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Black holes
Is it our imagination, or is Uxbridge emptying out? The overnight disappearance of everything that was the Sears store at Brock and Toronto is reminiscent of what happened at Brock and Church with Strawberry Threads a few months ago, and that space is still vacant.
Many places are still vacant months after the businesses shut down: the Double H Cleaners place downtown, where they’ve taken down the brown paper, but nothing appears to be going on inside. The other dry cleaner at Hillside Place, where clothes still hang on the rack years later. The Uxbridge Cookhouse, which should probably be fumigated by now. And of course the biggest, blackest hole of all at Brock and Victoria, the steadily rotting corpse of what was supposed to be the grand glass headquarters of First Leaside.
As reported on page 7, that company is becoming mired in a morass of investigations, allegations, suits and counter-suits, and while that is all going on, we in Uxbridge have to be reminded daily of it by looking at a property that no one in their right mind is going to buy in its current state. Whoever currently owns the land, be it First Leaside or the bank, should be obliged to rip up the skeleton and haul it away, return it to a fallow condition.
There are other symptoms of an economic malaise in our community. The weed-infested mounds south of Barton Farms, for instance, where a new mall was supposed to be. The increasing numbers of “For Sale” signs, in new subdivisions and along rural roads alike. The closings of national franchises like KFC, Hallmark and now Sears, who can’t seem to make a go of it here.
On the flip side, the landlords at Elgin Square have filled two of their long-term vacancies (where the Manchester Arms and Blockbuster used to be) with businesses desperately needed in Uxbridge: another pizza place and another pet store!
It’s obvious that there is no economic development plan in place for Uxbridge, that the leaders of the municipality (perhaps the Region as well), the Chamber of Commerce and the BIA need urgently to get their heads together, figure out what’s going wrong and devise a strategy to deal with it. Why are businesses failing at such a rapid rate? Too high rents? Not enough Uxbridge residents (who according to Statistics Canada are above the norm in affluence) shopping locally? Not enough ongoing support from local governmental and financial institutions? Just the wrong kind of businesses?
What is for sure and certain is that most entrepreneurs, whether locally based, from Toronto, Calgary or Tokyo, are going to take one long look at all the black holes along our main streets, turn tail and get out of town as fast as they can.
Innovative, award-winning businesses like Blue Heron Books, Frankie’s, Elemi Organics or the Passionate Cook have valuable lessons to teach those who wish to avoid the fate of those who’ve created the black holes. Naturally, they want the whole street, the whole community to thrive. We need to ask them important questions, and listen very closely to their advice. Our future depends on it.
July 14, 2011
