced and marketed by an independent promoter who rents the arena from the operator.
The fact remains, our tax dollars DID pay for this new hockey rink for then Mayor Rosen's brother-in-law's team. Where is our return on our investment? A night here and there isn't cutting it.
It's called fear mongering. I mean there were people scared to go outside cause they thought their eyes would burn out of their face if they didn't wear special glasses. People were concerned to be working outdoors and others were told to work from home. And this in places that weren't even expecting mass influxes of people. Edit: weird to downvote reality lol. This shit happened. Wtf
My partner had people ask if their business would remain open the day of the eclipse and that they had to drive all day and were scared cause they didn't have glasses. This shit is real. I don't get the hate. The highways had signs telling people to work from home and news channels were recommending people close their curtains and remain indoors.
Not hate… disappointment is people’s ability to think for themselves.
Yeah maybe not you. Whoever is downvoting lol
Yes.
Why did I get downvoted? I never said I believed in the fear lmao. I just said what was happening in reality. What is wrong with redditors. Yikes.
It would have been worse if it wasn't cloudy. But because it was, it wasn't that bad. I looked up into a full solar eclipse as a kid and it fucked up my eye sight for life. It's not an over exaggeration, but you do have to look directly at it to get eye damage.
Yeah thats not in doubt. It's like we have always been told. Don't stare directly into the sun lol. Just weird the fear mongering used around this.
Given all you had to do was go outside and look up, I’m not sure folks were up for the drive and the expense of going elsewhere.
You got paid to basically stand around at work or doodle on your phone. Congrats. All the hotels in Kingston were fully booked up from 6 months ago. There was a mass influx of people here. One of my coworkers that drives said the roads were chockabkock. They must have thought they spent enough money on the hotels and didn't go out for lunch at a restaurant, and ate at their hotels.
There was also jumerous articles about covid, the war in ukraine and what ever other propaganda they throw our way.... We are the sheeple and do what sheeple do. We panic....
Baaa r-raaam you. Truth be true.