Dear Editor:
I have a great deal of respect for Peter Black and it is still a pleasure to see him around West Vancouver. However, in response to his and others’ support for the chess players, I feel that the opinions being voiced are one-sided.
I also owned a business in Park Royal very close to Peter Black’s and for a period well over a year, before they moved to the old food court, the chess players occupied a number of tables in the market area directly opposite my store. I know from first-hand experience that their contribution to the economy of the mall was minimal. Fast food or similar operations rely on turnover of customers at tables to survive. A group of 20-30 people occupying tables for hours on end with barely a small coffee between them does nothing to support these businesses.
The effect on my business was not as substantial as it was a different type, but I never saw any chess player buying as much as a meal from any of the market shops or food outlets. However, I frequently saw customers of food businesses being unable to find seating as the tables were occupied. If you wish to find out whether others believe that this group is an asset to the mall then surely the opinions to canvass are those of the food court operators whose tables are now being occupied and whose customers are unable to find seating. Most of your readers will have no idea of the eye-watering level of rents that the food court operators are paying. The removal of “loiterers,” chess playing or otherwise, at least gives these businesses a fighting chance to survive. Peter Black may lament the loss of the chess players but in fairness, his business was not dependent on customers being able to sit down to enjoy what they had just purchased from him. Park Royal is simply doing what any other business would do if tables were being continuously occupied by a group who were not eating food purchased at their establishments.
As well as their lack of support for the businesses, I have rarely come across such a self-absorbed, entitled group — try witnessing a mother trying to manoeuvre a push chair around the groups watching a chess game with the participants totally oblivious to her struggles. That same sense of entitlement comes through at the moment. Instead of saying “thanks for 50 years of free support” their attitude is “we’ve had something for free for 50 years therefore you owe it to us forever.” That said, I have nothing against people being able to play chess. If the mayor is so supportive of them, then surely he can free up some community space for them – what about the large entrance area to the aquatic centre? If this is a community activity then it should be supported by community facilities.
Everyone loves jumping on a David versus Goliath cause and I am certainly no apologist for Park Royal’s management as I’ve seen first-hand how their commercial decisions have negatively affected people whose businesses have closed. When you see a business close in Park Royal do you ever consider that this is at least one family losing their livelihood and in many cases everything they have? So I will save my sympathy for the owners, employees and the families of businesses in the food court trying to survive rather than the chess players.
Time to move on guys, we’re all just pawns to some extent or another.
Tim Booth, North Vancouver
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