Editor,
Re: "Saving Downtown" [The Chief, Aug. 14]. I might be late to the game here, but I just read your editorial on saving downtown. I think you guys mean well, but you miss the point.
First, let's correct an assumption about Wal Mart and other big box retailers. They are not entirely owned by rich families. They are almost all publicly traded companies, with institutional and individual shareholders. Think pension funds, mutual funds, etc. Those "rich guys" getting richer? That's you.
Thus, they locate wherever it makes economic sense, and they spread benefits around the community in the form of jobs and profits that return to those investors (you).
Second, as a small business owner in town for 10 years, let me tell you why I've yet to open a store downtown. Ready? $$$$$$$$$$
Even the most pitiful space in downtown 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 can break a small business -even in rundown buildings with no parking.
Our commerical rents are absurd, and getting worse. And that's to say nothing of some of the landlords in town who behave more like feudal lords and treat their tenants (clients?) poorly and let their buildings degenerate while still raising rent.
Lastly, assuming as a business I get a space here anyway, why would I put that kind of money downtown?
I love 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料 dearly, but I don't see the appeal in downtown. We've razed or burned every building of historic value down there. What exists today is a mainly muddle of 1950s and early 21st century condos and strip malls.
It's at the extreme end of a very long valley, and it's cut off completely at times by even longer trains. It makes eminently more business sense to locate along the highway, somewhere central, which is why Wal Mart, Home Depot, Canadian Tire and others chose to go where they did.
My suggestions, regardless of downtown's fate, are as follows:
1) Find a way to create affordable commercial space. Maybe look at a co-operative model, where the municipality loans some money for a group of business owners to establish non-profit space. This would be a vital rung in the ladder from the start-up phase of business to expansion. It's also nice to have security of tenure.
2) Why not put it on the table to re-locate our downtown. The existing downtown is becoming a lovely place to live, let it continue to develop as such.
Let's move the main commerical district to at least 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料's belt-line, say the Industrial park area. Let's create something there entirely new and worth preserving for the future. The downtown's design is fixed and cannot easily be re-worked. There's still lots of space to be creative further north.
3) Stop bashing big retail. You shop there, I shop there. If you're a small business owner fearful of these giants, pick up your game. Let's get together and share strategies. Let's get better and more specialized at what we do. It's been done elsewhere and it can surely be done in 老澳门六合彩开奖记录资料.
There is no us vs. them - it's just us.
Brad Hodge
Brackendale
