Metro Vancouver Restaurant News thread

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by djh

I don't understand how we (as a city bureaucracy) didn't learn from the last time we went through this with the Canada Line in 2008-2010. The damage to businesses along the route was severe, those companies just died and never came back, and City Hall was lambasted for their lack of empathy and low-effort attempts to help.

You would have thought that somebody there would have written a report about how the debacle occurred - we all know how City Hall loves a nice long expensive consultant's report! - and therefore would have been better-prepared for the Millennium Line extension disruption. Apparently, little was learned, the same mistakes were repeated, and again, more small businesses will disappear.

It also seems like this time around there is way less media discussion and little public outrage is getting any momentum, unlike last time.

Hopefully, the businesses along the corridor will file a Class Action Lawsuit against the City, so that they are forced to implement definite procedures to help businesses affected by the disruption directly resultant of the City's acts. At the very minimum, they should expect massive tax cuts during construction, but ideally there should be a fund to compensate them for lost average sales, and/or a fund to equally cover their rent or leases. And/or the City should be forced to help disrupted companies to temporarily relocate - help them break their leases without consequences, or find them new locations, or whatever.

We need small businesses in the city, and watching them die due to city lack of caring is immoral.

The City and the Province should have learned.

You'd think that since Eby's riding runs to Arbutus he'd be a little more sympathetic to nearby businesses. Ditto Minister George Heyman. Will these locations benefit when it is completed? Sure, if they survive until then and/or their landlord doesn't jack up the rent or sell the building for redevelopment.