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TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 |

EDITOR HOLLIE MCGOWAN

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Small shops feel parking relief

Beleaguered downtown Kelowna merchants seeking post-pandemic help

= By CORVINVASKI

usinesses in downtown
Kelowna are hoping the
city’s offer of two days of
free parking this year will
help bring customers back after the
tough months of the pandemic.

The Downtown Kelowna Associ-
ation made a request to city council
to waive downtown on-street park-
ing fees for the association’s Small
Shop Saturday event that will be
taking place on two Saturdays, April
9 and Sept 24.

Small Shop Saturday has been
held in previous years downtown,
and council has approved free
on-street parking for it before, but
the event has not been held for a few

ears.

“We're looking at ways to get
traffic built
back up down-

boost and encourage people to come
downtown and support local busi-
nesses,” said Coun. Charlie Hodge.

“I mean it’s something small we
can do to help out.”

The event has been successful in
previous years with participating
shops having special one day sales
and prize-draws for customers who
make purchases at participating
businesses.

With more people downtown not
only are small shops benefiting, but
so are the restaurants, distilleries,
salons and other services.

“It creates more traffic of people
walking around using all of the city
streets and then maybe they'll go out
for lunch or stop for a cocktail or
go out for dinner later in the day,”
said Burley.

The event comes at a time when
the weather is
beginning to

town and after “We want to support clear up and
some brain= | gmallshops, sothat’s | small busi-
storming with f . nesses are
the team here, the bottom line, but if starting to see
that’s what we increased sales
decided to do we Can get more people after a few

is to go back
to Small Shop
Saturday,” said

down there by other
means as well, certainly

slow months.
“It’s been
like incred-

Mark Burley, lad " ibly slow, so
Downtown that’s important. anything that
Kelowna Asso- — KELOWNA MAYOR COLIN BASRAN attracts people
ciation execu- downtown,

tive director. =

The pandemic has affected foot
traffic for small businesses down-
town. City council decided provid-
ing complementary on-street
parking was how the city could help
out.

“It’s just a request was made of
us, I think, and it’s something we
can do. It’s one way to sort of try to

_! I’m like just
super grateful and like appreciative
that their [DKA] doing something,”
said Brittney McCormick, owner of
Hey Ma, a clothing boutique.

City council is familiar with waiv-
ing on-street parking fees during the
busy shopping season, but McCor-
mick said she would like to see free
parking or other incentives during

Kelowna drivers can look forward to not having to plug the meters downtown for two dates this years as Small Shop
Saturday returns after an absence of several years. PHOTO BY TIVADAR VASKI

the offseason.

“It would have been really cool
for something to happen in the
winter or like in the extremely slow
months, like March was really bad
for my store,” said McCormick.

When the request was brought up
during the March 14 council meet-
ing, council wondered if there would
be the possibility of free transit to
also be offered on the two Saturday
events.

City parking services manager
Dave Duncan said at the meeting
that city staff have not had enough
time to look into free transit and

that it was more of a one-time
request.

“We do want to find a different
way to deal with these requests in
the future because we do realize it is
somewhat counterintuitive to what
we're trying to accomplish [environ-
mental goals],” said Duncan at the
meeting.

The request was quickly passed
by council because of the help it
would bring to local businesses in
the downtown area.

“The bottom line is we want to
support small shops, so that’s the
bottom line, but if we can get more

people down there by other means
as well, certainly that’s important,”
said Mayor Colin Basran at the
council meeting.

There might be free transit for
future events like Small Shop Satur-
day, but that is something city staff
will look into because the transit
system in Kelowna is shared with
five other regional partners.

Council’s decision is supported by
local business owners.

“I think city council taking the
time to highlight us [small busi-
nesses] is incredible,” said McCor-
mick.

Much a

City's first public
washroom a sign
of rapid change

= By HOLLIE MCGOWAN

aced with a growing street

population buffeted by

the pandemic and climate

change, Courtenay will
make its first public washroom will
be available to downtown residents
around the clock.

Although concerns had been
raised during recent council meet-
ings regarding maintenance and
possible drug-related deaths and
sexual assault in the “Urbaloo,” city
council decided recently that it will
be accessible to the public 24 hours
a day until Dec. 31. Council also
mandated increased cleaning and
security checks for the washroom.

The city will now monitor the
expanded availability until the end of

O OVEr

the year. “That'll be our pilot phase,”
Coun. Doug Hillian said.

The Urbaloo was installed in
December at the corner of Sixth
Street and England Avenue. A port-
a-potty structure made of stainless
steel with an anti-graffiti coating,
it’s the first public washroom for
the Vancouver Island community
of 26,000 people. It’s one of many
initiatives that the city is trying to
put in place while facing a rapidly
growing population, including an
increase in homeless residents, as
British Columbians move out of
major metropolitan centres and to
smaller, rural towns.

Coun. Wendy Morin said the
needs of an expanding population,
including an increase in unhoused
people downtown, were highlighted
by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tt is an issue for folks who are
unhoused. I mean, COVID was
really hard because there was no,
there were no places to get water,”
Morin said.

Morin says that facilities such

ourtenay's 24-hour loo

as the Urbaloo and the city’s new
warming and cooling centres are
becoming crucial to the Courtenay
community.

In recent years, the city has begun
to grapple with climate change and
how to accommodate the local popu-
lation in the face of drastic chal-

concerned that people were using
their washrooms for drug usage or
other activities beyond their ability
to handle.

“We had one business bathroom
that was badly vandalized when
somebody had a psychotic episode in
there,” said Hillian. “And we also had

lenges. people using back alleys and busi-
“ E ven in — — ness frontages

siginen so [ "Youworryabout | she ths

weve had the someb ody having an bathroom.”

li -related : : N 11
challenges Tike overdose in the middle do w ht t ow n
the heat dome of night.” businesses
sons | sama nt cnmmur | EDOM
public facilities _ ~~ customer traf-

for people who need them, whether
it’s washing your hands or going to
the bathroom or for people who are
unhoused.”

Business owners downtown hope
the Urbaloo will address the issue of
the growing homeless population.

Hillian says that business owners
within the downtown sector were

fic as a result of the Urbaloo, but they
do see it as a potential benefit.

“If we're talking about generally
street people, we do get a lot hang-
ing around here but not alot come in
and use the washroom,” said Vivian
Dickson, a weekend manager of
Edible Island Whole Foods Market.
“A few did, but now they don’t come

in at all because that one is there.”

Hillian says that the city was
concerned that if someone were
using the Urbaloo for drug purposes
and suffered an overdose, that no one
would be there to help them.

“You worry about somebody
having an overdose in the middle
of night,” Hillian said. “Somebody
assaulting somebody else, somebody
sleeping in there.”

The Urbaloo is not meant solely
for homeless residents. City coun-
cillors say the washroom is for all
members of the community.

“A lot of people, like people who
work actually, like electricians, or
construction, people who are in their
cars, and they need to stop or go to
the bathroom somewhere,” Morin
said. “And they’re not necessarily
going in to eat somewhere to use,
you know, the restaurant bathroom.”

Hillian is optimistic about the
pilot and the Urbaloo’s future.

“I'm very hopeful that we will just
affirm that it will be open 24/7 on an

ongoing basis,” he said.

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lished by Langara of the staff and
College's journalism independent of the
department. Editorial © administration.

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