Car-free experiment crashing sales say Gastown businesses

Sitting extracurricular nan Old Spaghetti Factory successful Vancouver’s Gastown, Peter Buckley looks retired astatine an quiet patio.

While it could conscionable beryllium Wednesday’s cooler, cloudier weather, Buckley, CEO of Old Spaghetti Factory Canada, says this is nan busiest clip of nan twelvemonth and nan patio is usually afloat of visitors and locals.

“We’re experiencing measurement – extracurricular of COVID – that we haven’t knowledgeable successful our 54 years of operating successful Gastown,” he said of nan debased turnout.

He is 1 of respective business owners successful Gastown who opportunity their hopes that a pedestrian-only aviator task would boost business person been dashed arsenic ft postulation and gross person been falling.

“It’s a disaster,” said Ian Tostenson, BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association president and CEO, adding restaurants person been deed nan hardest.

“We’re seeing numbers for illustration 30 per cent simplification sales.”

The car-free aviator task started astatine nan opening of July and is expected to tally until nan extremity of August, but Tostenson and others would for illustration nan metropolis to extremity nan task early and let cars to return immediately.

“I deliberation nan volition was good, but we’re not fresh for it,” he said. “I deliberation Vancouver is still a car town.”

Buckley agrees, saying nan European cities nan task was modelled connected person not only person larger populations, they person proscription systems that let much group to get astir without a individual vehicle.

Businesses opportunity nan roadworthy closure has prevented circuit buses from dropping disconnected visitors person to shops and restaurants.

“We’ve heard from complete 30 businesses who are emotion a antagonistic crunch present from an economical perspective,” said Wally Wargolet pinch nan Gastown Business Improvement Society.

“For nan first clip ever, immoderate restaurants are laying group disconnected astatine nan tallness of nan summertime season.”

Buckley says his edifice would usually employment astir 140 workers during highest season, but this twelvemonth he has only had to bring connected 110.

Earlier this year, businesses successful nan area said they were losing retired connected millions of dollars successful gross owed to nan repair work.

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Months-long repairs were made to Maple Tree Square and Water Street up of nan postulation closure. The activity was portion of a $10 cardinal finance to revitalize nan Gastown area.

“I deliberation it’s early days,” Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung said of nan pilot.

“We’re going to support listening to nan businesses. We’re going to return nan feedback from nan residents, and we’re going to study from different cities.”

Kirby-Yung says nan building earlier nan closure must besides beryllium factored successful erstwhile considering a slowdown successful business.

Back successful June, businesses said they understood nan car-free programme would beryllium bully for tourism business, but worried nan deficiency of parking would forestall locals from shopping successful nan neighbourhood.

Kirby-Yung says she has seen plentifulness of affirmative feedback from residents astir nan aviator program. She did not norm retired nan anticipation of only closing nan roads connected weekends, but says seasonal closures whitethorn beryllium little labour intensive.

“Nothing is group successful stone,” she said. “This is simply a pilot. We’re not making immoderate imperishable changes. We’re going to return each nan feedback and past we’ll measure what we should do moving forward.”

Buckley says he met pinch metropolis councillors 2 weeks agone to show them nan restaurant’s humanities impermanent counts.

“Since then, each week I person shared pinch nan politician and metropolis assembly this location’s existent impermanent counts truthful that they tin spot firsthand that nan aviator task unluckily conscionable isn’t working,” he said.

“At nan extremity of nan day, nan roadworthy needs to beryllium open. It conscionable needs to beryllium open.”