Downtown slowly reopening, farmers' market returns, patio causes headaches

Construction proceeds apace downtown. Susan and I walked downtown (with Sophie) early Saturday to see how the newly-re-opened first block looked, do a little local shopping, and to gander at the farmers' market on its first open weekend (and buy a few odds and ends there, and downtown, too).*

The farmers' market was busy and full - so full it may need to expand in future to accommodate the number of vendors who want to partake. That means taking more parking spaces. That usually results in a lengthy council debate over parking in the downtown, with some councillors demanding the BIA pay for the spaces. I would rather give them away (we don't usually enforce parking on weekends anyway) and encourage more people to shop downtown than to engage in the pettiness of penny-pinching over a few parking spaces.

But my vision is flawed by having run a local retail operation for over a decade and being made painfully aware of the actual costs of doing business and the importance of having potential customers walk through the door.

There was even a pair of buskers playing - an act that will be illegal if council passes its restrictive new licensing bylaw. No one was complaining about them - in fact, people seemed to like having the entertainment. But in a week we could make the market - and 98% of the downtown - a "busker-free" zone. That's our local cultural policy for you.

While construction is still ongoing and making a mess of things in some zones, it's moving rapidly towards the mid-July completion date. The downtown is starting to take shape. It will look terrific when it's completed. Even unfinished, the first block is quite attractive and people were openly admiring the progress.

Of course, since there won't be any patios, and buskers will be relegated to three dead zones, it will be inanimate and sombre. But it will look great! A bit like a mausoleum, I suppose. But at least it will be a pretty mausoleum...

What was very interesting - and the cause of a major shit-storm among council - was that Duncan's Café put up a patio this weekend. It was attached to the front of the building, not curbside as the new (but not yet passed) bylaw stipulates.

Of course, under the old bylaw that's still in force, the patio is legal. Staff approved the permit because there was no legal reason not to do so and it made more sense to issue it than face a legal challenge (with the accompanying media attention) for not doing so.

But that didn't sit well with all of council. Councillor McNabb, in particular, was volcanic in his emails decrying the patio, and demanding it be shut down. He even cast aspersions on the competence of staff for allowing a perfectly legal patio to be erected.

Ironic, isn't it? McNabb and others argued at the table against me that staff should have the discretion to apply our amorphous "nuisance" bylaw and define it as they saw fit, an ad-hoc sort of legal action open to any subjective interpretation. But when staff uses discretion about an issue the councillors themselves have issues with, they go ballistic and accuse staff of acting irresponsibly. Well, you can't blow and suck at the same time, folks.

Councillor Jeffrey wanted to call a special meeting of council - an event usually reserved for something of dire importance or to mollify some special interest group** - to repeal the old patio bylaw and thus prohibit any other restaurant owner from conducting any such business outdoors in the remaining week before the new patio bylaw comes forward. Gee, they might be able to make a few extra dollars before they close their patio for good. Can't have that, can we?***

I doubt a special meeting about patios would pass the test for calling such a meeting, but she wanted one anyway, and to have our $600-an-hour lawyer in attendance, too. All this over one restaurant having a little building-side patio on one long weekend (and I enjoyed a very fine lunch there, thanks for asking!) before the new bylaw forbids it for everyone. How much would that little bit of political theatre cost us of your tax dollars? A lot, I suggest.

Speaking of lawyers, Councillor McNabb - whose recent request for a legal opinion cost the town more than $11,000 - was upset that our CAO had asked for a legal opinion about the patio before issuing a permit. McNabb angrily lambasted the CAO for costing the town more money for legal advice. Have I used the word "ironic" in this post, yet? If not, let me introduce it here.

All of this was part of a flurry of irate and demanding email traffic over the last couple of days. Because it was sent to all of council, as well as to some staff, it is, I believe (based on my reading of the privacy legislation and other municipalities' explanations of how that act relates to municipal email), part of the public record and available to anyone who wishes to file a Freedom of Information Act request (a $5 investment). It would make entertaining reading, if nothing else. But it's a tempest in a teapot, a spate of email temper tantrums over a small, but symbolic, act.

The patio is staying in place until the end of the business day, Monday. My recommendation is for you to go downtown, sit outside under its awning and enjoy a drink or a meal. Show council that you like the patios where they are by using it. It may well be not only the last time you enjoy a patio in that location beside the building, it may well be the last patio downtown.

I tip my hat to Sean of Duncan's Café for a brave act, and for poking his proverbial finger into the eye of a council that seems determined this term not to listen to the public.

~~~~~
* I'm always annoyed when I see it written as "farmer's market," as if there's only one farmer. More than one? Use the plural possessive: farmers' market.
** As the mayor did when he called a special meeting of council then turned control of it over to the VOTE executive to allow them to grill council publicly. Does having to answer to an outside group constitute a local emergency? I refused to attend.
*** Sean, the owner of the café, explained to me that the cost of the patio licence for that weekend was $100. When it has to be moved curbside, the cost - including the new $685 liquor licence and $200 "footing fee"will be over $1,000. That's not including the cost of new fencing, umbrellas and wet-bar. The total could easily be $2,500 or more. Too expensive, he said, to make it worthwhile.