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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1501233
But it was all an object les- son in one of the frustrating aspects of Vancouver city plan- ning that contributes to making things slightly less livable while supposedly intending to make things more livable. That frustrating aspect is the extreme fear that seems to prevail at city hall of deviating a millimetre from some set pol- icy, even when it's well known that everyone wants to change that policy in the near future and that the policy's restric- tions are doing nothing for the quality of life in Vancouver. There was supposed to be a relaxation of the rules around these little neighbourhood retail spots, as people have become more interested in the concept of the 15-minute city. (And, also, some of those little café/grocery store/deli/pottery shop combos have become wildly popular. Le Marché St. George, The Mighty Oak, Mercato di Luigi and Federal Store in Vancouver's Mount Pleasant and Riley Park 'hoods attract swarms of local residents. Wilder Snail in Strath- cona and Windermere Market in Hastings-Sunrise are other hot spots.) A staff report from three years ago outlined how much interest there was. Vancouver wanted these little neighbour- hood places back. There used to be 260 of them scattered around the city in the 1920s. Only 88 were left when the report was completed, with about 40 percent of them con- venience/grocery stores and the rest a mix of different kinds of businesses. But there is currently no momentum to act on the report, which would eliminate some of the restrictions, like the 180-day rule that says it reverts to resi- dential if not used as commer- cial for six months, or to expand the allowable uses. And there's also no new policy to allow for additional small retail, as the re- port mentioned as a possibility. According to the official communications channel at city hall, the initiative now needs to be "aligned" with the full Vancouver Plan. That means waiting at least three more years, while the official version of Vancouver's mega-plan for its future goes through the policy and bylaw-writing meatgrinder at 12th and Cambie. So, no barbershop on Vic- toria and no deviation from any existing policy until that distant date, due to a kind of terror at city hall that lurks un- der every decision. The terror is that if someone is allowed to bend a rule even slightly, even as a one-off test run, some sort of world-ending anarchy and chaos will descend upon Van- couver. Let a barbershop into a retail space that has previ- ously been strictly designated for "grocery store only" and who knows what might happen next: pig-slaughtering factories in the spare bedrooms of Com- mercial Drive condos, steel fab- rication in a Joyce-Collingwood Vancouver Special, truck repair in garages in Kerrisdale. The intense anxiety from staffers, and even from some councillors, about allowing retail off the main streets is even more perplexing when you know how many people in Vancouver are already running businesses out of their houses. I'm not talking about the writ- ers and software programmers and game designers working quietly at their laptops. There are hairdressers, jewellery- makers, mechanics, mini take- out restaurants and every other thing sprinkled all over the city. In the meantime, except for the few remaining precious for- mer convenience stores, pretty much everything a person might want to do in a city like Vancouver—shop for a pair of pants or a coffee mug or a can- dle, go for a drink, get a haircut or an ear-piercing, have a meal, run out for some sugar and an ice-cream bar—is jammed onto Vancouver's traffic-heavy, loud, major arterials, while the big residential quadrants in the city continue to be vast landscapes of boring, monotone houses and lawns. That contrasts with, say, a city like Portland, which has preserved and even encourages clusters of small businesses in residential areas (see Clinton and 26th, for example). In Los Angeles' Boyle Heights, a neighbourhood east of downtown that's been predominantly Hispanic forev- er, there was a lot of wrangling a couple of years ago over a new plan for the area, with peo- ple worried about gentrification and changes to its overall feel. A key priority for the com- munity? Preservation of a place for "tienditas"—the little stores (and bars and hairdressers and gas stations and other busi- nesses) in the area that were a lifeline for many people during COVID-19 lockdowns. Writer Cesar Hernandez talked about the importance of those little stores for a story in the LAist: "Tienditas remain an anchor in communities of color, keeping families fed and stocked even during a world- wide pandemic." £ ( the informer ) T E R M S + C ON DI T ION S Our contribution to the language of business and beyond ZOONAR GMBH/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; ISTOCK; BC FERRIES; ISTOCK Play-back-land The PNE's summer concert lineup, which features old favourites like TLC, Billy Idol and Aqua 22 BCBUSINESS.CA JULY/AUGUST 2023 Chain-smoked When Vancouver's Donnelly Group filed for creditor protection For•ev•er week•end When BC Ferries' website goes down on a long weekend Green car•pet A new law allowing cannabis storefronts in the province to not block their windows