Submitted Letter About DBIA
Saturday, December 19, 2009 03:14 AM
What I find most puzzling is that , after all these years, the DBIA would try, through the back door, with a reverse petition, to obtain extra money from certain merchants. As I said on the program, "I do not believe we have a problem with the downtown merchants. I firmly believe we have a security problem that has been allowed to get out of hand". Any business that would locate downtown' would, I am sure, do a little research before obtaining a business license. Our City fathers must accept the responsibility for businesses in all areas of our city to be able to carry on their "licensed" businesses, without constant pressure from individuals, who, for whatever reasons do not act according to acceptable standards. I believe this is where "standard operating procedures" by law enforcement comes in.
If we are to have a downtown that is viable for merchants, and safe for their customers, we had better get the horse hooked up to the cart rather than what we have now.
In my estimation, we have been trying to make our downtown work with the horse pushing the cart.
It is ludicrous to me that City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce, the DBIA, and whatever other provincial, and federal agencies, and Northern Health(in their wisdom) making regular deliveries of needles and whatever to the main sources of our problem, would ever expect our merchants to be successful without arranging for proper security downtown. I have nothing but sincere feelings toward the people who find themselves, for whatever the reason, living in our downtown area. However, this DBIA with all their new programs and expenditures, will do nothing to change things, as we know them. I believe the merchants could get together once in a while and discuss concerns(in other words, go dutch, not pay the piper), without a large expenditure of funds. Any organization will have expenses. Why would we add the DBIA to our overhead?
There are two things as a consumer that concern me:
1. Is it safe to go into an area? and
2. Is the merchant capable of giving me good service at a reasonable price ?
I don't believe the DBIA has a mandate to answer either of these questions. Safety is a matter for the City Fathers through their "contract" with the RCMP.
and the merchants, through attrition, with good merchandising, planning, housekeeping, and customer referrals, will either stay in business or will fold.
I cannot see where the DBIA fits into our problem downtown. One problem they will create, is additional costs for the merchants affected, as you well know, association costs never go down. Someone said , "things never change",. I believe they were right in this instance, they would only get worse. I firmly believe that the DBIA has done itself irreparable damage by attempting to short circuit a proper response on the issues at hand. Do it right and it won't bite you in the as---.
It appears to me that, with all the high priced help around, they could come up with a procedure for voting that would not appear so transparent and deceptive.
It looks like our City Fathers need to get back to basics, start thinking of some remedies, rather than always looking for money from taxpayers and business people. It is easy to force extra costs and taxes upon us, but I believe what we need is a return to basics and logical thinking rather than relying upon continual extra taxing. Perhaps some "genuine" honesty at City Hall. We don't just "need to know", we need to know the "whole" truth. Perhaps our councilors " for the most part", have forgotten that, if we were smart enough to vote them in, then we should be given the opportunity to be consulted regularly on pending decisions.
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Posted by: Stompin Tom on December 19 2009 7:54 AM
The problem here is the leadership, as in the mayor, has very little buisness experience.
One day they should venture out into the real world where you have to work for yourself, where you dont get handouts, and where a group of idiots (the council themselves) can take a simple vote and take more money from your pockets.