The sad ghost of the once-thriving Dunbar Produce store, vacant since 2018, is always prominent in discussions about storefront vacancies on Dunbar Street. The Dunbar Residents’ Association is now adding its voice to efforts to resolve the problem.
By Carol Volkart
The Dunbar Residents’ Association is calling for Vancouver City Council to work with residents and businesses to revitalize struggling Dunbar Street.
“We believe a collaboration between the city, residents and businesses would be useful in tackling the problem of increasing retail vacancies on Dunbar, many of them lasting for years,” the DRA says in a letter to the city. “Empty streets discourage new businesses from moving in and deprive the community of much-needed local products and services.”
The letter, approved at a Sept. 9 DRA board meeting, proposed the city appoint both a liaison Councillor and a staff member to work with residents and businesses toward solutions. “From the interest we are hearing in our community, we know there will be many volunteers excited to help with this effort.”
The letter is the latest of several moves in the community aimed at ending the long deterioration of Dunbar’s main drag.
The fall edition of Dunbar Life magazine, which is published in partnership with the Dunbar Village Business Association, urged residents to contact the city about empty storefronts “that have been allowed to remain vacant and derelict for years. The impact of these vacancies for Dunbar businesses and indeed the entire community is significant.”
The plea, contained in the president’s report, said it’s time for the city to put its money where its mouth is.
“For years, the city has stated that the impact of persistent commercial vacancies across all Vancouver neighbourhoods is a deep concern and has insisted that this is one of its top issues. The DVBA calls upon the community to engage with the city on this issue and to insist that the time to explore viable measures is over and solutions are required immediately.”
The message noted that residents had previously been asked to contact the city over the loss of many small business storefronts on Dunbar Street, so they can write about that too, as it “unfortunately, is still very much an issue as well.”
The Dunbar Life article included a link for contacting City Council members: vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-council.aspx.
In another sign of community concern, DVBA executive director Lisa Clement met with the DRA board in June for a wide-ranging discussion of the number and length of vacancies on Dunbar, the loss of business diversity, and the design of the new buildings on the retail scene.
And in July, the issue of vacant storefronts was the topic of the newly created Neighbours’ Café, which invites Dunbar residents to meet to discuss local issues of concern. Prominent in the discussion was the once-popular Dunbar Produce store at 4355 Dunbar, which closed in 2018 and has been vacant and deteriorating ever since.
Participants came up with a number of proposed solutions, including an escalating vacancy tax for empty commercial properties, incentives to increase diversity of businesses, and how to improve the look and feel of Dunbar’s evolving streetscape. The main points from that discussion were forwarded to the city.
Separately, on Aug. 22, Dunbar News sent a list of questions to the city’s new business and economy office about the feasibility of some of the group’s proposals. The office’s business program manager Brian Lin phoned back to say he’d received the questions and that they’d been forwarded to various city departments.
As for when answers might arrive, he was unclear. Stay tuned.
Thank you, so much, Carol. Wow! I finally feel a bit of a fire brewing in our neighborhood. And it’s the good kind! You gave an excellent summary of the work of the DRA and the outreach at the community is trying to achieve. Nothing presented as being Nimbyism. Just a sense of cooperation and collaboration with our city government. Just as it should be! Excellent work, my friend. You are taking things for the neighbourhood and the city to a whole new level!
What’s that about attracting more flies with honey? It would be great to get a Councillor onside. Looking forward to council’s response!
This initiative sounds like a very constructive approach.
I encourage the group (DRA, City and others involved) to talk with the landlords and existing businesses as much as possible to get their perspective. It seems to me that all too often, ideas come off planner desks and have too little relation to reality. The COVs village concept is a good example of this.
Thanks, Carol, for this particular newsletter. Dunbar street must be saved and it’ll be
saved by shopping diversity. The CoV must assist in such revitalisation.
There are different kinds of stores and different kinds of products/services that people need and want. Look at Main Street or Broadway.
In Dunbar, we had lost a successful produce store (they are beaming on Broadway and Fraser and elsewhere, e.g. Oak, and more); toys store and very specialised stores that cater to special needs such as Einstein (anyone remembers?) which provided family and neighbourhood inter-generational connection opportunities, i.e. taking the child or grandchild to the store as an entertainment or educational outing; clothing boutiques; specialty stores (Dressew downtown closed, but in Europe I saw independent fabric and small craft stores, similar to the revival of the knitting stores in Vancouver); restaurants and quiet cafes; and I am probably missing more.
A live store, unlike online ones, allows for touch, see, smell, feel experiences. Another benefit is that it allows the customer to choose and have immediate and personal “quality control” (unavailable for a lot of online products) and to encourage the store owner to bring more and different items or discontinue less desired ones (see how the dollar stores — independant and not — are booming for what seems futile to order online).
So, I am all for small stores next to the type of Shoppers or London Drugs, the banks, Stongs, H-Mart, the many beauty parlors, and the transient and empty ones we have in Dunbar.