Dear editor:
Recently I went to Foto City, at 15th and Lonsdale, to get some VHS tapes transferred.
I parked by Lions Gate Hospital and walked from there as I saw there was a street closure. To my dismay, a notice on the shop door read that they were closed until Nov. 2.
When I returned [Nov. 4], the whole street was closed for construction traffic and it was very difficult, as a pedestrian, to navigate around it.
There are several small businesses on East 15th, between St. Georges and Lonsdale, that are losing a lot of business due to this construction.
According to one of these merchants, they were asked for their opinion: would they prefer to have the road closed completely for two and a half months, or have half the road open which would mean construction would take longer, three-plus months? Obviously, he said, they opted for having half the road open to traffic; however, within a couple of days, the whole road was closed without informing the business owners, so their opinions meant nothing. The manager at Foto City decided to close shop for a few days, employees having to take vacation.
To add insult to injury, the merchant says they have been offered no compensation for this drastic loss of business, which I’m sure will hit them especially hard during the Christmas period.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it was for, say, an extension to the hospital, benefiting all residents in the long term. However, it is a privately owned apartment block that is going up, so these businesses are getting absolutely no benefit whatsoever, quite the opposite: total inconvenience, huge noise levels all day long, and significant loss of trade – and not having their voices heard or any remuneration for this dreadful ongoing mess.
They pay taxes too, and should surely have some dispensation from the City of North Vancouver?
Veronica Shields
North Vancouver
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