Editor: As a regular critic and supporter of the 91原创 Good Times Cruise-In I want to be amongst the first to publicly congratulate the board and the Township of 91原创 for a well put together event. The 2017 show went very well and despite the rain was a great success with good attendance and lots of cars.
The Township has opened its arms and welcomed the Cruise-In in a way that shows they want the show to go on.
There is a lot of room to expand the show if necessary and it was well sized as it was.
I saw the Township staff surveying attendees of the show to determine the economic impact of having the show. I am certain that in all the years in the City that their staff never did that kind of a survey, in fact the last financial impact survey was done in 2005 at the Cruise-In鈥檚 expense.
There are new banners on the lampposts of Aldergrove celebrating the show. The Aldergrove businesses were vocally and visibly supportive of the show and now, with the experience of having had the show can adjust to the realities of it and be ready for future shows.
It will be interesting to hear from the businesses and the Township about their experience.
The board has managed a massively difficult task with moving a show of that size from a 19-year location to a new one that many people said would just not work. They managed a much trickier highways-use plan and managed to deal with four levels of government to get the use of all the roads that are needed. They were able to imagine a show in Aldergrove and put together a plan that worked.
I am certain that the weather on Sept. 9, 2017 would have really wiped out the show in 91原创 City and perhaps, if nothing else, the novelty of the new location has pulled them through. The new location had different challenges and required starting from scratch with plans. I know that the show takes most of a year to plan and organize and these guys have pulled off an incredible feat by doing it in the abbreviated time frame they had. I saw several glitches in the plan that will be addressed, but nothing that cannot be fixed in future.
I would like to point out that even though the event was held miles from 91原创 City that the crowds of car owners still took to 91原创 City streets on Friday evening as well as the streets of Surrey in massive numbers to celebrate old cars.
I think that as this happens a few times, 91原创 City council will realize that the cost of policing the City on Friday night is all theirs, just like the cost of policing the streets of Surrey is borne by Surrey municipality. And now, they do not have the economic benefit of the show in their City to justify it.
Perhaps this will be a reality check for those who wanted to push the show out of the City to save the expense and hassle. It is the cost of Friday night policing that was the final breaking point in the relationship between Cruise-In and City and now the City has full ownership of it.
I hope that the Cruise-In board and the Township will both put efforts into this new relationship and allow it to be a long and prosperous one. Good luck, thanks, and congratulations to all involved.
Eric Taylor
Township of 91原创
