With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1490198
keep Vancouver functioning as a real city, not just a manicured enclave for the super-rich. For the most part, politi- cians and activists have tended to focus here and elsewhere on the need for housing to serve people who are at different places on the economic ladder. Their constant refrain is that the city needs to make living room for not just the wealthi- est, but also for everyone who makes it run: restaurant cooks and bus drivers, yoga teachers and nurses, record-store opera- tors and dental assistants. What gets a lot less attention is how a functioning city also needs to have a mix of busi- nesses that operate at different economic levels. A football sta- dium's worth of reports from the last two decades spells out in extensive, repetitive detail how important small busi- nesses are to a city. They em- ploy locals at a significant rate. The money spent there stays in the community. They are the connective tissue of neighbour- hoods. They provide a sense of character and life to a city that no large corporate chain has figured out how to reproduce. But it's largely been left up to the business operators to find a way to survive in Vancouver, especially under a system where they are gener- ally required to pay their share of the taxes on any building where they rent. That's been a punishing system, as the as- sessed values (and therefore the taxes) of many buildings have soared because they've been rezoned for much higher densities. It doesn't matter if there's nothing but a one-storey shop there—the assessed value and the taxes are based on the zoning, not the reality. Other cities have struggled to figure out a way to protect these businesses. In San Fran- cisco, businesses that qualify as "legacy" operations can get help (marketing, advice, direct grants) from the city. The Na- tional League of Cities has doc- umented many other efforts. Detroit has created BizGrid, a central spot for information on everything from empty spaces to leases to programs aimed at helping small businesses. In El Paso, the mayor's office has developed special initiatives to connect small-business owners (particularly those from the Hispanic community) to places where they can get financing. In Vancouver, there's been a lot of hand-wringing but little action. An operation like CIRES shows the value of sup- port. When the effects of the pandemic hit Vancouver busi- nesses, CIRES made sure all of its renters knew they were be- ing looked out for. "Honestly, they've been fantastic, especially during the pandemic," says Jonathan Snel- gar, the co-owner and operator of Nelson the Seagull, noting that CIRES gave the eatery rent relief. He also appreciates how CIRES works with commercial tenants like him to encourage support for the community. As part of its lease agreement, Nel- son provides free meal vouch- ers to the women living above it at the Rainier. Last month, they handed out 26 meals. (They also, on their own, have a "pay it forward" coffee program, where people leave money to pay for others' coffees. That works out to about two coffees a day.) "It's quite a good feeling that some of my rent is going to a nonprofit," says Snelgar, who started Nelson 12 years ago with his sister shortly after the two of them landed in Canada from South Africa. It's that kind of relationship and that kind of attention to small business that has made Onni's Wlodarczak interested in what CIRES does. (So inter- ested that he joined the group's board after the memoran- dum of understanding was negotiated.) "I think it's a really good model," he says. "There's a lot of conversation about afford- able housing, but we need that same conversation for commer- cial real estate." £ ( the informer ) 20 BCBUSINESS.CA JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 T E R M S + C ON DI T ION S Our contribution to the language of business and beyond LAND VALUES: TWINLENS PHOTOGRAPHY; TERMS + CONDITIONS: ISTOCK (4), GOV.BC.CA IN THE MIX Housing is important, but a city also needs a mix of businesses that operate at different economic levels—especially to support burgeoning communities Elon•gated Flight When Air Canada is taken over by a tech billionaire. Flee Wil•ly When the Canucks inevitably start losing and fans are harder and harder to find at Rogers Arena. Fer•ry I•ron•ic When a BC Ferries boat stalled with Joy MacPhail, chair of the board of directors, on the vessel. Home De•poor Anyone who signed up for a variable mortgage in the last couple of years. Flu SZN The latest trend going viral in B.C.