Comment 79165

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted July 04, 2012 at 13:38:44

Good article, Ryan. It's gone some way to reducing my antipathy for this handout, but I still have a bunch of reservations. I know when the issue came up at the BNA, we were miles apart from consensus.

Many residents recognized that there are plenty of options for groceries downtown, they just don't look like a traditional supermarket. As a result, a few people resented throwing money at a potential competitor for existing businesses who have been down in the core for ages, and worry that a supermarket will put pressure on these independent grocers and markets.

As someone who's lived downtown for six years now, I am not eager to go back to the days of empty store fronts on James N. because these vendors can't compete with a box-store with an urban façade.

If Council decides to support this, I sincerely hope they do their homework and consult with existing businesses downtown and confirm that they are on side. Otherwise I just see this as picking favourites and interfering with those "market forces" that we're supposed to be bowing to these days. It's not like rent downtown is super expensive--if the demand were really so "pent-up", why don't we already have more grocers downtown?

Comment edited by Borrelli on 2012-07-04 13:43:51

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