Let’s Not Fight
September 15, 2009 by Daniel Rose
A new coffee shop, called The Common, opened up in my neighbourhood recently. It’s a very small place with just a few tables so they set up some chairs on the sidewalk. Those fill up pretty quickly so there is nowhere to sit in their shop. This happened to me the other day but I didn’t want to get my coffee to go so I wandered outside of the coffee shop and sat on the ledge of the storefront next to the coffee shop. The store next to the shop is a day spa. Hair cuts, nails, pedicures, etc.
Within a few minutes someone from the store came out and asked me to move and pointed out a sign that I had truly missed, which was asking people to not sit on the ledge, not block the signage, not smoke in front of the store, etc. On one hand, I can appreciate the owners of the business not wanting people hanging out in front of the store. But on the other hand I’m wondering if they’re missing an opportunity on how to be creative with the extra traffic that they’re getting.
For example, they have lots more foot traffic now that a place like a coffee shop has opened up. Maybe setting up a small table giving away free samples in the mornings would be one idea. Maybe setting up chairs in front of their own store, providing seating for the overflow customers in exchange for free coffee for all of the spa employees might be another. Perhaps setting up a “Morning Jolt” program where you get make-up done and an espresso for a bundled price.
Frankly, I don’t know if any of these ideas make sense but the point is that the spa’s “environment” had changed and rather than seek out opportunity in this change they had taken a more adversarial approach with its new neighbour and its neighbour’s customers.
There are businesses who protest tree plantings outside their business because they’re afraid it will block the sign. I bet you didn’t think that there was anyone who would protest a tree.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that it’s hard to convince people to give up parking in front of their store in exchange for bike paths, transit or wider sidewalks, or that we have such strong restrictions on street vendors who compete with retail stores.
I don’t disagree that it is important to support retail stores on main streets. They are absolutely vital to the city. But there’s got to be some way for people to all get along.
That kind of leads me to question the role of experts and public opinion in the urban planning process. At some level we elect politicians (and by extension, bureaucrats) to make tough, macro decisions for us, eg. having more trees is good for the city.
On the other hand we don’t want to over-regulate with such a grand master plan that we fail to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. When it comes to things such as bike paths, transit lines and streetscape, what is the best balance between the rights of individuals/businesses and the “good” of the city?