I am out for an afternoon stroll around Brackendale on a beautiful Sunday.
There are eagles overhead, the mountains are a blend of greenery and snow, and there is a mild warmth to the air that suggests spring is just around the corner.
I walk the usual path down Government Road, and at the intersection of Eagle Run Drive, my walk has been officially ruined. I am now staring at the glaring eyesore of a closed-down bike shop (formerly Republic Bicycles) and restaurant (The Nest). The former closed over 18 months ago and has been vacant since, and the Nest has recently shuttered.
Both spaces belong to a complex, which is relatively large and sits right in the middle of the Brackendale residential community—a hub of sorts. As of today, the huge vacant business spaces straddle only a small, well-loved coffee shop and hair salon, which are still operating in the despair of their surroundings.
This is a sight that is becoming all too familiar in Squamish. It feels like we are not doing enough to support our small businesses.
Looking out from the front of where The Squamish Chief is today, for example, the huge space where the Dollar Tree once operated is closed (has been for months) and is looking as hideous and empty as ever.
I may be unaware of some of the “pro-small-business” initiatives that are in place in Squamish (are there?) but what I see in front of me across the city is evident and obvious—too many commercial spaces are not used and we should all wonder why. Many of the owners and developers of these properties are not from this community and don’t have to see it every day. They may not have the same skin in the game as our residents.
Greed doesn’t go away if left unchecked. Government officials should look into more aggressive policies that would prevent these owners from “taking a write-off,” which may be financially advantageous for them, but makes our culture and community look like it is eroding by the day.
I, like many residents of Squamish, came from a small community, even smaller than here. I watched as building after building was vacated, and small businesses gave up due to the high rents. This chronic problem first made the city look increasingly like a ghost town, happening so gradually that people never felt the urgency to address the problem. Later, the buildings were demolished, making it look more like an apocalyptic world that humans inhabited only long ago.
The lack of support for small businesses in Squamish feels like the result of lazy, uncreative problem-solving by our officials and greed by landlords.
Some ideas: maybe adopt a steep vacancy tax on commercial property—if you want to leave your property unoccupied so you can take a tax write-off, we will gladly empty your pockets in exchange for you not caring about our community. At the moment, the provincial vacant property tax only applies to residental properties. Another idea would be to add further (and I hate this word) regulation on the pricing of commercial real estate. Incentives and penalties drive behaviour, not hope.
We deserve to have thriving, sustainable, brick-and-mortar small businesses. Risk should be balanced between the business owner and landowner, but when nearly all the risk falls on the former, it sets good people up for bad outcomes.
Let’s stop rewarding greed and start rewarding our community and small business owners, who put passion, conviction, long hours, and even risk into their efforts.
Evan Williams
Brackendale
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