This is a response to Stan Bartlett's letter, Victoria tax dollars gone with the wind. Frankly, my dear Stan, I do give a damn that you don't understand what the Victoria city councillors are proposing.
Over the last five years, downtown Victoria has lost many event venues. This reduces foot traffic to other downtown Victoria businesses. Part of council's mandate is to improve the livability and vibrancy of downtown Victoria, which helps boost the local economy by making downtown Victoria a destination for locals and tourists.
Even in Victoria, no business is an island. We need a variety of businesses and venues within walking distance of each other to make downtown Victoria a world-class destination. If council does not cultivate downtown into a place worth going to and spending time in, we all lose. Live and ticketed events boost restaurants, bars and other businesses. They benefit our transit system, parking infrastructure, and even the hotel industry.
Movie theatres, like other businesses, continue to be financially viable if they're run by people who know how to run businesses. But movie theatres, unlike other businesses, are specialized spaces. If developers have no incentive to develop buildings that can be utilized for cinemas or live events, we will continue to build buildings with "affordable housing" up top and nail salons or pizza parlours down below.
I don't know about you, but I am sick of getting my nails done and eating pizza every night. You're correct that we still have the IMAX and The Vic Theatre downtown, but SilverCity and Cinecenta are out of scope, in other municipalities. As much as we'd like to, we can't walk there and they don't contribute to Victoria's downtown walkability and economic prosperity. And speaking of the IMAX: while the plan to demolish and rebuild the Royal BC Museum and the IMAX has been put on hold, we really don't know what the future holds for that venue, either.
There is absolutely a reason for the City of Victoria to use its policy toolkit to cultivate the establishment of downtown spaces that provide cultural value. You're right to speculate that some of these cultural spaces and businesses will fail. But, so will some of our non-cultural nail salon businesses. Frankly, I don't care if a couple of movie houses close downtown either. I just don't want them to be the last ones.
Benjamin Wil
Victoria
