Victoria businesses painted a picture of a downtown on the brink during a panel discussion with members of the mayor’s community safety and review panel on Wednesday morning.
Speakers at the meeting, which followed the Downtown Victoria Business Association’s annual general meeting, all stressed the need for action, said Jeff Bray, DVBA chief executive.
“They were saying we don’t need another plan, we’ve heard all that before.”
Representatives from more than 200 businesses attended the panel discussion with Mayor Marianne Alto, VicPD Chief Del Manak and Robert Jawl, managing director of Jawl Properties.
Bray said he was not surprised by anything he heard Wednesday, as it mirrored the feedback the DVBA got in a recent membership survey and a report on the health of the downtown.
That report painted a grim picture of the downtown, noting 48 per cent of businesses said they would not renew their leases based on current conditions downtown. Eleven per cent gave the downtown a failing grade, and 39 per cent reported that their economic performance declined over the past year.
At the same time, retail vacancy downtown increased to 11 per cent from 3.0 per cent in 2019 and office vacancy jumped to 10.7 per cent from 4.7 per cent.
Bray, who hopes the report will be a wake-up call for the three levels of government, said the top priority is to significantly reduce street disorder, including open drug use, camping in doorways and on sidewalks, and repeat criminal activity.
That was driven home Wednesday as local businesses pleaded for immediate help, Bray said.
“I think what was unique today was the emotion, anger, frustration, desperation that we heard from businesses desperately seeking change and improvement,” he said.
“My hope is that what [the city councillors in the room] heard along with our report will be reflected in their debate and taking some immediate actions.”
On Thursday, Victoria city council will consider a community safety and well-being plan designed to reduce street disorder. Councillors will vote on endorsing the plan and asking city staff to find a way to pay for it all.
The plan includes more than 80 recommendations that touch on everything from housing to health care and sprucing up downtown.
Coun. Dave Thompson, the council liaison for downtown, said the city has heard the pleas of the downtown.
“There’s a humanitarian disaster on our streets — and it’s not just about the folks who are experiencing it,” he said. “It’s about the impacts on local residents, on businesses, on city services and our budget.”
Thompson said the mayor has mentioned there may be things in the well-being and safety plan that can be implemented immediately.
“We do need to get started quickly,” he said. “We can’t just sit back and wait for things to happen.”
Bray said the DVBA isn’t dismissing the city’s latest plan as just another study. But members need to see “significant change” in the next six months to have confidence in the rest of the plan, he said.
“If everything’s going to happen 18 months from now, then businesses whose leases come up may say, ‘I haven’t seen any change, so this is like every other report,’ ” he said.
“Whereas if they see the street disorder significantly diminish, the encampments significantly diminish, that the sidewalk bylaw is strictly enforced, then that will give our businesses confidence.”
